Hunting the Sphinx (Success!)

[Nyghtingale]

Nyght finished talking, and began to just walk in silence. She did not have anything else to say, and it seemed that Jack did not either so she just...walked. Silently, as if nothing had been said or anything. She wondered what was going through Jack's mind now, but he was not letting anything out either from his lips or his facial expression which seemed stony. She was assuming her friend was upset, but she was not sure about what. Was it what she had told him? Was it at Marcus? Or perhaps it was at herself? Maybe Jack was made at her, for not being pure and all. She looked at the ground, suddenly embarrassed and knew that she should not have told Jack anything. It was stupid to have laid her problems out to anybody else, and she knew from the beginning it was only going to cause problems, but she had hoped that it would not.

So there she was, walking along silently staring at the ground as they trudged over it, walking along the outside of the city of Luxor towards a place to fight the sphinx, waiting for their akhults to appear so Nyght could get her gear and have her companion and friend at hand should she need her beast friend.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    "Nyght, I--" Jack began to say when something big bumped into him from behind. It was Paquito. He'd been so caught up in his thoughts about what Nyght had told him that the big Ak had managed to sneak up on him. "Hey, man," He mumbled, patting the Akhult's head in greeting. Jack still didn't know what to say to Nyght and he felt like he couldn't even look at her until he'd come up with something. Hopefully they would arrive at the trap site soon and he could dash home really quick to get away from the awkwardness. And grab the supplies, too.

    Which reminded him. "What exactly did you want me to grab for our trap? Some chains, maybe, and what else?" Paquito bumped into his leg again for the third time, nearly tripping him.

    "What?" The young man asked the Ak, annoyed. Paquito just looked at him like You know what. Jack rolled his eyes at Paquito's attitude. He did know what. "I'm gonna do it, okay? Jeez. Cut me some slack, already."

[Nyghtingale]

      Nyght looked over as Paquito showed up and smiled slightly as she watched the interactions between Jack and his akhult. It was sweet, and it slightly alleviated her sudden sullen mood. A sudden wet warmth caressed her arm, and she reached over to rub behind one of Aurora's ears. She looked over, and planted a soft kiss on Aurora's head and smiled.

     "Hey sweetie..." She said softly and nuzzled Aurora gently who responded with another lick to her cheek. Nyght giggled softly and looked over at Jack as he asked her a question. He asked a question, and she tilted her head thinking about the question for a moment. She contemplated biting her lower lip.

     "Well, obviously we will need those chains. We could also get some other stuff as well. Maybe some other stuff as well. What else could we need? Maybe some tools or something else? I have no idea." She chuckled and looked forward. They had reached the area just before the place they needed to be. They just needed to get around this edge of the town, jutting out away from the town.

     "Just around the bend here, and we should be there."

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    Jack shrugged. "Well then, the chains will probably be enough, I guess. At least, I can't think of anything else we might need."

    Once they were there, the young man looked around and whistled softly. She'd chosen a pretty good place to set the ambush, Jack admitted to himself. "Alright. I'll grab the stuff." Then the young man teleported to his garage where he kept those sorts of things for just such an occasion. He gathered up some chains, grunting at the effort it took and teleported back to Nyght, dropping them on the ground before teleporting back for more. Once Jack was done and he'd brought what the young man felt was plenty for what they intended, he was panting slightly. "This ought to be plenty."

    Another nudge from Paquito. Inwardly, Jack sighed. He couldn't just ignore it. Wait, could he? No, of course he couldn't. Finally the young man looked at Nyght and gently took her hand. "Nyght, I'm-I'm sorry. I'm sorry that happened to you, what he did to you," Jack looked down again, his concerned expression briefly twisting into one of rage at the mention of Marcus but Jack refused to let any anger show in his voice and it faded from his face after a moment. "And I'm sorry for how I responded when you told me. If you ever need to talk then, well, it's just-- I'm here for you."

[Nyghtingale]

She watched Jack as he began to teleport away and back, gathering large amounts of chains. As he gathered them, she began to manipulate the metal and work the chains together criss crossing them and creating a rather large net. She had learned from her experience with Aurora that a single chain was not going to work...especially against something that would fly. This creature had wings, so hopefully the net would trap those wings and pin them down enough to prevent it from flying. She made sure to not use all the chains however, leaving four for them to use separately.

With the chains ready, she moved over to Aurora and opened the saddle back she withdrew the fire arm that Aela had given her. It was nothing more then a pistol. A simple Glock 18c, a very simple weapon to use and manage all together. After pulling out the pistol, she pulled out something else as well. It was a conversion kit for the pistol, and with in less then five seconds she inserted the pistol in to the shell and now had a reasonable excuse for a sub-machine gun. She pulled out six extended magazines for the weapon, sliding on in to the weapon and a second going on to the new carbine body by the stock. The rest of the magazines she slipped in to her pockets, and closed the saddle bag. She slipped a strap over her shoulder on the weapon and looked at Jack.

"What? I am not good enough to use the sword really....so yea... I got this from Aela. Pretty weak, but it can spew out rounds like crazy and at a pretty decent accuracy. I can just sorta...point and spray ammo and at the distances we are speaking of, it will definitely hit." She shrugged and smiled. Her smile instantly disappeared however when she heard Jack's words towards herself.

     "Jack, it is alright. What he did was horrible, and I should have gotten over it by now, but I have not. It is nothing you have done wrong, and nothing that you could have done to stop what happened. We did not even know each other then, so do not feel so bad about it. I need to let it go...but thank you. I appreciate the offer Jack, and I will take you up on that offer some time. Maybe we can just sit down and talk sometime."

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    "Cool net. That's a pretty great idea. I wish I'd thought of it." The young man commented once he'd finished catching his breath, studying the crisscrossing chains. It would be like catching a butterfly in a net, Jack thought to himself. A big, furry, incredibly dangerous, and evil butterfly that was actually a human lion hybrid with wings. And the net was a bunch of metal chains linked together into a net using magic. Hmm. Maybe it wasn't so much like catching a butterfly in a net? Nah. They were still catching something in a sort of net. So it all worked out. He took note of the four free chains.

    "I'm not particularly skilled with gun or sword, myself. But they're useful for when I'm trying to reserve energy I might want to use for my magicks later. That's a cool gun. Aela sure knows how to pick em. Just, uh, try not to hit me when you're pointing that thing and spraying some hot metal death. Please and thank you." Jack finished with a smile, obviously teasing her.

    Nyght didn't seem angry or irritated with him. That was nice. Of course, now he was committed more awkward conversations in the future, probably. But that didn't bother Jack too much. He just wanted to help her, however he could.

    "Well, it seems about time. Let's finish up and get things set."

[Nyghtingale]

     Nyght blushed at the complement finally, and looked down at her feet sheepishly and pushed the toe of one shoe through the sand slowly. She finally managed to look up again, and smiled warmly. She hear him explaining his use of swords and guns, and had to laugh softly at his explanation followed up by his request.

      "Thanks Jack, I am sure you would have thought of the same thing as well. You are way smarter then I am. Also, I know how you feel. I am not exceptionally good with either, but thought that trying to reserve some energy for more spells might be a good idea and practice to get in to. That's why I asked Aela for something simple and easy. It is pretty accurate for the most part. Nothing like an assault rifle or sniper rifle obviously, but what I mean is that you do not have to worry. I would not dream of hitting you with a bullet. It is just when the sphinx gets a little close for comfort and is trying to come in for a killing blow. Then I can spray some lead at it and not become the worlds largest cat toy."

     She laughed nervously, looking around. They where almost ready, and luckily the sphinx had not shown up yet. That or they had completely missed it. She was certainly hoping for the later. She looked around, noticing some small hills of that Jack could hide behind and get to her quickly, even running much less teleporting. She nodded towards them, pointing at the net she had made and using her magic to push it up against the hills. She made sure to push it backwards and down, burying it under some sand. She spent several seconds kicking more sand over the net and making sure it was covered.

     "Alright, you hide behind those small hills, and I and Aurora will stand out here like we are...I do not know...wandering on patrol or something. Also part of the reason I brought the firearm. An authentic guard disguise, yes?" She pretended to model for him, then got serious again and walked over about four or five feet away from where she had just buried the chain net in the sand.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    Jack watched Nyght's face as she blushed. The young woman smiling at him terrified the young man. But he'd come to a decision and there was no chickening out. Jack simply wouldn't, couldn't let himself. Not to mention that Paquito would never let him live it down, the meddling Ak.

    Listening to her compliments, Jack couldn't help but flush slightly. He'd never thought of himself as being more intelligent than Nyght, having a great amount of respect for her and all the times she'd demonstrated her cleverness and intelligence. With the Stymphalian bird, with the chain net. He admired her greatly and, fearing that he might be staring, the young man glanced away briefly but couldn't look away for very long.

    "I know you wouldn't hit me," he said. "I trust you."

    "Gotcha," The young man nodded his confirmation of where she expected him to lie in wait for the sphinx "A bit sexy for your average guard, but there's only so much the uniform can disguise, I suppose," he teased, trying not to admire her pose too much, before peering over at the hills she'd indicated. His heart was starting to beat rapidly with anticipation of what he was about to do. He spoke again, before she turned to walk off.

    "Nyght... Just one second, please," Jack kissed her, quickly, before turning to run for the hills, his heart trying to beat its way out of the young man's chest until long after he'd taken up his hiding position. Smooth, idiot.

[Nyghtingale]

Nyght flushed when Jack complimented her, calling her sexy. Her cheeks flooded with blood and her entire face grew hot at the certain word being directed towards herself. She wanted to look at the ground, but suddenly she could not because Jack was there with her again. His entire face filled her field of vision, and Jack did the most startling thing she could have ever in a thousand years expect from him.

Jack kissed Nyght, full upon the lips. Her eyes snapped wide open, but before she could even respond Jack had run off behind the hill leaving her standing there with a dazed expression upon. She did not even have time to call out to him, or to say another word. Aurora suddenly began to growl, her hackles raising and her fangs bared. Nyght blinked, turning around and eyeing her companion. She knew that Aurora would not do this for any reason other then the fact the creature would smell danger, at least danger in the case of another predator. Nyght began to swivel her head from side to side, moving over quickly to Aurora's side. They would be safer together, and could watch each other's backs.

Nyght picked up her gun, hefting it to her shoulder. She slowly turned in a circle, literally pressing her back against Aurora who turned with her watching the other way. Aurora suddenly howled loudly, and Nyght snapped around as a responding snarling howl filled the air that was NOT from Aurora, or Paquito. There was the snapping of wings, and suddenly the sphinx was there, filling her vision. It slammed in to her, and Nyght went spinning away. She landed with a grunt, and instantly jumped back to her feet as the sounds of snarling filled the air.

Aurora pounced the sphinx, protecting Nyght viciously. The two of them meet each other, slamming together and going upon their hind legs. They snarled and clawed at each other, fangs snapping at each other's throats vicious trying to get the upper hand upon each other. Nyght screamed, seeing the blood flying and dove in to the fray. Moving around, she tried to get a bead on the sphinx, and suddenly had a perfect clear as Aurora howled in pain. The sphinx seized her akhult's throat and flung her away to the ground. Nyght pointed her weapon at the akhult and pulled the trigger back. The weapon sputtered loudly, sending metallic angry hornets of death at the sphinx. Nyght was not even sure if she hit the creature, but the thirty three rounds in the magazine were spent in several seconds. The sphinx howled in anger, jumping away from Nyght and the weapon in her hand.

"Jack!! Now!! Use the net NOW!!" She cried out, dropping the magazine from her weapon and grabbing one from her pocket and slapping it in to the gun while running towards Aurora.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    Jack didn't see the look on Nyght's face but, since he hadn't been murdered yet, he assumed the worst of the fallout was yet to come. At least she didn't have Aurora run him down. That would've sucked. So he settled down but tried to keep from getting too comfortable. The sphinx would show up any second and he had to ready. Nyght was counting on Jack to back her up, to stick to the plan.

    Crouching down next to Paquito, the young man started to feel that familiar soul crushing anxiety that warned him shit was about to hit the fan. Jack placed his hand on the Ak's shoulder and, from the tension in the beast's muscles, he knew the Akhlut could sense it too. The young man drew his sword, taking out his pistol in the other hand.

    Before he knew it, there it was. Jack hadn't seen where the sphinx had come from, but he saw a flurry of wings slam into Nyght, knocking her to the ground. It might've killed her if it wasn't for Aurora. The two creatures started tearing into each other and Paquito shot past Jack, on his way to join in the fray. The young man lost sight of the Ak when he teleported, reappearing just a few feet away from where Nyght had buried the chain net just moments ago.

    Jack concentrated on where he knew the metal was, pulling at it. The young man heard Nyght call out to him, to get the net. It might have just been his imagination, but he thought he could smell the blood, too. Just as he was bringing the net to bear, Paquito leapt onto the sphinx's back, snarling and tearing at the creature with his fangs and claws. He crippled at least one wing before the sphinx tossed him aside with a roar.

    The young man, seeing his opening, threw the net over the sphinx, willing it to wrap itself around the creature, no matter how it struggled. He tightened it and held the links together through sheer force of will. "Nyght! Hit it!" Jack shouted, just before hitting the sphinx with everything he had, throwing a bolt of lightning that left the air reeking of ozone and burnt fur.

[Nyghtingale]

Nyght was standing over her down akhult, protecting her in case the sphinx came in for the easy kill upon the injured akhult. When Paquito and Jack joined the fray, she hesitated but knew that the sphinx was to busy to come back for Aurora now. She touched her akhult's cheek softly, then dashed back towards the mayhem that was happening. She grabbed her sword on the way, dropping the firearm she was carrying beside Aurora, because with both Jack and Paquito in the mix she was to worried she might missed and hit one of them or they might stray in to her line of fire.


Running back in to the fray with her sword, she saw Jack strike it with lightning and knew that it would be dangerous to get to close. So she summoned up her power, and threw a bolt of lightning at the sphinx as well. Unfortunately, the sphinx was covered by a metal net that attracted most of the lightning, and where the net was touching the ground it was directing most of the power away from the sphinx. She swore to herself, whether loudly or quietly she was not sure in the ruckus but she darted in and gripping the hilt of her sword she stabbed it at the sphinx.

The sword only grazed the sphinx's thigh, cutting a long gash and spilling blood upon the sand. Nyght promptly got whipped fiercely by a tail, leaving a long red mark upon her arm but she did not pull away. She swung her sword again, heaving it like a sledgehammer to split wood and sliced through the sphinx's tail, severing it and sending it tumbling away much to the sphinx's dismay and anger because it let out a terrible screaming roar. Nyght lunged away, spun around lunged back at the sphinx. She was not really trained well with the sword, but she was pretty strong and agile.

She aimed at the sphinx's head, deciding it was worth the risk of damaging the brain as long as they killed it. The fight was already getting to dangerous and she knew that as the sphinx go more and more mad it would fight harder. So she swung with all her might, wanting to cleave in to the skull and brain. At the last second the sphinx moved though, trying to dodge from her blow an a chain glanced her blow slightly. Her sword swung down not upon the head, but slice deeply in to the neck of the sphinx, hitting bone as the powerful Stymphalian Sword sliced through the spine and almost severed the head from the sphinx which instantly collapsed, flopping around as it died upon the sand blood pooling around the almost severed head.

Nyght, breathing hard looked at the sphinx, then screamed and using her power to control metal to help her, wrenched her sword free again and swung a second time. This time she cleaved the head of the sphinx off completely, sending it rolling several feet away. She pulled her sword back, then turned and ran back towards Aurora who lay upon the sand injured. Dropping her sword, Nyght fell to her knees and began to inspect Aurora who whimpered softly. She slowly looked at Aurora, biting her lip as she did. Aurora was hurt pretty bad, torn up around her neck and front flanks where the sphinx's claws had gotten her. Yet is seemed that Aurora was alright, just in pain. Nyght wrapped her arms around her companion's neck, sobbing slightly in relief that she was alright, and in anger at herself for letting her friend get so hurt.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    Jack's brow furrowed and he gritted his teeth as he felt his electrical blast attempting to pull apart and disperse, leaving it to do little damage to the creature. Holding it together through sheer force of will, Jack forced the full blast to discharge into the sphinx's body. Paquito had wisely jumped aside before the electricity hit and as such he wasn't harmed by it. Were the sphinx a lesser creature, it might have fallen to the ground, perhaps only twitching slightly. Instead it gave one great convulsion, appearing to bite down on it's own tongue, before continuing its assault, if somewhat more slowly and less coordinated.

    Sensing opportunity to finish things quickly, Jack dashed in with his sword, moving as quickly as he could, distracting the beast from turning on Nyght by slashing at its nose, leaving a deep furrow in the sphinx's face. The creature responded by swiping at him with one paw. If the blow had landed, Jack would have been left to bleed out in the sand, his abdomen shredded, guts spilling all over the place. Luckily, the young man was expecting such an attack and was fast enough to react, parrying with his sword. The unbelievably sharp blade sheered through the Sphinx's paw, leaving it with nothing but a stump geisering blood all over the place.

    The sphinx shrieked its agony before leaping for his throat in rage. Jack sidestepped the clumsy attack and thrust his sword into the creature's side with all his strength, burying the blade up to the weapon's hilt. Quickly, before it could turn on him, Jack teleported to the creature's opposite side and used his abilities to recall the blade to himself, tearing the weapon through the sphinx's side. The result was a shower of gore as the sword ripped its way through the creature's chest to put its hilt back in the young man's hand.

    Its corpse collapsed to the ground, Nyght's feather sword buried in the sphinx's thick neck at roughly the same time Jack had pulled his little stunt. She screamed and finished hacking the creature's head off before running to check on Aurora. The young man, clutching the gore soaked grip of his weapon, leaning on it like a cane while he caught his breath. Paquito limped over to him and the young man put his head to the Aks for a moment, thanking his friend for all the help he'd provided.

    Jack began to make his way over to Nyght, dragging his sword in the sand. Gods damn, he needed a bath. Covered in blood like he was, the young man looked like he'd gotten the bad role in a tampon commercial. "Will she be alright?" Jack asked, sounding tired.

[Nyghtingale]

Nyght looked up at Jack approached and talked to her. She stood up, wiping her eyes with her sleeves then her nose. She had been crying, after all. She finally managed to compose herself and nodded slowly.

"Yea...she looks like she will be alright. She's weak, and in pain...but nothing looks like it hit anything vital or damaging. She will need lots of rest and food. Guess I'll be hanging around this god forsaken place for a while longer then because she will not be able to go anywhere else."

She flung her arms around Jack, wrapping them around her friend's neck and hugging him tightly. She was shaking slightly, but at least was not crying. She laid her head on his shoulder, trying to calm herself down slightly. When she could finally get her body to stop trembling, she pulled her head away from Jack's shoulder and looked him right in the eye, her face suddenly going stern.

"Jack...why did you kiss me? Was it just for good luck or something...or was it something else?" She had totally remembered, and was not letting him get away with it.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    "Poor girl," Jack said, looking at the injured Aurora with pity. He was glad to hear that she would live and wasn't too badly injured, but the young man couldn't help but blame himself for her having been injured in the first place. He'd invited the two of them and now she'd been hurt. It was a good thing he didn't feel guilt.

    Nyght hugged him tightly and, though his face turned beet red, Jack didn't pull away like he normally might have from such uncomfortable physical contact. Instead, the young man simply held her and rubbed her back softly, trying to comfort her. Nyght was being very emotional and Jack just didn't understand why. It was scaring him a little bit. It occurred to the young man that maybe he should ask, but that seemed way harder than just holding her and waiting for Nyght to say something. Finally, she spoke.

    "Um..." He thought for a moment. "I just... I'm not sure why I did it," Jack admitted, looking away for a second. "All I know is that at that moment I needed to kiss you. Right then, I wanted to kiss you more than I wanted anything else in the world." The young man sighed and turned his head. "I'm sorry if that sounds corny or cheesy or whatever. I'm sorry if I offended you and I understand if you think we shouldn't hang out anymore."

[Nyghtingale]

Nyght blinked, staring in to Jack's eyes. She was confused, and tilted her head slightly to one side as she looked in to Jack's eyes. Simply because he had felt it was the right thing to do? Just because he had wanted to? She frowned, slowly unwrapping her arms from around his neck and pulling away, her lips pulling down from a smile in to a deep frown. Her arms dropped to her side, and she stared at Jack with a sad look upon her face.

"Oh...so it was just because it was you needed to do? There was not anything else behind it other then that? Fine...I see how it is."

She spun away from his, her hair whipping around her form as she did and she moved over to Aurora and knelt down again to examine her wounds once more. She would need to get some bandaging and disinfectant to clean Aurora's wounds and begin to bandage them so that way they could at least find somewhere to go.

"Aurora sweetie, can you move? Can you get up and walk at least?" Aurora whimpered, and began to move around. Nyght placed her hand upon Aurora's shoulder to comfort her companion. Aurora slowly got to her feet, Nyght encouraging her with soft gentle words.