Seeing the Fire Colonel heading straight at her Inna stood her ground, bending her knees into a low posture as she took a deep breath, reshaping her ice armor with each movement of her body, especially her hands.
Once the Colonel was close enough she acted, moving her armor from around her, to the front of the little girl and then as mount and rider struck at her she performed an attack of her own. Like a porcupine her ice shield spawned numerous long stalactites of the coldest ice in the direction of the charging best... Inna's purpose clear in having the beast and rider impale themselves as cavalry striking a pike wall.
And all the while Inna made her little figure all the smaller by crouching under her shield as low as she could.
Not long afterwards, Leanne stirred and opened her eyes, waking up into a series of coughs as she remembered almost drowning in the sedative of the Waterbenders.
Leanne expected to see an enemy complex or the cave of the Avatar... to be bound or caged... not to wake up among her beloved trees, apparently free and in the company of a stranger.
"What... happened?"
Seeing the wall of ice spikes, Cortes pulls on the reigns, forcing his mount to come to halt and making so that it's strong, armored tail would lash at the spike wall; hopefully smashing it into pieces while assisting in the endeavor by shooting a torrent of fire at the wall.
Shameless Self-promotion ho!Leanne
"Eh? You're awake? Man, I was hoping that you would hurry it up. You can call me Darrin. I saved your arse because the plot demanded it. Also, I kinda hate that Avatar dude."
Aboard the Halycon
For a few hours, the day was perfect. Great winds (The captain was probably the cause of that), and no Imperial Navy in sight. Of course, it had to go wrong.
It was Biggs and Wedge who noticed it first. The ship was moving chaotically now.
"Eh? Cap, something's wrong..." said Biggs.
Looking on the port side, the people on the boat would see something akin to a giant whirlpool....
"Eh? Well, nothing like a maelstrom to wake a man up is there? We've got our Charybdis, now all we need to make the trip complete is a Scylla. The Sea is such a darling." The captain was smiling as if this were the most pleasant thing in the world.
"Hard to port, lads! I've never met a lady who didn't like to dance!"
Roger stood up and started bending wind into the sails with wide sweeping arm motions and the occasional spin, going faster and faster but with a strange amount of grace, arms moving in tighter and tighter circles before expanding outward again, a joyous expression seeming to light up his whole body as the pirate ship plunged toward the whirlpool at its fullest possible speed.
The pirate glanced over at his guests "You fine folks may want to hang onto something seeing as you're all above deck, though the lovely miss bloodbender is welcome to lend us some speed if she can."
By now it was becoming increasingly clear that rather than fight against the whirlpool and inevitably get sucked down the mariner intended to use its momentum to slingshot themselves around, up and out of it.
Roger felt very much awake.
edited 19th May '12 9:24:42 AM by Dblade26
Wen immediatelly fell down from the barrels he was sleeping on, and immediately jumped to his feet, getting in his earthbending stance before realising what was going on:
"Whirlpool?... WHIRLPOOL?!"
He immediately moved to the border of the ship and looked at everything like a badgermole looked at a bunch of rocks falling on it.
Wolfe
The mercenary rolled his eyes. He wished this nosy Imperial, some Dolph Gradich, or something like that, would have just given up when he'd been stopped by the flaming door. "Here's what's gonna go down;" He whispered, to his hapless captive. "We're gonna start walking, nice and slow, over that way, yeah? And you're not gonna make any noise or anything like that, because if you do, and that bastard finds us, you will be my meat-shield... Got it?"
He quietly got up and held one of Haruki's arms behind the young boy's back, his other hand keeping the boy's mouth shut. At a slow and steady pace, he started backing up further down the alleyway he'd ducked into, making for the shadows and hoping to disappear from the officer. It was a fairly short walk, but anything could happen... Assuming all went well for him, he'd still have to figure out what to do with the boy.
Not entirely dead.While the situation was already devoid of any possible good outcomes, not-explicitly-bad outcomes appeared to be quickly thinning. Haruki continued complying with the man, but he would have to do something eventually. As he saw it, both of them were incredibly likely to kill him, and he would end up between them. A situation best to get out of but the man was overall too careful for him to be able to do anything.
Aboard the Halycon
Miguel cursed. What the hell was a whirlpool doing here?! This wasn't natural! Unless...
He looked at the whirlpool, just in time to see a massive sea serpent rise from the depths.
◊
"By Zeus! That's the Leviathan! What the hell is it doing here?!"
edited 19th May '12 6:53:39 PM by DeathChariot
Dolph took off after he saw the series of alleyways, deciding to do a survey through there, as there was no way that, in good conscience, he could let this person go. The escape and such cemented the view, in Dolph's head, that his prey was a rapist trying to escape justice.
He started to look around rather closeby to the two, and shouted, "I know you did something horrible to that woman. I will find you, I will bring you to justice, and you will pay for that horrible act."
Wolfe
He swore internally and started backpedalling faster. Why, he thought, wouldn't this damn officer just get lost? And what 'horrible act' was he babbling about? Surely he wasn't so upset just because he'd hit her? Wolfe darted around another corner, moving around into a short, narrow side-alley between a couple of run-down buildings. He hoped that this officer, since he was so worried about that infernal woman who'd fought with him earlier, would cease the search and just go find her instead. Wolfe wasn't even sure if the girl was still alive, but right now, anything was better than being chased through dark alleys.
"New rules, kid," He whispered to his hostage. "I'm gonna uncover your mouth, and we're gonna make a run for it. You make any noise outside your footsteps, and you'll be smoke and cinders before you can say 'Fire Lord'!" He grabbed Haruki firmly by the arm, turned around and made a break for it.
edited 21st May '12 8:21:28 PM by Blackfire667
Not entirely dead.More crazy... do I attract them or something...? Thought Leanne as she brought a hand to her aching forehead.
"The plot? Are you... a bard or something? Anyway... thank you for helping me"
Fortunately for Inna, the tail went right over her as it struck at her ice wall, though what was left was useful for her to cover behind as the Colonel shot his flames. The waterbender then moved her hands in a circle, defrosting the ice quickly back into water before pushing it at the Colonel and his mount, freezing the water once the torrent covered them... if it did cover them.
And Dolph was still running after Wolfe, hearing what sounded like some running ahead. Two people running?
Kidnapping or an accomplice? All the same, he was not letting this thing go.
Full of grit and determination, he kept on following. He was not about to let someone get away with that just because they were valuable or some shit like that.
Wolfe
He swore under his breath as he heard Dolph's footsteps. Why, he thought, would the man not just give up already? Regardless, he was not about to be caught so easily. Throwing Haruki forward, he quickly turned around and blasted some exposed rafters with fire. The old wood quickly gave way under the heat, knocking down some of the decayed walls it was above and leaving a flaming pile of rubble in Dolph's path. Wolfe hoped this would stop the nosy officer, or at least slow him down long enough for Wolfe to get away. He grabbed Haruki once more and continued his escape.
Alisa
She gradually came-to, and as she opened her eyes she saw two blurry, unfamiliar ceilings. Her head ached and throbbed, with a small part at the back stinging quite badly. Eventually, she stopped seeing double and the blurs cleared into well-defined shapes, though the world was sill spinning unpleasantly fast, and she still wasn't sure where, exactly, she was.
She groaned faintly as she propped herself up on her elbows and waited for the world to stop spinning so damn much. A thin trickle of blood slowly made its way down the back of her neck as she slowly looked around, wary of the creeping feeling of nausea that threatened to worsen at any moment.
edited 23rd May '12 7:27:26 PM by Blackfire667
Not entirely dead.Dolph was indeed stopped by the fire caused rubble, but he took this as a hint he was close to catching his prey. He managed to blast through, though the resulting smoke was horrid and running through a gap left his outfit charred somewhat.
Continuing on, he felt his resolve restore as he kept after Wolfe and Haruki, and actually saw the two of them for a little. The bastard...grabbing a child, most likely to use as a human shield...what a repulsive individual.
Wolfe
He could hear the officer's footsteps getting closer now, and the situation was looking increasingly grim for him. He had hoped that the rubble would delay the pursuer for longer, but apparently, that hadn't worked out. It was time for a different approach, seeing as just running wasn't getting him anywhere... Until the opportunity arose, however, he'd have to keep running. He really wished Haruki hadn't hurt himself the way he had; the only reason he'd been unable to evade this Imperial officer was because he had to drag the boy along with him.
In an effort to lose his pursuer, he threw a few fireballs behind him at random, lighting bits of the terrain on fire, shattering bits of the weaker walls, and hopefully stopping Dolph...
Not entirely dead.As some of the fireballs raced back at him, Dolph reacted in tune.
Calming his mind, attuning his thoughts, he launched a stream of lightning at his prey, but then was forced to stop as a wall collapsed in front of him. He tried to blast through it, but that would take some time.
Damn it...he might get away.
"A mercenary... so I see... you're a mercenary..." said Leanne as she covered her eyes with her hands... images of the war, of the horrors, of the Avatar... and finally of her mad king coming unbidden to her mind.
And just as unbidden were the tears coming from her eyes "The world has gone crazy... it's all wrong..."
Leanne
"Of course the world's crazy! It's not even real! Anywhoo, do you have any plans? I think the plot needs me elsewhere."
I'll go control Cortes.
Cortes saw the torrent coming right at him. Jabbing Diablo's side t, the colonel quickly used the flamewyrm's speed to get out of the way.
Cortes was readying another attack when General Fernando,holding the decapitated head of a Plutocracy commander came unto the site.
"Eh? So those barbarians haven't been all exterminated then?"
Leanne gritted her teeth and then wiped the tears off her eyes... standing up slowly and with care "I'll be going now... I'm sorry... I don't have any money or anything else to give you for saving my life or fixing my leg. I can only give you my thanks"
Inna stood up straight to properly see the two Fire Empire commanders some distance away from her. She had her water lay on the ground in front of her, prepared for anything the two of them might attempt.
"Indeed, the Plutocracy still lives and now we shall be retreating from battle. I'm here to make sure that from this point forward for every drop of blood our nation's soldiers spill ten times that amount will be let by those of the Fire Empire. This has been a long tiring day... I recommend you two gentlemen gather your men and retreat as well"

Miguel sighs.
"Don't worry. I'll get out of your hair once we get to our destination."