Maxine's words came harsh and direct and each one made him more nervous than the last. His eyebrows rised high, his eyes grew round and wide like a deer in the headlights and his skin paled. While his body froze and started to sweat profusely, his mind was racing to come up with an answer that could save his life. He didn't have that many options.

His dogs? Astor was the goon in the duo and while Miles could have Tinaker attack her, there was no way he could make her stop from ending this in bloodshed. She'd shoot him first and then deal with the dog, so what else did he have that could save his neck?

There was his mutation. People usually thought Miles mutation was all about controlling freaky looking dogs, but they were wrong. He could bring dead creatures back to unlife and at times like these he really wished he had a cool power instead, like shooting lightning bolts or controlling minds, but no, his mutation was so lame that in order to trigger it he needed anguish and sorrow, he... basically needed to cry his eyes out first. That wouldn't do.


Fear my POWER, woman! Boo hoo hooo! BAAAWL!


Nope. It definitely wouldn't do.

All he had at his disposal were words to try and convince her to spare his life and he had to be really careful there. So far, everything he had said, could and had been used against him in a court of mockery and the last thing he needed right now was to piss her off. The woman had a well earned reputation and her eyes were dead set on following through with her threats.

His throat went dry, his mouth shook a little as he tried to say something... anything really, but it was very difficult to come up with life saving poetry when you had a rifle aimed at your chest. Would he have to resort to pleading and begging? She didn't strike him as a woman who spared the weak and there was nothing weaker than begging. So what did she want from him? What did she really want to hear?

She was the Amazon Queen, a pro mutant and feminist radical. He was just a random mutant who bit more than he could chew. He'd been overconfident, definitely stupid and downright... disrespectful.

Miles finally found his voice as he gambled his life on playing that angle. Show the woman some rightful respect.

"I'm a mutant, yes... and you are a mutant queen" he started, his voice dry as he tried very hard not to have it break mid-speech. "Had I known who you were, I wouldn't have bothered you at all. You are rightfully feared in the town and I'm... sorry for trying to take you prisoner, so I... respectfully ask you, from mutant to greater mutant, to reconsider... and not kill me. I'm not worth the bullet. I'm just an explorer, not a soldier and killing me won't help you in any way."

Actually, it would. It would help her a ton to get rid of him so she wouldn't have to worry about covering her back or having him call for back up, but the only valid, useful, practical reason for keeping him alive he could think of would take him down a path he did NOT want to take. If she shot him, there was a chance the townies would hear and give chase but if she took him prisoner, she would have a bargaining chip to trade in case her girls were in the losing end. He didn't like the idea at all but he really saw no other choice.

"Spare me and I... I'll be your hostage. I'm more useful to you alive than dead."

The rifle didn't lower, but something in her eyes, or her stance, visibly backed down from that edge she'd been standing on. Not that she really believed her girls were in any danger, back at the farm; but it never hurt to have a little walking, talking insurance. Besides, she was sure they could find something for him to do. He was an explorer, right? So he probably knew were all the quaintest homesteads were hiding. Maybe he even knew a few they didn't.

"Next time, Miles?" The redhead advised. "Just take the strawberry, and go back in the house. I don't pick fights unless there's something in it for me."

Next time. He'd have one of those, as long as he didn't screw the next few minutes up.

"Get your dog to calm down, then get up slowly. I shouldn't need to say this, but as a greater mutant to a mutant, let me spell it out: if you try anything, then one of us won't be walking away from this. I'm not nice enough to give second chances."

Or third chances, depending on how you counted this whole porch fiasco.

She took a slight step to the side, towards the edge of the porch. The reason for this soon became apparent as, piece by piece, her own dog drifted out to reform at her side, its pages somewhat more tattered than the last she'd seen it.

"The direction you want to start walking is that way," she said, with a jerk of her head, and her sweetest smile. "Don't worry—I'll be right behind you, in case you get lost."

So the old man was more agile than he looked. Perhaps that was how he'd managed to survive so long. Well, that and having several larger mutant allies to watch his arthritic back for him. In any case he'd at least be a mild challenge from the look of things, and that just meant it'd be all that much more fun offing him. And she could totally get away with killing him. They'd attacked the Amazons first, so technically it was self defense.

"Bingo," she said in reply to his brief assessment of her, pairing the words with a wink even as he evaded every one of her spindles. "And your little kill record doesn't scare me, Father Time. I'm willing to bet it doesn't hold a candle to mine."

Smiling as if such a thing were a treasured memory, she strode after the older man, wanting to keep him nice and close, trying to see if she could pressure him into slipping up and leaving himself open. She raised her hands above her head as she went as if stretching, splaying her fingers as her arms straightened. The six spindles on either side of her bobbed threateningly, but remained where they were for the time being.

Instead, ten separate additional spindles emerged from her fingers, rising upward and then rapidly curving out in the bald individual's direction, each growing thicker and stronger as they went. However, she wasn't aiming to hit him again just yet. This time she was trying to cage him in. And if he managed to worm away, she could always alter the length an direction of each bone. She'd bury the ends of the bones in the dirt and then they'd erupt in a multitude of small spines to prevent him from trying to squeeze through any of them. If he wanted to be a slippery little bastard hen he'd have to do it in closed quarters.

Miles gave an inaudible, almost unnoticeable sigh of relief when the next sound he heard was not a shot from the rifle but her voice, talking to him about next times and actually giving him sound advice, to which he just nodded in agreement, not wanting to provoke her into reconsidering her choice.

"Tinaker, shush. Behave" he said in a loud voice for her pleasure, his commands actually given through his mind. He didn't want to give out too much of his connection to his dogs, but it might be already too late. They were extremely obedient to his every command, so when the dog instantly shut up and stood still like there wasn't a stranger aiming at his master with a rifle anymore; Miles talked, feeling like he needed to call attention to himself instead of the dog. She had threatened him and he believed every word of it.

"I'm getting up now. Slowly. Hands where you can see them."

Miles started to do so as he got back to his feet. He tried to ignore the cuts, since none of them were really too deep, when Astor suddenly pushed at the door from inside the house and let his demonic barks be heard. He hadn't given any commands to his larger dog yet and neglected to do so. Her dog however, started to come out from the house, parts of it crumpled, others slobbered and ripped, but otherwise still in one piece. Or hundreds. That was one mean, versatile creature she commanded and if Astor had difficulty against it, Tinaker stood no chance.

She pointed the way with a smile he knew damn well not to trust. It was the way to the Bone Fortress. The young man sighed, starting to walk with his smaller dog by his side, his captor and her dog behind him and his own rifle pointing at his back.

You should have stayed hungry, Miles.

Standing up and looking behind him, Markus saw the forming cage. Good, the closer the better, things will be harder to predict but close quarters will let things unfold a bit quicker. Now turned to face his opponent head on, Markus readied himself in a stance and began to speak. "If you think you need this cage to stop me from running, don't worry. Cause you see unlike you, I have something I am actually fighting for. This, is my stand, so you might as well make yours, no matter the odds. To add to this, I think I'll fight you without my gun."

Markus stated as he would quickly open the revolvers chamber, and toss it behind his shoulder, launching the bullets out, but holding his thumb over one chamber keeping one of the bullets in, but the speed of the motion was too fast to tell. He then placed it back into his vest and got into a readied stance with his knife.

Venus had gotten lazy with keeping the act up, he was tired of the charade. If they could drop the adorable act of hating each other then he might be the only man with the connections and charisma to charm his way into the ivory gates and survive. Well know Kitra was in an interesting mood, cracking her whip and dragging him about. She whispered something to him about playing and he was all fort it she could drag him through the dirt all she liked, He didn’t mind finding a quieter atmosphere at all. If nothing else, the apocalypse had taken an interesting turn on fashion.

Mercury continued to watch in disdain as his friends began to fight and threaten each other. Markus was foolish to not realize that the cage could just as easily start stabbing him once he was in it. Was he counting on Isabel wanting to toy with him more on a personal level? And she was foolish if she thought he wouldn’t change his mind about the gun if it came down to a life and death situation.

Pluto dropped the woman in his hands and stumbled backward. The liquid that was in his eyes burned, it wasn’t acid, but having something in your eyes was terrible, much less actively attacking him. He stumbled back disoriented and turned when he felt something up against him, Panic and the lack of sight had him thinking unclearly and while he wasn’t prepared to kill anyone he wasn’t going to let them attack him without a fight . He swung an open palm and smacked Mercury on the back of the head with enough force to flip a car over.

Mercury stumbled forward and turned around to find out what the heck was going on, “You aren’t supposed to attack me Pluto. Attack a puny woman or something, dummy.” He tilted his head wondering why Pluto was stumbling around and went to ensure, no one took advantage of him while he was so disoriented. ‘Hit me again and I will hurt you, calm down, brother I’ve got you. Void!” Mercury called out and tossed his brother in.

Jupiter continued his attack on Aura, but going easy as she was obviously distracted by what was going on with her girlfriend. She should know them well enough that they wouldn’t hurt family. Nevermind, the slapping and threats going on behind him.
Saturn walked into the house and stated in a loud voice. “I’m sorry we didn’t get here faster folks, but the women won’t be bothering you anymore today. Is a kid named Miles here? He has two big dogs that don’t quite look right?” He waited for the now timid farmers to assure themselves that they were talking to a legitimate towns member.

Abyss closed one void and opened another void and watched as Mercury tossed Pluto in His eyes stared at Allison, and wondered if she earned herself a harsher fate, Gina was still free and she didn’t like to see family harmed. On top of that she had no reason to hold back, against the woman.

Isabel cocked a brow as the older fighter made a short speech as well as a big show of unloading his gun. She was more interested in keeping track of where the spare ammunition landed than what he had to say. She could always counter and give her own reasons for fighting, such as not starving, but why bother? Not like it would change the outcome of the fight at all. No, the ammo was much more interesting. She never used guns herself but there were other Amazons that could find them useful. She didn't know if those bullets would fit in anything they had in stock, but the could always be traded for ones they could use at Celeste's bunker.

She let her attention drift away from the ground and back to her opponent as he stuffed the empty gun into his vest and brandished the knife again. He really had to be senile. No one in their right mind would have let Isabel get so close and most would have attempted to run if she'd tried caging them. And discarding something like a gun was downright foolish, even if the thing couldn't kill her. A knife would hurt, but it could only shallowly cut up her skin. A knife was just stupid.

She chuckled and formed a blade of her own, showing off the littlest bit in making it larger than his. "Your funeral, Gramps." She decided to make the first move, quickly stepping forward and slashing diagonally with the knife so it would pass from his left shoulder to his right hip. If she could make him back up into the bars of the cage, she could impale him there. On her other hand, each of her fingers and her thumb sported two inch long, nail-like spikes that she would aim at his throat. If she could get a hold of it she could crush his windpipe or snip something important.

Alright time to break out of this, you got flesh to spare and an arm ain't worth nothing if there's no head to control it so you know what to do. Markus's thought's prepped him as he began to talk to himself subconsciously and prepare a plan and attack pattern. Slowing to his start he would gaze at her for a moment and then see her quick swipe for his shoulder. He quickly maneuvered the blade in his right hand so that the back would clash with hers and slide on the sharp side of hers. Going with the momentum he started to slip and bend under and through the opening made and attempt to loop around behind her from her right side

"I'll make sure to take that Hubris of your's with me." Markus would remark mid-stride to counter the Woman's further pandering.

Gina spun the modified shovel as she landed, smirking at the redheaded inkmancer with a look that said little more than, ’Bring it.’ The witch was pulling forth four orbs which were congealing before her,

“Heads!” the deputy shouted warningly, as if it were a game of soccer. These girls were predictable. Gina glanced back as two orbs were thrown at a pair of the Abyssi. One of the brothers took the ink to the face and toppled into the void. The other pursued Aura, while Saturn saw fit to leave. Great. Leave the virtually useless gargoyle deputy to take on these spiteful witches. Great idea. Who did that leave, anyways? Markus… a smattering of Abyssi…

****.

The fight was quickly deteriorating, and Gina could feel a thrill of panic through her. Fantastic. She’d focus on herself, and maybe dealing a decent slash to the fine ink-manipulators face, or at least a decent welt. The gargoyle lunged again, mindful of the ink-orbs as she swung the shovel for the Amazon’s face.

“I’m sick of you,” Gina grunted. Whether or not the shovel connected was beyond her, “Sick of all of you Amazons and your bull****.” Gina aimed a punch at the girl, and if that didn’t hit, a unmerciful kick was aimed for the red-headed girl’s kneecap, “You can’t just leave us alone, can’t just live honest lives. Rather than trade, you steal.”

The gargoyle was probably preaching to the choir—all of the Amazons were bullies, idiots who thought their injustices to their fellow mutants were wholly justifiable. There was another swipe of the shovel, this time with the sharpened side rather than the flat one, “I cannot wait for the day when karma bites you in the ***. One day, it will, and you’ll wonder why you stepped on all of those who could have been your allies. We all rise against you, and then you will realize where you went wrong.”


(ooc: Dodge, parry, or react however you choose, Alli. It's the best that I could do. D: Writing fight scenes is hard.)

Oh no, there was no way Isabel was letting the old man get behind her. Not that she'd be in much trouble either way, but she always preferred to see the looks on peoples' faces when she ran a blade through their body. And she would just love to see the look on the old man's face when he realized just how much trouble he was in.

As his blade caught hers and slid the length of it, she didn't bother trying to pull it away in order to brandish it again. Instead, she decided to try again what had failed the first time. The blade went soft and made to snake around the man's blade as well as his hand. He'd be having some real problems if she could get a solid hold like that on him.

As for him trying to duck and maneuver around her, she still had her extra appendages on hand guarding her sides. All she assumed she'd have to do would be to swipe outward with the three on the side he had moved toward. If it worked she could knock him back in the direction he had come from. She'd be at the best advantage if she managed to unbalance him and knock him on his backside. It would be too easy to impale him as he struggled to get to back on his feet.

Alright, this seems to be unfolding well, people respond offensively when given something like that, but there's more to this supposed kamikaze tactic. A plan that already lined the seams of Markus's head now began to seep into his body and coerce reality to do it's bidding. For as long as things went as predicted of course. Now a quick withdrawal, not to far back, but far enough to give the illusion of desperation. As he fell back his knife would be lost from his grip with the sudden understanding of the woman's snake like actions that had enveloped his knife and almost the entirety of his hand.

"Well this seems quite unfair, you seem to be a better fighter than most, I'll hand it to you." He spoke as he slid on the dirt in his swift movement away from her. "Sorry if this seems degrading to my reputation, but I have some things I need to survive for." Quickly moving his right arm behind his back and his left hand to run into his right, he knelt to the ground in a small interval of time and scooped up a large collection of dirt and rocks and threw them at the girls face. However, in that motion he had also managed to recover two of the three bullets he had emptied from his gun and throw them in her direction. Of course they stilled remained useless as of now.

"Oh sweet Ganesh." Markus yelled as he flung the clumps of dirt and rocks at Isabel. The quick movements he had been making had finally caught up with him. Maybe I am too old. What am I saying, I have a beard and I am balder than a Buddhist Monk, I am old. He would than hold his sides in an attempt to quell the pain in his backs midsection. Hopefully the girl would not retaliate so soon.

"Argh!" Cheat! Lowlife! No good rat! Sonuvabitch!

Isabel took a step or two away from the old man, swiping ahead of her with several of her additional limbs in the off chance that she was able to catch him even as she made her minor retreat. Her knuckles were pressed to her face in an attempt to rub away the dirt that had been thrown at her. Thankfully the smaller pebbles and the couple of bullets did little more than bounce off of her and fall back to the ground. The dirt, however, had a nasty habit of sticking to everything and was exceedingly easy to get into one's eyes without any assistance from other parties.

She could feel tears running down her cheeks as her eyes burned and watered under the onslaught of the irritating foreign substance in them, the condition only further aggravated by her hands. Despite her efforts to rub it all away, she couldn't open her eyes enough to brush a finger against the inner edge of her eyelids or the whites of her eyes to try and relieve the problem. She was only succeeding in rubbing it further in.

The tears in her eyes weren't going to flush out the dust quickly enough, and she was at a momentary disadvantage if she couldn't see her opponent. She wasn't at a complete loss, however. The old man was still enclosed in a cage of her own design.

She backed up again, this time until she could feel her back bump into the bars of her enclosure. She was tired of toying with this nuisance. She was going to end the fight. All around the pair the bars of the cage sprouted innumerable spines of various size. They would grow rapidly, shrinking the size of the interior and ultimately skewering the old man into nothing more than a mass of flesh, all while leaving her relatively unharmed.

Bye-bye Baldy.

Allison hadn’t quite intended to blind Pluto, which was good; if she’d meant to hurt him, the ink would have been aimed at brain, not skin, and could easily have been lethal, even if not immediately. Properly working brains were a bit more necessary to survival now than they had been. She had intended to put on a show and maybe cause a little pain; after all, pain could be ignored, and the town members might or might not know about her or Aura’s connection to the Abyssi family, but either way they didn’t seem to think it a sufficient excuse not to kill each other.

Really. Trying to make family members slaughter each other, and they claimed to be the civilized ones?

Oh well. She controlled where in space her ink was; she didn’t send it chasing after eyeballs or freckles or other things that it couldn’t perceive. The Abyssi knew that, or ought to, and the rest didn’t need to know. Pluto would be fine, and in the meantime… Allison ducked under a shovel again, then skipped back to get out of reach. Her ink followed, floating above her head.

In the meantime, Allison had to deal with a gargoyle. A crude, apparently very pissy, gargoyle, with a shovel. And had Allison mentioned the righteous anger? Really, what had caused that? They hadn’t even attacked the town itself. “So, I guess gargoyles do still get PMS?”

It was… amusing, really. She thought she was so superior, and so moral. While she tried to kill people. With a shovel. Allison really couldn’t get over that detail. At least when she killed, it was clean, and close to painless. Shovels were for farming; tearing up earth and cutting roots and moving stones. Not for killing.

Not that that prevented it from being usable. The last swipe was harder to avoid; instead, Allison brought her arm up to block it.

That was a stupid idea. The shovel was, in fact stopped; in her arm, with blood pouring out around it, and next to if not slightly cut into the bone. Which, well, only meant a quarter inch or so; not as if it had gotten to the bone in her leg or upper arm. Still, ow. Allison was not amused anymore. She froze, then hissed, and glared at the gargoyle; pulled her arm back and the rest of the ink from her arms up to float around her, mirroring the blood that kept dripping into a pool in her hand.

This… was not good. Allison wouldn’t die, of course, but she wouldn’t really be useful for much longer before the blood loss got to her. She stared at her hand for an instant, then flung it at the gargoyle.

“This. This is what makes you so much better. You hate us for stealing, but we protect the people we steal from; no one else steals from them, and no one kills them.” Allison drew one of the talon blades in her right hand; a bit clumsy, still covered with claws and pain from the cut, but useable. Her left hand was in better condition; she left it empty, to use the claws if she needed them. “If they hated it so much, they could leave, and other people would come in and replace them because living under us is safe. Would you accuse every lord and king that ever lived of stealing, because he demanded a price to support himself and the army he used to protect the people that he guarded?” The blade curved through the air toward the gargoyle; high, dramatic, and pure, pure white. For now, anyway.

“And you. You protect people who support you, and you say it’s something different, because there’s all in one place and there’s a wall that keeps them there.” Ink followed the blade, spreading out and flying toward the wings. May as well see if they had any feeling in them first. If they did, hopefully she could throw the gargoyle off--if her comments didn’t to that on their own, anyway--and if not, maybe later she could cut the gargoyle’s wings without her knowing. “And then, when you’re bored, you go out and murder anyone who doesn’t agree with you, and you call yourself good.”

(I’ll post Jupiter & Venus when ever their portions move forward. =P)

After a brief and muffled conversation Saturn realized that Miles wasn’t there and he would have to go check the bigots farm closer to town. The kid did good today, at least his dog certainly did. He deserved a pat on the back, or at least to have someone check on him to make sure the amazons didn’t get him. What a way to go. Death by woman, he had a feeling that it wouldn’t be as pleasant as it sounded. At least not with the way that particular group carried themselves, he heard the talks around town, but really? There was a reason that didn’t have boys around, something bad happened and he had a feeling that those women wouldn’t take to kindly to any man they got their hands on.

He started to walk that way and look into what the young man had gotten himself into. He found himself on the porch of an annoying old couple. It seemed like no one was home, probably still in hiding. He knocked several times and nothing. But he didn’t see the dogs around either…if worst came to worst he could always go looking for them at the bone fort. For now though he’d just check the other residences, see if anyone had seen the boy recently. He had to be around here somewhere.

------------------------~~~~~~-------------------------
Abyss still sat back and observed, at this point things seemed to be winding down, Isabel and Markus were about to get the wrong side of Mercury he though, He hoped he didn’t hurt either of them, he doubted Merc would forgive himself for harming either. He saw in the way his Jaw set when he looked back at the sparing pair. He was glad this mess was almost adjourned, though from the looks of it Gina and Allison were still going to play for keeps. would he have to intervene there? if so how could he explain it. He didn't have the convenient excuse of being whimsically eccentric like Mercury did.
------------------------~~~~~~-------------------------
Mercury turned his attention back to Markus and Isabel and things had changed vastly from where he saw them last. He heard Isabel’s frustration and stopped standing still. Mercury marched toward the pair. flexing his fingers. He hated this! It was so stupid! They finally had the world to themselves with hardly any pesky humans around and still! Still they fought each other.

Mercury stalked to the bone cage and slipped his fingers in between the bones and pushed them outward , He didn’t intentionally break any but if they did snap, he knew Isabel well enough to know she could always just whip up another batch. He stepped into the small ring, shooting them both a stern look. Perhaps that would be enough. if no, he wouldn't bother with words.

People shouldn't be happy to see a man who resembles that of the Devil, but Markus was overjoyed. He felt that all was well now that he intervened. He didn't know which of the Abyssi it was, but either way he was grateful and ready to take on Isabel with him. But soon he found out that, that was not his intentions. "Glad to see you here Red Menace" Markus spoke as he gazed at the Abyssi's now stern face giving a sense of anger towards Markus. Confused as he was Markus tried to talk to him. "You okay? Something happen that I should know?" But with the quick rush of the wind his conversation was cut short.

The angered woman's actions had now rippled onto Markus, from behind two feelings of sharp pain pierced his right shoulder. He felt his skin, and then his bone, his shoulder felt as if it was going to burst or something, he twisted and jerked toward the Abyssi that had come to help him, but then the second spear like pain began to go on the same journey as the former, now he couldn't feel his right arm. Suddenly something began to overtake Markus's mindset, something that had been set aside, something that he couldn't remember but felt as if it had happened.

Close to blacking out Markus's mind began to echo his surroundings, his blood now covered a portion of the ground his knees buckled and he fell to the ground and began to breath heavily as he began to hear an odd assortment of noises and voices cycle through his head. "...evacuation, last time we will have to deal with thesemongruels...names Private Cohen, you'll be helping us deal with theViet...Bạn không thể trồng trọt bạn không thể làm bất cứ điều gì, ngớ ngẩn Mỹ....burn baby burn..."

Words began to mesh together with sentences and dialects Markus couldn't even recall hearing, along with that he began to hear the sound of helicopters in the distance, wind blowing through trees and the smell of gasoline in the air. He was becoming greatly delusional and then heard something actually real. "Caesar!" It was his men he had told to come to his aid once they were prepared, but sadly it was too late for them to stop any harm coming to Markus. He now fell limp on the ground and blacked out as the Legionaries and two Centurions raced to save their leader from the grips of an Ivory Mistress. Markus could only hope that the Abyssi would at least move him out of the encirclement of bone.