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((OOC: Sorry. Posting, but it'll be kinda short - bad day.))

Apsalar was indeed fighting desperately to close her wings, apparently under the impression that if she could close them, she might not get all the way to the water. Having the wings had prevented her from learning to swim; she simply did not have the aerodynamics or the ability to float that would be required. But the wind had gotten its hooks well into her, and it was all she could do to keep them open rather than having them blow straight back and possibly break.

John might not have noticed the growing sense of storm, but Apsalar did. She hated storms - their few months of freedom had not been enough to accustom her to the ferocity of the lightning and the thunder. She invariably got edgy and sought comfort in her packmates. Though she thought she'd hidden it fairly well, the truth was probably that they all knew and were simply too kind to tell her.

Her struggle to move her wings properly so that she could keep from ending up in the water got more desperate, if that were possible - she was flailing by the time John finally began to close the gap. He called to her, but she couldn't understand the words; even if she had been able to hear them, it would probably have been beyond the capabilities of her terrified, panicking mind to comprehend them. The storm and the oncoming water and the inability to stop herself from moving towards both of them was making her frantic.

But she knew what a reaching hand meant - at least when it came from a member of her pack. Desperately, she reached out and tried to catch his hand.

She was fighting the wind with everything she had. She was terrified.

And she missed.

Just as all hope seemed lost, a streak of darkness ripped past John, and a shadowy form leaped from rock to rock - those that were half-submerged in the raging water and not yet swallowed by the rising tide - with amazing agility and accuracy, moving closer out to sea to grab Apsalar. Continuing to move, the form traveled behind the panicking woman, still scratching and tearing at the slick stones beneath.

Then, the form leaped into the air, its massive wings opening and catching the shrieking wind, making it sail backwards towards Apsalar.

With great, mighty paws, the form snatched Apsalar out of the air, the poor girl's wings folding harmlessly against a powerful chest.

"Stay calm," a soft voice breathed to her, audible and true even in the horrors of the storm as rain poured down harmlessly through scaly wings, the feathers woven into the strands completely weather-resistant.

Those great, broad wings flapped powerfully, staying stable even though the wind was fierce and bloodthirsty. Lightning struck the water behind them, lighting up the depths beneath. Spilling the air from those wings, the beast bee-lined for the shore, high enough in the air to aim straight for the sands.

Before Apsalar's savior could strike the sand, the creature released Apsalar, allowing her to tumble harmlessly onto the beach, rain pelting down. Then it sailed back into the air, seeking to turn around and safely land itself now that the Chimera was out of harm's way.

Lightning flashed again, but this time it had a target. It struck the creature out of the air, and with a heart-wrenching screech, the form spiraled down to the shores, crashing into the wet sands of the tide, half-in and half-out of the water.

Hiccadu lay there in her mighty Chimeric form, smoking and smoldering even in the pouring rain. Weakly, she lifted a claw, pulling at the moist sands as water crashed around her. For a few moments she couldn't breathe, and then the water receded, and she had air again.

Rain not might've affected her, but the pounding waves were drenching her entire body, and while some droplets were not an issue, gallons upon gallons of the stuff coming down all at once were a problem.

Managing to raise her long neck to keep her nostrils above the water, she struggled to move as her wings sank into the sand. Opening her massive jaw, she let out an answering bellow across the wind and rain - something that would be audible even miles out.

Then, catching her breath, she gasped.

"Oh ********> she breathed, realizing what was happening with the sand as she struggled, the lightning strike having sucked all the strength she had. "Oh <********, forced to her knees by her twin, growled and snarled beneath him, clawing at the grass as purple steam escaped from her lips with each exhalation. Powerful though she was, Sam was made to match her, and she couldn't break free.

So, like an angry, unsatisfied child, she squirmed and writhed beneath him, feeling the pressure of her shoulder joints as they were extended but completely uncaring. She had broken her own bones and dislocated her own limbs before in fits like these.

Sam's blue hair fluttered down into her vision though, and as she bucked and snarled, her eyes caught the color and instinctively held it, the black eyes with green, slitted pupils widening.

Immediately, she stilled. Tense, but unmoving.

The blue strands swayed in front of her and, fascinated, she watched. Blue. Sam's smell filled her nostrils, and suddenly she - as a person, not an animal - realized what was happening.

Slowly then, the thickness of the purple smog she exhaled grew less and less, and her canines shrank back as her claws retracted back into regular nails. She blinked a few times, the eyelids fluttering, and beneath those lids, normal, wide human eyes returned. The muscles fighting against Sam's became less pronounced, more relaxed.

Lifting her head, she nuzzled Sam's chin, neck and chest using the back of her head with a very dog-like whine, and then, the episode completely passed, she collapsed harmlessly beneath him.

A second figure joined Aspalar in pulling Hiccadu free, but it wasn't john. This figure was tall, and as he pulled he made low slow ragged breaths, each coming out as a bellow. The figure pulled as hard as he could, Then lifted his face and said, "If I die, at least the female I love...will.. live...." It was Hound, but his breathing was ragged and slowing, He stank of blood, his own. He Would probably die if wasn't treated, and he looked as if he was going to collapse. "Come On my love...Don't you dare let a a shock stop you...." Then he coughed and said, "The Hiccadu I know, stops at nothing..." And then He gave one more mighty but weak pull, and he started to fall...His eyes closing.


Back with Yani.....

Neo could see his mother being attacked, and something in him snapped. He yanked himself free of his father's grip and started moving toward her. His wings extending and flapping strongly, rapidly. He ran toward her, his wings creating gusts of wind that pushed the poison gas away from him, and as he neared her, away from his mother. He knelt beside her, and slowly reached to put his right hand on her shoulder. "Mommy....I'm here....It's me...Neo...."

((OOC: But...wait, what? I'm confused...didn't Hound collapse like miles away from the beach house? I...I don't know, man. I just don't know.

I'll post shortly - I swore I'd post in another RP thread today, and that one is making things tough. >.< But in the meantime, could someone straighten this out for me?))

((Yes hound did, but I didn't ignore anything. One, I didn't know they in the courtyard, so I didn't know it was grass and not concrete, mainly because I forgot the changes we made to the rp during the month I nearly quit gaia. And Just because hound collapsed once didn't mean he passed out. Though this time when he fell, he's out cold and he is on the verge of death. There was a lot of blood loss. Only way he'll survive this one if either miracle happens, or if the others some him keep him alive long enough for the wound to heal. I have no idea how he's going to survive to be honest.))

((I agree with the courtyard thing, and the collapsing. However, I don't particularly care about the roaring.

....

Okay. I'm probably not helping any matters. I'm just going to sit here, twiddle my thumbs and let you two handle this.

Shall post later.))

((No worries.))

It was Sam's first time in an Isolation chamber. For the first half hour, he was fine. He amused himself by changing the shape of his face, the texture of his skin and hair, running his hands over the changes and reveling in the gift his DNA provided.

But after a little while, the chill began to set in. The silence. The darkness.

The solitude.

"Bucadu?" Echoes answer him.

Sam realized for once in his life that he couldn't reach out for his twin for comfort. She wasn't there. He stood up and walked around, trying to find either her or an exit and making no progress. The room he was in was undoubtedly underground, that much he could sense. The oppressive weight of the earth above him, the smell of freshly-dug dirt of the cavern, which must have been enormous because he hadn't yet run into any walls.

"Bucadu?"

((OOC: I said I'd post, and then I died. Sorry. I'm still brain-dead - my Bio exam hates me. I'll put up a little something just for the sake of posting, but then I have to go away again.

I just had a thought, but I can't remember whether Smoke and Hound took the Jeep or not - and if so, whether that's the only vehicle around. Someone want to fill me in?))

Apsalar looked from John to Hiccadu and finally to Hound. She looked small, standing between the two enormous Chimerae as she turned towards the house. "Why have they not answered?" she whispered. "They must hear." She turned to John. "Can you look for Smoke? You," she looked so sad as she brought up the reason they were all out here in the rain in the first place, "can fly, and you can see better. I will get the things we need, and I will find the pack."

She didn't even realize that she was technically giving her pack leader an 'order' - she was busy trying to think through all the ways they could save a member of their pack. Though John was free to ignore what she'd said if he so chose, it did seem to make the most sense. And she didn't seem to question that he would see the sense of it; she was already on her way to the house, in a tireless, loping run that evoked a mental picture of a wolf pack hunting.

Racing up to the house, she went inside. She knew where they kept the first-aid, of course; it was also better-stocked than some small doctor's offices, what with all the accidental injuries that the Chimerae had endured as they tried to learn about human things and the human world. Smoke had quickly learned that they needed to keep plenty of bandages and treatments for burns and cuts and scrapes and poisonings.

But remembering how Hound had looked, she didn't know if what they had would be enough.

She gathered up what there was, and as she turned back towards the door, she hesitated for a bare second. Surely the others had heard Hiccadu's roars? Surely they were already down there.

But they might not be. If so, why not? Surely they must have heard her - the huge Chimera had a voice that was as big as everything else about her in her true form. The storm wasn't that loud.

Were they simply ignoring it...because it was Hiccadu?

If that was the case, then she had to call for them. They wouldn't ignore her. So she tilted her head back and instead of calling everyone by name - she had no time for that - she simply let out a high-pitched, wailing scream that trailed into a sort of howl. The sound echoed throughout the house, and it was loud enough to drift on the air to the ones at the beach, with the shrieking wind providing a strange sort of harmony. It was the cry she'd given whenever one of her packmates had been taken out of the containment rooms for experimentation; it was the sound that should indicate to everyone in the house that someone needed help.

Pairing that with Hiccadu's earlier roars, it would be easy for everyone to figure out where to find the person who needed that help.

She had no time to wait and see if anyone was coming; she trusted her packmates to be intelligent enough to know where to find her. Most of them had strong enough senses that they could follow a scent that they knew well - like hers - out the door, and from there it would be easy to see the group of them collected at the water's edge.

Picking up the box of supplies she'd deemed useful and curling herself over it protectively to keep it as dry as possible, she came running back through the wind and rain, dropping to her knees to try and get a better idea of Hound's injuries - and Hiccadu's, for that matter.