Dreamer was ready to do it... he was ready to tell Sherra to pump the men on the left full of bullets.  He would feel no remorse... it was the smart thing to do, and the just thing to do.  These bastards were eating the dead furries, eating the cold corpses of creatures they hadn't even had the ability to kill for themselves.<br/><br/>But then Maeve's voice floated to him, full of horror and pleading.  He couldn't see her, concealed as she was, but he didn't need to to know what her expression had to be like... contusions and all.<br/><br/>He grimaced.  All his training told him to kill the men before moving on.  Killing them would keep them silent, and hiding the bodies would make sure no one realized the ones that had killed Lanner and rescued Maeve Blotar had passed here.  But... but she didn't<span style="font-style: italic">want</span>him to...<br/><br/>These men were unarmed.  They would be easy, almos unfairly easy, to kill.  Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if they weren't part of the official resistance at all... just a handful of scavengers that had found some vore juice and were trying it out.  There was a chance that they wouldn't care that anyone had passed at all... and besides, with the dead sheepdog-fur still tied to the hood and the three living furs hidden in the back, these humans couldn't think Dreamer and Kitten were anything but part of the uprising.<br/><br/>"All right," he said softly, "hold your fire, Sherra.  She's right, they aren't worth it."  He let go of his weapon and waved casually at the two men on his side of the car as Kitten eased the car passed them.  He wouldn't talk to them at all... not at all, though he did give them a sneer as he took in their bloated bellies.  Voring a fur was fine and good... but you had to earn that right first, not come along the corpse...<br/><br/>He wondered, suddenly, if Sherra would hold her fire.  She was a furry... and Dreamer had gathered enough to know she'd seen some of the brutality these humans had committed on furries since the uprising began last night.<br/><br/>But Maeve was right... he was a changed person... so he had to stop thinking like a killer, or at least sometimes he did.<br/><br/>--- --- --- ---<br/><br/>Vultana didn't move as the soldiers emerged.  She didn't lift her head or wings, and she certainly didn't lift up the rifle.  The soldiers had tried to make it simultaneous, but the doors hadn't quite opened at the same time... and while her hearing wasn't as good as her eyesight, it was good enough for her to know at least three of the four doors had opened up.  So there were at least three soldiers.  But were they armed with firearms, or did they only have blades, or maybe even just their claws?  She didn't dare to look... not until they'd made their way into the elevator-control room...<br/><br/>A burst of static and garbled radio speech alerted her to another soldier, and her eyes widened as she realized it meant there were<span style="font-style: italic">four</span>of them up here with her.  Her odds weren't good... but nonetheless she would fight to the death.  With the elevators out, and with who knew how much damage having been done on the first floor by the falling one's impact, she doubted any back-up would arrive for several minutes.  They might be trained soldiers, but thirty floors up stairs carrying heavy weapons and armor couldn't be easy.<br/><br/>Another burst of static came, this time with no words except for the cussing of the four soldiers as their earphones screeched in their ears.  She heard one of them trying to ask what that had been, but there was no response.  Their radios had gone dead.<br/><br/>She continued to wait, trying to keep track of the four furs walking around on the gravel of the roof, waiting for a good time to strike at them.  In the silence she heard a deep, vibrating bellow rise from far, far below as something met the soldiers till waiting there... she couldn't help but to smile slightly inside her beak.  Despite the surprising distance between the palace and herself, she suddenly<span style="font-style: italic">knew,</span>somehow, that the rampaging beartaur had come to help her.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Keep them down there,</span>she thought,<span style="font-style: italic">and all I have to do is survive these four and whatever others are on their way up.  I'll try to survive long enough to meet you, big one...</span>...since there was no way the great creature would be able to get to the roof...<span style="font-style: italic">come on, you bastards.  I killed your friends from inside that room.  Find me, and kill me, in there!</span>