Rodolfo edged out to the alley entrance and peeked out into the street. The noise in the distance was definitely coming closer, Doreen thought as she peered out behind him. The street was deserted save for a few service workers, but they were picking up on the sounds of trouble and making an escape. "I don't think we're going back the way we came," Rodolfo said unnecessarily.

Doreen sniffed. "Maybe we should keep moving."

Rodolfo nodded. "I like the way you think, Miss Mundie." He slipped past her and motioned for her to follow him.

Doreen stayed on Rodolfo's tail as best she could; her head hurt, and flashes of light behind her eyes weren't helping her, either. "We need to find a terminal, find Oleander Street, and get to the security place," Rodolfo said between puffs.

Doreen didn't enquire about the others. She reassured herself that they had the good sense to do the same. She also hoped that a few SSSS guards were deployed in this area.

Her hopes went unfulfilled in the next street, but there was a public terminal, and Rodolfo was aggressively interfacing with it as soon as it caught his attention. He sighed and pounded a fist on its casing. "The security office is nine blocks from here!" he barked.

Doreen whined. "Back the way we came, right?"

"Right," Rodolfo growled.

A sudden commotion grew at the far end of the street, and a small cadre of what looked to Doreen like mercenaries trouped up from behind a warehouse unit, with a veritable salad of weapons ranging from light pistols to overbuilt rigs resembling portable missile launchers.

"They look like the pricks who ambushed us outside Jenny's," Rodolfo breathed.

"More of them, then?" Doreen asked.

The rhetorical query was partly drowned out by more noise coming from behind the two. Doreen and Rodolfo turned to see another party approaching from the opposite end of the street. These were dressed in the grey uniforms of the Sedalia Security guards, and they were packing some fairly hefty equipment as well.

"Think we're caught in a war," Doreen said bleakly.

"Well, we're not getting caught in it here," Rodolfo snarled, grabbing Doreen and pulling her further on. Doreen groaned as her head rocked again. A few stray shots from small arms flicked their way as they fled, hitting inanimate surfaces all around them.

Rodolfo poured on speed and aimed for the nearest doorway, which a confused and quite terrified Raccoon civilian currently occupied. She yelped and dived aside to avoid being hit by a speeding Mutt and his Jackal charge.

"I hope you're not the ones they're after," the Cat proprietor of Patsy's Cakes growled as she recovered and slammed the security shutters home to protect her shop. "Last thing I need is the Security guards shooting up my place."

Doreen and Rodolfo had taken refuge in the far corner of the shop, beside a shelf stocked with sweets. Several other civilians were also present, looking frightened and incredulous. Doreen could tell that, despite Sedalia's relative desolation, attacks were a rare thing.

"What if it's a terror attack?" one wailed. She was a beige-furred Antelope, her beautiful curving horns decorated with gold rings. "What if there's a bomb on the station?"

"No bomb could blow up the station," another civilian, this one a Labrador in a helmetless radiation suit, muttered. He snorted at the closed shutters. "It's probably some nut-job with a potato gun ranting about how the sky is falling on him again."

Rodolfo turned in his direction. "If that's the case, then there are a lot of them."

"Really?" the radiation suit guy queried.

Doreen nodded. "A group, at least. We saw them on the way in."

Patsy slammed a fist against the shutter. "I've just had the place repainted, too."

Muffled sounds of weapon exchanges made their way through the robust shutters, and the occupants of the shop tensed as one. Something heavy hit the shutter, making it vibrate, and a not-too-far-off concussion made everything shake. "I'm thinking we should get out of here," Doreen whispered to Rodolfo.

"I say we hunker down for now," Rodolfo responded. "If things really go south, we run."

Doreen nodded. Running out of the shop now, she knew, would be risking getting caught in the crossfire. They already had been once. She put a paw to her forehead as another headache hit her. Everything blurred and stretched, and she felt dizzy. "Rodolfo..."

Rodolfo's eyes flicked to her. "Doreen? What's wrong?"

"I really don't feel good," Doreen squeaked.

Rodolfo groaned. "We run, then." He turned to Patsy. "Where's the nearest med-lab?"

"Nutbush Street, just south of here," Patsy told him. "Your friend not feeling too well?"

"No." Rodolfo gave Doreen a worried look.

"I'll help you get there," the Labrador in the rad suit offered. "My sister works at Nutbush Medical."

"You sure?" Rodolfo asked him. "I don't want to put you in harm's way."

The Labrador stood. "Hey, the trouble's out on the street. We should be okay going out the back." He turned to Patsy. "You got the keys to this place, Patsy?"

"Door's unlocked, Bill," Patsy said.

Bill motioned to Rodolfo and Doreen. "This way."

The hammering from the street continued as Bill led Rodolfo and Doreen out of the shop and down the alley behind it.

Doreen could barely stand; in fact, if Rodolfo hadn't been holding her, she would readily have admitted to the possibility of falling flat on her muzzle. She moaned quietly as her superior bustled her. Her head rocked with each step, and she fought not to throw up.

"Hold on, Doreen," Rodolfo whispered, obviously aware of her discomfort. "We're getting you some help."

Doreen would have answered, but the ever-present spectre of projectile vomiting kept her mouth shut.

Suddenly, Bill stopped up short, nearly causing Rodolfo to bull-rush him from behind. "Uh, we might have a problem."

Doreen craned her head up to look past him. This alley wasn't that long, and led out onto another street; however, that street wasn't vacant. More of those rough-looking bushwhackers were out there, arrayed in a loose group, and they were just as heavily armed as the first bunch. There were only a few, but they were enough to represent a serious threat.

"I don't think they've spotted us," Bill whispered, looking back at his companions.

Rodolfo growled, baring his sharp teeth. "If I had a gun right now..."

Doreen almost wept. They were trapped between two hordes of dangerous people, and unarmed. An overwhelming jolt of helplessness and fear roiled in her stomach, swelling and infecting every cell in her body.

"I'm getting my geologist to a med-lab," Rodolfo snarled. "I'm not turning back for this lot."

"You're crazy if you think you can get to Nutbush Medical through here," Bill shot back.

Doreen shut her eyes and closed her ears against her head, wishing she could just hope the situation away, hope that she could feel like herself again, hope that she could somehow travel back to the morning she left with the team for Ilarik and stay home.

Little chance of that, she knew. She opened her eyes...

...and saw Rodolfo and Bill staring at her. "What?" she was able to utter.

"Doreen," Rodolfo gasped, a shaking finger managing to orient in her direction. "You're..."

"I'm...?" Doreen mumbled blearily.

"Glowing," Bill managed to say. "You're glowing, girl!"

Doreen blinked and looked down at herself.

She was.

A strange, golden light was shimmering around her in a corona, turning her fur and clothes a pallid yellow. The chanting was hammering on in her head now, building to a deafening crescendo...

... and then it was coming out of her; she was aware of her mouth moving, but the voice was not hers.

"Is that Roovek?" Bill yelped as he staggered away from her.

Rodolfo's head was darting about nervously. "Doreen! Doreen, stop! They're coming, Doreen!" he cried over her chanting.

Doreen shrugged him off; with a surge of strength, she emerged from the alley and barked a challenge at the assembled bushwhackers. Deep inside, Doreen was terrified and surprised at herself, screaming for herself to stop, but the voice coming out of her ranted on, gesturing wildly and threateningly at them while tracing fearsome slashes of light before her.

A small part of Doreen's mind noted all of this as entirely fascinating; this was a language and phenomenon not marked down in any scientific journal or resource she could think of.

The bushwhackers were very definitely alerted now; some of them seemed a little unnerved, while a few of the braver-looking ones ventured forth with weapons at the ready. Their mouths were moving, but Doreen was unable to make out anything they were saying.

She moved towards them, arms waving and mouth howling what sounded like obscenities, and she had no control over any of it.

What was happening to her...?