Escape from Fluorgis

Escape from Fluorgis
Date of Scene:	30 October 2012
Location:	Fluorgis - City
Synopsis:	While trying to make a stealthy escape from Flourgis, Avira runs into dark and questioning werewolf, who she assumes is part of the Khamja, only to discover that there is no love between the wolf and the assassin clan.
Cast of Characters:	Avira, Hati

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Avira has posed:
It is the early hours of morning in Fluorgis, the light of the rising sun barely cresting the rooftops. Few people grace the streets at this hour that aren't involved in opening businesses...usually.

There are those here that don't typically belong. Though of a variety of races, there is one emblem upon their clothing that binds them all together in purpose. Those that spy this emblem quickly shrink away, stepping into buildings or quickly closing their shutters as they pass. Khamja.

Meanwhile, at the Shard Seeker's Headquarters, Avira draws the hood to a borrowed cloak over her head and tenatively peeks out the front door. Leaving town early seemed like a sound enough idea. Though she was grateful for Skoll's protection and hospitality, she definitely didn't want to impose (especially if IVO showed up!) and she definitely didn't want to appear as a scared weakling before the werewolf. Fleeing town for a little while seemed like the tactically sound thing to do!

Seeing that the coast is clear, at least around the Shard Seeker's base, Avira slips out into the streets and takes off at a brisk jog. Making it to the chocobo stables was a priority-getting astride one of the feathered beasts of burden would make getting out of town a piece of cake!

Hati has posed:
For all the dark presence on the streets that the Khamja may bring, there are others who bring with them something far darker. For all her small size, there is an imposing sort of presence that comes with the wolf-girl as she stalks the streets, getting a feel for the city. After the destruction of a major Heartless in the city, a few of the Shadow Lords had decided to set a more watchful eye on the citizens, trying to root out just who it was who would dare stand up against the might of the Heartless.

Hati crouches in an alleyway amongst a group of buildings showing obvious signs of recent combat. Lifting a bit of street dust to her nose, she sniffs at it, then growls under her breath, rubbing it between her fingers. There are multiple scents here - more than one person who fought against the Heartless, and she needs to find out more. Worse, one of those smells seems to set her hair on end, as if it were a bit too familiar, but from where?

Trying to shake the feeling of deja vu, the wolf chooses the strongest of the scents to follow, tracing the smell of a certain wayward adventurer as far as the Shard Seeker's Headquarters. Like most predators, she's cunning enough to keep out of sight, crouching in the shadows to watch someone emerge. It isn't the one she's looking for, her nose alone can confirm that, but perhaps this one might know something she couldn't get from confronting the group directly.

Much like her brother, Hati is skilled at moving through the city unnoticed, easily avoiding the hulking forms of Khamja associates and the like who seem to be a more ready presence in the city than usual. She has her quarry in sight, and the rest don't matter. It isn't until Avira emerges near the Chocobo stables that the wolf-girl makes her move, stepping out as if she is one with the shadows, her mismatched eyes narrowing, "You're in an awefully big hurry this morning." She notes with a show of fanged teeth.

For those who know Skoll, it might be easy to recognise this girl as a werewolf, but she only has a vague resemblence to her brother. Those ears and the tail that sways behind her are the give-aways, but where her brother looks more like a punk, Hati is dressed in a neat turtleneck and leather jacket - all business, except for the blue in her hair. "Running from someone?" Oh, and she's quite a bit shorter than the other werewolf, so much so that she probably stands about the same height as Avira, herself.

Avira has posed:
There is all kinds of suspicious scent on Avira. She has indeed fought Heartless in the past including several large ones that are far stronger than the common shadow-types. Not only that, the suspiciously familiar scent of Skoll was definitely on her.

Part of Avira begins to consider scaling the buildings and traversing by rooftop to her destination. However with the rising of the sun, she didn't have the cover of darkness that would make such a path far more indescrete. She does choose a winding path instead of a straight shot, accounting for the possibility of being followed as she was yesterday. Without the usual crowds in the street, Khamja would lack that element of surprise.

Avira does really well, successfully evading the searchers and making it to roughly a block from the chocobo stables. Then everything promptly goes to hell when a short figure steps from the shadows. "I'm a busy woman." she growls back, showing just as many (but far less impressive) teeth. Right away she's searching Hati for an emblem of Khamja. Though she doesn't spot one right away, she errs on the side of assuming that this is one of their numbers.

Those ears, though-she knows those ears. This was one of Skoll's people. "...guess he's not as alone as he thinks..." she murmurs, not even considering a family connection. After all, this girl dressed in a far more restrained fashion than Skoll. "...is Khamja outsourcing already?"

Her right hand reaches behind her, back into her cloak to grasp the hilt of her weapon. "Something like that. You gonna let me by or am I gonna have to go through you?"

Hati has posed:
"Then you'll answer me quickly and I might let you be on your way." The wolf-girl growls in an undertone, her claw-tipped fingers flexing slightly. The subtle sort of threat lingers in her voice, like someone who believes they have an advantage. Those mismatched eyes only narrow again as she seems to mention something about a 'he', but whomever it is that Avira is referring to, it matters little to the wolf.

"Khamja?" Hati wrinkles her nose, then snarls, curling her lip slightly to show her distaste. "Amatures who think they can control others by might alone. They'll find out soon enough that there are worse things than them in this world and others." The wolf girl smirks, then shakes he rhead, "No, I am no whelp to linger at their heels." She serves other masters.

Those eyes flash to the shift of her body, the way that the woman goes for her weapon. "You won't need that, unless you'd like to cause a scene. Since you were trying to sneak away, I'm guessing you wouldn't want that." Hati folds her arms over her chest, looking unimpressed. "As I said, answer a few questions, and I'll let you leave. If not... well, we'll just see if you know how to use that." The wolf motions her nose towards Avira's hand.

"Now tell me, who are the people who dwell in that building, the one you came from?" She snaps the question out quickly, tail twitching once behind her. "Their stink is all over a destroyed part of the city. Are they working with the Heartless, or against them? What are their goals, and who is the one that wears cloth like this?" The wolf holds up a scrap of cloth, probably a piece of one of Reize's cloaks from the look of it.

Avira has posed:
"'Might?'" Avira sounds thoroughly unimpressed at the promise of being allowed to escape, immediately zooming in on that word. But at the same time, it seems that this girl had a different purpose. This thought is confirmed seconds later when she derides Khamja and speaks of worse threats than them. Of course, knowing what she did about the destruction of Skoll's (and thus her) world, there is definite truth to this statement.

Another low growl escapes her as Hati cautions her from pulling out her weapon. She does not relax, though, remaining in that lower, shifted stance with her hand on whatever she has hiding in ther cloak. "Well then. What are your questions?"

'That building, the one you came from.' So she'd been followed since the Shard Seeker's Headquarters? Avira's been around Reize enough that she can recognize pieces of his clothing too. Part of her...becomes a little angry, actually, that the Shard Seekers have managed to garner this much attention. It'd be easy to sell them out to this girl, cause them more trouble, but at the same time...

...it just didn't feel right to her. "Heh, they're the Shard Seekers." Avira smirks, "You seem like a smart girl, I bet you can figure out what they want from that name. As for the other questions, I don't particularily feel like passing you that information. Especially to someone that 'might'-" she mocks Hati's tone from earlier as she says the word, "-act against them."

Avira catches a flash of movement from the corner of her eye and quickly glances over her shoulder. A familiar-looking large Seeq, blocks away, was moving closer. Making a face, she looks back to Hati.

Hati has posed:
Rather than actually responding to the jibe on her wording, Hati simply raises an eyebrow. While it isn't too hard to earn her ire, she does try not to just resort to beating the crap out of someone to get information. It makes for far fewer people willing to talk to you in the future.

The wolf's ear twitches once, "Shard Seekers." She rumbles the name under her breath. At first, Hati doesn't even respond to the comment on her intelligence, the wheels turning in her own head. Then, as her attention snaps back, the wolf growls lowly, her ears slicking back. "Don't make me have to add a few more scars to that face of yours." Her hands drop, flexing those clawed fingers.

"You're a clever girl. Right now, I have no intentions of attacking your rag-tag band of heroes, but... that all depends on how much trouble they decide to cause." Hati tucks the strand of cloth away again, "I could spend all day sniffing out information from the locals, but that's a waste of my time." Speaking of sniffing, that lingering scent that seems to be on this girl - the same one in the ruins where the fight took place, and the same one lingering around the Shard Seeker's HQ... what /is/ it?

It's a frustrating feeling, one that causes Hati to shake her head suddenly, blowing air out of her nose. "You choose to put them in more danger from worse ones than me. Because trust me, if I don't return with the information, there will be others, and those others will not bother with such silly things as asking questions."

Her wolfish eyes flash up towards the Seeq, but as before, Hati doesn't really show any hint of fear. Her claws flex, but then her gaze comes right back to Avira. "I see you've been making other friends. Not very good ones."

Avira has posed:
In spite of the tense situation, Avira can't help but think: tee hee look at the cute twitchy ears awww. Ahem.

The threat to add more scars to her does not go over well with Avira. She shrugs her right shoulder and that half of her cloak flips backwards, revealing the pelvis-bone style hilt of the Spine at the small of her back. Her gloved hand remains holding onto the weapon with an inverted grip, though it has yet to be withdrawn from its sheath. "You can try." she sneers back.

But as Hati continues, Avira holds up her hand, "I'm not one of them. I lead VALKYRI." Yeah, there is a hint of pride in her voice, even if her little band isn't all that much right now. "More importantly, I'm not a snitch."

She grins as Hati snuffs her nose at something, "And somehow I think those guys would be able to handle whatever these people throw at them." Okay Reize might get totally pasted again, but somehow he'll survive through the love of his fangir-err, clan members.

"Comes with the territory, I guess." Avira mumbles. The Seeq behind her suddenly shouts something and Avira springs forward, not drawing her weapon, but leading with her shoulder at Hati to knock her out of her way. "Gotta go! 'scuse me!!"

Hati has posed:
While the weapon that Avira reveals is certainly a unique one, it only draws another curl of the lip from Hati. "I'd succeed. Did you actually kill someone for that?" She smirks, "My guess is no." Unimpressed, the wolf crouches a little, shifting her posture from one of relaxation into one set more for action.

"I haven't heard of either before today." The wolf laughs once, shaking her head. "I don't really care about your group, or the Shard Seekers. All I was sent here to do was find out who it was who was involved with that Heartless attack a few weeks back." She shifts her feet in against the ground, one ear tilted towards the Seeq, the other swiveling around a different direction. "I suppose I could just walk straight in and ask, but if you're any example, I'm expecting them to be stubbornly paranoid."

The grin is enough to raise a growl from the wolf girl, "You think this is funny? I'm trying to keep worse things from coming here. People who could care less who gets hurt." With a snarl, "So be it, let it be on your head, then."

And then the woman with the bone-weapon is barreling towards her, causing Hati to have to side-step out of the way, "You idiot, don't go that..." You know how her ear had been turned, well... just as Avira races past her, the path of the charge takes her right into range of a second Seeq - one who had obviously been lying in wait for just such an opportunity. The first had been a distraction. "... way."

Clearly, Avira has just walked into a trap.

Avira has posed:
"You're making assumptions." Avira counters, "It's a bad idea to make assumptions about me. You might annoy me." She's actually already pretty annoyed at this point. People who walk around with unimpressed attitudes about everything never failed to annoy her. "And anybody who isn't immediately suspicious about some werewolf that steps out of the shadows to ask questions like these is an idiot."

She seems thoroughly unconvinced, but more importantly, she's pretty eager to get the hell out of here. This was wasting valuable escaping time!

There's a rush of relief that moves through her when Hati steps out of the way-but it's short-lived. She runs right into that second Seeq and bounces off of his big belly almost comically. As she flies backwards, she pulls herself into a crouch with one hand against the ground and slides. Upon stopping, she immediately tears the Spine free of its sheath and stands. A venomous look is cast in Hati's direction. "Shoulda known you were just stalling." A shiver runs up her real spine as she hears fast and heavy footsteps from behind, the second Seeq quickly coming to join.

With a flash of mythril, Avira swings her weapon upward at the second Seeq that had ambushed her before diving to the side around it, already anticipating a counterstrike. Not only that, it seems she's still struggling to get to the chocobos.

Hati has posed:
"And you aren't?" The wolf quips back in a quick retort, growling to herself. "Who's the one who started with the assumptions you ..." Hati bites down words that she would very much like to say, gritting her teeth. Anger and confusion flares behind her eyes. Sending a tense shiver up her spine.

Oh, there is a part of her which would very much like to join in the beat-fest that these two Seeq surely have planned, but as strange as it might seem, the wolf was actually telling the truth about not being aligned with Khamja. For all that the masters of these assassins might use the Heartless, that doesn't mean that she immediately sides with them. Besides, they're the ones interrupting her, not the other way around. Her masters would surely have words with them for their imputence.

The look in her direction seems to be the last straw. "I /TOLD/ you that I am not with these /MORONS/!" She shoves her hand into her pocket, reaching for something which flashes briefly in the light and then is gone again. Whatever it was, it is enough to send the wolf into convulsions, her body curling in over itself, her face elongating into a muzzle with fanged teeth, her clothes splitting to reveal a taller, powerfully built lupine body.

The tremble of rage that had caught her earlier seems to still radiate through her form as Hati races forward, leaping towards the closer of the two Seeq, which just so happens to be the one coming up from behind. With one hand she grabs on, trying to launch the lizard-looking humanoid skyward, only to try to bash it down again with a roar of rage.

The other Seeq, though, barely seems to register the strike that Avira tosses his way. The commotion is enough to have the Chocobos quite startled, thrashing about and trying to get away from the people who are fighting on the street. "Not so fast, little girl." The Seeq grunts, reaching to grab at her with one hand, seeking to slam her into a cart set out in front of a nearby shop. This ends up being the same place that the second Seeq tries to throw Hati, aiming to dislodge the wolf who has him pinned.

Avira has posed:
"Yeah well...yeah..." Avira grumbles at the werewolf, sounding kind of defeated. She's a little angry now-she didn't want to hurt the Shard Seekers but at the same time she didn't really want to get the people in this city hurt. Doubt begins to creep into her mind on whether or not she made the right choice on this.

Her anger crests, "PROVE IT!" she shouts back, though the transformation only worries her more. Is this the kind of form that Skoll was hiding?

Her heart sinks as she realizes that this scene has now thoroughly startled the chocobos. Great, how is anybody going to ride one of those?! Maybe she could flee to an airship instead. As she tries to evade the Seeq grabbing for her, she notices that the werewolf isn't leaping on her too...but that second Seeq coming to get her. So Hati really wasn't kidding-she's not with Khamja.

Avira will have to wait until later to feel like an ass. Right now she's just feeling pain as the Seeq scoops her up and slams her down hard enough into a cart that some of the floorboards to it break beneath her back. "Ugggh...look, you don't gotta do this! I've got nothing against you Kharmja guys!"

She pushes herself up and hops off the cart, this time really getting up in the Seeq's face, following through with a set of slashes that ends in a sudden outpouring of ice magic that shapes itself, briefly, into the snarling head of a wolf.

"We should run!" she calls out to Hati, "There's more of them out here, it's only a matter of time before they show up too!"

Hati has posed:
Although the Seeq does manage to throw her hard enough to shatter the wood that she's slammed into, the werewolf doesn't seem too terribly phased by it. She's still trembling with her own anger as she gets to her feet, snarling and showing red that stains her otherwise white muzzle from where she'd bitten her own target. Luckily, these werewolves didn't pass along their condition through bites.

While it may not have been clear in her humanoid form, scars are all too visible on this wolf, showing through her fur in places. This beast has seen quite a bit of battle, and as she sets her sights on the two Seeq, it is clear that she is in no mood to back down. Still, she knows enough about combat not to rush in while Avira is attacking, letting the other woman have her chance at the Seeq first.

The two slashes catch him off-guard, not expecting such a violent attack from the small girl. Then, the blue wolf seems to knock him over, sending him sprawling. Of course, that leaves his companion, who is already looking menacingly at the werewolf. Hati steps forward, hands on the ground, and roars towards the two.

It isn't until Avira starts yelling that they should run that Hati turns those almost human eyes towards her. Could a beast like this even speak? It seems so, because her muzzle parts, giving a low rumbling form of human speech, "Go! I'll hold them off." Maybe she has something against the Khamja, maybe she's just confused and angry and lashing out at whatever is closest, or maybe it's the fact that Avira has that strange, familiar smell. Whatever her reasons, Hati puts herself in the path of the two Seeq.

She rushes forwards, lashing out with enough ferocity draw their attention. It seems that in a battle between a huge wolf and a five-foot-tall girl, the two Seeq think the wolf is the more dangerous of the two opponents.

Avira has posed:
Avira knows ALL about visible scars indeed, as Hati had bluntly commented earlier. It's not lost that she sees the same on Hati's body and Avira realizes right away that she must have a fair bit of combat experience to herself. In retrospect, it's probably a good thing that Avira didn't pick a fight with that one, though it did come dangerously close to that.

It also hadn't even occured to Avira that Hati would understand human speech in this form. It's a relief to see that she does and, not only that, can talk. What's really a surprise is that Hati seems to be holding the pair off so she can escape. She doesn't run immediately, hesitating with a sort of 'are you sure about this?' look on her face.

Hati lunges to attack, easily earning the attention of the seeq. Avira doesn't hesitate any further, ducking into an alleyway and scaling a set of boxes up until she reaches the nearby building's roof.

Peering over the edge, she gives one last look at Hati. "HEY!" she calls out, "I've seen another like you! You aren't alone! Keep looking!" Shortly afterwards, she starts rushing across the rooftops for the airship dome.

Hati has posed:
It is some small miracle that while both wolf and Khamja agents scuffle with powerful blows, none of them seem to really strike home. It's like looking into one of those children's animated features where you just see a puff of dust, and ocassionally someone getting tossed about only to jump back into the fray.

Hati is just snarling down the pair as Avira makes her escape over the rooftops. Her words seem to break into the haze of anger. "Not alone?" Blink. There would be time to ponder that later. She turns her gaze back towards the two, who are looking a fair bit worse for wear. Once she's sure that the pelvis-wielding woman is out of earshot, the wolf snarls low. "Lord Serrak will not be pleased with your interference. If you, or the Khamja /ever/ interrupt Shadow Lord business again, so help me they'll be shipping your bodies home in pieces."

The name, alone, is enough to give the two pause. So much for the nice wolf act. Of course, sometimes the reasons that this wolf does things is not quite so clear. The two Seeq seem a bit unsure about what to do now that she's revealed herself for what she is, and this gives her enough time to stand at her full height, blood still dripping from her fangs. "I'm leaving, and I don't want to see any of your kind tailing me next time I'm in the city. I'll know, and my fangs will be the last things they ever see."

She turns, just long enough to send a look towards the airship dome, then, the wolf takes off, racing on all fours. She would have to find another way of getting the information she needs about the Shard Seekers. If not, it might mean far worse things for this city. Yet, for the first time in ages, it is not her 'mission' that is first in Hati's mind. It is those words: 'You aren't alone!'