"God damn it, Jasper," came the whispering voice from two green orbs that floated over the body "You know there's enough to knock out a rhino in one of those things? We can't have any one killed on this mission."
Phender stood back up and looked around at his crew who were now stood back against the wall. The night-vision goggles were coming in real handy, but he had expected more of a fight in the main hallway then this.
"Farlis, Jones, take point up the stairs. Once we're up there, keep it quite, look to me for hand signals. If something moves, verify your target 'before' firing... go."
The collection of glowing orbs made their way up the stair case, searching for any sign of movement or heat that could be their primary objective. Had they been able to take a third-person view of their approach, they might have noticed the two orbs at the very back suddenly begin to rise very quickly above the others, as though being dragged on the end of a rope. Priest heard a gagging sound and looked back to find Garret had vanished. He scanned the area, calling quietly over the com's for him "Garret.. Garret where the hell are you man?"
Phender stopped, holding his fist in the air to indicate the others to do the same. The team looked around, their comrade no where in sight, as though he had vanished into the darkness. Suddenly something fell from the roof, crashing onto the floor in front of them..
"Oh my god" it was Garrets Blood stained weapon, yet his body was no where to be found.
Something twitched in the corner of Jones's vision. He looked up and gave out a yell as the fulf came into his sights, swinging down on a rope. He opened fire on the balcony, but was too late, the fulf had vanished again.
"What the f*** is going on man!"
"Quiet people!" Phender hissed, tracking along the balcony, "Everyone upstairs now!"
There was the sound of something swinging though the air, followed by a yelp as Jones fell to the floor, Garrets large hunting knife in bedded in his spine. And then all hell broke loose. Ditching orders in favor of self preservation, the team began pulling out their live guns, firing on shadows and reflections. Like scared kits, they scattered in all directions. splitting up and heading for cover. A rope noose dropped down and caught Priest by the neck. Phender watched as his teammate was yanked off the floor, counter weighted by the chandelier that came crashing down. In amung the sound of gunfire and shattering crystall there was a dull 'glinch' as the rope ran out and continued though its holdings, minus preast, who's head and body landed at separate ends of the annihilated chandelier. Then, Phender saw him, the fulf stud on the balcony rail, looking down with eyes that pierced the darkness like headlamps. And he knew.. They were no longer the hunters, for standing before him was a mobian every hunter would do wise to fear. The forest-slayer.
....
...
..
..
.
An almighty crash echoed above the relatively empty streats outside the hotel. A bloody, beaten body collided into the pavement along with a large carbonate that had followed it from the 18th story window. As the sky was lit by an eminence flash of lightning, a soul tailed figure lepped from the shattered window, silhouetted aginst the boiling storm as it landed on a close by roof and made its way toward the distant court house.
Phender looked out of the window, clutching his side and dabbing at his bleeding mouth. the Overlander braught the com' to his mounth and spat into it.
"Gorden... you f**ing b*****.. you knew what he was.. and yous still sent us.. Well, you got what you wanted.. he is coming your way Jon.. get ready"
Josh found his way over and next to james.
"Hey hows it goin so far. Nice leash. Just kidding about the leash thing.", Josh said adjusting the jacket so the pistols outline wasnt obvious to the overlanders.
"So who are these douche bags", Josh said cracking a smile and looking at some of the overlanders.
He unfolded the laptop and retrieved the information he stole from sunnybrook farms a few days ago he began searchin through the pictures of every mobian in captivity, killed, or shipped out
"This is disgusting. These overlanders. They arent human. Mobians are human. Humans like myself are human. but overlanders, they lack emotion of any significance. They only look after their best interests. If that made any sense at all", Josh said"If only I could find her"
OOC: HA! I can assure you, there's plenty of earth humans that are like these overlanders....with no compassion at all....>.> *shot for pervasive cynicism*
Anyway, on a school comp right now...dunno if I ca write this large post within the hour I have before class, so just hang in there a little bit longer....
ooc: Branch hes hanging on begins to crack. Hurry violet
James glared at him, a hint of warning in the expression.
"The only difference between you and the overlanders is two fingers. That's it. Humans, mobians, overlanders...all the same. I've seen mobians do plenty of horrible things that match those of these hunters. And in turn, I've known noble, brave, and self-sacrificing overlanders. Dehumanizing anyone just makes it easier to kill them without remorse, and in doing so...you become the very monster you intended to slay."
He shook his head and sighed.
"Touche", Josh replied amd finished checking through the files,"dammit. nothing"
OOC: Heeeeere we go...massive postingness...can I do it now? It's kinda late...BUT I have been neglecting this for FAR too long...
IC:
The guards opened the door and looked out at the gathered croud. The judge nodded at them. It was time. The guards ducked back inside, nodding at the Rangers, who then motioned to the Mobian refugies to follow.
Electra stopped fiddling and chewing on her leash and sneered at the rangers as they lead the seven hedgehogs and one fox, who refused to be left behind, out into the courtroom.
The assembled crowd gasped and muttered amongst themselves at the appearance of the mobians. Many of the overlanders had lived in the city all their lives, and so didn't know what the creatures that constituted the furs they craved so much even looked like. Phrases like "Look at them! They look so...they look like us!" and "I didn't know they walked on two legs!" Could be heard from the spectators in the balconies before the guards promted them to silence. The dignitaries in the main room kept aloofly quiet, gazing upon the mobians mostly disdainfully.
Alcor felt distinctly uncomfortable, as he noticed a group of overlander men looking at him with interest. I should not be here...they know me...I'm likely to get killed...
One of the overlanders pointed discretely to the painted, one-eyed hedgehog and whispered to his comrades. "Lookit that, boys, they got Ol' Trapslip on a leash up there! Wonder how they managed to capture 'im? That'ns a slippery little--"
"Ahem." A guard stood sternly by the hunter's seat, eyeing him. The man wisely shut up.
A voice called out from the balcony. "Aww...lookit that little white one! How cute!"
Silence squeeked and curled up, right there among her brother and sister on the stage that had been set up with a slide projector aimed at it.
The same voice from the balcany could be heard sympathetically muttering to itself, "Aww...I scared the poor thing..." The voice then went quiet, as guards patroled the balconies, glancing askance at anyone who looked to make a comment.
Electra and Tranq knelt by their sister, trying to get her to calm down and uncurl. Surge stood protectively behind them, staring out into space, seemimg to not see anything around him, including Blackrose, who was openly flirting with him...as usual. Well...this is it, Reni...The day we try for leagal protection... He sighed and gulped, fiddling with the book in his pocket.
One of the rangers cleared his throat and stepped up to the podium. "Ahem...Good morning. As you may well know, this hearing has been called to attempt to gain leagal protection for a group of wonderful beings who are currently in dire need of a change in our human attitudes. Ladies and Gentlemen, these are Mobian hedgehogs, and they are in serious danger of becoming extict because of our actions, and we are here to prove that they need and deserve our protection and respect..."
"What's that fox doing there?!" Someone shouted. A guard tapped him on the shoulder and the miscreant shut his mouth.
"Um...never mind that. He is mobian too. And while his species is in less danger of extinction, and not our main concern at this moment, he is a friend of theirs and deserves to be here too..."
"Now...some of these images might be objectionable to some spectators. If at any time someone needs to leave, our guards can escort you to the door...." The ranger then launched into his speech, showing slides as he spoke.
"As you may know, hedgehog-fur clothing sells for very high prices. We have many guards patroling this room and cameras in many places in order to ensure the safety of our refugees.
"These magnificent creatures are in danger of dying out because of our greed, vanity, and ignorance. It takes about three or four hedgehogs to make one coat, as only the underbelly is desirable coat material. This means that for every coat sold, three to five of these sentient beings must die. The demand for furs is very high, and the scarcity the hunting is creating has caused the pelts to become even more valuable, thus, resulting in a vicous cycle that can only end badly for our friends here.
"We urge the government to consider our plea, and our evidence and witness accounts of this travesty and hope that it will cause enough compasion in your hearts to end this sensless violence to a fellow sentient race..."
TBC
Not done. But I can't go on right now.
As the ranger reached the hight of his speech, a door opened at the far side of the court room behind the spectators and a female Ranger walked quietly in. Gradually so not to interrupt proceedings, she made her way around the outside of the caught and got the attention of her CO. who was standing close to the podium. She had a frantic look of worry on her face and, as she whispered something to the guard the same look begot his face with equal magnitude. He mouthed something along the lines of 'are you sure?' before following the woman out of the court.
Richard, second in command of the team that had escorted the hedgehogs to the hearing, looked on in dismay at the sight Teena had wished him to see. Stood before a small television screen in a back room to which the other ranger had lead him, Rich could hardly believe what he was hearing, shaking his head in complete dissolution as the news presenter said they were going live to the scene.
"Thanks Kirk. I'm Sandra Monalay reporting live from outside the Hotel Prestige, once one of the most highly esteemed hotels in downtown, now the scene of a mascara. Less then an hour ago, police were called to this hotel after reports of a body falling from a window were logged by numerous pedestrians, along with reports of a disturbance in the Business sweet. It is unclear exactly how many people were involved or how many casualties there are, however, eye witnesses have reported up to six body bags being taken from the scene via the back entrance. One armature photographer, who was making a film about the 'hang outs of the rich and famous' managed to capture this stunning footage of the incident as it occurred."
The screen changed to the armature footage that showed several girls leaning on a limo in the rain. Suddenly there was a scream, and the girls scattered as a body crashed into the floor near by, followed by the desk. The camera looked at the body, the wilder could be herd cursing in the background, and then it looked up, focusing on the broken window where a solitary figure stood looking down. Suddenly the figure lept out of the window, disappearing from sight as it landed on the roof across the street.
"Police are yet to issue a statement. However, from the armature footage you have just seen exclusively on YTS news, it is clear that the assailant, what ever it was, escaped though a show of in human acrobatic capability. Another eyewitness had this to say:
(camera turns to the witness) OH man, I never seen anything like it man. This guy musta lept, what, thirty feet to the next building. And, Oh man that poor guy, he had this pole impaled in his head man, I tell ya man, that was no human that did this, just the way he jumped, it was too smoother action to be a human!"
"Are you suggesting that the assailant may have been some sort of animal?"
"Naw man, I mean come on, no 'animal' has got that kinda strength, Were talking Alien's or daemons man! Real X-files type stuff man! I mean I was there! THAT THING HAD A TAIL!"
Richard turned the TV off and remained quiet for a long time. Finlay he looked At Teena and spoke slowly so she would catch every word of it "Go back to the hotel. Phone me immediately if they figure out what happened, And find out if our people are OK. I'll tell Jack.. he's still on the podium, but I'll have to inform him once he's finished."
OOC: Still here. But, aside from being overwelmed with homework and other errands that need dealing with, I just got a new computer game that has also been monopolizing my time as of late. *guilty grin*
Anyway, 'tis too lat right now to make a large post...I've already accidentally deleated a post I just made in an RP, and I worry I may do it again from tiredness, and this is too important a time in the RP for me to risk doing that, so I will leave IC for a time when I'm more clear in the mind...:P
OOC: I can see we're in for chaos shortly...:P And I will be adding to it as well...
IC:
Silence had finally let herself uncurl and sat between her protective brother and sister, staring out into the crowd of overlanders. No one knew what she was thinking, as she guarded her thoughts from those who could hear them...her siblings.
"And so..." Jack was saying, "We estimate that there are only a total of 90 hedgehogs left alive on the entire planet, many of them living safely in our sanctuary, whose location we keep secret to protect them. We turn over the floor now to our first witness, one of our refugees..."
The man motioned to Alcor, who shook himself out of his thoughts. "What? Oh...no...I really shouldn't..." He hedged, sending a panicked glance around the courtroom...No! Too soon! I can't tell the world about this! He felt the urge to curl up well up inside him. He faught it down, gulping and approaching the podium. Knew I shouldn't have come here....
"Um...ladies and...ulp, gentlemen, I..." He faught the squeek of terror he felt in his throat. Alcor cleared his throat and tried to continue "I....Many of you may think you know me. I am called by many names, sought after by hunters seeking the glory and fame that bringing me down would suposedly bring them. I have evaded traps for much of my life, and you hunters think it would bring you much fame and riches to finally be able to deposite my carcass at a furriers office...don't look so shocked, I know that's what you think, I've spyed on you many times when you didn't know I was there...
"You probably think that I just do this to annoy you...but...the truth is...I I do it to get back for what...was done to my.......sister...." By now his voice had gotten small and he fought to withold the tears that were threatening. "She...she...saved my life...by giving her own..." He squeezed his good eye shut. "I...I'm sorry...I can't continue..." He stepped down, whiping at his eye impatiently. To the rangers, he said, "You have that tape you made of me...Don't look so surprised, I know you spied on me...Use...that...and please...let me leave...I...seem to have something in my..." He then fled back into the waiting room, several guards following. Inside, he curled up and refused to come out.
Jack stepped back up to the podium. "Well...." He started awkwardly..."Our first witness has given me permission to share a taped conversation he had with our other refugees here to spare him the emotional trauma it obviously causes him...." With that, the ranger proceded to play the taped conversation, as several guards gently tried to console the curled Alcor.
After the tape was played, Jack continued. "It should be obvious to you people now that these are not merely animals to be exploited, they have feelings and emotions as we do, and they obviously greive. However, for those of you still unconvinced, we have more proof.
He motioned to Surge, who had been staring out into the crowd blankly. The marroon hedgehog had to be nudged a couple of times to bring him back to the present. "Hmm? Oh...right..." He hesitantly stepped up to the podium. "What..." He started as the ranger motioned to his pocket. IT took him a little while to understand what the ranger was refering to. His eyes grew wide as he protested. "What? NO! I can't do that! I can't just read her diary to all these people! I just can't!" After a bit of discussion, Surge relented, under the condition that the book's content not be read to the majority of the spectators, but rather shown to the judge alone. He turned back to the audience, staring out at them for a while as the judge looked over Reni's diary.
The audience began to get slightly uncomfortable under Surge's absent gaze. "I..." He began. "I'm not that great at public speaking, but..." His eyes took on a haunted look for several minutes before he spooked the crowd by pounding on the podium forcefully "HE KILLED HER! And I didn't even know about it until my three kids arived at the sanctuary where I have been living for the past seven years or so...They told me of what they'd seen...Wha?"
Electra had ripped the leash out of the hand of the ranger that held it and come to stand beside her father. "Look, people," She thundered. "You'd better get off your high-and-mighty pedistals and listen. My brother and sister and I left home to find out the truth. We were lucky enough to find Daddy alive at the sanctuary, but before that...before that..."
"Lec...you're gonna ruin everything...come down here, please..." Silence broke into her sister's thoughts warningly.
Electra grumbled but complied huffily.
Tranq then joined his father at the podium, calmly - if shakily - speaking, "We...we found Mom's skelleton...She...she was killed by Hunter himself. We too have known what it's like to be hunted by him, and beleive me people, it is NOT fun. Those darts he has are LETHAL.
"Anyway, as for the differences between you and us...the only thing that is different is that we happen to have been born with fur...and you didn't. If nature had wanted you to wear fur, you would have been born with it as we were. I just...I just want to live a normal life where my family and I aren't persecuted because we have physical traits that you humans envy and covet. I...do want revenge for my mother's needless death, but...mostly, we want to be able to live our lives in peace, without having to fear being killed for our skins. Thank you." With that, Tranquillity left the podium to his father.
Surge stammered. "I really don't have much to add to that...My son worded it pretty well...And I don't know as much about it as they do...I...I do know a little of the fur farm side of things though...I...lived in one for a while."
This sent gasps through each of his children. "Daddy? You lived in a Death Factory too?" Electra stared at him"
"For a short while, yes...but I...I was one of the lucky ones...I was purchased alive by one of the ranger's undercover opperatives, posing as the owner of another farm who was running low on hedgehogs and needed breeders."
Another gasp escaped the triplets. "Did...you..."
"No. I was rescued in time...You don't have any unknown half-siblings..." I hope...
TBC
OOC: Not QUITE done here...next post maybe...
"Wise man once say, child with blade is like stubborn traveler who has wandered too far from his path, lost in world around him but not willing to be shown the way"
The old man muttered as he walked calmly through a door that had been previously hidden by a display of oriental ornaments. "I must admit, I am curious as to where you learned of this item? Or where you gained such currency, young one? Such things are rear in your kind." Ling-Chow stopped yet again too look back at the heavily cloaked young-ling that was still stood in the middle of the store, paying no attention to the many wondrous artifacts that lined the shops shelves and darkened crevices. It troubled him how someone who appeared so young could speak with such wisdom, and yet such callase in the same breath, His tone was more that of a warrior then of a youth. Many battles had this one seen, of that he was sure, those eyes said it all. Full of pain, yes, burned with hatred they were. And yet at the same time, a sadness was upon them, laded as though grate sorrow and loss were part of this one's past.
He sighed and lifted down the item the child had asked for, the Yan-Sue, a dragon knife much like a shortened Katina, its blade and hilt highly decorated with items of the Chan dynasty. A powerful weapon in the right hands, its blade had been tested over a hundred years ago on countless slaves to ensure that its cut would be perfect... and he was about to give it to a young-ling that couldn't be much older then his grandson judging by his hight. But then, looks can be decseaving, especial where those eyes were concerned.
Ling-Chow placed the blade on the counter and removed its outer packaging, revealing the freshly polished jet black wooden scabbard that hid the blade's true ferocious nature. Turning it so it would face the youth hilt first, he leaned down to present it to the cloaked stranger "Only one who knows the incantation on this sword may purchase it... you could not have known this, were you not it's true master. But a word of caution young one. This blade is blessed in the blood of a thousand foe, to carry it is to carry its berdain. The death of a thousand, your shoulders it shall rest upon."
The stranger took the sword and slowly retracted it from the scabbard. It slid out perfectly, the blade still as it was when first forged, its metal that fell in a ball of fire from the sky immune to the trials of time. The stranger bowed his head, the sadness in his face masked by the brown cloth and hood "I know... But I have had that berdain long before I touched this blade."
Ling nodded knowingly "You have felt its call in your darkest of times, have you not?"
A pause followed, not of thought, but of acknowledgment..
"Yes.. In the darkest times. I thought I'd found it once.. but it left me.. it was not true."
Shutting the casher, Ling knelt before the stranger to reach it's level. There were tears in its eyes.
"go now, Myth." The stranger looked up suddenly. How could the old overlander know him? "But let me give to you, a word of caution. Do not doubt your feelings, they are what have kept you alive. But to find what you seek, you must stay true to the path of the dragon. Cast aside dark thoughts, embrace you must your true self if you are to save that which you truly want... and that want is not of vengeance"
The door to the shop closed with the ring of a bell and myth once again stood alone in the rain, still holding the sword and standing as he had moments early within, staring ever hopefully for an answerer to the old man's riddle in the frosted glass inlayer to the window of the shop.
He shook himself free of the trance, he had a job to do. The hunters were after the children and the prince. To the courts he ran, determination in his stride as he bound from roof to roof, scailing building and sliding down drains to reach the district of the high courts. There, to meet his destiny.
--
He looked in though the sky light.. he could see Alcor at the stand... the headgehog ran out, seemingly overcome with emotion.
No time. Sword sheithed at his side, Myth prised open the gawsing over the vent saft and dropped down inside, entering the upper leavels, an area that was off limits during triles, for fear of secuity breaches... The Fulf stood from his decent, legs bent slightly under the force of fall and teath gritted benight the travel scarf he'd reqisitioned from a steet bum. Time was not to waist. And yet.. the fulf waited. Watching from the security of the shadows. He respected Alcor, and if this was what he wanted, Myth would alow the farce to contiue... Just watching, waiting, from his sanctuary of shadows, unawear of the overlander who was now watching him, waiting to tip the scails of balance on the Fulfs delicate mind. The pelt of purest gray was draped around his sholdures, contrasting with bright bleach blond hair, awaiting his masters comand from the small divice he wore in his ear. Tonight. It would end.
(OOC: Please don't kill me for this. I just need to bump this since I'm back from 2 years internet hiatus and when I left, I was nowhere near being done with the story. Sorry for dropping everybody so quickly like that. Now I have my own internet connection, so we should be good to go again if everybody still remembers this and wants to continue. So just let me know if you're still interested in seeing this go further. Until then...
-- The Vi)
ooc: sure thing. it would be interesting to see where this goes. I however am going to pretend that none of my previous post ever happened. and start a new.
ooc: all I remember is what the first 3 pages had. I was Metal Mk 3 and wandering around doing something.
(OOC) Where were we, anyway? I don't remember if I was using CS, Cyber Sonic or whoever. It's been so long....
End OOC.
(OOC: Sorry, I have not been paying attention. I still intend to continue this, and I'll try to figure out who and where everybody was, but it's late right now and I need to work tomorrow. Plus it doesn't help that the old board hack ate most of this. I'll probably repost my summary sometime soonish and try to figure things out from there...bear with me...)
(OOC: Ok...here's the summary repost.)
Our story thus far...
Seven years after their mother's dissappearance, (she left when they were ten, they are now 17) Tranquillity, Electra, and Silence took it as their duty to set out to look for her and their father, Surge, who vanished without a trace. Fearing the worst, the royal triplets left the safety of Knothole to brave the deadly Great Forest, watching their every step in order to avoid the many traps and snares set out by the human hunters.
Shortly thereafter, Electra complains of "girl pains," and expresses her worry that the hunters will be able to track them more easily because of her "time of the month." They decide to stop at the next village to help her...
However, fate has other ideas, and, after Tranq craftily springs a field of 15 traps by tossing out a scattering of pebbles, Silence is unfortunate enough to step in the last, unsprung trap. Fearing that the hunters that had laid these traps were still around, Tranq and Electra manage to pull up the peg attached to the trap that is holding their sister a painful prisoner, and they manage to limp her off into the trees, where they find a safe hidaway under a tree to try to remove the trap.
Unbeknowst to them, they were followed and found by a travelling mobian, Froggy. He helps to bandage Silence's leg after Tranq destroys the trap with a Spindash.
However, at the same time, two human trackers have picked up their trail, and one of them, Earl, is very excited by evidence left beside the place where the trap-peg was pulled up of a white hedgehog being caught in it. He swears to find Silence to sell her pelt to the furriers, his partner, Clyde, following and learning the 'tricks of the trade.'
***********
Meanwhile, a new player is introduced, moving careful and camoflaged through the dangerous forest, as he ruminates on his past and present predicaments and what lead him to the perilous profession of trap-springing and hunter-frustrating that he has been doing for five years, earning him revered names from both mobians he has rescued, and respectfully-disdainful epethets from hunters he has thwarted.
It is only when he almost emerges from the forest for a break and is intercepted by a fleeing TJ, that we find out that the figure is really Prince Alcor, assumed dead by the residents of Knothole. We find out also, that TJ has just narrowly escaped "the Knife" In a fur farm know to the mobians as a "death factory." TJ convinces Alcor to help hip rescue Peace from the horrible place, even as he is unsure of her fate. TJ informs Alcor that the humans had been breeding his sister nonstop, and that he feared for her continued existance. They both decide to infiltrate the horrible building with it's dark, stinking cloud of incinerated mobian remains, to try to rescue her and the children she was forced to mother.
They make their way down to the third floor, where some of the farm's foxes are being kept, and are pointed in the direction of Peace's caged children by an old black fox. They arrive, to discover Peace has temporarily been taken away, leaving her oldest living daughter, known only as #204 to watch after the other approximately 7 children. She informs the would-be rescuers that #203 was killed and skinned, and TJ worries about his sister.
She is returned shortly, however, from a checkup on the status of her newest, unborn children. Alcor and TJ hastily find a hiding spot on top of one of the stacks of cages and watch as a very bedraggled Peace is shoved into her overcrowded cage, the human promising her that as soon as her unborn children reach the age of two, that she would be taken to the Knife. At the same time, the human pulls #204 out of the cage and takes her away to be injected with new life.
As soon as the human is out of sight, TJ and Alcor come out of hiding, Alcor using the wire he appropriated from destroyed snares in the forest to pick the lock on the cage door, freeing Peace and her children. Peace pleads to be left there to die, as she is extremely weak and abused, but her brother and Alcor will have no part of it. They help her and her children out of the cage and start out to recover #204.
Along the way, they run into Astral's character, Myth - who had recently had a vision about his past, and Serenity, and is currently following the human leading #204 - when TJ steps on the other fox's tail. Introductions are made, and Myth tells them to wait in the shadows while he deals with the human imprisoning #204. TJ follows him, even though Myth told him not to, and witnesses Myth killing the human and rescueing #204, though she has already had the injection.
Myth escorts the band of escappees to the entrance to the sewers, telling them that he has to do something and will rejoin them later. Before leaving, he informs Alcor that he knew his sister and to avoid the light, as light could lead to the factory's furnace and death.
The escapees, make their way down the stinking sewer tunnels and encounter a strange-looking mobian fox inside, with what appears in the dim ligthing to be extremely long, scraggly fur hanging down from her sides. TJ recognizes her as Cynthia, a fox he had been in love with durring his time in the factory. She now appears to be quite mad, and has reverted to primitive, feral instincts, locking her rational mind away. She cannot talk, but only makes mournful howling and other non-sentiant animal noises.
Myth returns shortly, after wreaking havoc in the inmate filing area, two files under his arms. The addition of one more upright-standing figure sends Cynthia into a panic, and she flees down the sewer tunnels. TJ flys after her, trying to get her to come back, but when the group finally finds them, Cynthia is jelously guarding a discarded mobian body, as it apears this has been her only food source for several years. Everyone is aguast at this, and pity her for the way she has had to live. However, she won't leave the carcass so that they can exit the drainage vent that it is in front of, growling dominance.
Myth comes up with the idea that he needs to make her act submissive, and sends everyone but TJ up the pipes so they don't have to see, leaving his files with one of the children. He then proceeds to go feral and a battle for dominance over the carcass proceeds, Myth the eventual winner. Cynthia retreats to TJ's arms, whimpering, as the group rejoins them. They exit the drainage vent into the sunlight, and Cynthia immediately begins frolicing in her newfound freedom. After she bathes in the nearby river, eveyone stares at her. It seems the "long fur" hanging off of her was really skin. It appears that the humans tried to skin her alive, and then left her for dead, when they couldn't get a good enough pelt. Mirraculously, she has grown new skin over the place where her old skin should have been, and the old skin just hangs limp, like a ragged, built-in cloak.
********
Meanwhile, the triplets and Froggy are still on the run from the two trackers. They leave their hidaway and take refuge in the trees above it, as the hunters discover the recently vacated root-hole. Electra seeths after hearing Earl explain to Clyde how to most effectively kill hedgehogs; by shooting them in the neck and skinning them while they are still alive. Clyde makes a comment about "Won't they suffer?" and Earl discounts it, saying that the "Mobians wouldn't feel it because they are animals." This causes the listening Electra to almost blow the triplets' cover from anger, as she prepares to smite the hunters with her inherited electricity. She is stopped by a glance and a headshake from her sister.
After the hunters leave, the triplets proceed to answer Froggy's questions about being out in the forest when their species is the most heavily hunted as they continue through the forest, alert for danger. It soon begins snowing as Tranquility explains that they are looking for their vanished parents, and the Mythical 'Sanctuary,' a place where benign humans work to create a place where hunted hedgehogs can live in safety, free from the fear of being killed by hunters.
********
The fur-farm escapees make their way back to Knothole, Alcor making sure no-one has followed them before admitting them to the still-secret village. Peace, unconscious, is taken to the medics, her children following. Alcor's return is met with great surprise, as everyone in the village had thought him dead. He then comes face to face with his mother and crippled father, and the old hero remarks about Alcor's missing eye.
Alcor then proceeds to tell everyone how he lost it while disarming a trap, and how he stumbled into a snare field while incapacitated by pain. He then explained that he was saved and adopted by a tribe of mobians that lived their lives in the dangers of the forest, and that they tought him how to successfully disarm traps without getting hurt.
Alcor then inquires about his triplet neices and nephew, and is aguast to find out that they have left in search of their parents. He grabbs Myth and runs - at "normal" mobian running speeds - to one of the exits, worried that he might be too late to save them. As they leave, Sonic is heard making a bitter remark about his son not appearing to have an injured leg like he does, so why is he not using his speed?
TJ stays behind in Knothole to watch over his sister - who has gone into early labor, distressing everyone at the prospect that she is to weak to survive the birth - and to try to teach Cynthia how to be a civilized Mobian again and try to find out what really happened to her.
Nothing more has happened here recently...But not for long...?
********
Meanwhile, the triplets have been having their own problems. Having somehow lost Froggy in the forest, the hunters are back on their trail.
Earl is more determined than ever to get his white hedgehog hide, as he believes she outsmarted him by leaving a false trail for him and Clyde to follow. (This trail was really left by Froggy, but the trackers don't know that.) Earl now has his reputation to recover on this hunt.
Later, Electra narrowly escapes being squewered by one of Earl's arrows, as the two hunters have somehow placed themselves in front of the triplets. Thinking quickly and acting even more quickly, Tranq tells his sisters to hold onto him as he uses his inherrited speed to dart past the hunters and into the brush.
As the day wears on, Tranquility stumbles in the darkening twilight of dusk in the forest, and his sisters inform him that they need to stop for the night, as they can't keep going safely in the darkness. Unable to find any naturally existing hidaways, Tranq builds the three of them a burrow in the ground, scattering the dirt and snow so that the burrow looks like it's been there a while and is uninhabited. They spend an uneasy night, Trank and Electra taking turns watching the burrow's entrance for danger as Silence sleeps fitfully inside, worry for her mother her last cognizant thought before drifting off.
Silence soon finds herself in a strange dream world (where she CAN speak), distressingly isolated from her siblings. As the lonliness of the situation overtakes her, she hears a familiar voice that resolves itself into a transparent Serenity. Silence runs to her, only to find that, though the purple hedgehog appears to be embracing her, there is no substance to her being, and Silence feels as alone as ever. Mother and daughter talk, Silence pleading for Serenity to come home. Serenity regretfully informs her daughter that she can't go back, and Silence says that then she wants to stay with Reni. Reni tells Silence that she has to go back; that her "time has not come." Silence is returned to reality by her sister shocking her heart back into life, and Silence finally understands what has just happened and what she has seen. She tries to mentally tell her siblings about her near-death experience, but they don't let her, making her rest.
The next morning, the triplets emerge into an eerily quiet forest, though they sense no nearby hunters present. It' almost as if a spiritual entity dwells nearby...drawing them toward a small clearing...
When they arrive in said clearing, they are shocked to see a skelleton lying half-burried in snow. Further investigation reveals their fears to be correct...This is the skelleton of their mother, Serenity! And, by the fact that her hands, feet, and tail appear to be missing, as well as the fact that her ribcage appears to have been shattered by something, they know that her death was not a natural one...
They cannot grieve long however, or risk becoming corpses themselves. They continue on their way, Tranq swearing vengance quietly to himself.
By the end of the day, the terrain has visibly steepened, There are no accessible tree-holes to hid in, and the ground is too hard and frozen to create a burrow, so the three young 'hogs are forced to continue on in the dark. They don't see the net being launched until it's too late...
They are taken, imprisoned by the net to the domain of the feared hunter, Hunter! It is here that they discover the truth of the fate of their mother, as they are shocked by the sight of her pelt on the wall of his hunting lodge. The greif resurfaces painfully for all of them as Hunter himself enters, explaining how he killed their mother with his specially designed 'Sleeper shots,' which inject a micro-explosive into the bloodstream of the unlucky prey, which then travels to the heart and explodes, causing certain, inescapable death with vertually no pelt-damage. He then informs them that he is intriged by the challenge offered by the triplet's interdependancy, and that he will be using these 'Sleeper Shots' to hunt them. He then releases them to the hunt...
As they flee from Hunter, heading for the legendary Sanctuary, the other two hunters come back, and suddenly the triplets find themselves a prize in a contest between Earl and Clyde (Who by now is having second thoughts about the morality of hunting Mobians) and The Hunter.
Then the triplets meet Lucia, a human who wants to help them, though Electra is suspicious of him. He tags along as they flee.
********
Back in the forest, Alcor is desperate to reach the triplets before the hunters do, but still unwilling to use his speed. As he and Myth travel, Serenity's spirit grows impatient with her brother's issues, and she mysteriously warps them into a bush that the triplets are hiding in. All six then flee past the treeline, dodging the hunters Shots and arrows, hiding behind large rock outcroppings as they try to reach the Sanctuary.
Electra takes an arrow in the shoulder as they dive into a rocky crevice for a rest. They are then approached by ANOTHER human, this one claiming to be a ranger from the Rocky Valley Hedgehog Sanctuary. Several minutes pass, as the frightened Mobians watch the newcomer suspiciously. Alcor finally breaks the stalemate by climbing out of the hole and claiming to trust the newcomer, followed shortly by Tranq and Silence, and then finally Electra, who still doesn't trust the man.
They then follow the human as he leads them toward the Sanctuary, hiding behind rocks whenever they can. They are rejoined shortly by Lucia, who had been pestering Earl and Clyde, and Myth, who had just finished ofering up a challenge of "You hunt me, I hunt you." (Sort of) to The Hunter. When Alcor learns that THE Hunte is hunting the triplets he becomes highly agitated and the guilty look crosses his face again and he adimantly swears to protect them, not wanting them to suffer the same fate as their mother did.
As they use the rock outcroppings to shield them from sleepers and arrows, the little group of mobians and thier human protectors come accross a long stretch of the mountainside that is not protected by rocks or trees, that they have to cross to get to the next outcrop, beyond which the protecting rocks are plentiful up to the entrance to the Sanctuary. They decide there's no choice but to make a run for it. Electra assumes her normal place riding on Tranq's back, while Silence sits in her brother's arms, rubbing at her left shoulder as Tranq prepares to run to the next outcrop, the other four staying behind for the next trip.
Dodging the hunters' shots, Tranq almost reaches the rock before Silence has another heart attack. He's forced to let her down in the open, as Electra readies her ability to shock Silence's heart back into a normal rythym. Tranquility places himself between the hunters and his sisters, dangerously exposed. Lucia, Myth, the ranger, and Alcor rejoin them shortly, Alcor limping with an arrow in his leg.
As Electra tries to reactivate her sister's heart, Tranq guarding both of them, he sees a Sleeper headed right for him. Wincing, Tranq prepares himself for the inevitable, only to watch as the sleeper falls inexplicably to the ground near his feet. Surprised to have survived, he looks up...and is even more shocked to see who has saved him: an angelic apparition of the triplet's mother, complete with feathered arms. She explains to her astonished children and brother that she is an 'Afterwalker' and that she is watching out for them. She then leans down and brings Silence back to life. As she fades away, her purple-striped feathers falling, she promises that she will always be there to protect them.
The frightened ranger then leads the somber group into the rocks toward the Sanctuary, a sheltered village that is remarkably similar to Knothole. The place has it's own strange not-rightness, however, as Electra notices that there aren't many other species in the village other than hedgehogs, each of which had an earing in their left ears.
The ranger told the triplets that someone there wanted to see them, and they are more than surprised to find the father they had thought dead alive and well. Surge embraces his lost children, enquiring about Serenity hopefully. Alcor sorrowfully informs him of the hard truth.
Still not over the loss of his lifemate, Surge notices Electra's arrow and picks her up and takes her to the infirmary, a place that looks like the command center in Knothole. Here, human doctors remove the arrow from her shoulder and from Alcor's leg. Electra makes her way to the door, but the rangers block her in until she submits to being given an earing-shaped ID tag in her left ear. Alcor, Silence, and Tranq are also fitted with similar devices before being let out of the infirmary.
********
Lucia is releived of his weapon by the rangers, who suspect him of being a poacher, and Lucia gives them a little bit of troble about it before submitting, promising that when the hunters come, they'll need him to protect them. (That's where we left off with Lucia.)
********
Earl and Clyde are bewildered by their prey's sudden dissapearance, but continue to search for them, while Hunter goes off on his own, eventually finding his way nearer to the entrance. We left off with him reloading his Sleeper rifle, prepareing himself for when he'd find the entrance...
***********
Myth gives the humans a bit more trouble when they try to put an ID in his ear, and he is imprisoned in a hut because of it before being released when he had calmed down a bit. He rejoins the group, and Surge invites them into his home to escape the building snowstorm. Once inside, Myth begins to read Serenity's file from the fur farm, progressing from her being found, half-starved, with her hand in a trap by a live-trapper who sells mobians to fur farms. The file tells of how he "rescues" her and nurses her back to health, only to have her underbelly apraised for its worth. He then sells her as a 'brood sow' to Sunnybrook Farms (the name of the fur farm) for 100,000,000 Mobiums.
The rest of the file is from the Sunnybrook Farms Livestock Manager's point of view, and tells of how they tried to breed Serenity, and how when she was curled up - refusing to betray Surge by having someone else's baby - on the AI table, they tricked her into uncurling by pretending to loose interest in trying to breed a 'hog that wouldn't uncurl long enough to to get the syringe into her belly. This tactic apparently worked, and they jabbed her when she uncurled enough to be lead away.
Th file then tells of how Serenity didn't like her cage mate, who turned out to be Amy Rose, who "went to the Knife" several days later. The file tells of how Serenity vexed her captors into giving her an early execution date by miscarrying the chiled they injected her with. It tells how she escaped the day she was taken to the Knife, taking with her a fox that was "next in line for the Knife."
This last statement takes Myth by surprise, and he leaves rather dramatically to read his own file in privacy, tearing apart the hut the rangers gave him when he reads the contents of that file, proving that his 'owner' betrayed him for no apparent reason when he was in that same fur farm.
After Myth leaves to be by himself, Surge's home is approached by Blackrose, leader of the "Surge Fan Club" and the bashful king tries to keep away from her without success. However, Blacrose's plans of "getting intimate" are thwarted by the presance of Alcor and the Triplets. Surge begrudgingly lets her stay in his house until the storm quits, as she is not dressed to go out in such weather. Blackrose has several scars on her underbelly that evidence the fact that some human may have tried to skin her at some point.
When Myth recovers from this emotional outburst and returns to Surge's hut, Alcor is about to tell the story of why he never uses his speed. Alcor explains that he went searching for Serenity when he was younger, and ended up getting captured and then hunted by Hunter. The only reason he escaped, was that Serenity sacrificed herself by distracting Hunter from her brother, drawing the human away from him, and getting hit by a sleeper shot in the process. He tells them that she died telling him to run away. After staring in horror as Hunter skinned her, Alcor did just that, using his speed to flee the scene. After doing this, however, he began beating himself up about it, considering himself a coward. He then swore to never again use his birthright speed because he had used it in cowardice. He then flees the house, embarrassed by his failure, with the intention of freezing himself to death in the raging blizard. Myth goes after him.
Unbeknowst to anyone, a ranger had been hanging around the hut, and had gotten a full audio recording of Alcor's story, which he plans to use as evidence in a hearing to try to help the planet's dwindling hedgie population.
Outside, Alcor and Myth have a heart-to-heart, where Myth tries to convince Alcor that he is not a failure, and that his sister's sacrifice was not meant to cause him to live with guilt all his life, and that if she hadn't sacrificed herself, things could have been a lot more dismal for the triplets. Alcor isn't convinced, but he loses the desire to kill himself, and he and Myth head back inside, stopped briefly by the rangers, who ask him if he would go with them to the hearing. He says he will think about it and heads inside, where Surge has locked himself in his room with his grief, and the triplets are milling about the house dispondantly, Blackrose tagging along.
Serenity speakes to Surge in his mind, reasuring him, and gives him her battered diary to read to the kids about her point of view of what happened to her. Surge pockets it, still unwilling to read his deceased lifemate's diary. He emerges just in time to see Blackrose apparently go crazy and rush out the door, screaming that the Sanctuary is a bottleneck, and that The Hunter is coming for them.
Outside, several newcomers have caught the panicky Blackrose, stopping her mad dash out into the cold. They are discussing with some confusion who's mate she is and why doesn't he keep track of her, though they soon figure out that she is no one's mate, and turn their attention to other distressing matters. Someone suggests that this "Sanctuary" is really a free-range fur farm, and that the rangers are just trying to lure them into a false sense of security, so that they live their lives and breed normally, only to get killed at some point when they arent careful. It's at this point that Surge, Alcor, and the Triplets emerge to try to catch Blackrose. Silence overhears the theory and starts worrying about the prospect.
They don't have much time to ponder this, however, as one of the rangers returns, telling Alcor that it's time to go to the hearing. His attention turns to Blackrose, who is embarrasing herself by fawning at the human's feet for attention.
After some time of arguments between the suspicious newcomers, Myth, and James the royal guard and the rangers, the group that is going to the hearing is lead through the Sanctuary to what looks like a secret subway entrance, and they get aboard the waiting subway car. Blackrose is instantly more at ease after they leave Sanctuary.
As the subway car is moving along, the rangers explain that it's a perfectly safe and untrackable way in and out of Snactuary, due to many twists and turns and intersections of false track routes put in place to confuse a possible infiltrating hunter. They then throw a monkey wrench in the works by bringing out collars and leashes that they indicate that the refugees put on for their own safety.
Alcor freaks out about this, claming that it proves that the rangers have tricked them and are taking them to a slaughterhouse. Surge tries to reason with him, and finally convinces him to calm down because of the fact that if the rangers had been lying, that he would be dead by now, since he'd been on this route before in order to go to another hearing. Alcor finally relents, but Myth starts acting frightened of the leash. The rangers finally relent when they see the scars on his neck, but they inform him that they need to keep him in the hotel room they have arranged for to keep him safe and out of possible trouble.
When they reach Mobotropolis, the rangers discretely transport them to the back door of an expensive hotel, where at first the manager refuses to let "animals" in. His mind is changed, however, by a sizable bribe from the rangers, and he leads them to a private suite room, indicating that the mobians are to stay in the room and out of site of the public while in his building at all times.
Meanwhile, back near the subway car, two rangers notice blood on the seats (as Electra was not wearing anything to catch the blood from her time-of-the-month) They hurry after the rest to warn the other rangers of this little problem, not wanting the hotel maids to find blood all over their sheets after the mobians' time there. They arrive just as Electra comes forward to ask for what she needs. The female ranger tells her to wait in the bathroom and leaves to go buy some tampons for her.
Surge collapses on the bed, grieving again for Serenity. Nearby, Blackrose starts talking to Silence as they gaze out the window, tranq joining them shortly thereafter. Blackrose says that she wants to make Surge happy again, and Tranq explains that she's pushing the matter too much and to give it time. A ranger then persuades them to stay away from the windows, nervous that they would be seen by someone from outside. Alcor is being nervous, Myth is showering, and Electra is being PMSy. She finally loses her temper at the person in the next room (Josh, Spyder's character) and yells at him to turn it down, not knowing or caring who is in the next room, and disregarding the fact that it's probably a human and she's a hedgie. After which, Josh retaliates by (thinking Lec's an overlander) yelling back something about being a hairless poacher and turning his music up. This further provokes Electra, and she blows a hole in the wall with her electricity, confronting Josh. The conflagration dies down a bit, when Josh explains his side of things, but Electra still doesn't trust him.
Meanwhile, in Knothole, Peace gives birth to yet another set of twins, which are premies and need to be placed in an incubator. Peace has survived the birth, but only just barely. Most of he children are staying with foster families while she recovers.
204 is not taking her pregnancy well, and is often seen crying around the ring pool. She is startled when a young fox washes up in the pool, half drowned. She tries to comfort him about his ordeal/loss but doesn't feel she's doing it right.
TJ is on lookout duty, thinking about all these things, when he is startled by a whooshing sound. He is even more startled when he discovers Cynthia using her skinflaps to fly/glide around in the air around him.
More friction ensues between Electra and (everybody…:P *shot*) Josh and she threatens to make him pay if he harms Silence.
Meanwhile, Surge is still grieving, and has cried himself to sleep, unknowingly watched over by Serenity's after-walker form. She warns him not to do anything drastic.
Silence is meanwhile having a nightmare about being the last hedgehog on the planet, with Hunter aiming his sleeper rifle at her. She then dreams she has another heart attack, right there, meaning Hunter will get what he wants without having to do anything. She is saddened to think that here she is, last of her kind, dying of a heart attack, watching her entire species go extinct with her dying. She is abruptly awoken by her sister shocking her heart back to life. She then telepathically shows her nightmare to them. Myth offers to stay with her, in case shee needs more help during the night, as the others need sleep for the hearing the next day.
In Knothole, Sonic gets restless and leaves in search of Reni, refusing to believe the rumor that has been circulating around the village that she is dead. He leaves Knothole, despite his leg being crippled, determined to be a hero again, despite Sally's warnings.
Meanwhile, 204 is still trying to comfort the young kit she found, despite realizing that his aunt who he said went missing is probably not coming back.
Back in Mobotropolis, the day of the hearing to attempt to gain protection of the Mobian hedgehog's species dawns, and the rangers rouse their charges. As the mobians, minus Myth who's staying behind, are lead to the armored vehicle that will take them to the hearing, Alcor ponders how he is going to escape this predicament and return to trap-tripping in the Great Forest. Also, some unknown compulsion is trying to make him return to Knothole.
In the forest, Sonic is having troubles because of his hasty decision to return to being a hero, even though he is no longer suited to it. He kicks at a rock with his bad leg and stumbles right into a steel trap. After resolutely trying to free himself, without success, he gives up, realizing that at this point, it was a mistake to leave Knothole, and that he is now probably going to die. He consoles himself by realizing that he will probably soon be rejoining his daughter in death.
204 is shocked to realize that her new aquaintence is far too cold to be healthy. Having lived in the fur farm all her life, she does't know what to do with a possible case of hypothermia. (She doesn't even know what that is, most likely.) She debates taking him back to the village, even though he said he didn't want to go back there. She worries that if she doesn't know how to take care of this child, that she wouldn't know how to take care of the one she is currently carrying.
Meanwhile, in the city, the Rangers are joined by guards and more rangers, who form a protective living wall around their endangered charges.
[excerpt}
The seven hedgies and one fox could see crouds beginging to gather beyond the safety of the Ranger vanguard, though whether their interest was out of averice or just curiosity was hard to tell. Many of the city humans had not seen many mobians, if any at all, save for the small amount of canines and felines they'd thought they had domesticated, so, naturally, a crowd was begining to gather. The guards held them off with stoic devotion to duty as the refugees were guided into a modestly-sized room. The outer door was closed behind them as the guards dispersed somewhat, several left standing by the door while others went to secure the area and scout for possible threats to the Rangers and Mobians cause.
At the other side of the room was another door, currently open. Curious, Tranquility snuck to the side and peered out into an immense courtroom, filled with rows and rows of desks and chairs. It was already begining to fill with important-looking people and media personnel. The balconies were also beginging to fill -- with spectators. This was evidently going to be a large, very imprtant, public - and publicized - hearing.
One of the Rangers shoo'ed the curious youth back from the door, as a guard closed it and stood in front of it. It was clear that they would have to wait until all attendies were seated and the formalities were exchanged before they'd see anything. "It's for your own safety we have you in here." the guard said, somewhat condecendingly. Tranquility sighed and sat back down on the benches they had for seating.
Electra grumbled and started tapping a foot. "What's the hold up? Can't we just get this over with already?" Her father shushed her. Silence and Blackrose both had far away looks in their eyes, as Alcor stood, brooding, by the one, small, tripple-paned, bullet-resistant, window, staring out of it back toward the snowy forest from whence they had come. The sky was grey and mirrored the one-eyed hedgehog's mood...
[/end excerpt]
{excerpt # 2}
Cruncht, chruncht, cruncht
The sounds of boots sinking into the snow came closer, ever closer. He wasn't sure if they had seen him yet, but he was sure they would. He stuck out like a blood-stained blueberry in this snow.
With each cruch of the boots, his inevitable fate crept closer. Oddly, he didn't seem to care much anymore. He was already ruined. He was old. He'd outlived his usefullness, obviously. For now the once-hero had turned into yet another nameless victim...
There was a gasp from the closest human, and a quickening of pace from all of them. They'd seen him.
This was it. He could almost feel the rifle against his head now...
He winced, waiting for the sharp pain and then the nothingness that would seize him soon...
It was taking longer than he'd expected to come. The hunters were clearly excited, as evidenced by their shouts of victory and their nervous prancing about in the snow. They spattered some of the pinked frozen water up onto him in their zeal. He instinctively flinched.
"Uh oh...boys...it's still alive..." One of them said.
"Who cares? Its a hedgehog. Turn it over and get to work on that pelt!" another, clearly the leader, said, excited.
Sonic squeezed his eyes shut as he felt himself bodily turned over. This is it...Reni...Daddy's coming soon... he thought fuzzily, waiting for the knife's pain.
It never came.
"Uh, guys...problem..." said the hunter that had turned him over. The others crowed around, as the hunter continued, "This old guy's no good. Look at this massive scar. It runs completely across his pelt. The fur's ruined."
"Hmmm..." mused the leader. "Can't we just cut it in half at the scar and sell the halves?" The man's voice, which had been as cold as the wintry landscape, was now sounding the slightest bit dissappointed.
"No good, boss. He's got other scars all over the usable pelt area. Looks like he was a verteran of some war or something."
"Don't be rediculous, Fred. It's an animal. They don't fight wars. They only exist to be skinned for profit." However, the man's voice softened a bit.
The remark had, for an instant, rekindled Sonic's old fighting spirit, but the spark died away almost as quickly as it had come. The constant pain in his leg reminded him of his current state of helplessness.
The leader was silent for a while.
"Sir?" Inquired the hunter kneeling by the trapped hero.
The leader waved his hand disinterestedly. "Aah...let 'im go. He ain't worth nothin to us now."
The trap was then removed from the leg of the more than astonished blue hedgehog. He sat there with his mouth open, staring at the hunters for what seemed like forever. They...'re letting me go? he thought, flabergasted.
The leader bodily lifted the retired hero by his arms, setting him on his feet, and handing him back his dropped cane in an act of surprising kindness. "Go on, old fellah," he said, "Yer a lucky one. That there scar of yers jest saved yer life. You ain't worth bounty now."
Stunned by the words, which were both kind and degrading in the same breath, the old hero began limping back into the woods...headed deliberately AWAY from Knothole, in case those hunters got it into their heads to follow him to the Mobians last refuge.
{end excerpt #2}
[excerpt #3]
The guards opened the door and looked out at the gathered croud. The judge nodded at them. It was time. The guards ducked back inside, nodding at the Rangers, who then motioned to the Mobian refugies to follow.
Electra stopped fiddling and chewing on her leash and sneered at the rangers as they lead the seven hedgehogs and one fox, who refused to be left behind, out into the courtroom.
The assembled crowd gasped and muttered amongst themselves at the appearance of the mobians. Many of the overlanders had lived in the city all their lives, and so didn't know what the creatures that constituted the furs they craved so much even looked like. Phrases like "Look at them!
(OOC: I just noticed on my computer some posts that were saved from before that aren't up here, maybe because of that hack. I will have to repost them, starting with this one...)
IC:
An uncomfortable silence spread through the entire courtroom after James made his presentation. A couple thumps were heard up near the ceiling, but most of th humans and the mobians just figured it was the wind blowing tree branches around.
"Well..." began the ranger that had presented the information, "That is our evidence...We hope that you of the jurry will find it in your hearts to provide us with afavorable vote...These beautifull sentient beings NEED our governmental protection!"
Silence wasn't listening to the ranger's closing statement. She stared out into the crowd at a wealthy woman in one of the front rows. The overlander woman was wearing a light yellow coat with a hood of...vibrant purple fur. Little Silence stared at her for a while, before gasping quietly in recognition. Her pink eyes went wide and frightened, as she let out a strangled squeek - equivalent to a scream for her - and curled up again, shaking and trembling in fear.
Electra and Tranq looked down at their sister, and whispered to her in unison, "What is it, Si? What's wrong?!" They both gasped at the response they recieved in their minds.
Electra's head shot up, and she glared at the overlander woman for several minutes, shaking and sparking in anger, her hands clenching and unclenching. "YYYYOU!" She thundered, pointing at the woman accusingly, conscioulsy raigning in her power so that she didn't fry the lady, although she wanted to...badly. However, that would not have helped their case AT ALL. "YOU! You...you...How DARE you wear that...THING to this hearing?! It's made of hedgehog fur! And that hood...That hood...It's our MOM!" She then curled up beside her sister, sobbing. Tranq and Surge just stared...for the moment unbelieveing.
TBC
(OOC: the next one in my saved file...)
IC:
The rangers all looked out into the crowd at the woman in question. She hadn't seemed to even be fazed by Electra's accusation, or Silence's breakdown. "Who let her in wearing that?" Asked one ranger to another, disgusted.
Other rangers were trying to console Silence, while still others tried to hold the fuming Electra back. Tranq just stared in shock at the woman who was wearing his mother's pelt.
The rangers beckoned the refugee witnesses back through the door, trying to get a handle back on the situation.
204 held the crying kit close to her for a while, trying to calm him down. She was still confused, however. "But...didn't you just say you didn't want to go back?....n-nevermind. Ok..we'll go back. Do you...want to walk, or do you want me to carry you?" She asked, not sure at all if she was doing this right.
In the Great forest, Sonic had limped his way to a fallen log. He sat there, resting his screaming injury. He stared out into the snowy forest pensively. Not even worth bounty now...What's the use of going on? They shoulda killed me...Imagine! Me, the Priority One hedgehog...reduced to an injured oldtimer that ain't even woth a hunter's bounty now...
(OOC: and the last one....
Oh, and the witnesses/refugees/my chars have already left the courtroom. Not sure about other people's chars, but unless they have any objections, I'm going to assume they left as well. They are now in that room they started out in, ie, the protected one that leads directly into the courtroom.
Also, I'm still not exactly sure what I want the ruling to be right now. Part of me wants it to be positive, part of me wants it to be inconclusive. *shrugs*)
IC:
The tension was high in the guarded room the refugees sat in, anxiously awaiting the verdict, and praying that it would be positive, while simaltaniously doubting that outcome.
"O-okay...Let's go home..." 204 said, stammering slightly as she part led, part carried the kit back toward Knothole.
Alone in the forest, Sonic started shivering. He didn't know how long he'd sat on that log, but the snow was starting to settle weightily on his quills when he finally roused himself, glancing carefully around. The hunters he'd had the close call with had apparently not been following him...or if they had, they'd given up when he sat down and made no move for fifteen minutes or so. "Well..." He said to himself and the silent forest. "Might as well get home...ain't 'complishing notin sittin on my butt feelin sorry fer m'self..." He started limping off in the direction of the secret village, not at all sure he'd be able to FIND the entrance in all the new snow.
Something made him stop. He stood there, ears twitching, straining for any sound of danger. Nothing. It was all quiet....eerily quiet. At any other time, such a silece would have been a sign of danger, but...the smell of humans had long since dissapated. Except for where they had touched him of coarse. Those places still reeked of the destructive...Abruptly he dove into the drifting snow, rubbing it all over himself, trying to get rid of the hunter's smell. HE cursed every time he forgot about his injury and it screamed at him for being careless.
He spent several minutes throwng snow about, trying to get rid of the human stench. Then...there it was again! That maddeningly incomprehensible...well...all he could describe it as was a "feeling." Is this what a sixth sense feels like?...and if so...WHAT the HECK is it trying to tell me? HE was getting slightly annoyed. He felt like yelling out something about the "feeling" getting ON with it...but...that would have made him look rediculous. And...that was another thing...why did he feel self-consious about such an action, when there was, quite clearly, NO ONE around? The sapphire hedgehog shook his head. He resolved to stop thinking about it.
Now...to find his way home. He started limping forward again, alert and checking for traps and snares in front of him with his cane. There currently were none.
He stopped. IF there was no danger, why did he keep forcing himself to stop? He was getting more bewildered by the minute...
TBC
(OOC: I am SO sorry not to have gotten back to this before, however, my job saps my energy for RP. I WILL get back to this, hopefully soon...)
(OOC Anyone still want to continue this? I know it's been a while, but I REALLY don't want to see this die before it's time...)
I would! Long time no see vi!
-Josh
(OOC: I am thinking of sorta restarting Hunted...like from 2 years after the events of the old one. I WANT to keep it going where it's at, problem is that most of the people that were in it are either not here, or forgot about it, or something. So I've been thinking of moving it to a new thread and starting it 2 years later...so as to not have to deal with the loose ends of other people's characters when their players aren't here anymore. My problem with that is...there were posts that I was leading up to that I didn't get to that would have been important. So I'm not sure what to do. Advice? )
