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The chimera hit a wall with a yelp, staggered to its feet and shook his dazed head before launching back at Hiccadu. Sabre, the Irish woman watched with round brown eyes as Hiccadu exercised the self-control most chimerae, even those controlled by TAIS, lacked. She should've lashed out by now. Sabre had warned her team that a few casualties would've been expected, but things were going better than she had hoped.

Sabre signaled the reserve chimerae to stay behind while she seized an opportune piece of Hiccadu that the other chimerae missed.

- - - - - - - - - -

Trent exhaled an angry plume of smoke on the concrete corridor, joined around the building by the occasional late-night smoker. The railing most of them leaned on--that Smoke was leaning on--was a simple bar of metal stretching around the inside circle. Looking below, there was a path leading to a car garage and more concrete bordering a small cafe.

Smoke nodded at another yawning occupant as they shuffled to their rooms before a loud crack! echoed off the concrete externals.

He was peering over the rail when the door behind him opened and John joined him, urgency in his stride and caution in his gaze. "What was it?"

"Not sure..."

"We heard something that sounded like fighting down there," John pointed past the hotel building in vaguely the same direction as the parking garage. He climbed up the railing to find the source when Trent grabbed him in a bear hug around his middle.

"Are you stupid?"

"Let me GO--"

"Going to get us all caught--"

Josh was kicking and trying to wrench away from Smoke with every bit of DNA he was gifted with. Eventually an elbow caught Trent's mouth and he let go, wiping away the blood that blossomed from his upper lip. John was gone over the metal rail, wings spread wide, as soon as he let go.

((Awe, poor Miine. x3))

Hiccadu shivered as she felt something dig deep in between her shoulder blades, and it was hard and persistent enough to break through, and drag down her spine.

She roared - some in pain, some in excitement- and she twisted, her tail smashing into the basset hound and sending him flying again as she felt the blood well from her wing joint, sliding through her feathers and scales and fur. Wincing, she snarled, and drew her neck and tail closer to her body, ready to let loose like box springs.

Her hunting sense told her the rogue Chimerae were moving closer. Apparently they were curious AND stupid.

She could feel TAIS taking careful consideration of her wounds as she was mauled. The computer sped-healed some to make it look like they had been there for a day, half a day, and then left others open and gaping and terrible as Hiccadu was assaulted by five Chimerae at once.

If she was actually attempting to fight to kill, it would be a lot easier. If this wasn't some sort of show, more than half of them would be dead already, and she would have a lot less wounds. But she was supposed to have escaped the slaughterhouse herself, and underneath the furious assault of TAIS, Yani, AND his son. During this fight, she was supposed to be already weak, which made it much more difficult.

She was beginning to get frustrated. She knew her abilities; she knew how good she could fight. But she couldn't... ********... hit them...

Hiccadu bellowed again, this time in anger.

"You think you can match me?!" She grabbed the croc-mix by the throat, lifted herself off the floor a little, and smashed the Chimera into the dumpster. The Chimerae were getting closer and closer. It had to look good. "You ******** fools! I won't go back! I WON'T!"

((hmm, still wondering how I can get back into this))

Apsalar had been pacing the room nervously. Once the sound of the fighting had reached her, she had wanted to plead with John not to go, wanted to tell him that she felt like it wasn't safe...

But the words wouldn't come and now she was outside, on the balcony that Smoke had been on not a moment before, staring down and trying to catch a scent on the wind. She didn't want to follow; all her instincts were shrieking that this was bad bad bad and they had to run, but...

Their leader was gone. Their only human contact to this world had gone too. She turned to Tobart, her eyes questioning him - she hadn't spent long enough outside to go safely with her instincts, but she felt wrong going out there.

"Run," she whispered. It was half a question, half a statement. "Run."

But they couldn't...leave...their leaders...

Torn between terrified animal instinct and the cursed dingo pack loyalty, she hesitated for just a moment more.

Then the scent hit. Blood, but not human. Blood, but not pack. Theirs and yet other.

She knew that scent. There could be only one.

In sheer, stark terror, she raced back into the room. When she spoke this time, there was no hesitation or questioning in it.

"Run!"

The two bird Chimerae clawed at Hiccadu's eyes, and when she raised herself up onto her hindlegs to beat them away, the basset hound barreled forward and smacked her hard in her belly, making her jerk backwards and stumble to keep balance. The wing that wasn't in pain buffeted the hound aside.

One of the birds caught Hiccadu's ears and yanked, succeeding in throwing her off balance and sending her to the ground on her back.

"GAH-!"

She twisted onto her side and attempted to stand as both croc and hound dogpiled her, snapping and clawing and biting at anything they could find.

For a few moments Hiccadu couldn't shake them off. As she felt talons and claws and teeth sink in- as she felt the blood of her life seep out of her body to wash her armor and lick the floor, she actually started to become afraid.

TAIS, what're you doing?

As the croc searched for her throat, and as her tail writhed and slammed into everything and anything it could make contact with, Hiccadu felt fear steal into her throat, and she let out a horrifying, mechanic, animalistic sound that a dying creature would give when its vocal chords were a curious mix of roar and screech.

It was a death rattle, a death whine- a high pitched sound of fear and death- like nails scratching down a defenseless, bleeding chalkboard.

She had never heard herself make any sound like that before, nor had she heard anything else create anything quite like it.

All Chimerae attacking her simultaneously shuddered at the sound.

Hiccadu's eyes widened.

Now-!

Her tail whipped forward, smashed down onto the croc whose hold around her throat had loosened. She heard some satisfying cracks beneath the impact, and even though the hit had forced the air out of her own lungs, she couldn't help but grin. Her tail then yanked itself downwards, catching the basset hound beneath the neck and ripping it off her, sending it into a trash bin with the lid slamming shut on top of it.

She then extended the wing - pain and all - that the croc mix had settled on and at the cost of ripping a few holes in her wings, sent THAT Chimera flying as well.

It was then she realized that TAIS had injected her with a toxin before she left that was specifically designed to make her armor easier to pierce. Otherwise none of those wounds would've been made. Otherwise this wouldn't have been so easy.

Well s**t.

She twisted off her side onto her four feet and snorted out a heavy, painful breath, before lifting herself up as high as she could. She stared straight ahead, to a Chimera who was trying to lift the lid up from the dumpster. Her voice, despite being pained, was strong and vicious to the cause.

"Tell your b***h of a leader. I'm not going back."

((Anin, hope you don't mind?))

"Now's your chance, my pet."

Hiccadu looked up amidst the reserve Chimerae and the croc and basset to see John spiraling down towards the concrete.

Her eyes widened; she began to salivate-

Kill him-

"SAVE HIM YOU FOOL!"

Hiccadu leaped forward, her tail smashing into something alive on her way out of the gangbang, and she sped towards John, crouching and then sending herself flying through the air, snatching John midair out of his fall by his side. Her teeth sank down into his back and belly, but the way he had been falling he would've smashed straight down onto his neck if he hadn't been able to get control in time.

She landed, smashing down into the concrete and creating very, very big holes where her massive claws landed. She turned her head, looked over to see the Chimerae swarming after them.

Turning her head back around, she dropped John heavily by her feet and then turned to face the Chimerae.

"I'm sorry for biting you like that. And dropping you."

She dropped, kneeling into a crouch with her head close to the ground. Opening her mouth to reveal thick, bloody fangs, she snarled, her entire body seeming to rotate.

"But if you don't get up and help, I'm not going to fight for you." A face flashed across her eyes. "And you can join that poor child who was stripped from you in whatever hell you believe in."

((When you imagine Hiccadu's stance, think of Amaterasu from Okami right before a big fight during a cut scene. It's awesome. <3))

((Hatchling plummeted to the ground when the main and only bad guy's roleplayer decided he was going to take his sweet time on each and EVERY post.))

John screamed as Hiccadu bit down, fangs opening wounds in his stomach and back. While her jaw didn't shut all the way, he could feel instinctively the raw power that her muscles contained, ready to snap him in halves and devour him. As soon as he was released, he scrambled to his feet, cupping one of his wounds with a single hand as he tried to get away from her. There was no such thing as being a safe distance away. It took his willpower not to take to the skies, though that would surely kill him--thinned avian blood combined with the exertion of pumping his wings would drain him in a matter of moments. As it was, he would be wise to find a bandage or something to help the bleeding stop.

((I'm basing this off of avian DNA... But how deep would John's teeth-mark injuries be? And where are the other chimerae?))

((... I'm not going to tell you what your character would do. How would I know? I didn't create him.))