Once they landed Markus looked around to take in his surroundings. In his view, Abyss met his gaze which he returned with a subtle nod to assure his well being to Abyss. The Apocalypse had freed up Markus's time, allowing him not only to build a small militia force and secure the safety of a town, but also work on his own involvement in battles, something that Markus rarely did when everything was still normal. After Abyss's quick words with Zelek, he quickly shrugged off his leather duster and pulled from it's pockets a metal mask and gloves which he promptly began to put on while running after Abyss. "After your done here Zelek, flank around, we'll try to surprise these Feminists." Markus spoke after Abyss had finished his sentence directed at Zelek.

Tailing Abyss a bit far back and still putting one of his black leather gloves on, Markus heard the sound of a gun fire. His concern for Abyss was little, he had seen what that man could handle and more of what he could destroy. Once the farmers disappeared from sight Markus chuckled to himself knowing what fate had in store for them and approached the shouting devil who would be joined with another being of demon qualities. "The Red Menace and the Terror of the Skies, and more to come! This is going to be a walk in the park." Markus remarked to his fellow defenders, energetic and somewhat eager as he stood on the other side of Abyss.

The black metal mask he wore covered his entire head, but only showed his eyes somewhat and masked his voice a bit with the interference, but he could be heard well by all. His weapons were clearly seen, a Rhino Revolver, and an exceedingly large combat knife. It was finally time to fight, and Markus was more than ready.

The horse charged through the town and soon entered the outskirts, making his way in the direction he saw everyone else going. Neptune charged forward, hooves thundering against the ground, leaving absolutely no qualms about who it was that was coming. In this day and age presence was just as important as skill; so long as people knew who it was that was coming, that should make them think twice about doing something as stupid as all this again.

But the second that he caught sight of the dog, and was able to make out the outline on the ground (though he was at a disadvantage since he was on ground level) he did understand it enough to know that Amazons were here. He really disliked them. This was a world in which people needed to band together, not battle one another in selfishness. He really could not believe the audacity of those woman, some of which he knew before the blast happened. One or two could even be considered friends…and yet here they were, with murderers, stealing from people who had nothing…

A growl fell from his lips as he ground his teeth. Today was definitely not the day for this crap.

A tap from his heels and suddenly the horse was sprinting even faster, almost overtaking Gina’s lead. But the second that he had spied gathered group, he slowed, dismounted his horse, and sent him away. He trusted Neptune, but the last thing he wanted was for his beloved horse to die under at their hands. He was not going to all these power hungry women to catch his horse and make a meal out of it.

Once he had dismounted, Jorge placed his hand on handle of his firearm and stormed up to the scene…

>> "Listen up Amazons, This raid ends Now! leave peacefully if you want to leave at all!"

>> “Good afternoon, Here to crash the party.”[/color]

The deep voice of Abyss, mixed with that of his Deputy would have been enough to shake raiders in their boots. There was a reason that this town survived, not only because they banded together and had a strong sense of community, but because they had a damn good amount of strong people defending it. They were not going to let these women just waltz in and take whatever they wanted. Not this time and not in the limits of his town.

Hand still resting on the handle of his gun, he marched up until he was standing next to Markus, Abyss and Gina. His gaze was sharp as he watched them all intently. Most he remembered were wanted criminals from the MRC Wanted lists, other were people he either knew or never met.

Eyes narrowed as he counted them off; so far Maxine was already gone. He wondered how many more would be smart and just disappear along with her. It was then that he spotted Sveta, the only other woman he ever taught to shoot besides Gina. Great, so they had their power booster with that. That was going to make everything a whole lot more fun.

He cracked his neck to the eyed the gathered females.

“Leave , now,” he said in a growling voice. “These are not your lands and you have no right to take what never belonged to you. Leave…or face the consequences,” he said in a threatening voice. This was a whole new detective, one who’s threats had a reputation of being backed up by his actions.

The waterbender was not in a good mood today…

>>"Listen up, ladies. Sherriff Holier-Than-Thou and Deputy Do Good are on their way, with the Reds, Eruption, Sparkles, and their little dog, too. You'd think we'd interrupted their poker game, with how quick they're coming to stop our fun."

Sveta listened to Maxine's orders. She was not one of the best fighters in the group, but she was their power booster, and as Aura said, they had better chances to keep the self-entitled good guys at bay if she was with them.

"I'll stay for extra boost" she nodded to their leader then flashed a smile at Aura. She could take as much as she wanted. They were sisters now, after all. Besides, the townies knew enough about her that if she stood close to Kait, that was enough to make them back the hell off. Hopefully.

Then, the sheriff arrived, and lined up with the others. It saddened Sveta to see him there. He taught her how to shoot; it was deep irony that she had to face him with the skills he gave her to survive, but they were too far gone to avoid it. Reaching behind her back, her hands found her two guns tucked into her belt, but her eyes never stayed from the sheriff.

>>“Leave , now. These are not your lands and you have no right to take what never belonged to you. Leave…or face the consequences,”

He had lost so much. She knew that. They all did. But this was not the time for arguments about morals.

"We are taking what we need" she answered, looking straight at him, all the muscles in her body tense as a string on a bow "Leave us alone."

Because if not, she might have to waist some bullets on an old friend.

((ooc: Set slightly before the Defenders arrive. I'll be sneaking off from the main brawl to give lonesome little Miles some company. Defenders, please don't pursue. Screams mean he likes it~))

Maxine stayed in the doorway, even as the lure of fresh bread tried to draw her in. John, Jane, and little Susie there told her that inside the closed space, Syn's powers were in full swing. And what a party that swing was bringing. The Amazon Queen grinned from dimple to dimple as the three farmers went troddling off to war. For a good cause, of course: because the Lady Syn had asked them to. Nicely, she was sure.

>> “I hear we have the wannabe Texas Rangers coming with backup? I think I’ll add a little extra fun to their visit.”

"Always so considerate, Syn." She said.

From a distance, she felt one of her dogs—was it Kaitlyn's? Or Muse's, maybe? No—Muse's was right there. She had trouble telling the subordinate dogs apart, in that part of her mind that felt where their every piece of paper was; only the Alpha stood out. It was more something; more solid, more together, more there. It had the same texture in her mind that Rex had. From a distance, she felt Kaitlyn's dog suddenly lurching, as if on the attack—it didn't take a genius to know that Puddles & Co. were nearly here.

"Syn, why don't you take my dog and the others back? I'll take part of the supplies and head a different route, just in case they try to get cute about reclaiming all these generous donations."

Maxine plucked a full pack out of the hands of one of Kaitlyn's charming volunteers, and slung it over the back of Katrina's teal dog; she swung herself up after it, and left her girls with some words of wisdom.

"Be home in time for supper, ladies. We're having food."

Real food. If that wasn't a war cry, she didn't know what was.

With a last wave, she urged the teal dog into a swift trot, quickly clearing herself out of the line of sight from the farm. Not a hard task: even though this area was settled—well, as settled as places got—the ruins New York's former glory still abounded. If a plot of land didn't belong to someone, they didn't bother with cleaning it: that's the way the world had always worked, even before its end. The apocalypse had just made things like that more... noticeable.

She was quickly out of the farm's line of sight: she ust as quickly let the teal dog slow its gait to a meandering walk. A fact about her power that she didn't much advertise: most of her animations couldn't live if they got over a mile from her. With the red dog off giving their visitors a front line surprise, she was effectively trapped in the area. Didn't mean she had to advertise the fact. She'd just find a nice, quiet...

...Farm house. Bingo. The place looked decently well tended; they had a nice vegetable garden out front. Nothing stupendous: nothing that a mutant with a genetically green thumb could have done. But it was clear that the place wasn't just another ruin.

All in all, the quaint little house had an air of holding its breath; of closing shutters and peeking out through cracks, waiting for things to work themselves out, and let this little overlooked place mind its own business.

Too bad for them: she needed someplace to sit, and they had a rocking chair on their porch. Honest to god, a rocking chair. Maxine slipped off the teal dog's back, and made no particular effort to be subtle in her approach: she tromped up their steps like she was their little red-headed niece back from a hard day at work, plopped down in that chair, and snuck a handful of strawberries out of the backpack she'd brought along. The teal dog stood a few feet away, the papers in its nose shifting and sliding as if it were scenting the air. She slipped a ripe red berry in her mouth, and closed her eyes as it hit her tongue.

This. This was the life. Eating strawberries on some schmuck's porch, while they cowered inside.

Nearly a mile away, the red dog was proving that paper beat rock: it tore itself free of the spikes, seemingly unconcerned that it was shredding itself in the process. In fact, a careful observer might have noted that where its sheets were torn into pieces, they actually moved faster: the red war dog coalesced from the tornado of its parts, its maw agape. It lunged for Zelek's throat.

If certain illusionists hadn't already moved on, she might have seen the irony in that.


((OOC note to Syn: Once you hit the one mile mark from Maxine's location, the Alpha will absorb the other four dogs' paper into itself, and get a bit more solid—it will be able to carry the weight of our lovely groceries and a rider, but if anyone else comes with you, they'll probably have to hoof it the rest of the way back to the fortress. Alpha will obey your orders, unless you'd like to RP it otherwise.))

Katrina made it into the alley just in time. She didn't even have time to brush the dirt and dust off that she had acquired during her roll around under the car. Oh well, it wasn't like anyone was going to see her.

Behind her papers swarmed into a red paper tornado in the loose shape of a dog. The loose sheets flew through the air, indiscriminate of where their sharp edges were flying. The vampire taunted the papers as he staked them to the ground, or rather tried to stake them to the ground. All the while, he taunted Maxine's virtue.

The illusionist lost sight of everyone in the red storm of papers that was the dog going for the vampire's throat.

She hoped that Jorge, Abyss, and Aedus didn't get hurt. They were good people, even if they stood on the opposite side of the battle field.

As for the vampire who had tried to eat her when she was a child, who had dyed his hair and colored his eyes, but still wore the same hungry, creepily evil expression on his face, she hoped that he was just as weak to wood after it had been turned to pulp and flattened into sheets as he was when it was in it's original form.

Not wanting to waste any more time, she turned away from the fight and walked down the alley, turning at the end and following the route that would lead her to the center of the town.

Miles stood as quiet as a mouse. Not the squeaking, scurrying kind of mouse, but as quiet as the dead one with it's neck snapped on a mousetrap. He was still as stone with a sweating brow, keeping his breathing as low as possible, with the door to the porch in front of him, the doorknob a mere inch away from his fingers, his legs carefully positioned to leave room for when he opened the door with his right hand and he held his rifle on the left. Astor stood behind him as backup and he was already a pro at this 'standing like a statue' bit.

He still had no idea who the hell she was. He'd managed a glimpse out of one of the curtains and all he saw was her red mane but that didn't tell him anything. Most of what he knew about the Amazons was hearsay from the talks around the fire and that intel was pathetic as strategic information goes. It was sad that he couldn't tell which Amazon could do what with her powers or which one had this or that hair color, but he definitely knew which one had the biggest bossom or the roundest buttocks. The guys even had a hot-or-not list and while some of the Amazon's names shuffled and changed positions on the top spots, Dahlia's was always at the bottom.

The battlefield had started to change, since Tinaker had already led the rest of the Townies to their destination and Miles had heard gunshots in the distance. The Amazons were spreading, some staying to fight, others strategically retreating, so what was THIS one doing here? She was lazying about in the Hoyle's rocking chair doing absolutely nothing except raising all the hairs in his body. Good Lord, if Maxine found out about this, she'd probably kick her butt.

Miles had come up with a plan, though. She was sitting right in front of the door, her back turned his way, a clear signal she didn't care about what the Hoyle's would do about an intruder on their porch, so he had decided he'd open the door with his right hand, grab the rocking chair by the top, pull it back all the way to the floor taking her completely by surprise and then he'd shove his rifle down her mouth to keep her quiet, as long as she didn't tumble all over her own body and over himself in comical fashion.

So, right. He'd take a prisoner for the town. Let the Amazons know that they just couldn't go about mucking around with the farms under their protection. He was going to do this. Justice would be served. This was easy. He was just an explorer and forager, but what the hell, this would certainly earn him a promotion... if Jorge actually handed those out, but at least he'd earn some respect in town, right? Right. Good. Here we go.


...


...


Did the door opened by spinning the knob to the right or to the left? Rightie tightie, leftie loosey, but that worked on screws, not on doorknobs. He was sure you had to spin it to the right, right? Right. Good. Here we go.


...


...


Crap! The door had the lock on. Oh wait, you could still open the door from the inside, just not from the outside, right? Right. Good. Here we...

At that precise moment he sensed something coming his way and that was terrible news. The only things Miles could sense like this were his dogs and one was standing behind him while the other...

...WAS RUNNING BACK TO THE HOUSE! His mission completed, Tinaker was returning to his rightful master! Miles gasped and closed his eyes, his vision changing to that of his smaller dog and there she was! Sitting on the rocking chair, her eyes closed and Tinaker running towards the door and her like a freight train, completely ruining the element of surprise! Miles gave a quick mental command:

"STOOOOOP!"

Tinaker skidded noisily and froze to a halt, from the corner of the dog's eyes he barely noticed a strangely moving shape made out of what smelled like paper and it didn't seem at all happy with the intrusion. Tinaker's nose and bright red eyes stopped a mere couple of feet away from her knees (an excellent angle any other day) but he had effectively blown his cover.

This wasn't going to work at all.

Returning to his own senses, Miles opened the door and fumbled with his rifle as he simply yelled:

"DON'T MOVE!"

Strawberries didn't taste the same anymore.

Before the apocalypse, strawberries were big, stout things with double chins; they lived in containers in the supermarket, or the shelf of her refrigerator. When the AC was busted and the landlord was winning at phone dodge ball, when real food was far too much effort on a soul-sucking New York summer day, she'd take them out—three to a handful—and run them under the cold water from the faucet. It was part of their flavor—their sterile plastic container, the refrigerator's chill, the beads of water still clinging to them as she put them in her mouth.

Three apocalypse strawberries did not a handful make. She had no idea what monster plants had spawned those supermarket berries: apocalypse strawberries where natural things, only a bit bigger around than her fingers were wide. These were small, and dirty, and they tasted like a muggy day under the sun.

They tasted like the teal dog's hackles rising in a low rustling wave of paper; they tasted like a gasp, muffled behind a door behind her turned back, and a door hastily thrown open. They tasted like a little dog, kicking up dust as it ran home.

Maxine's teeth sunk in, neatly severing the red berry from its stem.

>> "DON'T MOVE!"

These berries, a woman ate one by one: just like a woman collected allies, and picked off farms, and put down men who'd left their chivalry back in the dog house.

Speaking of.

The redhead turned her head just enough so that green eyes could meet with dark brown. He was young: seventeen, maybe, or an underfeed eighteen. Scruffy brown hair of a shade to match those eyes. Scruffy brown chin whiskers that were trying to be a Real Man's facial hair. Way too young to be blowing girl's faces off, point blank, on his mammy and pappy's porch.

Then again, had there ever been an age requirement, for that?

"It's too bad you're not a woman. You've got balls." She held up her hand, palm facing upwards—slowly, Trigger Kid, no worries. There was no gun in hers, not even a knife: just a few little red berries. "Want one?"

Apocalypse strawberries were to die for.

Depending on the situation during raids the Amazons would deploy different tactics based on threat levels usually. With reinforcements coming from Town it made sense to split up the supplies and take different paths back to safety. Syn nodded to Maxine and took off with the remaining paper war dogs and whoever else was following.

Getting further away from their master the lesser paper dogs began losing their form. Syn ordered a halt to let the Alpha dog absorb the others. Then the packs of food were strapped to it before continuing to the fortress.

Once safely inside their home the packs of food were taken to the kitchen to be unloaded and stored, or set aside for tonight’s dinner. Syn’s mouth watered as she looked over their bounty. She couldn’t wait to eat something that wouldn’t smell or taste like it came from a swamp.

Heading away from the kitchen area Syn was surprised as she was suddenly scooped up and pinned to the wall. Her legs wrapped around the other figure’s waist and their bodies pressed together tightly. A passionate kiss and the sharing of a strawberry Syn couldn’t help but smile. Looking back into her beloved wife’s amazing red eyes she caressed Rhythm’s cheek. “You read my mind beautiful!”

Allison’s raiding uniform wasn’t quite as flashy as many of the other Amazons’ were. Two pairs of jeans, one close to being a tight fit under one far too large, secured with a belt each, and a sleeveless shirt. Her Amazon tattoos swirled and spiked around her face and neck, and the backs of her arms, while each finger was covered in a solid patch of ink, and more patches lined up from wrist to elbow up her arm. In her head, she called them bullets; each patch waiting to shoot through someone’s brain, spine, or eyes. Her skin couldn’t tan, but was flooded with enough freckles to look like it might be from a distance, and the minor sunburns that she always had now had gotten so consistent they weren’t really noticed any longer.

It was both fitting and convenient that Allison wasn’t particularly stylish among the Amazons, when raiding. She wasn’t, to her knowledge, known for being particularly dangerous; she was neither as bloodthirsty nor as powerful as most of the rest of Queen Maxine’s court, to most peoples’ knowledge. Their estimation of her power, probably, was correct; their opinion on her mind was less so. Her arms were lined with ink bullets, after all, each one representing a hopeful kill. Or many; she’d reused bullets before. She wasn’t sure if the surge of adrenaline and triumph she got from winning, kill or not, was enough to call her bloodthirsty, but she often suspected it was.

The bullets, though, were very nearly an all or nothing; if she got a hold of someone, and kept them still, they couldn’t avoid her bullets, unless they were immortal or a teleporter. Or Lady Syn. If she didn’t have a hold of them, though, well… a hit was just as lethal, but the chances of hitting were quite a bit lower.

So it was fortunate that she didn’t have to depend on the ink. Instead, she had some of Isabel’s bone weapons; two curved blades, like foot-long talons, and if they failed, points of bone shaped around the end of each finger and nail to give her claws. It had taken her a while to stop cutting her own palm with those, but she’d learned eventually. Or just built up callouses. Either way, both claws and talon blades were stained with old blood, looking old, worn out, beaten up and not much like bone at all anymore. Still just as sharp as ever, though.

Allison might not be the flashiest Amazon, but she saw no reason not to use intimidation when it suited her. The presence of loose, drab clothes tended to be forgotten once a foot long bloodstained talon was moving toward your throat.

Even that, though, could only go so far. Actual bullets, from actual guns, Allison had no way to defend against, or to be on even ground with. She supposed she could have gotten a gun from Celeste, or even borrowed one from the other Amazons… but she didn’t want to. Slashing people personally or shooting them with ink was more fun, and anyway, they ran out of bullets quickly enough. So as defenders started to appear Allison stopped picking--and eating--whatever food she could find (except for strawberries, which she only ate, because everyone else was picking plenty of those), and wandered over to Aura.

Turns out, Harry Potter was right. Love is the best protection.

Circle around and flank…A nod to Markus and Abyss, they had better hurry up unless they wanted paper cuts too. There was no doubt about it, he wasn’t walking away from this unscathed,. merely victorious.
Zelek’s eyes caught something just before the Red paper went and turned into a hound, He could have swore it was poppet…a girl from the very begging, a treat he never did get to eat. She was rabbiting off down the alley way as he wasted his time on paper. Maybe he didn’t need to fight it so much as he needed to slow it down, it was already after him and not the boys, that was good enough wasn’t it?

None of the other townies were around to see, and he would be helping the overall cause by taking one of the amazons out. Oh yes, he didn’t need to convince himself, no her blood would do that afterwards.

The red dog had lunged for his throat, The dog would hit its mark all covered in stone. Zelek wrapped himself in granite, and two waves shot from the ground , like a fly caught between two hands the dog would be smashed in the middle as two waves of granite shot from the ground and clapped as the met in the middle. A moment after the sand would clap, a geyser of sand would meet Zelek’s feet and propell him into the air and away from the dog as well, he couldn’t be too careful when dealing with the Amazon queen…but then he was so thirsty. His body hit the ground and rolled he rose from the ground with scrapes and bruises.

Zelek was running toward the alley the girl went down. He couldn’t even spare a glance over his shoulder to tell if the hound pursued or not. His eyes fixed on the girl who just disappeared he couldn’t see her but the dirt that clung to her figure betrayed her and gave him all he would need to track her.

“Katrina…I see you.” His voice called as he remembered her name. He was lying; he could only see the filth clinging to her skin.

(Sorry for attempting to bow out on the pup Maxine, but I must fight and Run, there is a tasty treat just within reach. Feel free to follow and make me hunted while hunting or hit that max distance and leave Slate’s girl to moi.)

She was indeed a redhead, in her twenties with light green eyes, probably on the top five of the hot-or-not list and very sure of herself, taking into consideration how she was addressing an armed man. She complimented him on his... courage, stating an obvious anatomical fact and with her hand she pretty much suggested him to lower his weapon, for she was unarmed.

Right. It was a well known fact that all Amazons were mutants and not having a weapon did not mean she was harmless. A glance to the right revealed what his dog had seen, a four legged, greenish creature made of moving paper and Miles mind raced as he tried to figure out... who was she?

He was an explorer, so he roamed the outskirts of the town frequently and was never invited to the security councils of Markus' Coalition or Jorge's unless they were addressing the whole town. Whatever tactical or truly useful information he picked up on these girls came from bits and pieces, overheard here and there. Maybe it had been Abyss talking to one of his clones, or Zelek mentioning something to Markus while walking from one tent to the other, but he was sure he had heard of someone who fit this woman's description and odd powers to a freaking 'T' and he just couldn't recall it. His brain tried hard to do so.

She was offering food to him now. Berries stolen form their recently raided farm. A clever way of trying to win his trust, of asserting her authority and dominance. She knew as well as he did that firing the rifle was stupid, for it would only mean his death sentence and the Hoyle's in the long run so Miles just gave her silence and his best steely stare. The less she knew about him, the better chances he had at having surprise and deception in his favor. Information was key and he wouldn't give her the least bit of it, keeping his mouth shut and not giving her one measly word that could reveal...


*GGGGrrrooOOOOwwwLLLL....*


Betrayed by his stomach which was doing it's best to remind him he hadn't had breakfast yet, he hadn't been given anything to eat at Mrs. Edwards nor had he taken anything from the Hoyle's food supply, Miles eyed the offered berries with a quick glance. His mouth freaking melted. They were right there in her bag, all red and pink, fruity and juicy, although small but what they couldn't do in size, they could very well compliment in numbers. If he succumbed and went 'Yes miss, if you please, thank you very much for your offer' he might as well just give her the rifle, so he tried to reassert his authority instead.

Removing his finger from the trigger, he lowered the rifle slowly as he mentally commanded Tinaker to grab the large bag of berries by the hem and drag it towards Miles. The dog obeyed and once the bag was closer to him, Miles bent one leg and stretched his hand towards the berries while still keeping his eyes on her. He didn't grab one like she had offered or two, he grabbed a whole handful of berries, giving her a 'what are YOU going to do about it?' look.

Miles straightened up and brought the handful to his mouth and bit on it like it was a large apple. Juice from the berries dripped by the sides of his mouth as he tasted heaven, his rifle lowered and still on his other hand. The young man's confidence was boosted, not just because he knew he had the tactical advantage, with one dog behind him for back up and another next to her, but because his mind had figured out the riddle.

Miles had remembered who she was.

Gulping down on the berries, the young man decided to have words with her and let her know a piece of his mind.

"You Amazons think you have it made" he started. "You think these are your lands and as long as you can scare anyone to submission, you have the right to take anything you want, but you're wrong."

Miles leaned forward, fully aware that this woman had no clue who he was or what he could do but he had a vague idea of who the redhead was now and he was going to use that knowledge to his advantage. "You're wrong, because there are people in these lands that are not afraid you. This is not your farm..."

He leaned even closer now, for the full effect.

"... and I am not afraid of you, Kitra."

As soon as Aura heard the loud voice of Abyss she knew the Town's defenders were at last responding. Her Aura quickly climbed to it's full strength. The Abyssi would be handful and the various other mutants would be less helpful yet. STill the Amazons wielded considerable power themselves. She waited for the action to start, glancing around the area locating each of her fellow amazons she could making sure she knew relatively where each other were.

She smiled as her Love approached, a ray of sunshine it the gloomiest of times. Aura was pretty sure had it not been for Allison, she would likely have went on a suicidal rampage. The option was always a consideration of course. "I love you" she said looking over at Allsion with an affectionate smile. She did worry about her, Love at such times as these fights, she had never been able to get past that protectiveness.

Aura reached over, her Aura retracting on her fingers only as she ran them through Allsion's hair. Her other hand however formed a spiked mace, as as her other hand came back down to her side, it formed a Sword. "Anyone you wnat to play with?" she asked more referring to the gathers defenders before them. Aura would retract her Aura if Allison tried to touch her but would not risk it any other time.

The whole bag? Really? What a greedy little kid. It was almost like no one had been feeding him well for... oh, the past three years.

She let the dog take the bag, and quietly kept her own dog from tearing up its pretty little coal-black hide. Coal-black hide, red eyes as bright as an old world halogen lamp, and just a wee bit of preternatural intelligence. Or was he commanding the pooch mentally?

Not that li'l ol' Kitra would know anything about controlling animations.

The teal dog's hackles raised to new heights as that runt took food right out of the hands of its pack leader. The papers that made up its maw gaped wider than any true dog's ever could as it—

Sit, she commanded it, without so much as batting her ginger eyelashes in its direction.

It sat. But it was not happy about it.

In any case, this gangly young man had been considerate enough to leave her with her own palmful of berries. She plopped another in her mouth and gave him her best I'm listening eyelashes bat as he spoke. Being a lady, she made sure to chew and swallow before she replied.

"You know what? You're completely right. I'm a terrible person, making all you civilized folk tremble in your..."

Her eyes strayed down to his feet, of their own accord. Disappointment awaited her there. They'd have been a little big—but a little big, she could have worked with. Tennis shoes, though? Tennis shoes, with an emphasis on the plural? A grey pair would have been fine, and a black pair would have been fine, but one of each? She'd pass.

"...your tennis shoes," she continued, after an almost imperceptible sigh. "Good thing that big strong men like you are around to get me pointed on the path to reformation, one rifle threat at a time. So tell me, what's my first step for getting back on the straight and narrow, Mister...?"

Fill in the blank, kid. Kitra really wanted to know.

Markus held his hand over his brow to guard them from the sun and guide his gaze to concentrate on the figures ahead. "It looks like there may be a few of them, but let's not take any chances." Markus spoke as he removed his hand from his brow and knelt down into a fresh patch of malleable dirt. He began to sketch a battle plan with his leathered finger into the ground. "Alright, we've protected the Town and these farms together for awhile now, and I need you all to trust me with this right now." Markus spoke as he quickly finished up a rough draft of what he was planing.

"Alright let's assume there's at least five or more of them. Abyss, you and Jorge will go for a straight on blitz, Jorge will serpentine a bit to confuse them, and once you are close enough unleash Aedus for a little extra surprise. Gina, you will lead a little air support with one group of the Three Abyssi that will be broken into two groups for a pincer movement. Three will strafe off to the left led by Gina, and the other three to the right and curve back up to close off the Amazons flanks. I will cross strafe with Abyss and cover the rear. As soon as you get the chance, lay these people out like dough in a Pizza Shop. If you get bogged down take cover in one of the barns and wait for back up, hopefully either my Centurions will arrive soon, or Zelek will catch them by surprise soon, all in all good luck." All this and I still don't need to use my main power, better save it for a bigger purpose. Markus thought as he began to gaze over the three others and began to track them with his power.

Today very quickly stopped being a good day. Of course, post-apocalyptia's version of law enforcement had to show up in full force. Including her adoptive father and the six identical uncles. Kaitlyn rushed to help Syn get the stolen food packed up and out of there before the fight started, and, more quietly, let the farmers know that it would be in their best interest to get inside. The girl also made sure that all the guns that they weren't planning on stealing were kept outside, unloaded, in a pile far enough away from the door that any of them would be noticed if they tried to run out and grab one.

Didn't want anyone getting any ideas, but it would be in the Amazons' best interest if the farmers could stay armed against other raiders, lest these other raiders try killing them in gruesome and extravagant ways. Amazons were a kinder breed of raiders than most; they loved their growers and wanted them to stay alive and well, so they could keep making delicious food to steal.

Poor force-field-guy still couldn't walk after what she'd done to him; two of the others needed to come back outside and help carry him in. She muttered an apology to him as he was carried off, hoping the other Amazons wouldn't overhear it.

By the time the defenders showed up, Kaitlyn was standing by Sveta's side, her mind scrambling for a way to avoid having to fight her own uncles while everyone exchanged words.

Perhaps a bluff would work.

She slid her new gun into one of her pockets, its barrel sticking out of one of the many holes in her pants. Her left hand hovered over Sveta's arm, while she held her right hand, palm open, at the defenders.

"Quit fooling yourselves!" Kaitlyn shouted. "With the help of my friend, here, I could blast you so hard that you'd all be dead before you hit the ground!" This was something that Kaitlyn was more than capable of accomplishing. A boosted, directed shockwave would probably leave all of the defenders dead, while Sveta and the other Amazons would be untouched. If the town-dwellers' intelligence was up to date, they would know that Kaitlyn had levelled buildings and killed dozens at a time with that maneuver.

The 'bluff,' as it were, lay in her willingness to kill her own adoptive father. For the sake of her standing in the Amazons, she hoped that nobody would think to call her on it.