Clipped Wings (Afghanistan)

[Zyxyz Golthrum]

Zyxyz nodded back at her. At least she seems to have a semblance of an idea of what she's doing. He turned around the corner of the building and was gone from the soldier's sight. He walked as casually as he could, but he needed to move quickly in case the shifter had some sort of observatory devices in place. Going unnoticed as a gigantic caucasian in a place like this was a joke... nearly everyone in sight at least glanced twice to keep tabs on the large man and he ducked his head to avoid getting scalped by the doorway. He entered the hotel at the front. It was rudimentary, but clean and he liked the sculpturing they had done with the place. Not much in the way of technology, though.

He nodded at the desk and kept walking, ignoring the clerk's questions. As soon as he was out of sight, he began sprinting towards the stairwell. Time was of essence here and he had none to spare. He burst through the stairwell door and lunged up the steps three at a time, powerful legs pushing him up with speed that a Human would be very hard-pressed to maintain. After multiple flights, he had reached the proper floor and he stopped himself just outside the door, straightened his clothes and gently opened the door as if he belonged there in case someone were on the other side. There wasn't.

Zyxyz walked fifteen long paces until he felt the presence of the Shapeshifter emanating from behind a particularly dirty wooden door. Zyxyz took stance in front of the door, preparing to kick it open, raised a boot-clad foot and the door opened. Zyxyz' eyes widened involuntarily for a moment at the surprising timing and the shifter's eyes bulged. Good to know he was surprised. Zyxyz recovered quickly and slammed his foot into his target's chest, launching him backwards a good four feet before he hit the ground in a heap. Zyxyz rushed over while he had the advantage and stomped on his victim's right elbow, shattering it. There was no response from the prone form and Zyxyz took that as a sign of unconsciousness. Carefully squatting, he extended an arm to feel the pulse... there was none.

Zyxyz frowned. That amount of force shouldn't have killed the being. Which meant the creature he had been sent to kill was either far weaker than he had anticipated or this wasn't the right being. Zyxyz' eyes bolted as he realized he still felt the presence of a Shapeshifter to his left.

This was the wrong room.

Zyxyz jumped up and turned to the door, rushing out, when he was propelled from behind and he crushed into the hallway wall mightily. Instincts kicked in and he rolled along the wall to his left using his stronger right leg to move his body out of the way more quickly and barely escaped the blow of a fast-moving fist. As he spun, he caught a glimpse of the shifter launching his left foot for his abdomen and braced, catching it fully in the ribs and barely keeping from doubling over. The shifter spun and attempted an elbow to Zyxyz' face. Zyxyz raised his arm in a block to keep the blow from smashing his skull.

Son of a BITCH.

The shifter pulled his arm back as he swung with the other at Zyxyz' ribs. Zyxyz grabbed the right arm before it could be pulled away and pulled the shifter close to him as he took a blow to his ribs that made an unpleasant cracking noise and an even more unpleasant sensation. Zyxyz' training was the only thing that kept him from letting go of that arm and barely at that. The off-balance Shapeshifter was dealt a harsh blow when Zyxyz headbutted him square in the nose, breaking it painfully. He took advantage of the moment and brought his right fist against the shifter's side as he swept his left foot to to trip the shifter.

The shifter proved too swift and lept over the attack nimbly. Through watery eyes, he grabbed Zyxyz' arm and flung him back into the room they had come from. Zyxyz regained his balance and turned to see the shifter dive at him. Zyxyz could do nothing to get out of the way and the duo went flying out of the window to a five story drop with the shifter on top of him. The shifter used Zyxyz successfully as padding and the Demon blacked out for a moment. This was getting dire. After they hit the ground, his flung an arm upwards wildly, hoping to contact with something solid but met nothing. He caught a powerful fist to his right cheek and his head plowed back into the ground again. The last thing that went through his mind before he lost consciousness was

Fade to black...[/size]

[Alex Rivera]

Alex takes another peak around the corner and seems satisfied nothing suspicious trying to come out that way. She double checks her rifle, 'good' she thinks to herself 'I hope I don't need to use it, but it's me or them...'. Lets out a soft sigh closing her eyes for a moment, enjoying the warm sunlight and slight breeze in the desert air.

Just as she opens her eyes she hears the unmistakable sounds of struggle happening inside and wonders if she should run in. Alex looks up to see two figures fly out of the top story window and turns around instinctively, bringing her weapon on them in the time they hit the ground, she instantly recognizes the man she promised to help struggling with the figure on top of him. Alex watches through the iron sight in disbelief as the 'should be dead' Italian throws a punch at the other figure. She doesn't hesitate, takes a quick kneel, and Squeezes the trigger once, twice and finally thrice, letting out accurate consecutive burst of lead at the elevated figure whom just landed a blow to the operatives head.

She'd approach in an strategic posture, crouched and gun raised. Making her way to them, letting out a few more burst. "damn it, damn it!" she mutters out loud being drawn out by her gun fire, seeing the blood gush out from the 'murderer's' head and body as the lead meet his flesh, with out much doubt killing him.

Alex reaches over and pulls the Italian out from under their target and checks his pulse and begins to hear the shouts of angry confused men in the distance. Panic can be heard on their voices. She turns and sees a tall middle-eastern man pointing and shouting in excitement, she watches him pull an AK-47 out from under his robes and the only words she mutters out from under her breath is "oh shit!" as she turns and takes him down with a single shot. At least they are more confused and lost than she was.

Alex begins to drag the unconscious but surprising alive Italian to the car stopping occasionally to shoot a round or two at terrorist trying to round the corner to take a shot at a loan soldier. They have no clue which way to train their guns, their only thought is that the Americans found this hideout. Much to her luck not many are chasing after them. Alex turns and looks toward where the vehicle should be, the unmistakable black car can be seen not far away, occasionally getting nicked by a bullet "we need to get out of here quick..." she says out loud while taking another shot at a terrorist, him toppling over a down comrade.

She slings the rifle and drags the Italian man to the front of the car, stops to check up on his pulse... still beating. Alex reaches in her medical kit and pulls out the tools to put a brace around his neck, very possible for him to have spinal injuries and such. She unslings her rifle and takes a pop at another man rounding the corner downing him 'don't have much ammo in this clip...' she thinks to herself, keeping track of what she is doing, multi-tasking between moving him, bandaging him, and killing Tali-ban trying to go down this alley. "I hope for your sake you don't wake up!" she shouts over the noise, her rifle slung again and now working on his nose...

[Zyxyz Golthrum]

When one is unconscious, there's not a whole lot of coherency in one's thoughts. Zyxyz didn't have those. The earliest thing he awoke to was the inside of the vehicle he'd driven here. But he wasn't driving. It was a female. An attractive one.

There was a fight. I fell. Shapeshifter on top of me. He punched me. Zyxyz slowly, painfully raised a hand to his face, gently feeling the swelling and bruising on his face and then realized he had been bandaged. He tried sitting up fully and, with great pain and a grunt, managed it. "I'm not dead, so please tell me you didn't just scare him off." He looked at the female's dark hair. It was a bit dirty, mayhaps, but it was lovely nonetheless. She was cute by Human standards. "Did you kill that sonuvabitch?" he drawled.

He glanced around a moment and added, "And where the hell are we? How did we get here? Fill me in... and as soon as you can park safely, do so." He sounded a bit rude, but it was unintentional. He was sure that whatever happened to the Shifter that this woman must've played some part in saving his life... he just hoped that she had killed the bastard.[/b]

{{{OOC: Glad you're still around. Thought I took too long to post and lost you! Good post and it's been a pleasure! }}}

[Alex Rivera]

Sounding a bit annoyed but calm with a hint of sarcasm "Yes I killed him, well over eight rounds into his upper torso and head... also you fell five stories and broke a nose and should be dead. And one other minor detail I forgot to mention-" She ducks her head and keeps driving while a bullet zooms through the back window exiting the front window "-seems your friend has friends too" She spins the wheel roughly rounding the street and slamming on the gas, the car bouncing and shuddering on the unpaved street. "for our sakes best hope my strove is still working so we don't become a plume of smoke!", she turns another corner and is now on a main road and floors the gas speeding up, following the highway out of the city. "I recommend keeping low" she suggests in an uncomfortably calm tone. Her bun is now undone some, hair is a mess sticking out from under the kevlar helmet. The smell of blood and medicine reeks off her clothes.

All she mutters under her breath "doesn't even seem human..."

((ooc: Been dealing with end of the semester and a recent surgery, I'll have to have another within a month or so. Don't worry about posting right away ^.^, btw this is opened to others too. Started her as a human and in the military to see where this goes and what happens through rp hehe. Also on that notion, thanks for sticking with me as long as you have! ))

[Zyxyz Golthrum]

Zyxyz' face lightened as he heard the shifter was killed. He would have typically liked to check firsthand, but as a bullet zinged past his head, he didn't find it too high a priority at the moment. He nodded curtly (mostly to himself) as he took it in. "Good work. Drive out of town five miles and pull over so I can drive." He pulled himself fully onto the back seat and cracked open the floor of the vehicle. He grinned. His heavy-duty stash. Light weapons were, of course, in the front, but the real firepower was in the back. A spray of bullets perforated the rear bumper and Zyxyz released a gutteral growl of anger. He reached down and grabbed three frag grenades with one giant hand, quickly popping the pins off with the other finger. He turned and tossed them out of the (conveniently) shot-out back window. As soon as he'd finished throwing the hand grenades, he quickly turned and pulled a few pieces of metal tubing out from the floorboards. After a quick assembling and the explosion of the vehicle behind them, he raised himself up and turned, roaring to his chauffeur, "Check your ears!" He gunned back on the trigger after taking aim and an RPG launched out of the back of his sedan. A second car flipped beautifully before landing upside down in a fiery heap. The bullets stopped for a moment, likely surprised that another of their fellow pursuers had just exploded into flames. The full-auto gunfire resumed as Zyxyz loaded another shot into the launcher.

The Demon, who was likely going to have some explaining to do, shouted again, "EARS!!", and fired another rocket propelled grenade just under the engine of the vehicle behind them. The remaining car seemed to take the hint and pulled off into a side road, wanting no more explosions coming their way. Zyxyz whooped and tossed a curse at their retreating vehicle and then turned to face the front of the car as he disassembled the launcher, carefully placing it under the car's floorboards. "The faster we get out of town, the better. Do you know the area or should I--" Zyxyz' eyes widened. Son of a bitch. He reached forward and grabbed the unbuckled Human, pulled her from her seat and shoved as hard as he could with his legs to propel the pair from the car out the rear window, making sure to force himself to the bottom so the woman would have a good chance of surviving. He hollered into her ear to roll as they flew through the air and as he hit the ground, he flung the woman away from the car further; making it so her speed when she hit the ground would be nearly non-existent.

As soon as the girl had been thrown, he pulled his hands over his head and rolled as hard as he could towards the car to keep the pain minimal and he heard a loud KA-WOOSH as the vehicle they had been in explode from an RPG. He'd seen the man on top of a building in front of them holding the weapon and had known he had little time, but he'd barely managed to keep the both of them alive... at least for the moment. They were only a few miles from the outskirts, but those miles would now likely prove to be the longest miles they two of them would ever face.

So much for an easy mission.[/b]

[Alex Rivera]

Alex groans in pain and undoes her side-arm while in the Italian's arms and trys to twist herself around to take aim where the RPG came from popping off a few rounds. She grits her teeth, not her day after all. Yelling louder than normal do to a temporary loss in hearing and the midst of gunshots and explosions, "Well, we still have a few miles, it'd take just over an hour at a steady jog... but-" she fires a few more rounds, the empty shells bouncing on the road around them smoking. "-with the commotion going on we hopefully attracted friendly attention" She pats the hidden strove on her uniform knowingly, just too much fire happening here for coalition forces to not take notice. Alex pulls herself off the 'man' and is almost sure his back should be not breathing right now, but then adrenalin is a powerful drug... her thoughts are interrupted by another miss of an rpg whizzing right past them into a building, she takes three more shots, the last landing right into the one manning the rpg in the neck, she crouches next to her Italian operative and takes a few more accurate deadly shots dropping two more.

[Zyxyz Golthrum]

Zyxyz pushed himself off the ground as quickly as he could manage, but he'd taken a bit of a beating today and wasn't exactly in peak condition... his head was especially hurting. The woman blasted a few rounds from her sidearm, likely going to miss everything she was aiming for.

To his surprise, she actually hit a couple of them. Not that it's going to save our asses. Zyxyz thought pessimistically. This wasn't exactly a day for optimism. He nodded at her comment. Perhaps her friends would come but he doubted they would make it here before more enemies would.

As if he were a prophet, three cars sped around a corner about five blocks away, blocking their escape route and racing towards them furiously. "Bad news, soldier." He pointed at the cars as if she hadn't noticed them. "I doubt they'll be interested in hearing our side of the story." Zyxyz performed a brief mental calculation and decided that they were, in fact, dead. The only way to keep them alive was by revealing his supernatural secret.

Cursing under his breath, he again grabbed the Human without asking permission and whispered, "Hold on to me tightly," at about the same time that large, leathery wings erupted from his back at about the shoulder blades. He looked directly in the Humans eyes, knowing that she would likely be a tad shocked. "Just hold on if you want to live."

With that, he leapt as hard as he could from the ground and then flapped his wings once, hard. Then again and again until they had flown over a building to their right, safely away from their numerous enemies for the moment. He then redirected his flight path and flew towards the nearby outskirts of the town, dodging a single attempt by yet another RPG to take them down in a last ditch effort. After an exhausting 15 minutes, he placed them on a dirt-covered hill about four miles out of town, being careful to place the fragile Human on her feet. His wings drooped to the ground in pain.

"Before you begin flooding me with questions, no yelling. I've already taken enough of a beating today and the last thing my head needs is someone yelling panicky questions at it. Deal?" He offered her a fatigued smile and sat down on a nearby rock to take a load off of his feet but leaving plenty of room for the Human in case she decided to have a seat, too.[/b]

[Alex Rivera]

Alex just stands there frozen with astonishment for a few seconds, taking in what she just saw and experienced just now. She stares at him, millions of questions filling her mind 'is he some sort of demon?', 'is this the end?', 'what does he plan to do with me' but only one she can bear to manage to finally escape her thoughts audibly, "what now?" was all she can manage to muster. Her mind starts to wonder if such a creature exists, and she surely isn't insane or having one heck of a dream... is it possible for other beings in lore to exist, such as angels, vampires, and other children story type beings... no this has to be a result of her crash, just bunked her head, yes that's it.

*Jets fly overhead followed by the very realistic explosions in the distance, where they came from, a cloud of dust can be seen in the horizon approaching fast, low black specks hovering over the cloud*

No this isn't a dream, and no one is going to believe what just happen to her, and unmistakably they will pick her up on the thermals soon, the strove flashing her as a friendly.

She looks back toward the... demon? "Looks like... help is coming," she swallows nervously, her throat dry and hoarse. For some reason she doesn't fear him, she knows she should in normal circumstances but this isn't normal... and if he wanted to harm her he would have done it a long time ago...

*in a base elsewhere a little earlier*

A soldier sitting at a computer terminal in digital camouflage shouts, "Sir, drone picked up a positive strove signature on the thermals!" an older man in similar uniform but two noticeable stars can be seen on either soldier walking behind the younger man studying the screen, seeing what appears to be a firefight in an urban sector of town. He stands up strait again and begins barking orders "I want a full combat unit prepped and ready to go, that's our missing medic and she's under fire, I need Eagle Squadron to change to vector 2-1-9er...-" the screen pans scouting the surrounding, missing the moment the medic is being swooped up by some winged creature just barely "-is now a search and rescue priority yellow mission, primary is to retrieve the down crewman, secondary clear the town of hostiles...." The command center bustles with activity again as orders are put into action, only a matter of time till help arrives...

[Zyxyz Golthrum]

Zyxyz nodded at the Human. "Finally got a lucky break. Too bad it came after I had to reveal the greatest secret I had to you." He looked around, obviously a bit uncomfortable. "Before I go, you need to know that what you know is beyond confidential. If you utter a word to hint at this, we'll know. I promise you we will know." He looked her in the eyes, as serious as could be and warned, "Believe me. We will kill you and anyone else who you might've slipped word to. It's our way of life on the line whenever a Human finds something like this out. We'll be watching to make sure you don't do anything stupid. Just live your life, feel privileged to know and keep it at that. If you do that, you'll have no problems at all from us."

He cocked an ear eastward as a helicopter approached their location. "Well, this is where we part. Seems I've kept my word after all." He sniggered at his latest remark and turned around, walking westwards... towards Rome.

[Alex Rivera]

She blushes slightly thinking 'who would believe me anyways?' no she'd be locked up in a strait jacket for sure. "NO ONE WILL BELIEVE ME ANYWAYS!!" she sighs and slumps down sitting on the ground, taking off her dirty helmet and rubs her bro, reflecting on all that just happen, she can hear the blades come closer and closer. The deep hum of the engine filling the air, now to the point she can't even hear herself think... how is she going to explain all this? Alex looks up as she feels to firm grips on her arms, being pulled up to her feat and being lead away to the landed helicopter, the trooper yelling into his headset, she's quite unable to make out what he's saying but at this point she is just too relieved to be Finlay getting out of here. Alex looks over her shoulder to see the other helicopters hovering around in formation, the sound of their machine guns occasionally going off. Once aboard they begin to lift off and head north east towards the base. Alex looks out to the west and sees the 'demon' that helped her... and she had helped in return, far far away in the distance, no one else is even aware that he was there, she just hopes that she never has to meet another of his kind ever again. But in her heart, she knows she will...

[Alex Rivera]

<The Wings are Clipped and a New Pair Appears>

*A week later in the states someplace, in a military courtroom...*

"But you violated orders in the event of being downed you are to proceed to the designated evac point-" Alex bites on her tongue as the brass scold her, how could they do this to her after all she's been through? "But sirs, the enem-" she's cut off "Private, you will not speak until it is your turn, is that understood?" she fights her anger and remains in her disciplined stance "yes sir". The senior officer finishes peering at her then looks up from the paper work, taking off his glasses, "What happened in Afghanistan is not to leave this courtroom, if you can agree to these terms, we will drop the charges. But, if you slip you will be charged and discharged, understood?" Alex pauses a moment considering the amount of embarrassment they are trying to hide, an entire Taliban outpost, the breaking of procedure when it was necessary... she dare not mention the 'Italian' agent she encountered, and she knows members of her unit are going to prob her for information, she nods and looks up "Yes sir, if I agree to these terms I request an Honorable discharge with all entitlements." The brass look amongst one another muttering to one another then he finally speaks, "Honorable Discharge accepted, sign these forms then report to your barracks and be out of my base by twelve hundred - case adjourned" the hammer falls and she makes her way out and the question she asked that demon plays over and over in her head as she exits the large building going down the jagged concrete steps 'what now?'...