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Pup cowered in the corner of the room, shaking. He began to hiss as hound pointed to him. The kid was scaredHis hissing became more pronounced and his mouth opened, and the the lower jaw split so that he could open his mouth further. He closed and reopened his mouth in this way, trying to make sure no one came any closer.

((I IMed you, asked if you were referring to Smoke with that post. I wasn't sure xD))

Rather than moving the chimerae out of the room, Smoke himself left. Things were happening a little too quickly, and for all his words, he didn't want to leave Hiccadu in the room alone with everyone else. Not for long.

He listened to the message on his phone again and walked out from the entrance of the motel. He'd meet Smith outside, any minute now.

--

John felt the atmosphere, perhaps more keenly than the others. There was a threat hanging in the air, a promise. His friends were prepared to kill Hiccadu, were more than ready for a fight. John was badly wounded--but so was she. His thoughts ran the same course as Tobart's, and he felt the hair on the back of his neck rising.

"Will see. Wait. And see."

Apsalar's eyes returned to John, and he hesitated. It was true, if they didn't fight Hiccadu now, they might never get the chance again. However... He wasn't going to let his friends fight her without him. How could he protect his packmates in the state he was in? Hiccadu, wounded as she was, was undoubtedly still stronger than any one chimerae. One of them could die, and John wouldn't allow that. They'd been through too much to die now, they were so close to freedom.

As soon as Hiccadu was out of the picture. The argument cycled through his eyes once more, instinct and adrenaline fighting compassion and the percentage of humanity he had retained.

Finally, compassion won. "Fine. But if you so much as twitch at us, we will kill you." A threat, but one that carried the tone of vengeance for Panther.

And let the birds peck at your broken corpse.

At least, for now, John was willing to tolerate her presence, if not accept it.

Smoke listened to the message carefully, eyebrow raising as it ended. He understood Smith's paranoia, really, but still felt the man had a bit of a flair for the dramatic.

He did as instructed, stepping into the alleyway, but warily. He hadn't forgotten his last experience in one. Alleyways were notorious for breeding bad luck. His hand twitched toward the gun in its holster, but he made no move towards it. Didn't want to alarm anyone.

As he expected, Smoke didn't see anyone down the alley. There weren't any chimerae either. He leaned against a wall, took out a much-needed cigarette, and waited for Smith to appear.

((...TAIS hasn't even EXISTED for sixty years. Thanks though. Particularly genius assumption. Jerk.))

Hiccadu had to fight so hard from smirking. TAIS flashed angrily at the challenge inside her head.

"You can go ahead and try."

I'll ******** kill you all.

"Don't blame the tool for the damage its wielder did," Hiccadu replied tiredly, finally assessing that the danger level had lowered enough so that she could sleep without being too annoyed. Moving to a wall, she settled down and curled up, the wing that was damaged laying as close as she could get it to her body. She was a enormous, hulking mass in the room. "You'll only end up cutting off your own fingers."

Knowing that TAIS would keep her ears open for her, she set her head on the back of a paw and closed her one good eye, the other on a quick road to recovery.

As she floated up into sleep, she could feel her body's healing functions speed up, and the wounds began to scab and smooth over almost fast enough to see with the naked eye. She felt her wing joint snap back into place from where it was torn, and the ligament begin to mend. The cut across her eye raised upwards, and slowly receded from the organ. It would take an extra couple of days for her to regain her sight, but for the time being she would have an eye. Her armor, as it smoothed over, re-hardened as feather, fur, and skin meshed together to create something unique and positively dangerous.

TAIS kept watch on all of this with a careful eye, her chest swelling with pride at the astounding progress her perfect, perfect creature made.

"You have the potential to even regrow limbs, my child," she purred as she hovered around Hiccadu. An invisible shadow. A mental hand caressed the Chimera's jaw. "I wouldn't put it to the test though. Heeheehee..."

With a soft chuckle, the large amount of TAIS' presence in her head withdrew to just the bare outskirts. Feeling alone but knowing it was untrue, Hiccadu allowed the darkness to close in.

If Hiccadu was given even a night, she would regain enough strength to where the entire group of Chimerae posed no threat.

But were they aware of that?

((Are we really going have this problem? Take it to PMs and don't clutter up my roleplay.

Also, do not autohit. Smoke is well-trained in hand-to-hand combat, and considering his gun holster is under his left armpit, under his leather jacket, it'd be pretty hard to pickpocket it without him knowing. Consider this your warning and my roleplayers, witnesses. We've had few problems until now.))

A blur happened, untrained eyes not being able to understand what happened until a moment later, when several things became evident.

As soon as Smoke felt that the wall behind him didn't actually feel like a wall, his hand jumped to his gun and he spun around, lit cigarette falling from his lips. Someone's fingers were already on the gun, it seemed, for the gun handle didn't feel like a gun handle either. He wrenched the fingers from the metal and twisted the wrist they were attached to until any normal human being would be uncomfortable, then pushed it away. Whatever was attached to the fingers, wrist, and arm, would've been thrown back.

Smoke had his gun in one hand, and pointed it above the skid marks that appeared in the alleyway grime, heart beating heavily. "If I've made a mistake, sir, then you have as well. I assumed I would be meeting an employer here, not an arrogant coward. Show yourself, then, if you've a mind." The smoke from his cigarette, lying forgotten on the ground, spiraled upwards slowly.

This wasn't what was expected. It was uncalled for, and it pissed Smoke off. How unprofessional, to steal your informer's gun and act like some James Bond character spin-off.

Smith straightened up and took two quiet steps to the right, being sure to stay on dry and relatively clean ground so he wouldn't leave footprints, and brushed himself off, rubbing his wrist absently as he answered. It stung a bit, but he'd had worse in the past eighty-five years. Mostly in the past sixty, true, but the first fifteen had contained a few unfortunate accidents as well.

Just to be sure that the gun still wasn't aimed properly at him, Smith faded a bit more so that his voice would be audible but not identifiable as coming from any particular source. At the same time, he looked at the strange child looking at him, or at least in his general direction. Perhaps the surprise of actually being detected for once had caused him to go visible for a moment? Somehow the child had his scent, at any rate, and the slight amount given off at the moment was apparently enough to pinpoint a general location. "This offer is for yourself alone, sir. Your associate will leave or I will, take your pick."

Inwardly, Smith vowed that the small Friend would be visited by his associates later. He needed to find out what else had been smelled about him, before others found out. Likely he'd need to buy or force silence out of the small Friend, but that was inevitable.

((Colossus: Smith becomes undetectable to any form of tracking when he's faded out. Scent included. The only way you would be able to identify him is his footprints, at least while he's invisible.

Smith is rich enough that he can pay certain 'friends' of his large sums to develop his suits for him. They're designed so that not only do they fade out of the visible spectrum (and all other spectrums) with him, but they mask his scent and voice as well. Though they function as a percentile-related feature, rather than absolute, so Smith can be detected while he's audible.))

((Fine then.))

Smith sighed very quietly. So the suit didn't work quite as planned. He'd have to have a word with his contacts about that once he finished up here. "Allow me to make something clear to both of you, insulting as your words are: I am here of my own free will, to do a very large favor to you at no small risk to myself. If you insist on being difficult, I shall leave you to your own devices. I am not required to offer you and your companions asylum or my considerable information network, and if you, sir, continue to be difficult, and you, Friend, continue to be disrespectful of your elders and betters, I shall withdraw the offer entirely."