Pursuing Shadows

( OOC: That's fine Goobtron. I figured that you might have other things going on since you'd mentioned you were moving. )

((Sorry for the wait)) "Hey tangerine  ate you coming back  to the hospital. Cause when shade is better I have to go back to hybrid city. It's my job to protect it and it's a large city. It's a huge target for terrorists and villans " Shocker asked tangerine

Shade nodded at Tangerine's comment, "yeah I guess so," Shade then frowned when Tangerine mentioned no powers, he sighed, "ugh fine." Shade then opens the window and listens to Shocker, "seriously? You're not going back there, we almost died, multiple times." Shade's eye was then caught by a sign saying of sale on ice lollies, so, going against Tangerine's demand, he attempted to get it.

Shade concentrated and, pointing his hand out of the window and at the freezer that contained the lollies, Shade telekinetically opened the freezer and retrieved a lolly before bringing it to him. Shade then closed the window a little and, unwrapping the ice lolly, beginning to feast on it. Shade looked at Tangerine and the two wolves and shrugged, "what? I get cravings."

The dragon nodded a bit contentedly as at least Wolf agreed to follow her rule. She wasn't sure if he had powers or not, but had no intention of finding out while driving. Such brief content was incredibly fleeting, however, as, after begrudgingly agreeing to her terms, Shade rolled down the window so Shocker could report to the rest of them that he was suddenly in a hurry to leave once certain his friend was okay.
The reptile again bit her tongue to keep from telling him that he could just go if this city was in such dire need of him. The more he spoke of this 'Hybrid City', the more it sounded like something from a Saturday-morning cartoon.
Shade elected to reply to Shocker instead for the moment and so Tangerine felt no need to say anything herself. That is... until the hedgehog didn't even wait thirty seconds since it had been spoken to do exactly what the dragon said to not do.

First off, the window being open was letting out all the warm air and allowing a chilling wind to blow through the interior of the truck. That was enough that Tangerine tightened her grip on the steering wheel and her shoulders hunched up a little in response. Her eyes were on the road and so she didn't really note that Shade wasn't rolling the window back up until she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and realized he was sticking his hand outside.
For some incredibly strange reason, there was a freezer outside with frozen desserts on sale within. The word 'free' was nowhere to be seen. They were driving fast enough that they'd passed the freezer fairly quickly, but the dragon glanced over just in time to see the sign and, not but a few moments later, a plastic package landing in Shade's open palm.
Her eyes narrowed significantly as the hedgehog then started eating away at the treat and had the gall to claim he had cravings.

Yeah, no, that wasn't going to fly.

Tangerine's demeanor seemed to change as she hit the brakes rather suddenly, having just barely seen a red light in time to stop for it. It would likely have been enough to jerk her passengers in their seats a little.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" the dragon snapped, her reptilian teeth bared by her words. "Did I not just say no powers? And now you're stealing while you're in my ride?"

She was in the wrong lane to do so, but didn't seem to care as she shoved one foot on the accelerator and turned right into a parking lot adjoined to where the frozen desserts were being sold. Like hell was she getting blamed for a kid with sticky fingers and no responsibility for his powers.
The truck promptly came to a stop in front of the source of the treat Shade had stolen. The truck was put into park and Tangerine turned her blue-eyed glare fully on the dark-furred hedgehog. She looked like she'd finally been pushed beyond the limit of her patience and it brought out a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"Get out," she ordered firmly, "Go pay for that. Now."

The hair of hers that wasn't underneath her hat was starting to stand on end a little and, for all those with fur inside the truck, they might note a feeling similar to static now in the air. Tangerine seemed to have a very low tolerance for such petty thievery, as well as people who chose to not listen to her. Oops.

Walter had a hard time not cracking up, fortunately he he only let a smirk slip as he added "You better do it kid otherwise your going to be in the hospital for a lot longer then you originally needed to be." other then the little snide comment Walter decided that it would probably be best of he avoided the drama

Although who knew, with that one comment he could have thrown himself in anyway

Since he was sitting behind Tangerine and was looking out the driver's side windows, Wolf had missed Shade snatching a frozen treat for himself. As such he was also totally unprepared for the sudden stop and the right side of his head ran into the back of Tangerine's seat.

He was about to ask what was going on while reaching up to rub the side of his head when Tangerine suddenly went off on Shade. She then swung the truck around and brought them to a stop beside a store. At this point, Wolf decides it is probably best for him to just keep quiet.

Shocker  was just in the sky floating. "Well I might as well tell you about  hybrid city. Hybrid city is a large metropolitan area. Has a population  of over 20 million It has the name hybrid city because it had alot of hybrids of diffrent species living there" Shocker told everybody. "Also shade when a certain accident  happened and I was stuck living alone. Hybrid city was a goI'd place to live for me. Did me good. That's why I still live there" Shocker said

Not even two bites later, Tangerine hit the brakes so suddenly that Shade's treat flew out of his hands and almost hit the windshield. The only reason it didn't was because Shade telekinetically caught it before putting it back in his hands before Tangerine began to moan at him. Shade sighed and knew he deserved it but was too annoyed to stay calm.

"Don't you shout at me with your lady balls, it is not fucking stealing when I'm gonna pay once all of this shit is over," Shade shouted back. Tangerine ordered him to pay now which made Shade sigh and feel like kicking the door down. However, Shade figured he had caused enough damage to Tangerine's truck and tried to open the door calmly.

Shade banged on the passenger window to grab Walt's attention. Shade smiled before his smile disappeared and he flipped Walt off before walking over to the shop, his hood up and his hands in his pockets, looking for money. Shade cursed and mumbled to himself as he stormed into the shop, nudged past anyone that was in his way, and slammed the money onto the clerk's table, saying, very annoyed, "keep the change," before storming outside the shop.

Shade knew a lot of people were looking at him but he wasn't in the mood to care and so ignored them. Shade passed the bin where he disposed of the wrapper before looking at the treat. It was almost finished but Shade now felt too guilty to finish it and so in the bin it went too. Shade sighed and made his way back to the truck, only to hear someone calling his name. Shade's eyes darted around and he stopped to turn his whole body around; he saw nothing so Shade just kept on walking.

Shade kept hearing his name being called until someone called him by his real name which made Shade feel really uneasy and he spun around before beginning to run to the truck. Something made Shade trip up and fall but when Shade turned nothing was there. Shade's heart began to beat super fast and to quicken his pace he telekinetically lifted himself into the air and flew towards Tangerine's truck.

Shade felt like he was going to fall at any second but luckily he landed at the left of the truck and quickly got into the seat beside Tangerine again. Shade was breathing really fast and he could feel he was almost sweating but he calmed down and said, "paid, let's go now," his voice was very shaky but Shade tried to hide that.

Tangerine's eyes darted briefly to the right towards Walter when he chose to drop in a comment. She didn't acknowledge his words otherwise, though, more focused on Shade. Although unwilling to admit it, the hedgehog and his flying companion had her on edge and she wasn't keen on the idea of getting into an altercation with either of them. Granted, although she couldn't hear him clearly, it seemed Shocker was completely oblivious to the ongoing conflict and just blathering on about this darn city he was so obsessed with.
Tangerine couldn't complain. At least he wasn't trying to stand up for Shade's actions.

Of course, Shade yelling back at Tangerine seemed to only make her eyes narrow further in their reptilian way, baring more iris than slitted pupil by this point. A growl started to rise from her throat and she considered telling him what she intended to do with these lady balls of hers, but the hedgehog was already getting out of the truck. So instead Tangerine just continued to glare at him until he was out of sight and heading into the shop.

The dragon heaved out a sigh, not really thinking of the pair of wolves in the back seat as she lowered her head towards the steering wheel. One paw reached up and pinched the bridge of her snout. Her tail audibly thumped against the driver's side door a couple of times as the irritation continued to linger. The static began to die down, at least, and her hair also went back to normal. But the reptile was clearly peeved still.

Whether spoken to or not, the dragon didn't move until Shade frantically jumped back into the truck and slammed the door again. Tangerine glanced over at him, realizing she didn't even watch the hedgehog to make sure he actually paid for the snack and wasn't just lying to her. Oh well...

Her brow furrowed, though, as she noted he seemed out of breath and quite shaken up by something. Part of her wanted to ask what was wrong but... nah, she was still angry at him.

Without a word, Tangerine shifted gears again and started back out of the parking lot and towards the street. Any more of this mess and she might just start kicking people out of the vehicle...

Walter at this point kept to himself. True he was getting real sick of these side tracks, he wanted to get to the meat of his story and this constant side stuff, brought on by near childish shenanigans. 

But if he was patient, he'd be rewarded... At least he hoped, to pass by the time he turned to Wolf "So Mr. Wolf, how long have you been hunted for, like this, if I may ask?"

Wolf leans forward, getting a bit closer to Tangerine after Shade had left the truck.

"Ummm... Are you going to be okay?" he asks her.

He then looks over at Walt and motions for him to wait for a while in response to his question, as he wanted to keep his attention on Tangerine for the moment, even ignoring Shade's return to the truck.

"Shade I gotta  get back home man. Your  gotta get to the hospital. We all have placed to go man. " Shocker  tells shade. He sighed. "Let's try not to make this difficult" Shocker says with a sigh.

Shade stayed quiet for a bit, just looking out of the window. He wasn't shaken up anymore but he didn't know why; he just had some strange sense of safety in the car. Shade was still a little annoyed at Tangerine but he could sense this whole event was getting to her so Shade didn't want to provoke her at all.

Shade ignored the conversation Wolf and Walt were going to have as he just stared out of the window, which was now closed, and sighed, contemplating things. Shade had heard Shocker but forgot to respond to his comment, Shade however didn't answer now, he had things to worry about.

Tangerine let Wolf's question hang in the air for a while. She expected he would answer Walt's question and maybe leave her to her thoughts. However, even after she began to move the truck, a glance in the rearview mirror revealed he still seemed to be waiting for an answer.

"Everything's fine," she replied, though not very convincingly.

This little field trip was already off to a poor start and she just wanted to drop off the two rowdy hedgehogs and see if maybe she could breathe without weird things happening all the time. Although as Shocker also commented, part of her almost felt glad that even he wanted to just get everything done.

Once again, the truck pulled back out onto the road. The light was green by now and so Tangerine drove right on through the intersection. She kept her gaze forward and only glanced down once in a while to check the directions on her phone.
By this point, the dragon was certain that if there were any more interruptions, she might just scream. In her head, at least.

Walter sighed quietly to himself, it seemed there was to much going on just trying to do a simple harmless task as getting a truck repaired and dropping someone off at the hospital. 

Wolf and Tangerine seemed to be on edge, for good reason obviously and the two hedgehogs... were doing whatever it is they do. Walt figured at this point he was a small two bit player and would be best if he kept his mouth shut.

Wolf eases back from Tangerine and leans back into his seat again. It was obvious that she was angry by what had been going on. It was bothering him as she had gotten involved just to try and help him out... and this is what she was getting in return for doing so. He thought that he'd probably have to do something to try and make this up to her.

He pushes that thought aside for further consideration. Then he looks back to Walt.

"Well... in response to your question Walt, I'm fairly sure that I've been pursued at various points in my life." he says, "I don't know if I was the person of interest, or if it was because of the people I was with at the time. But I know this sort of thing has gone back years..."


( OOC: As Leon hasn't posted in a couple of days, we'll skip him for this round of posts. It is now Shade's turn. )

(Are you sure? It seems you only posted today but Shocker just didn't skip you I guess because 3 days hadn't completely passed yet.)

( OOC: It seems like I posted today because I reposted with with an OOC note attached as an update about the current situation. I did that so that I could avoid double posting.

Leon has had about two and a half days to post since my original reply went up. I'm keeping track of times between posts, and I tend to give some leeway before skipping someone. Considering my rules in my initial post only give someone 24 hours before being skipped, I tend to give a lot of leeway here.

So then, it's your post Shade. Leon can post when his turn come around in the next posting cycle. )

(Ooc): Cso  I did post about the fact that I wouldn't be able to be as active. I'm on 8th grade man.  They have  been giving alot of homework.

Shade closed his eyes and he slowly fell into a dreamless sleep, the voices beside him becoming faint and unintelligible. Shade's mind wandered and soon he completely conked out in the car. Shade's arm was on the truck door, supporting his head as he snored quietly. Shade's extra sensory abilities turned on and he could still "see" almost everything happening around him.

((Oh man, I forgot a lot of you guys have to go back to school! :P Especially since I noticed you still posting in your other topic(s). Work hard, though, you can do it!
On a side note, while reading over some old stuff, I realized that Tangerine's truck is in fact dark grey, not light blue. My mistake! Correcting myself in case it somehow becomes relevant.))

Tangerine listened idly to Wolf answering Walter's question. She found his story strange. What would anyone want with this seemingly average wolf kid?
She didn't let herself get distracted with trying to figure it out for now and instead focused on driving. While stopped at a traffic light, her right paw reached over and tapped a button on the car radio. Maybe some of the music she'd had on earlier would help her relax a little and not strangle anyone.

"And I'm trying to find my peace of mind behind these two white highway lines..." began to sound from the speakers in the truck. The dragon couldn't stop herself from smirking a little at the timing of such lyrics. At this point it likely would become fairly evident that the dragon used her sound system quite a bit as she had a pretty decent set in the truck.

"Baby, come home..."

The music's volume was kept pretty low, allowing for conversation to continue without any interruption. Tangerine knew the songs already, but having them playing softly in the background would at least give her something else to think about. The drive went on and she did note that Shade seemed to fall asleep. She found it curious that out of all of them, he'd slept the most so far.

The motel Walt had taken them to was on the edge of town and, as a result, it was quite a drive to get back into the main part of town where most businesses and the hospital were. They'd been driving for ten minutes already as Tangerine continued to follow her phone's directions. Just a few more minutes, though, and they'd finally be at their first destination.

Walt looked at Wolf with a raised eyebrow "People you were with?... I'm sorry but do you have any more details on that? Seriously anything you can uncover for us will help solving this odd happening. If your worried about reviling identities perhaps just a description of the type of group?" 

Walt pulled out his pen and note pad ready to write "Please Mr Wolf, anything you can give me will be a big help, and quite possibly could be the first step in ending this madness" 

Walt silently wondered how long he and Wolf would have the rest of the trucks occupants with them, as far as Walt was concerned he was here to stay, but what about Tangerine or Shade... or even Shocker... what an unfortunate name

"Well... I guess I could try and tell you what I know..." Wolf says, "What did you want to know about first?"


"There they are..."

A figure standing atop one of the buildings Tangerine's truck was just driving past took note of them going by. They were obscured from sight though, using their own abilities to hide even in the open.

"Get ready to move in. I shall stop them."

The figure raises a bow, with an arrow already in place to be fired. They line up their shot with where the truck will be and then release it. Much like the figure who fires it, the arrow is obscured as it travels through the air making it near impossible to stop. It was putting out energy that could be noticed, but in the time it would take to determine where it had been at that moment, it would already have moved past.

The arrow struck the pavement just below the truck after approaching from behind it. The arrow then disintegrates as it releases a burst of dark energy, throwing out a shockwave that would easily displace the vehicles driving nearby and tossing them aside. Tangerine's truck, based on its position relative to the arrow that was below and behind it, would likely be lifted up and flipped forward.

Shocker sensed the energy arrow coming. "We're under attack" Shocker said. He sensed the two assulters and got ready for a fight. "There on the roof" Shocker yells.

Shade slept soundly until they passed the archer. Shade sensed the energy and immediately woke up, feeling pain and wincing, trying to warn everyone with a voice of worry and concern, "guys, get out of the truck," but Shade was just too late. The truck flipped forwards, glass shattering and flying past people's faces. Shade tried to react fast and tried to create a telekinetic shield but, again, he wasn't fast enough.

Shade felt time slow down as Shade was soon upside down, his arms flew up and his tears flew up his face from the pain. A piece of glass went through his right hand, blood splattering everywhere, glass also went through his splint, cutting it off. Glass also cut Shade in several places but these were less serious and only grazed and or made Shade bleed.

A shard of glass sped through Shade's seat belt, cutting it, sending Shade into the dashboard. Shade tried to push himself off the dashboard and ended up flying through the passenger window he was beside and out of the truck. Shade hit the ground with a thud and his nerves suddenly freaked out. Shade rolled across the ground until he eventually lost momentum.

Shade coughed and spluttered, he hurt all over and Shade winced at the pain, "shit man, you ran into the wrong crowd this time Shade," he mumbled but even that hurt. Shade looked up at the truck as it had been flipped over, "oh my god, hello?" Shade called to the people in the truck. He looked at the glass everywhere before looking at himself and coughing more.