Let's go DEFY TERROR

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"Really? I guess on maps it seems closer. Hey, wha--JOHN! Breathe, girl, breathe!" Kittie slapped John's shoulder a couple times, laughing a little herself, though she didn't really understand what Erica was insinuating at first. But soon enough Theodore, leaning over the seat between Kittie and John, clarified. "Oh, ok. So first Linguist over there calls me a murderer, and now you're saying I take advantage of girls. Is that why you made me sit in the trunk?" he demanded.

John was choking with laughter. Erica herself couldn't keep from giggling a little bit. In the front, Ben was trying his best to concentrate on driving around the city, while Kat, who was very very extremely good at keeping her emotions hidden, looked quite amused. Erica answered Theo with a curt, "No." Erica thought a bit, said, "True gentlemen always make way for girls." She coked her head, then continued, "You look like one." Beside Kittie, John understood every single word, and kept on laughing and choking even though Kittie's constant pats on her back.

OOC;; Tea, you're such a fun rper to rp with. ^^ Just reading what we wrote got me crackin' up xD

Erica laughed. "Peut-être" was the only thing she said.
[b]"The things teens talk about," Kat groaned.
"Vat. Ve not teen?" John asked her in a Russian accent.
"No. I'm a grad student. Or I was." Kat silenced.

Kat shrugged.
Erica grinned. "I'm seventeen, too! How about you, John?"
John looked startled.
"Well, maybe John doesn't know her age," Erica sighed.
Suddenly, Kat yelled, "STOP THE CAR!!!"

A small teenage girl stood in the middle of the road, her back to the jeep.
Erica's stomach twisted. "Uh.... HELLO?"
The girl didn't turn around, just kept on standing there.
Kat caught her breath. "Nobody move," she said, then got out of the car.
"No!" John whispered fiercely, yet inaudibly.
Kat walked over to the girl and took a stand next to the girl, putting a hand gently on her shoulder. The girl turned slightly, and Erica could see her face. Her blue eyes were clouded over, her short black hair, almost Kat's haircut, was messy, her face was dirty, and her clothes were rags, but otherwise she was very much-- "Izzy!" Erica cried out inwardly.
Kat seemed to be trying to coax the girl into joining them. But she kept shaking her head and mumbling. Her eyes, so clouded and glassy, seemed to see nothing, and Erica suspected that they didn't. Still, Kat hung on, determined as she always was, and still is.

Theodore leaned over the seat again to get a better look at what was happening in the flood of the headlights. Kittie looked at him, then John, frowning.

“Do you know what’s going on, John?” she asked.

“Looks like another family reunion to me,” Theo cut in. “We’ll probably have to fit her in here, too...”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, Kittie.” Glancing at John, he added, “So..while we’ve stopped, I want to know where the heck you came from. Why were you with those cloak guys? If you don't want to tell me, whatever, I guess, but I really kinda want to know.”

John shook her head, and said in a very trying Arabic accent, "Ooooooh, you don't want guess, no no."

Erica looked quite amused.

Outside, Kat was explaining what had happened. The girl had started walking to the jeep with her, and the jeep peeps could begin to understand what they were talking about.

Kat was saying, "Well, we don't know what happened to anybody but our own selves. As far as I know, Alex is back at camp." I hope, she added to herself.

The girl, Izzy, nodded. "I presume you don't know for sure, though?"

"No," Kat spoke softly, "we don't."

The blind girl stopped when she neared the jeep. Kat looked up at the people in the backseat.

"ME!!!" John yelled spontaneously, and climbed into the trunk. "Jy beter beweeg voor jy sit op redelik min haas!" she yelled at Theo.

Kat helped Izzy into John's seat, next to Kittie, then closed the door. She went into the front.

As soon as Kat settled into her seat, and Ben once again started driving, however, everyone became aware of the stench of fresh blood.

(I love these leetle cliffhangies <3 <3 <3 I'm also very strange :O)

Theodore moved over the best he could so that he wasn't squished up against her, but, even after careful maneuvering, there wasn't much help for it. He resigned to sitting with his back against the suitcase pile, opposite her, obviously trying to stay as far away as possible.

But, of course, John was yelling anyway.

Theodore just huffed and watched her, since she was the only thing back there really to look at. He decided against trying to strike up another conversation. She didn't seem to him like the conversationalist type. So he just watched, until, suddenly, his hand traveled up to the gash bove his ear. Was it bleeding again? No, no, the blood had long since dried and crusted over. It might've looked like murder in contrast to his white hair, but the blood wasn't flowing. Dry blood wouldn't make the car smell like copper. His eyes went quizzical, fixing on John, and he scrunched up his eyes. He wondered if she smelled it too.

---

Kittie looked on curiously as John scrambled over the seat. She was surprised, no doubt; from what she had seen so far, those two didn't get along very well, so she couldn't see why John would be so eager to move back there. But she quickly dismissed it to focus on the mystery at hand: that odd, scruffy-looking girl that now sat to her right. She merely blinked at her, then swung her head in another direction if it looked like the girl had noticed. She wouldn't' have even guessed that the girl was blind.


ooc; Did John call him a 'pretty little rabbit'? I'm laughing...I'm laughing..Oh my gosh, he  really does remind me of a rabbit.

A faint sound began to become apparent to the group, which slowly got louder. They might've only heard it once, but they all knew what it linked to. The sound of the motorbike quickly got louder, and within moments the rider in full black could be seen in the rear view mirror. He must've been going extremely fast to be getting so close at such a speed,but he did seem to be slowing down slightly. In the mirror, he was seen to throw a stick of some sort into the air, only to grab a higher part of it with his hand, jerk the stick back down, then spin it around so he was holding the bottom of it again, pointing it at them...
A shotgun.

(I'm BACK!)

OOC;; OMG, I can't remember what I typed into the Google Translator... but haha... that made me laugh anyway =D

John laughed and pointed and pointed and pointed at Theo as she spewed some unintelligeble foreign words at him.
And pointed some more.
Erica sniffed the air, looking worried. The blind girl, her face unemotional just a second ago, seemed slightly strained. Everybody smelled that copper. Then John happened to look back. She opened her mouth, frightened. "Uh, there be some attacker behind ourselves!" she warned the group, before kicking open the trunk, jumping to the ground, and rolling into a pile of debris.
Izzy looked shocked. "How..."
"It's okay," Erica comforted. "Kitty, go with John. Now." Erica then grabbed Izzy's hand and together they ran away, ducking under the gunfire.
In a moment, Kat was out of the car. Ducking behind the car, she poured a small droplet of a beautiful, coal-black liquid into a hole in a dart. She meticulously placed the armed dart onto her crossbow, took aim, and fired. Then she put her crossbow into her pouch, as she raced for cover. The gunman would most certainly die very soon from the potent black droplet, however small it was. Deathberry, geranium, and nightshade. The sap of three of Kat's most favorite plants was in that dangerous black mixture.

Theodore's jaw dropped open as John tumbled out to the moving vehicle. And for what? Some stranger on a motorcycle? He twisted quickly around to keep the rest his luggage in the car (a box and one of the suitcases had already tumbled out). Meanwhile, the ever-trusting Kittie was crawling over the back seat so that she, too, could jump out of the trunk.

"C'mon, we've got to follow John!" Kittie urged, but Theodore put out an arm to block her. She tossed her head and shot him a look.

"What, you want to die? We should wait until-" The car swung to a halt so suddenly that the two of them both tumbled out of the little half-trunk. So much for waiting.

As soon as he could peel his face off the asphalt, Theo was nudging his sister along. Understanding, she pulled a shard of glass from her cheek and nodded, pulling herself up; she high-tailed it across the pavement towards John.

Theodore got up much less gracefully and swung behind the car. And there was Kat. With a crossbow. She and her surroundings were dimly illuminated by the flickering streetlamp about twenty feet back. Theodore crept into the light, glancing over his shoulder. "Need any help?"

As Kat moved away from the light, she spotted Theo coming towards her. "Need any help?" he asked. Kat simply acknowledged him with a curt nod, then spoke in her characteristic soft kind voice, "No, I don't, but thanks for asking."
Erica got up shakily. Izzy, still quite blind, still sat in the pile of debris she had fallen into. "Quick thinking, Kat. They took mine, and I was just about to throw this old jackhammer." She waved toward a rusty hunk of metal.
Kat laughed: a cheerful, seemingly happy sound. "Perhaps. But I have seen you throw before."
Erica shook her head, smiling. "I'd take that as a compliment but for my terrible pitching skills."

"Oh, Theodore, hey again," Kittie greeted, making her presence known. Really, she and Theo could've saved time just sticking together. All she had to do was go behind the car.

Kittie brushed off her dress as she made her way towards Erica and Izzy. The latter she waved to demurely. "Where's John? You know?" she asked. Before either could answer, though, the girl covered her ears, blocking out the rumble of the motorbike and everything else. She closed her eyes. Opened them. Slowly uncovered her ears. "I hope who ever was on that motorcycle hasn't got her. Who is that? Are we safe now?"

The rider hardly twitched when the bolt almost completely pierced the visor of his helmet, stopping a mere two centimetres from his left eye. He quickly holstered his shotgun against his back, then plucked the bolt from his visor. He'd managed to thicken his visor using countless rolls of clear sticky tape, otherwise the bolt alone would've killed him. He crushed the bolt between his fingers, and sniffed the resulting liquid. He knew who he wanted now. The rider pulled out the shotgun once again, and aimed it at the person he was now speeding towards: Kat. He hardly noticed anyone else.

Erica brushed off herself, then noticed the motorbike, speeding towards Kat. She gasped, unable to speak. Izzy swallowed her fear. "What's going on?" she whispered.
John was nowhere in sight.

The bike kept coming.

And coming.

And coming.

Then Kat turned around and flung a lit ball right in the direction of the speeding bike, the good pitcher she was. "30 seconds and bam," Kat muttered under her breath. Something in her pocket clicked. She ignored it. The bike was coming so fast, that it wouldn't be able to turn to avoid the lighted bomb, still sailing through the air. It would be disastrous either way. Kat liked it that way, especially when she was in charge.

Kittie flicked her head around to see that the motorbike was now coming towards Kat. And so the answer to her previous question was, in fact, a no.

Surely Kat could take care of it, though, right? She had before. Really, Kittie knew that she should be afraid for the lunatic on the motorbike, not Kat, but she couldn't help that her stomach lurched as the bike zoomed forward.

And maybe, maybe Kat was tired after all that running and beating people up, and getting almost-but-not-quite ran over? Kittie reached behind her back and crossed her fingers. She could only hope that wasn't the case.

----

Theodore had to think fast, which he was getting sort of better at.

He ran to the trunk and tugged out a black bag, then retreated back behind the car, pulled out a handgun. It wasn't loaded--heck, he didn't even know if the thing worked--but it had always worked for bluffing, and it kind of steadied his nerves holding it, just in case. He slung the bag over his shoulder and went over to Kittie, Erica, and Izzy.

Kittie hardly noticed him. She had her fingers crossed behind her back and was nervously shifting from foot to foot. Theodore remembered that she used to do that exact same thing on days before a test, standing, leaning over a textbook, and doing that particular little dance of anxiety, back when school was in session. He decided not to bother her.

The rider entered one of those moments when time slowed down only for him. He saw the bomb heading toward him, and thought about his options. After considering, he went for the option that left him with the highest chances of survival: he turned the throttle as far as it would go, and sped towards the bomb. The bomb bounced off the windshield of the bike, and went flying off to the side, promptly exploding, and destroying the bike's balance with it's shockwave. Then the rider did a move that looked like it was out of one of the Die Hard movies: he forced the bike to slide, his left leg under the bike and the underside moving towards the group, and upon getting close enough to his target, simply stopped in his tracks, the bike continuing to slide, his shotgun armed and aimed at her. "I'm not leaving without you. There's too much at stake. Your coming with me." Growled the muffled rider's voice to Kat, with an accent so strong it was downright obvious he came from Australia.

Instead of looking terrified for the stranger, Kat simply gave him one of her warmest, friendliest smiles, and laughed lightly. "Oh, you seem to have a lot of tricks, my friend," she laughed, casually leaning against the pole and crossing her arms. Then she spoke in a softer tone, "Just between you and me, I think you are the best fighter-- ever." She laughed lightly again, and whispered, "I'll go with you." She uncrossed her arms and walked up to the figure.

Kittie's fidgeting stopped. She glanced over at Theo, who's only answer was a shrug.  

"Doesn't she have a boyfriend?" Theo whispered. Kittie frowned and slapped his arm.

"Don't be dumb. She must have a plan or something."

"Well, what if she doesn't?"

"You were on the track team. Take a wild guess." Kittie paused, then added lightly, "That was still really cool, though. I bet he could beat you up. And he has a cool accent. If you had a cool accent I bet Erica would think you were even cuter-"

"Kittie, please."

"You just rolled your eyes at me, didn't you? That's rude."

"It's dark. There is no possible way for you to know if I-"

"It's in your voice. When you get all sassy you always roll your eyes. One day they'll roll right out of your head, and when they do I'm not following you around to tell you what stuff looks like. Know it?"

He flicked a hair out of his face. "Know it."

And just like that their whispering ceased.

"Flirting won't do anything. Turn and walk towards the bike." He said his grip on the shotgun tightening. Her attempt to soften him up only made him harder to crack: he was set on his goal, and being this close he couldn't be distracted. He heard the other two whispering,and looked at them briefly. "You, Sass-boy. Pass me all the chems you have. All. Of them." He growled.

"Oh, so that's what you want," Kat murmured softly, a hint of a smile still burning in her round, pretty face. Ben, Izzy, and John were nowhere in sight, and Erica had disappeared a little later. Such was the situation whenever one was in a crisis, and wanted everybody else to be safe. Kat couldn't understand why Kittie and theo were still standing around, though. Maybe they refused to go, because they liked her and wanted to stay. Nice of them, though dangerous. Go! she willed to the two, but kept up her sweet smile. Kat casually walked toward the motorcycle. As she did, she kept an eye on the masked figure. This guy was a slippery one. But, then again, they were all slippery.

"Chems? What is a chem?" Kittie asked, raising her voice slightly. Theodore poked her in the ribs and motioned behind them with his head. She turned just long enough to figure out that the others had vanished. But where did they go? She whipped her head back around, wide-eyed.

In a flash she grabbed the gun Theo had behind his back, rushed forward, and put Kat into a head lock (though she was short so it tilted Kat back a bit). The gun went to Kat's head and Kittie watched the stranger stonily. She tossed her head. "You need her, right? I don't. Come any closer and I'll shoot her dead."

Farther back, Theodore blinked stupidly, stumbled back a bit. His foot caught and he nearly fell backwards. Then he steadied himself, sighed, and put his hands in his pockets to watch the inevitable unfold. It would be a good story to tell his grandkids someday, and he was always looking for good stories to tell his grandkids, if he lived that long.

[[ Sorry for the powerplay--I try not to do that. If for some reason you don't want Kat in a headlock you can by all means have her punch Kittie's lights out or something. It just wouldn't have been much of a post had I stopped right when she was trying to, and again I'm sorry. I feel so bad now.. ]]