battle at kenn park. (the silenced)

[n00b678]

Most accountants would be worried, scared to death, but Smith? Not even a tinge of fear in his face as he quickly held up the pistol and pointed it at the newcomer, his face pulled in a determined grimace. He looked over the white tigress, who seemed like she knew something he didn't. She didn't seem like such a bad person, but she was no civilian bystander. He was starting to lower the gun to the ground, pointing it away from her as she appeared.

However, when she asked for the envelope, he now realized that was he had indeed taken was something that could get him killed. However, Smith didn't thnk that he should just hand it over like that. There was something going on here that he wanted to figure out, and he wanted to do it when he got the hell away from all of this. He looked at her and then reached into his pocket, pulling out a clip for the pistol he was holding, "If you haven't noticed, there's a firefight going on that's on the other side of this tree, so I'd rather keep the gun thank you. As for what I put in my pocket, there's only this clip I got from him." He nodded over to the dead fur that had been hit by the car. He looked at the white tigress and then asked, "Oh, and by the way, I don't take orders from strangers, so even if I knew what you were talking about, I'm not really sure I would give you just like that just because you asked.

[enkashi]

Gunfire attracts attention. How could it not? These were not safe neighborhoods; few places were, but Kenn Park was hardly what one would call a family retreat, either, especially not those who knew what went on here. Luckily... Boots was a native, and knew this playground like she knew her own hand. She'd grown up here. This was her home town.

Because this was her home town... she also knew enough to be able to tell a 'demon' from the angels. She, like so many others, lived in a safe city-- no, had a city to live in, it was far from at all safe-- because of the angels and the saint... it wasn't hard, also, for her to pick out who had the short end of the stick here.

A few years ago, Boots would never have considered the course of action now in her head... but that was before the long nights in dangerous junkyards, the harsh cruelty of a gang that would slit your throat, before the hard times. Now... now she *was* a hard spot in a hard world, and a patriotic one. She, like many others in professions like her own... were patriots. ".... Aw to hell with it. Why not." she cursed, and mustered.

The hybrid-woman grit her teeth, and slapped her welder's mask down hard over her face. The skyboard roared maintained by her own hands roared to life as she hit its booster, and the gyrostablilizer she'd mounted on her tail helped her keep control as it rose to meet the occasion.

"For St. Lucent!" her voice rose in the chaos, and her green-and-golden streak blasted through the firefight like a bullet, moving as fast as she dared allow the board to carry her, as fast as she knew she could still control for what she had planned. Quick targets like this were not normal in a firefight with caution and hiding, so she had the element of surprise on her side, and a lot of courage burning in her heart. Trained killers as they were, even assassins would have trouble doing much good against an ambush with that kind of speed.

As she flew, sawdust formed a v-shaped pair of walls behind her as it kicked up from the speed of her movement and the afterburners of her skyboard. She aimed to misbehave... but she was not just trying to distract the assassins. She was also there, in defense of the angels, and her city. Nobody messes with St. Lucent, and she meant nobody... and from where she stood, these 'demons' were very much messing.

She only had an actual opprotunity to attack one of these dark-garbed bastards... but she made it a special one. It could very well spill her control all over the place... but this kind of thing deserved a bit of risk. Her tail would come into play.

One hand braced on the board as she crouched, but kept the tail level, the three gyrostabilizer rings humming more violently as she urged them to with the practiced muscular movements in her tail, steadying her board more than normal control managed. She'd perfected doing this, her haymaker, so she knew what she had to do; just before she'd just run him over and fly off the board to certain broken bones, she'd fold her tail as close to the hip as she could, but keep it mostly straight. This, she knew, would cause the board to suddenly lurch sideways, missing the man with the dangerous part for her... and smack him with the excess force. Where she was aiming... this would probably collapse the assassin's chest, maybe even rip his head clear off; flesh and bone gets pretty pliable at these speeds.

3...
she thought of her mother and father, and of siblings, how proud of their city they were.
2...
She thought on the years with her dear Devon, her master and close friend, and his fiery spirit in defense of her and his.
1...
She at last thought of... Home.
Mark!

Her tail, like it had done many times before, swung and the board lurched under her, straining the electomagnetic grips she'd crafted. She'd never done it at this kind of speed before. It held, though, and her tail became a flying mace, hurled like a thunderbolt by god's hand.

Bone shattered, and she popped the assassin open like a ripe melon. Some of him went one way... and the rest... well, it just kinda... didn't. Boots's eyes almost rolled back into her head. The sounds of bone breaking had just been the assassin's, as her own speed made him take most of the harm, but... there was pleanty of harm to go around. Her tail, her poor poor tail, at least had a pulled muscle or two, and it hurt to move... but she had not much time to worry about it. She was flying backwards now, and starting to be noticed, to say the least.

"Gorrammit..." she cursed, and leaned backwards, changing the balance of the board, and hugged it against her, once again kicking up the afterburners. They started firing, hitting the metal object and stopping, but she could feel it warp and grow hot from the bullets, mucking up the thrusting system quite well. It accelerated its propulsion in a burst, then died, sending her, and it for that matter, still stuck to her hands and feet, skipping for a few yards across the ground. Her mask, and the heavy clothes she wore, stopped her from becoming roadkill... but it all still knocked the wind clear out of the girl, leaving her curling defensively under the warping board as she was shot at.

[Adeline]

Adeline opened her mouth, narrowing her eyes, to say some sharp retort to send the wolf cowering in his shoes, but then she heard the skyboard and sawdust started swirling around and hitting the two in the face and Adeline had to cover her eyes. She unfortunately hadn't brought her hat, which she could have used to cover her face, but, by bringing her coat around her face, she blocked the sawdust and could still see bits and pieces of what was around her. She knew Athos had planned on creating a dust filled tornado, but she thought this was something different.

Trying to look up and not cough, the tigress still saw the wolf and she began inching foreward...maybe she could grab the paper out of his jacket without him even noticing. She was a fantastic pickpocket, due to years as a pillager at sea, and it was too dusty to see anything anyways.

However, when she started to move, something flew threw the air, and a substance other than saw dust flecked across her head. Bringing her hand to her forehead, she saw that she had been sprayed with blood. Looking over a few feet, where she had been not too long ago, a severed hand was twitching on the ground. Beautiful, Adeline thought as she suppressed the urge to vomit.

Pulling a knife out of her coat, Adeline inched closer to the wolf, until she was directly to his side. Even though the dust was beginning to settle, she still only thought that was where the wolf was, as she could only catch slight glimpses before having to bring her eyes back under her frock coat. An unprotected eye would be able to see nothing in this condition. With the hand that held the knife, Adeline reached her hand forward warily, stretching out her fingertips until she ever so slightly brushed against cloth. Trying to take another glance, Adeline saw that her hand was on target in reaching in and grabbing the paper from his pocket. She held her breath cautiously. Even if the wolf noticed she was there, she could just swing in with her hand and then there'd be a nasty bleeding cut across the canine's chest quicker than he would be able to lift his gun. He would probably shoot her if she did that, but hopefully he would be overcome by the pain and unable to react quickly enough .

She stretched her hand out further, blind to her movements in the dust storm.

[n00b678]

Despite the fact she had an advantage in stealth, the problem with her plan was that she had absolutely no idea just how quick-thinking and brilliant this man was when it came to getting out of sticky situations. Suddenly, she felt the cold steel of a .45 Caliber Handgun pressed up to the back of her head, and it was obvious that whoever was behind her had known she was going to be there, which meant that there was only one person it could be: Smith. In fact, it was Smith behind her, his trench coat gone, the envelope still with him.

When the dust had kicked up earlier, Smith had only taken a second to think of an effective plan to turn the otherwise blinding dust into something positive, to tilt the tables in his favor. He quickly shed his large overcoat, putting it on a branch that was near where he was crouching. Then he had quickly moved out of the way, where she couldn't see his silhouette. However, when she drew closer to his coat, he quietly moved behind her until he was close enough to put the gun to the back of her head. The envelope was still safe in the top piece pocket of his suit. The paper Adeline thought was the envelope was actually a folded piece of paper with math equations written on them, something left over from his day at work. As the dust died down shortly afterwords, Smith spoke, "Drop the knife."

[texas]

Zarek was still winded but he kept on fighting, but more and more people seemed to show up to help them. It was a nice thing for them to do he had to admit; however, it just made everything a little more difficult. You had to make sure that you got a bad guy and not someone trying to help.

Following the sky board with his eyes after finishing off another man he noticed the wolf and white tiger standing over the dead angel. As he watched the two he was surprised by someone grabbing him from behind and pulling him down.

“Rook, the bunny!” He shouted at the top of his lungs. Before being pulled to the ground.

Reaching behind him he slammed the man’s head into his. Pulling away from the man Zarek’s head was only spinning a little less than the assassin’s. Stumbling a little on his feet he looked over to Rook. Good think he had things under control.

The man who had just attacked him was getting up, but running away. In fact, they all seemed to be running away. A small smile came to his face. At lest it was over. A sharp crack sounded through the air and the tiger looked up to see if the clouds that had been hovering over the city had finally decided to realize their burden.

A sharp pain hit his back and traveled through his whole body to his front. Looking down at his gray shirt he watched as a dark puddle of red began to grow around the whole that has just appeared. Running his paw along the opening his paw came back bloody.

“Ouch… bastards hit me from behind.”

Still looking at his paw he felt the first pitters of rain hit him. The rain then began to turn from a soft sprinkling to a heavier down fall. Only when he blood began to wash off from his paw did Zarek realize how much getting shot hurt.

[Rook]

"Edgewise". The gun was soon on the floor before them both, Adeline and Smith.

Rook's claws pressed deep into Smith's shoulder as the other hand lingered near his throat. He diddn't dare look Adeline in the face but he did say in hoarse growling voice that wasn't his own.
"I know you have the letter, it is Angel property, it'd be wise if you'd give it to me, now".

Rook's ascension from the back of the jungle gym had resulted in the silent deaths of about three assassins, two being cronies and one being a Leader. He diddn't know whether the hovercraft slicing one to bits, the mysterious arrival of all these reinforcements or he and Zarek's own actions had decided this (perhaps it was just the rain?) but for whatever reasons they were dissapearing into the dust, fast as the rabbit had fled.

He was about to say something else to Smith when another shot rang in his ears, the shot was commonplace for the past hour or so but the voice that accompanied it was one of a kind.

"Fuck"! he snarled letting go of Smith and pushing past him, he saw the red on Zarek's chest and paws and despite earlier seeing brutal carnage he felt almost dizzy at the sight of all of it, just a graceful gunshot wound though it was, instead of a mangled body. The difference was, this was his laughing ass hole of a friend, not a nameless assassin... and it diddn't seem real at all.

Rook felt Zarek's weight lean heavily on him, supporting, half carrying him, blood soaking into the fur on his arms and hands as he stared around wildly even as he moved for the one who had hurt him, Rook knew however he'd already be gone, even as he ducked them under the last fleeing gunshots of the cronies, back behind the jungle gym as the figures dissipated into the dust like ghosts.

I should go after them...fuck I should go after them, had he utterly failed this mission? He hadn't been able to protect Tabitha, and now his friend was wounded....the letter was left up to Adie, who knew if he could trust her? and now he had to choose between helping Zarek or chasing the bad guy.

And the choice was obvious, despite all his training, he was now calling for help in the wet dust.

It was raining too, he hadn't noticed until now but he was being soaked through, the blood was mixing with water, growing pink and diluting, but there was more where that came from. Cursing under his breathe, as gently as he could he leaned back attempting to prop Zarek up so he could see the wound more clearly.

But a small sound from his claws distracted him, they glowed brightly, a voice emitted from them.


"Headquarters? Zarek is injured...and the target is killed...what...."
He broke off "What do you mean, no we can't stay where we are, their getting away, Zarek needs an.....
....

...fuck you, you two timing bitch....".

The other line signed off and he sighed, beginning to take off his coat, well that was productive.

[texas]

Zarek was thankful when Rook came over so he could lean on him. Letting himself be hauled over to the jungle gym. Leaning back he tried to take deep breaths though it seemed like nothing was getting into his right lung.

Letting out a breath he coughed and a few droplets on blood came out of his mouth and landed on his paw that was covering it. Looking at it he thought it better on to tell Rook about that. The way the other Angel was acting you’d think that it was he who was shot and not the other way around.

“Hey clam down. They’ll come get us.” Zarek spoke up trying to hold back the grimace that came from speaking.

“You should be after the bad guys. I can wait. Trust me the bullet went right through. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” He laughed a little which turned into a cough and he was unable to hide the blood specks that came from him.

[Rook]

"Don't talk" Rook heard himself say. He felt shivers through his whole body as he felt the rain hit the small wound on his shoulder, how could the tiger be feeling?

More for his own sake than Zarek's he did calm down...or he made himself calm down.

Though he did not obey the tiger's request, he wrapped his thick, brown leather coat carefully around the wound near Zarek's chest, trying to look at the Tiger's face instead of the bleeding pocket, but even this was stopped by Zarek's red coughing.

internal bleeding? He couldn't bear to entertain the thought, though it was already let out of it's cage and was begining to romp and slither around his mind like a monstrous rat.


"Just shut up and concentrate on breathing. Rest but don't go to sleep".

He paused and added in a softer voice.

" I'm not going anywhere".

Almost instinctively he moved back against the jungle gym guiding Zarek's head to lean carefully on his chest, amidst the wind which beat against them furiously and the freezing rain, he waited, looking at Zarek every few minuites or so to make sure he wasn't nodding off.

[enkashi]

(Hope you don't mind if I ice this fella :3 Assassin shooter #6 going doooown!)

The firefight, and her own pain, burned all around and inside Boots like a firestorm, and all she could do for at least a minuite was gasp for air and cover her ears as the thunder of metal hitting metal faded, as soon, people were a lot less interested in her than they were about escaping... but why?

Soon, shots weren't coming at all.. and she could push the battered hunk of metal off her body, gasping more easily for the lack of weight atop her. Boots was tough; she'd live... maybe a few bruises, perhaps a pulled muscle or two in her tail, but other than that... she was mostly unharmed. The world still swam a little to her eyes, dancing as the rain started falling all around her. She shivered... but she saw something she had hoped to prevent.

She had gone in the midst of the group of assassins, and they were fleeing... except one, who had just made the best shot of the whole group: He'd just shot one of the Angels. She only saw the aftermath of the attack... but she still knew what he did, like a mother knowing it was their child who drew all over the walls. He was not in her path, and he looked like he'd be a lot faster than herself, but she could... she could intercept.

She broke into a full run - she was ahead of him, she had a chance still. Her legs carried her until they burned, and then carried her some more. She remained quiet, hoping the assassin, probably some young punk who just got a lucky shot, was too busy running for his life. he was catching up - he had to be a cyborg or something, she'd had a several foot head start, after all... but she swerved, breaking into his path just behind him - with an arm extended.

The clothesline from this female at a full run sent him sprawling, bouncing his head and collarbone off the pavement as he flew forward, the weight of his body flopping forward, onto his spine first, then to teh ground. He was not dead, but man that had to hurt. Boots worked her arm in circles as she advanced on him, eyes full of hell. He pushed himself to his hands and knees, a knife flashing into his hand. He charged her head on, but that was a worse idea than just ignoring her as she'd just run up. He was low to the ground, and she was a brawler. He threw himself at her, and her fist came down on his head with a solid thump, the metallic gauntlets dispersing a charge directly into the sight centers of his brain, eliciting a wild scream of pain and surprise as he kissed dirt again.

It hurt to move for him after that - it always did after a taser blast, even if he was no longer stunned from it. He couldn't hold the knife very well, his limbs shaking hard, but he was well trained. Boots, though, she was a streetfighter; she'd never even let him up. She barely let him get to his hands and knees before her metal boot met his forehead, and tossed him clear to his back like a ragdoll. Perhaps he was a cyborg, perhaps just a ninja or something wild like that... but he still had the chutzpah to use the inertia to roll back to his unsteady feet, a gun in hand, which he leveled in her direction and pulled the trigger as fast as he could.

Boots had to give this guy credit... he had it; balls. Hardly the nameless minion she'd expected. bullets whizzed by her head and body, most missing their mark, but the last couple hit home, one to her right shoulder, just shy of the neck, where it would have killed her for sure, snapping some bone that she was almost sure was essential, and the second slashing across her midsection, leaving a burn. She yelped in pain, and felt her right arm go unresponsive, but her left - it was still very much functional, and now his pistol was clicking instead of shooting.

The last thing that man saw before her fist closed around his head, and he got the 'electric chair', was those fierce orange eyes, full of hate and pain, burning into his own. He crumpled, heart descending into cardiac arrest, the once-beating organ now a quivering, useless piece of flesh, just like him. At last, she let go, tossing his head down as roughly as she could, and gritted her teeth, hard. She had been shot before... but never this badly.

The assassins were leaving, though - to hell with their comrade, he was dead. Boots spat, cursing them, and raised her voice to howl obscenities at them. Her body was sore, her arm now a dull ache as endorphines took over, and her side was bleeding like the gouge in her shoulder. She knew the bullet did not go through... she felt dry on the other side, and a burning on the inner-side. That was bad. Real bad.

Her feet carried her, though, this masked hybrid, stumbling, running like a wounded dog, towards the angels. She held her open hole with one hand, applying as much pressure as she could stand, and saw the sorry state of things unfolding before her.

"H-hey... hey..." she groaned, voice cracking a little. "He okay?" she managed to squeak to Rook, just in time to see him cough up a little blood. Her eyes wandered, looked over the wounded angel, and she would have paled some more, were it not for her coat of fur and mask. He was coughing up blood, he had internal bleeding. She'd seen people shot like this... it was... well, it was a lot worse than the bullet she had in her shoulder. "Son of a bitch..." she hissed, and swallowed down a bit of her own vomit, feeling quite sick. This man needed medical attention, like now... or he was wasted. Was it too late?

[Adeline]

Adeline hadn't had time to drop the knife before Rook was on the wolf's back. Not reacting at all, she waited as Rook warned the wolf of the danger he had put himself in One subtle movement and he could be dead from the metallic claws holding him in a death vice. She didn't do anything until Rook spoke, "I don't know exactly what kind of paper it is, Angel, but the idiot's not letting it go," the tigress said, almost spitting out the word "Angel", like it was a vile thing. However, Rook didn't have a chance to reply, as another gunshot rang out and and hoarse yell came from the rain. As the wolverine hybrid ran, Adeline realized that, though the wolf was still behind her, he no longer had a gun. She was still holding her dagger.

Swiftly, the limber tigress turned and pressed the blade to the man's neck. "Now, will you kindly give me...the letter...before someone else gets severely wounded?" Adeline said through gritted teeth. She saw the figure who had started up the dust storm get shot about 20 yards from where she stood. The assassins were running, making the others safe, though in dire need of an ambulance, but Adeline was still in a spot bit of trouble if this wolf character came up with another quick thinking plan like he did with the coat. Adie mentally slapped herself for that bumbling mess up. She felt almost grateful to Rook for helping her out, even though she would stubbornly state she had it all under control.

She wondered what was going on with Rook and the other Angel, but daren't turn her head away from the face of her recently acquired nemesis for fear of giving him the upper hand again. She didn't know how badly anyone was injured, and the respectable thing to do would be to go over there and try to help out. But Adeline wasn't the most respectable of people, and she wanted this letter, whatever it was. It was Angel property, like Rook had said, and that was what Adeline was always after. However, once she got the wolf to hand over the letter, she was bailing out and running. She'd probably go to the caves, she thought to herself, or even back to Groves. But the caves were closer, she reminded herself, and easier to lose followers in.

She turned her mind back to the wolf in front of her, at the mercy of her knife, and pressed the blade more firmly against his throat. "I didn't quite like that trick you pulled, you know. We might still be facing each other respectably arguing with words rather than having had to resort to such physicalities. And you wouldn't have brought the Angel into this."

Again, Adeline spitted the name out, the tattoo on her back almost itching from hearing it. However, she didn't hate the name as much as she hated saying the Council, which she almost never referred to aloud, merely calling it the Fuckers, if she really had to say something about it and make it clear who she was talking about. But the Angels seemed slightly hypocritacl with their name, causing more hellish chaos than pure angelic peace. She didn't know what they were like when they got the name, but they didn't deserve it anymore. No one deserved to be called an Angel.

[n00b678]

Smith glared into the tigress's eyes as he spoke, "Get that damn knife away from my neck before I snap your fucking wrist in half." He was pissed, truly and utterly pissed. She was saying it was his fault an Angel got shot in the back because he wouldn't give her the letter? This was one self-righteous bitch if he had ever laid eyes on one. "Listen to me, you self-righteous bitch. I'm not giving you this envelope because I don't trust you. I'll give it to Rook, because I know that he's an Angel, and I have no idea what the hell you are. For all I know, you could be a fucking assassin that works for the people who just shot the fellow over there, so don't give me lip for keeping a hold of something that I don't exactly feel comfortable giving to you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get a first aid kit and see if I can't be of some use."

[Adeline]

"Like hell you are!" Adeline cried out furiously as she stared daggers into the wolf's face. "You'll give it to Rook?! You'll give it to the fucking Angel because why?! You dare to tell me that you TRUST Angels?" she said as she spit the word in his face. "Angels shouldn't be trusted and I could give you plenty of reasons," she yelled out as she thought of her many trips to the bar because of all the people she knew in jail, or dead, because of Angels. "Comfortable or not, you're giving it to me. And, just for spite, because you called me a self-righteous bitch, you're going to remember how you failed for the rest of your life."

She withdrew the knife from the wolf's throat, grabbing his neck with her other hand, just so he didn't try anything, and slashed the knife upward. It cut through his forehead and the bridge of his nose, and blood started to seep out everywhere: on her hand, on the knife, on the ground, and into the wolf's eyes. He fucking deserved it.

While keeping her left hand at the wolf's throat, Adeline grabbed the envelope out of the man's coat, waving it, and the dripping knife, in his face. "Got it, bastard," she said, smiling. She put it and the knife back into her frock coat, still smirking maniacally. At that point, Adeline thought about letting him go, right there, and her running. He would either follow, or help the Angels out with that first aid kit. However, after she just scarred up his face and half-strangled him to death, she was better safe than sorry.

"Just to be safe," she said quietly to the wolf, as she pulled a cutlass out of its sheath. It was her favorite dueling item, and deflected bullets quite well if needed. However, tonight it was going to be used for a different purpose. The tigress raised the sword up to the wolf's head, and let the blunt end crash against his skull. He collapsed in a heap. Staring at the body, Adeline spit on it, made sure she had the envelope, and ran towards the caves, the best place she could think to go. If any Angels followed, she didn't want to lead them to Groves. Sheathing the sword, she ran faster, far away from the park, and the opposite direction that the assassins had fled.

[texas]

Zarek had snuggled close to Rook and enjoyed listening to the wolverine's heart beat. It was soothing and distracted him from the pain. He knew that his wound was only going to start hurting more once his adrenaline wore down. Right now however he was enjoying the moment with his friend.

"I know you told me to be quite, but if I ended up going to go see my maker I want you to do something for me. Go into my lab and in my main computer type in your name and mutt for the password. You hear me? After that you'll get all the stuff you need. I meant to tell you this a few days ago but it slipped my mind. Guess I figured I wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon."

While he spoke he had held back the grimace that he wanted to show so badly. It did hurt to talk, or to breath, or to move for that fact, but he had to tell Rook what to do. it was important to him that if he did die tonight that his friend do this for him. Looking up at the other Angel he pleaded with him not to just disregard what he had just told him.

[Rook]

Thunder boomed overhead, Rook knew something was going on back there, but he could scarcely hear it, and it energy was failing him...if someone diddn't come soon he'd have no choice.

He'd have to somehow take Zarek to a hospital, he'd rather have treachery (in the form of letting a Doctor see the enhancements Zarek had bestowed on himself as well as the damn tattoe, it'd be a nighmare for their organization blah blah blah...) then have Zarek's blood on his conscious.

Disobeying a direct order is unheard of. It obviously came from the Elders. But...

Rook hadn't been directly prepared for any kind of communication in the next few hours let alone minutes and found himself unable to speak when the warrior hybrid, who had helped them, came to him and spoken to him, Rook was used to being a guiding force under pressure but he couldn't even bring himself to speak to Boots, his words were strangled in his throat, perhaps his lost, exhausted expression however was enough of an answer.

Just as he was about to clear his throat he felt Zarek half-limp body press against his own, he had to lean back to get used to the weight.
Zarek wasn't as heavy as he seemed though, it reminded him of something a girl would do after downing several martinis at some to-do, one of the many he'd been forced to go to for the Angels...he'd rather take a gunfight any day of the week, really.

It diddn't invoke feelings of contempt however, it was...well just not like that,
and despite being wounded, cold and rained on he had the sense left to feel deeply confoundedly embarrassed for a moment or two before his attention was directed completely at the fact that Zarek was trying to give him pre-death instructions.

Perhaps it would have made them both feel better if he'd just scolded the tiger and asked him to shut his trap, but he couldn't bring himself to do it, not after being specifically asked not to brush him off, well not vocally but he had to give Zarek credit he could do the whole 'soulful eyes' bit as well as a 5 year old Jamie had been able.

That was damn good.

besides how did he know for sure if Zarek...? I just don't have the right.

His eyes narrowed slightly, not in anger or outrage, but in some silent struggle, then grew dull with reluctant acceptance. His voice was still ragged yet it had a slightly softer lilt than usual. "Okay, I promise".

He realized it was the least he could do to salvage what made him human, to speak to the hybrid, even if he had little to say.

She had after all chopped a couple people up for them, but who was she? Could she help?

He turned his gaze on her, and it became hard again, somewhat more guarded when he asked.

"Who are you? Why did you help us"?

the Gruffness was back in the rigid lines of his features, but he diddn't look pushy, rather thoughtful instead as he gazed into wide vivid eyes.

She certainly diddn't seem like an ordinary civillian.

[n00b678]

Smith had been planning to just go ahead and just snap the tiger's wrist and take her dagger, though that didn't mean he was planning on killing her. He certainly wasn't planning on doing anything to her like what she suddenly did to him. He was grabbed by the neck, and suddenly, felt that cold blade cut deep into his face and slash upwards, making him howl in pain as he was suddenly blinded by his own blood. He stumbled back, somehow keeping his footing through the immense pain and the sudden blindness, though he felt her hand reach down to grab the envelope. Smith couldn't find her arm, couldn't see it anything, and he fumbled for her arm, but couldn't exactly place it right now.

Smith could suddenly feel and hear more clearly, could feel the slight breeze the envelope waving in his face created. He smirked in her face defiantly, the blood from his wound traveling down his face slowly, giving him a terrifying appearance"If you were trying to kill me, cutting my face up and blinding me won't really do the trick." He wanted to make this tigress angry, wanted her to realize that he didn't think of this as a failure. In fact, it was almost like a promise that if she didn't kill him now, he'd come back to find her, and with the incredible mind this wolf possessed, there was no way she could hide from him.

That was when Smith's now highly sensitive ears picked up the grating sound of a much larger blade against its sheathe, as she pulled out a cutlass. It looked like the wolf had pissed off the tigress too much this time, and it looked like he was going to die right then and there. Then he felt the hard impact of the handle of Adeline's cutlass, which sent Smith sprawling to the soft grass, which suddenly he couldn't feel. Smith blacked out on the grass, limp and unconscious, blood still leaking out from the cut and now from the impact to his head, his eyes trapping the blood inside them.