((Longest joint post. Ever.<img alt="8O" src="./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif" title="Shocked"/>))<br/><br/>Chiro looks back, seeing the rolling form, pumping his muscles. His strength was nearly waned. He slowed, letting the pain come, using it for adrenaline. He hated this pain...this fear. He breathes out, the heat pounding down as much as the pain, watching Mag coming for him. He begins to move, heading for the back of a building. Mag draws closer moment by moment, rolling on as unstoppable as a hurricane. Shi stops as Chiro ducks behind a building, uncoiling and staring at it for a moment, before warily following.<br/>He hears the crunch and crush stop, and moves to the alleyway, seeing nothing there, knowing shi’s near, running through the alleyway and then moving to the desert on all fours, fumbling and crashing into the sand, half hidden. He growls lightly, pushing up, half sinking half staying on top, moving into the sand of the desert.<br/><br/>Shi spends a few moments searching for him, tongue flicking out and in, before finding his scent heading away, towards the desert. Shi stares at it for awhile, almost as if transfixed, before reaching into the pouch on hir belt. Pulling a thick syringe filled with black liquid and odd red lettering out, and injecting it into hir neck. The transformation is almost instantaneous. All hir muscles swell to the point where they look like they might burst from hir skin, veins standing taut and throbbing. Hir eyes dilate to the point of simply being black orbs, and hir belly gives a growl that echoes off the dunes as shi gives chase once more.<br/><br/>He hears that loud growl...and only moves more through the skin, crashing through what dunes he can, wincing as sand gets in his still open wounds. Salting the would hurt like hell. He pushed more into the desert. Shi follows, charging in an almost blind rage, blasting through dunes and rock outcroppings with abandon. Hir movements though seem forced and jerkily haphazard, not allowing hir to gain any ground at the moment. He hears her more than sees her, moving faster, seeing the sound was constant despite his pains, moving to the right...then moving to the left sharply.<br/><br/>Shi follows his scent trail, leaving him always in sight, but never any closer, crashing and bounding about. He cracks some shale, moving hard, trying to outlast her. It wouldn't be long before he lost his own strength...especially with the sand in his wounds. Shi snarls, suddenly barreling into a sand dune, and disappearing.<br/><br/>He continues pushing forward, wondering why it seems to change...then moving to the right again, heading again East, wondering what could be the game. There's no sign of hir. Not for a few long, almost eerily silent moments. Shi's simply vanished it seems.<br/>He slows down, trying to find out where Mag could have gone, breathing heavily. There's no sign of hir, and the only sounds are the blood pumping in his ears and the howl of the wind, which suddenly turns into a terrible hissing as Mag bursts from the ground under him. Above the sand, hir clumsiness and weight weighed hir down, under the sand though, shi was like a shark.<br/><br/>He gacks, suddenly thrown high into the air and to the side, crashing into a dune, growling and groaning, looking over to Mag, before rolling off the side of the dune and trying to move again. Shi snarls, pouncing on him, hir weight sinking him deep into the sand, metal claws piercing his collar, tail poised for the kill.<br/><br/>He hisses, feeling the bones break, looking up at that tail, trying to push her off, but not having the strength, ready to resist to the end. Hir tails poised, aiming right for his jugular but....shi just stands there on top of him, muscles almost seeming to deflate back to normal, as a look of weariness crosses hir features. Like a person who hasn’t slept in a decade or so.<br/><br/>Looking to her, seeing her look, 'Is it she can't move right now?' he thinks, seeing the tail blade ready for his jugular, unable to see the creature moving toward them. Only hir eyes move, though they're no longer the eyes of a soulless killer, but more like the eyes of a lost child, looking all about. The Form approaching moves faster once it spots Mag, going fast, heading for the two, looking to Mags eyes, trying to catch them. Shi looks up, seeing a flicker of movement in hir field of vision, but not much else.<br/><br/>The form moves faster, stopping at the dune, the heat unable to stop it from being seen, looking to hir, smiling, "Mag." Shi blinks, eyes looking about frantically. "Up here, Mag! It's me! Don't worry, I'll save you."<br/>"<br/>Can't...move head...can't...kill me." she coughs, voice cracking from disuse.<br/><br/>"It's Fwiin, Mag…you won't need to die."<br/><br/>"Won't...be safe.....for long....node.....under metal collar...."<br/><br/>Fwiin leaps onto hir, suddenly attacking both Metal Collar and the Node…and of all things, actually biting into the collar, breaking it, and then eating both Node…and Collar in an instant. The collar goes off easier then expected, the metal not doing well after years locked in a cell or dungeon. The node however, exploeds as soon as it's attacked, black energy blasting the three apart.<br/><br/>Fwiin meeps, landing hard, as Chiro grunts, pushed deeper into the dune, wondering what else was going to happen. Mag's blasted down the side of the dune, landing in a heap, body smoking and sparking. Fwiin pants, then runs to Mag, "Mag! Mag! Can you see anything? Can you hear me? Come on Mag..."<br/><br/>Shi doesn't move for a moment, and then twitches hir fingers abit. Fwiin speeds over, "If you’re under your own control, Mag, then open your mouth and suck a little...ok? I know it's hard after that..."<br/><br/>"No crap...check on...the lizard." shi mumbles into the dirt.<br/><br/>Fwiin sighs, then zips over, checking on Chiro, sighing, then speeds back over, "He's…alive...if out of it. He'll make it with rest, a good washing and his wounds closed up...now…about you...I heard your stomach rumble from where I was..."<br/><br/>"Side effect of the syrum...you know i can't starve...can't move now for awhile...I thought......she said you were dead...." Shi says, voice breaking.<br/><br/>"Well, I'd still like to help that hunger of yours, even if it's only slightly...and the fact I'm here shows she was lying to you. I wanted to save you...I wanted too…but while in that Palace...I couldn't touch you...even get on the same floor...without breaking down.."<br/><br/>"Turn me over...so I can see...."<br/><br/>She tries to roll her carefully, using what strength she can muster. It takes a try or two, but shi's eventually rolled over, blinking and looking up at her.<br/><br/>Fwiin smiles, petting over hir jaw, pressing close, the Hermaphamorph has no wings, but seems to have a minor chitinous covering, and scales over hir legs...obviously to survive the heat without worry. Hir body is descent...except fo her top, which seems to be trying to smuggle full medicine balls under hir flesh "I have you back, you should still drink."<br/><br/>Shi smiles, lightly shaking hir head, "No. Node had a tracking chip. It would activate, if it was destroyed. She'll send a group out to investigate, and we need to move....I have a feeling we've got a long way to go."<br/><br/>"Then drink for fuel...and.." she blinks, Chiro lifting, seeing Mag wasn't trying to kill him anymore, still bleeding, "Then where do you intend to go?" spitting some blood to the side. Shi slowly sits up, muscles screaming in protest from that slight movement, looking at Chiro, "I owe that wretch over 2 years of torment and humiliation. 2 years without my mate, without the light of the sun. Forced to survive off rats and the bodies of tortured victims shi'd throw at me. 2 years a prisoner in my own body. 2 years of living death. She will die under my hands."<br/><br/>"About what you said for running…the Lady will come here with troops...meaning she has a way to locate you. Where is it on you...or in you?"<br/><br/>"The node sent out a signal when tampered with. It'll broadcast a wave pinpointing to this location. And I doubt she'd waste time with me potentially on the loose. I know more of her fortress then she does."<br/><br/>"Does it continuously...transmit?" he grunts.<br/><br/>"It would, if it didn't explode when it was pulled outta my spine. It was almost like a parasite, getting energy from my internal reactor, without that energy, it imploded. All she has are these coordinates now. So she'll go fast.''<br/><br/>"...The Resistance base...can...give you sanctuary...and..." grunting again, "Can get to my elder sister…she'll be able to...heal me in under a day...even with these wounds.."<br/><br/>Shi nods, slowly righting hirself, grimacing, "Lets go then."<br/><br/>He nods, trying to stand to move, then grunting as his leg gives out, "Your...poison…has...crippled me...sorry to say.."<br/><br/>"Oh...sorry about that. Here, let me help." Shi slowly moves over, picking him up as gingerly as shi can. He's surprised, but nods, "As far as..what the Bitch..did..Mag..I have as grevious a want to kill her as you do..and since I do not want to..be your enemy..a compromise if possible?"<br/><br/>"Compromise hmmm?" Shi blinks.<br/><br/>"Yes.." he then thinks, sniffing, "First..the Resistance base..is..that way." Pointing off toward it and the park, "..second..the Compromise..Alhanda..nearly killed my sister..made her into a slave..despite her pure Dragon Heritage…I want her head taken with my own claws..."<br/><br/>Shi nods, motioning for Fwiin to go beside hir and starts off, "Beheading? To good for hir. I was planning on swallowing hir feetfirsr, Slowly. So she could watch her city crumble around her..."<br/><br/>Slowly smiling, Fwiin pressed to Mags side as they go, "Then..indeed..a compromise..you may..swallow her..and just as shes about to have her head enter..your mouth..perhaps I can slit her throat..so theres no way for her to survive. Her city crumbles now.."<br/><br/>"Agreed." Shi grins.<br/><br/>Slowly nodding, then breathes out, "You are a powerful warrior, Mag..."<br/><br/>"Not really....I can't even rightfully be called a warrior...I'm an abomination, a monster of flesh and metal. A tank with breasts." Chiro slowly lifts a brow, "So you feel you are just a tank with breasts. Well, even a Tank can be a warrior, since unlike a Tank..you can think and fight with more than just a big weapon."<br/><br/>"I should of died years ago."<br/><br/>"So you regret this change happening to you?"<br/><br/>"No point crying over the past...if I had died, I'd of never met Fwiin." Fwiin giggles, "Yep, so no regretting your past." She presses close to Mag, sighing gently. Mag nods, scooping Fwiin up with hir other arm, and hurrying on, meaning to be long gone by the time anyone shows up.<br/><br/>Fwiin purrs, pressing in close, "You kept it..and it wasn't damaged..thats good."<br/><br/>"Hmmm?"<br/><br/>Shi taps the amulet gently, smiling, "That, Mag.” Shi grins, "I remeber one of my more lucid moments someone tried to take it off. They lost a torso or two." Shi giggles, "Wouldn't be surprised if only an arm or leg was left."<br/><br/>"I kinda blacked out after that, and everything else is just blurs and images. Which way now?"<br/><br/>Chiro tries to look at the buildings, hissing as a bone sticks out of flesh, looking, then points the way, saving his energy.<br/><br/>Mag winces, moving along as quickly but as smoothly as shi can, staying to the shadows, city rapidly passing them by, "I am sorry."<br/><br/>"You need not apologize. You couldn't stop yourself."<br/><br/>"But still...." Shi sighs, "We'll never make it this way, I'm to slow. This next part will be alot bumpier, but we'll make alot better ground." Shi nods abit, then slowly curls into a ball again, the two abit cramped, but not squished as shi rolls off.