7f.) Spotted

Luke had his hand over his watch as they walked, as if cemented in that position, as Iko led, stopping at practically every street corner so that Iko could lead alone, check for directions, get a feel for the area, and move. As for Carlos's predictions, occasionally gunshots could be heard, seeming rather close by.

This made Luke tense and somewhat jumpy, though, it would be hard to blame him: everything was tense in what would, in many states of mind, be considered a death march: even the 'immortal' Valeria seemed out of character, albeit for much different reasons.

Still... it was relatively silent... until they approached the street corner before Alice's place. Walking out alone, and looking around the corner, Iko quickly pulled his head back, staying prone to the wall, the sound of marching clearly audible on asphalt. "Damn..." Iko said, moving backward, Luke quickly taking assessment of the situation.

Directing quickly, Valeria found herself, carrying Ami, under the cover of an in-tact P.O box, while Luke chanced behind a broken door. Unfortunately, there were no in-tact buildings to enter, and cover was sparse. He gestured to Carlos, offerring him his cover, while Iko stood in the open, taking a stance, Luke focusing on the watch. This was becoming rather serious, rather fast...

Carlos ducked behind the door quickly, knowing that he would only be a liability in a firefight. As he crouched beside Luke, he glanced at Shobatsu to see how he was holding up, and stifled a laugh.

The kitsune had fallen asleep.

Yes he was tired, and it was logical to try to recover his energy, but... How could he sleep at a time like this?

He looked back out at Iko, waiting to see how he would handle this threat.

~Don't kill a single one...~ was the thought echoing in Iko's mind. Not exactly surprising, this was a tough concept, especially considering that the mentality in the reverse was far from the same... still, Iko took a stance, knowing that by simply walking by, the rest of the group would be discovered. It would be best if it seemed as if it were Iko alone...

Iko focused, taking hold of the darkness in the area, creating what looked like a dark-blue, half-sphere far in front of himself, as the humans, in the same dark clothing and helmet as before, turned the corner and opened fire, all trained at Iko.

As they passed through the barrier, they were deflected in rather random directions slightly, to the left, away from either point of cover, the sound of grinding metal visible behind them. Still, they continued firing without hesitation, trying to quickly close the gap. Iko braced himself: them getting closer meant less deflection. He had one shot at this...

Using the dark tendrils, he created a sweeping wave of darkness at their feet, causing them to be knocked forward, on their face, as they were not prepared for this manuver. In an even quicker move, he created tendrils around their weapon hands, tightening them until they released, to which Iko thrust the pieces of metal off to his left, effectively disarming them and making them unable to move.

"Damn..." Iko said to himself, already tired from using all of that focus. For some reason, he was grabbing his upper-left arm, near the shoulder, with his right: blood was coming from this area. Apparently, either one missed to the right and Iko placed the bullet there inadvertantly, or one bullet had a lucky shot at this spot.

As Iko knocked them out using the darkness within their helmet, Luke was grabbing his head in mild pain... it wasn't violent, though...

"Close, but not a mortal shot..." Luke said to himself, staggerring upwards.

Damage did seem inevitable at intervals here, but the rate of damage was starting to seem red*culous... Iko was the last usable DaCre here, and they couldn't afford to lose their last defense...

Iko signalled that it was safe, as Luke moved to him, checking Iko's wound. "It hurts to use my left hand..." Iko whispered, slightly moving the fingers. Luke, however, was not interested in this comment, as the end of his fingers had already found the edges of the bullet, as he pulled it out.

Laboring on the edge of nearly every curse word known to man, Iko calmed himself as Luke dropped the hot bullet. It was what had to be done, after all... for stuff like that, in is worse than out.

Taking him back to the side for a moment, Luke took off his outer shirt, Iko quickly tearing it, making a tight, impromptu bandage.

"Was their anyone else to the right?" Luke asked. Iko shook his head. "Nor the left... third building on the right... still in tact..." Iko explained. "That's Alice's place... it seems safe to enter, I still sense her presence."

Nodding, Luke signalled for the group to move again.

===============

The building seemed rather silent for a moment, even though Alice was present, and the one to quickly let them in. It was silent, though, especially with the situation. Alice had a perimeter set inside, covering every window and the door while remaining out of sight. Robert was nowhere to be seen on the first floor... it seemed an ideal time to situate, before asking questions.

The piranhas had hovered just behind Iko, still unsure of what to do. He had told them not to attack anyone on sight, after all, or if he seemed to be handling the situation. They'd hung back during the brief battle as Iko eliminated the soldiers, but were very aware of when he'd taken an injury.

They'd clustered around the hand, nudging his arm, and looking soulfully up at him. One of the piranhas swam up to one of the soldier's heads and tried to bite down, as a punishment for injuring Iko, but had found the helmet to be uncomfortably tough.

...

Carlos finally let himself relax as they entered the building. He slid to the ground, back against a wall. The little kitsune lay curled up on his lap. Even the gunshots hadn't woke him.

The boy rubbed his eyes. Sleep beckoned to him, offering him an escape with its warm embrace. He forced himself to stay awake, however heavy his eyelids felt.

He looked over at Iko and Luke. It had been their idea to come here, and they seemed to be leading the group at this point. They would naturally make the initial inquiries.

"I'm glad to see you're all still alive..." Alice remarked, rather emotionless to start, not wanting to break her focus on the door. The room remained silent for several moments, barring Ami's occasional coughing.

"C'mon, Ami..." Valeria said, guiding her out of the room, carefully to a first floor bedroom (even she knew the second floor wasn't best in this situation), just for her to try to get some rest... it seemed futile, to be honest, given the lack of proper medicine, but it was still something better than constantly moving...

"So..." Luke said, breaking the silence, "what's going on around here?"

"A DaCre went berserk past the point where media control could do anything. Robert was contacted, he was forced to hand over information, and now the military is trying to wipe out the remaining DaCre here, to 'protect' the city..."

"Before that..." Luke said, interrupting what would have been a 'brilliant' government cover-up for this. "What is going on that would cause this city to be so badly damaged?"

Alice stood silent for a moment, before looking over at Luke, a slightly more regretful look on her face. "This was Yitur's plot, I think... I'm merely speculating, but it makes sense... to destroy the DaCre that have passed over to train... I wouldn't be surprised if some of these humans were under his control..."

"Damn it..." Luke whispered to himself. The ploy to enrage Baniha... it truly had worked to full effect...

Alice continued. "Yitur seems to have allied with whatever's on the other side... 'the shadow' as Valeria calls it... some kind of virus, DaCre, or something that seeks destruction... as for a motive, I don't know..." she explained, still keeping her focus.

Carlos stifled a yawn, on the verge of simply passing out. All the tension and exertion right in the thick of fatigue... He was very used to that. He was, however, also used to being able to take a nice long nap after pushing his body so hard. And here was a safe place, and a nice, comfortable floor...

"But again, Luke, I have to stress... the point..." he said, sliding down slightly as his vision started to fade to black.

"Where do we go... from here..."

And that was it. Both DaCre and tamer lay there, passed out on the floor. This might be for the best. While anything discussed would have to be told to him later, it would have to be told again for Ami in any case, and Carlos and Shobatsu would be in fighting condition again.

Seeing Carlos fall off to sleep on the floor made Luke aware of what the time really was... it had to be at least one o'clock in the morning, at this point, or so it seemed, from the last time he knew the time, which was in late evening. This, and only this, made him aware of his own fatigue.

"I see they've all used a lot of energy..." Alice mutterred to herself. As usual, Valeria was the only one who was not exhausted, being that she couldn't become exhausted or wounded except under extreme circumstances.

"Get Carlos and Shobatsu somewhere safer in the house," Luke started, looking at Iko, "then come back to this room. After what they've been through, they should be out like rag dolls..."

Iko looked over at Luke, and nodded, gently taking Shobatsu in his weaker arm, and, dragging Carlos carefully with his stronger arm, brought them into a safer, carpetted room. Still... just the stirring in the mind from all of this... Iko guessed that the 'deep' sleep would be broken in only a couple of hours, if even that.

He glanced over in the opposite room, seeing Ami shiverring under covers. Even with something going right, something else was going wrong... it wasn't becoming safe here...

No... the time was drawing near... when they would have to go back...

The piranhas glided after Iko, cutting smoothly through the air. They pushed open doors that barred his way, and generally gave the area a brighter, more lively feel.

There hadn't been much time to think about it, but in his reflective state of mind, the dark wolf's thoughts would probably drift to Baniha, no matter how briefly.

At this moment, Iko did realise the pirhanas, and their owner came to mind. He smiled faintly: as maddenning as all this was, if it wasn't for that shark, Iko wouldn't be standing at all at this moment; Yitur's mission would have proven even more successful...

It seems that Baniha was committed to the role of the guardian, even at the loss of himself in the process.

At any rate, Iko still had a job to do; letting the fish lead again, Iko found his way back to the front, which was the same as it was before.

"With the last attack, they must have assumed that we moved further away than this from the initial attack location..." Luke said. "At least here, it will be... relatively... safe..."

Luke sat on the stairs, looking over at Iko for a moment. Nodding, Luke leaned back slightly, and closed his eyes, attempting to rest without falling into a deep sleep... though he was tired, he still needed to be somewhat aware...

This left Iko and Alice protecting the place. Iko stood in front of look, parrallel with Alice...

"So, how long have you been on this side?" Iko asked. So a small conversation went on, to keep both of their focuses on the world, rather than on mental fatigue.

It would seem that the situation would remain stagnant for a while... at least, until Carlos and Shobatsu came to.