Verando POV-

It shouldn't have come as a surprise to him that she had planned to follow him but with a twist. After all, he was the one with the most experience though it was often easy to forget that she had seen a fair bit of combat. It would take him getting out of her way to truly see if she could thrive, wasn't that the intention of this excursion in the first place? 

Much as it was necessary, given the unpredictable nature of his performance in the rain, he didn't have to like it. "This isn't a very well-thought-out plan," Verando grumbles as he peeks around the corner to assess the situation. It would be ideal to use a mirror, the glint might attract unwanted attention. 

It seemed the anarchists were pretty occupied with the human forces running full force down the street, he didn't want to attract any unwanted attention. 

The earth-shattering screams of those not prepared for combat struck by magical influence were enough to pale Helen's face and convince him that she couldn't do this alone just as much as he couldn't. Lightning and fire rained down as another artillery shell erupted in the center of the street. 

Gunfire peppered the walls, unpracticed warfare almost seemed more dangerous than a worthy foe.

"Nothing about this is going to go smoothly," Verando assures her. "They're just throwing weapons at each other, but this bears well that Fadri could come to investigate himself." Unlikely, given that they had been monitoring turf wars on the outskirts of the badlands for the past week and it'd been decided to let them kill each other. 

 Helen swallows hard, squaring her shoulders. The look of determination was impressive, she was stepping out of the realm of frightened youth and into the leadership role. "You are the best at teaching, you know how to do this. So, teach me. This is just a training exercise. When parents are concerned about the safety of their children, they will go to incredible lengths. If you tell me the plan, I can enact it and your instincts will force you to forget about this rain and follow me."

"You aren't my child." He retorts, reminding her of the harsh reality the pair often liked to avoid. Helen had felt more of a child to him than any of his children, the attachment that they had to each other was deeply rooted down to their very wolves. 

Wherever Helen went, he would follow. No matter what. "I'm not. But I'm your granddaughter. Randy, you are the closest thing I've ever had to a parent. You see me for myself, for what I can be. I can do this, please, don't give up on me now. We came here to train, it'll be... fun." She attempts, with a half-hearted smile.  

It was not the conviction in her tone that convinced him but the sound of the siren of war all around them. The sound of a murderer on the prowl. As the drums rolled in behind the crack of thunder, it was the announcement they had been dreading. 

Caspian was passing through the badlands. The thought of allowing her into the clutches of a lunatic spurred him to act. 

Ever closer they inched to their deadline, Caspian would have to pass through here if he was going to make a run for the capitol.

 As much as he was horrified by the thought of being doused with rain, the thought of Helen's pain was more motivation than he'd ever desired. "We can't lead them back to Nic, we have to take them towards Fadri's troops. There we can get cover fire, perhaps this will draw Caspian to chase the decoy to the capitol." 

Helen nods enthusiastically, quickly reaching into her keeper to pull out the handgun, checking the clip, and then counting the reloads on her hip; three sets of twelve for each gun. "How many weapons do you have?"

Verando's hands are unsteady as he searches his body, his mind drawing a blank. Resting on the small pistol shoved into his waistband and the gun tucked under his arm, he opted to grab the one under his arm first. "More than you thought to bring. But, it's unwise to bring knives to a gunfight. As we move, pick up whatever weapon you find and fire it until it's empty, drop it then move on to the next one. It keeps it out of their hands and gives you a bit more ammunition. Use knives when you can, keep quiet, and keep moving." 

Glimpsing around the corner once more, there seemed to be multiple groups of men fanning out around them as the human task force attempted the cart of weapons. Shaking his head at the naive nature of over-ambitious generals, it was unwise to run towards a cart full of weapons. But, they would use it to their advantage. 

"Are we not going for the weapons?" Helen questions as he turns his attention towards an abandoned ambulance a few blocks down the way they came. 

"No, everyone is going for the weapons and that would give them too much incentive to chase us. It's foolish to think that we can overwhelm an entire force with their leader on the approach. We have to make ourselves frustrating and uninteresting to chase. See that ambulance?" 

She quickly nods, her soaked hair swaying with tiny droplets spilling in every direction.

"We're going to take out whoever is in our path, get to it, then drive to Fadri. Run through the human forces, the confusion should be enough that nobody attacks us. Don't run in a straight line, weave in and out. Got it?" 

Talking to her as if she were a soldier was a struggle, thinking back, he couldn't even remember a time when they had fought side by side. True, they had done a lot of training together, but often she was dispatched to protect me. Doing what he was good at slowly brought back the part of himself that was crushed down by the terror, together they could gain her the experience she needed.

 It was time to step up, to fill the space she'd be called to claim. Placing his hand on her back, he sets her in front of him, fingers tightening on her shoulder because allowing her to go first felt like sacrificing a piece of him. 

"You've got this, kid. Keep your eyes up, don't look back, alright? It's a training exercise." 

"Training exercise." She repeats in a whisper, inhaling sharply through her nose. "We've trained for this."

With a shrug, he chuckles lightly under his breath. "Not really but I think you get the gist. Now. Look both ways before crossing the street."

Rolling her eyes, she elbows him in the chest and narrows her eyes at the target. The ambulance idling just a few blocks away, all the doors open, but the drivers had long since abandoned it there.

 With the focus on the weapons, no one was looking to jump into the vehicle and use it for their purpose. It seemed simple enough. Gun in one hand, she slipped her other down to collect the hilt of her knife and rest it under the butt of the gun in a defensive posture as she'd seen him do many times. Dominate hand for the knife, weaker hand for the gun.

They'd practiced the trade-off so many times, getting her accustomed to holding both, to pulling the trigger with her less coordinated hand. "Good girl." He mumbles as she glances into the pouring rain to see the sparks of lightning traveling off the figure standing on the rooftop. 

"If Grayson sees us-"

"Fuck Grayson. Now or never, Helen." 

Taking a deep breath, she shoves out into the street and they start the quick descent down the crowded path. Between the downpour of rain and the multitude of bodies, it was running through a curtain of water with wet, slippery forms bumping into them from every side. The pounding drums were only interrupted by the mighty blast of the occasional horn.

 It was a Viking war tactic, meant to disorientate the opposition.

At first, no one noticed the pair, it was almost too simple. But as the ranks got thicker, eyes caught their strange hair color and heads began to turn. The harsh whisper of lycan through the crowd encouraged them to move quickly.

 For Verando, the rain blackened his thick locks but for Helen, her pale hair only became more translucent. "Keep your eyes open." Verando's voice breaks through the crowd, not a yell, a simple statement said at a normal volume that her sensitive ears were in tune with. 

He plunges the tip of the karambit into the neck of a particularly interested man, "Use your knife not your gun, we're at close range. Don't draw attention."

Hands came from all around and she was careful to deflect them with her knife. Verando did his best to support her from behind but with two of them, under gunfire and active pursuit, it was difficult to cover all their bases. The slick ground begins to ice over, shivering and cracking under their feet as men all around them slip and slide. "I think we've been noticed"

Verando shakes his head. "We're in the middle of a group of soldiers, they're about to be detonated- There! That overturned machine." Directing them through the thin hole in the crowd to the street cleaner, they dive for cover. The burst of light hits the street and the crowd drops like rocks in a stream. "Damn.. he's getting good at that."

Tipping his gun up, Verando fires two quick shots at the overhead shooter leaning out the window. "Looks like they're overtaking a building." He growls, ducking her head down as bullets ricochet off the side of the metal monster. "Well. We're pinned down. So now what?" His casual tone catches an annoyed glare as she clutches her handgun close to her chest.

 War had no time for emotions, there were only actions. "We're going to waste bullets defending ourselves." Helen reasons, her fingers trailing lightly over the slick concrete. Lifting them, she lightly sniffs, trying to catch a sense of the substance they were sitting in.

 He nods, glancing up to fire a bullet into the forehead of a man climbing over the top of the sweeper. Insane or full of clarity, since their pursuit by the rabid wolves years ago, the thought had never left him. It was difficult to escape the feeling of drooling, psychotic creatures attempting to consume your very essence. 

"That'll slow them down. Humans don't want to die and they aren't very well trained. Kill them, don't wound them, it'll make you less interesting."

Her eyes widened, and she rubbed at the blood spatter on her face, allowing it to mix in and dissipate with the torrent of water. Quickly, he bumps her with his shoulder, while one should never make light of a death, they weren't thinking of it in those terms. 

"Don't get weak on me now. Come on. What's next? We're pinned down. Now what?" Keeping her thinking would be the best way to get through this, stopping to think killed the momentum necessary to survive.

"I can't think with all this noise!" She shouts, throwing a pocketed dagger into the chest of a man rounding the corner to hunker behind the machine. Verando snags his legs, dragging him to them and bearing his weight down on the knife. Helen searches his body, emptying him of bullets and weapons. In his pocket, was a phone. Verando snags it and puts it under his bulletproof vest. 

"Shut them up then. Actions, not complaints darling." Checking the man's eyes, he summarizes he's a human. "See his eyes? He appears to be human. That means that there's a good chance Caspian's forces haven't reached us yet. You have some time, though I'd rather not ride in a wet ambulance..."

"Do you still smoke?" Holding out her hand, Helen claims the produced lighter and slips the smaller knife from her pocket. "Get ready to run out of here. This is going to be a hell of a distraction." Using the point of the knife, she pops the control panel off the side of the street sweeper and fumbles with the cables until she finally spies the gas line. While most of these were run on purely electricity or bio-diesel, the odd unit would have a pure gas line for burn projects and defense. 

It'd been a lucky break that she'd spotted the defense mechanism on the front of the machine. "You're going to hot wire it?" 

Helen pops the gasoline, glancing at him over her shoulder. "Landon showed me a bit about these machines. The spark will power it but only for a moment, and then it will blow up. It'll give us a little bit of time anyway. Are you ready?"

Surprised by the thought of exploding the machine, he reluctantly nods. While it hadn't been something he considered, it was quite brilliant. "Have you considered that a mage will redirect a blast?"

She nods quickly, attempting to angle the gas line just right as she plugs it with her thumb. "We'll be behind the blast. Run fast?"

Standing up, Verando takes a moment to glance around. A bullet rings off the top of the machine, narrowly missing his cheek as he ducks back down. "Hmm. Running into active gunfire is not your best plan."

"Get a better one?" Helen retorts, lighting the lighter. He tilts his gaze to the storefront behind them. "Less direct." She complains. 

"Guarentee's life?"

"Or being trapped in a blazing inferno." The rain douses the lighter and Helen curses. "I have to do this. You're following me, remember?" 

But how could he tell her she was wrong? Wasn't this what he was handing over? "A good leader takes into consideration what their Beta tells them." He reminds her firmly.

 Rolling her eyes heavily, she lights the gas line and the small tube glows blue as the fire begins to climb. Grabbing his arm, she runs out into the torrent of rain as the machine begins to cough and lurch in place. 

It bucks, taking huge leaps as the weapons systems try to activate with the fresh charge. Gunfire rains down upon them, they hadn't run into a crowd but straight into the open street. Everyone had taken cover as Grayson was carving his path. 

"Shit!" Helen hesitates, Verando grabs her and shoves her to the ground, covering her with his body as the machine erupts in a flurry of spasmatic attacks. 

The gun system fires at random, for the moment it caused Grayson to dive for cover as the smoke filled the air and the bullets littered the sides of the buildings. All around them, the street pops and wheezes, the puddling concrete making it difficult to breathe with their faces pressed against the ground. Finally, the eruption of the machine booms as the building considers shattering. 

Windows burst all around as patrons leap from the burning building, first one, then a second. In quick succession, they burst into flames. "Blowing up machines full of fuel? Bad. Idea." Verando seethes, yanking her up by the back of her vest as they make a run for the ambulance once more. He shoves her into the passenger's seat and ducks around to climb in behind the wheel as the sky turns white with the furiousity of a bullet-riddled Grayson. 

The man before them, floating in the sky, did not look human. 

His scorched skin, his white eyes, the way his blackened hands moved in jerking movements. "Oh no.." Verando sighs, clutching the wheel tightly. "That's a hell of a lot of dark magic."

"Let's get the hell out of here!" Helen snaps.

Throwing it into reverse, people run for cover in the back of the escaping vehicle. Verando instructs her to get up to close the back doors as Helen shoves the stretcher out into the street. The saddened vehicle complains low in its engine as he shoves it past its poorly manufactured abilities. 

"Gods, I miss my car..." He grumbles, thankful for the ability to drive a manual as he turns sharply down the side street. The pain of multiple bullet wounds begins to take its effect, overcome by the adrenaline, he hadn't even noticed in his haste to get her out of there. "I think I've been hit."

"You think?" Helen scrambles back to the front, spying on her bleeding face in the mirror. "Oh.. me too."

"Take inventory and grab the medical bag from the back. Buckle back in, we have company." Flexing the deadened hand, it's hard to tell if one of the end fingers is broken or not. He'd long since lost the feeling it, spying a glance at the busted knuckles, he opted to believe otherwise and stole a passing glimpse in the mirror. "Hello, beautiful."

"Who?"

"Oh, just Grayson and some firey gentlemen. How's the bag coming?" 

Helen growls at him as she eyes the bullet wound in the back of her arm. "I don't think I've ever been shot before." Her voice holds a mixture of panic and pain, the wheels screech as he turns down a narrow street. The streets were no longer made for vehicles, it was like navigating a maze of turns and narrow passageways. 

Electricity climbs up the sides of the buildings and Helen presses her back into the seat as she holds her breath. "Uh.. Randy."

"I see it." He jerks the wheel back in the other direction, pushing on the gas as the vehicle complains. The roof of the ambulance wretches as claws puncture the thin metal. "Cover your ears, Helen." Grabbing his gun, he fires two quick shots, hits the brakes, and projects the black feline off the roof and onto the street. Stepping on the gas, they promptly run over the creature and turn down a large street to get a better visual. 

Pushing his sleeve up, he taps the button to talk and it begins to ring. "Landon."

"Oh. Hello, Mr.Mercer." Landon sounds surprised, "We were all just wondering where you were."

"Hmm.. We?" Verando asks cautiously, flinching as Helen unhooks his belt to lift his shirt and get a better look at his side between the junction of the waist of his pants and his vest. The bullet had managed to graze his side, but the main cause for concern was the shard of metal plunged through his abdomen. 

"Where are you?" I interrupt, trying to hide my concern. 

Helen eyes the gray-haired male, threatening him with his life to tell me exactly where they were. Verando sighs, quickly turning the wheel only to stifle a protest as Helen accidentally puts pressure on the metal shard. 

Rolling down the window, he fires out one time at an approaching cat. 

"Was that gunfire?!"

"I suppose it was." He mumbles, rolling the window back up. "I seem to be caught up in just a bit of a turf war... Darling, could you ask Landon to send me the coordinates for Fadri? I'm in desperate need of a shortcut, active pursuits and what have you."

"Whose chasing you?" I gesture quickly to Landon to track his coordinates. "What turf war? You've been gone for two hours!"

Chuckling through the pain of Helen yanking the long strip of metal out of his abdomen, he veers down a side street as the electricity appears on the walls once more. Pressing his hand over the wound, it's an odd feeling of chill and red hot pain. "Start counting, Helen, we need to get this bleeding stopped. If I pass out we're fucked." 

"Randy!" I demand, turning my attention to Landon. "Find them. Now! Randy, who is chasing you?"

"If I knew all their names I'd call them and ask them to stop chasing us, love..."

Frustrated, I slam my hand on the table, holding the receiver firmly. "Cut the shit, you know how I know you're lying? You get this sickeningly sweet tone and I'm not buying it. I'm coming to get you if you tell me or not."

With a heavy sigh, he snags the packing material from Helen to force into the wound, pressing the gauze firmly over the top as he threatens to be sick from the pain of it. 

"Verando, this is so much blood." Helen exhales, the sight of her soaked red hands making her tremble. "The side. We need to do your side, too."

There was no hiding it, he needed backup. "Caspian and Grayson, no signs of Gabriel. It would seem Grayson has picked up some dark magic."

I grab my raincoat off the counter, turning my attention to the monitors, my eyes meeting the small presidential meeting of multiple world leaders over a monitor, the terror obvious in their eyes. 

"Gentlemen, as you can see I'm in the middle of an active war zone. Now if you'll excuse me while you consider my proposal from the comfort of your homes, I have an apocalypse to stop. Landon, give him those coordinates. I'm getting Kestrel and I'm going to pay Caspian a visit. I'm going to need one of those motorcycle prototypes."