Stoking the Fire

Both hedgehogs launched at each other. Sudden, and quick. Their blades clashed in mid-air, causing sparks to be flung across the grass. With a quick jump, Caen was back on the ground, and Alastor soon followed suit, albeit with less finesse. With each consecutive sword swing, Alastor followed with an almost perfect counter.

"Faster," Caen muttered, his swords travelling faster. Alastor gritted his teeth, struggling to keep up, but still barely managing. "Even faster," Caen muttered, his teeth grinding against each other as his arms began to become a blur, throwing even more sparks than before.
"How is he-?" Alastor spoke, stopping his speech just to deflect a blow that almost caught him in the leg.

-----

With a combat roll, Wilhelm had successfully managed to doge the icy projectiles, earning a sigh of relief... Which was cut off by a sharp scream, as a few of them suddenly dug into his back. The wounds weren't deep, but they were damn painful. As he recoiled, another blast of ice suddenly went whizzing past him, hitting a nearby tree.

-----

"This is not good," both the hedgehog and the wolf spoke through gritted teeth, almost in unison.

Panting heavily, Yukiko focused on creating a ball of ice in her hand. It stopped at just around the size of a snowball, looking just like one as well. 

She tossed it towards the male she had been fighting and clicked her fingers as soon as it reached just a few feet in front of him. It swirled, then seemingly burst, sending shards of ice right toward Wilhelm. If they impacted, they would cut deep. 

Yukiko smirked in approval at her own work. It was a creation she thought of on the spot, but at what cost? 
She flexed her fingers as she began to move again, only to find that the ends of the fingers on her left hand were cold. Too cold. 
She raised her arm to look, and saw that, in fact a light icy blue coating was ever so slightly creeping up her fingers and encasing them. Then came another chilly wave that rattled throughout her whole body. 

It was so cold. Yukiko dropped down on one knee as she slowly formed a blade in her hands. That was a simple task as it didn't require control to manouver it on it's own;  she could just handle it herself. But things were definitely getting harder. 

"This needs to be over quickly...not much energy left for this to continue." She growled quietly. She stole a glance to Caen to see how he was doing, to see the two hedgehogs in sword combat. Fast was an understatement. Blow for blow, they matched as equals. It nearly stole the breath from the violet feline before she snapped back to attention. This was just as important. She had heard the cry of pain before, but would it have made a difference to ha e expelled so much energy into that other attack? It was a deadly one and she only hoped the shards had managed to hit their target and finally stop him in his tracks.

Caen's heart was like a beating drum, upholding the rhythm of each slash, as it grew in speed. His breathing was fast, and shallow. He seemed to have grown... Wild, and reckless. Another side effect of this pin's power, presumably.

Alastor was less wild, and he was quickly running out of steam, barely deflecting each blow...

Until one of his blocks missed.

One sword struck his waist, soon being met by another in his thigh. Caen kicked out, his knee striking Alastor in the stomach. This pain met Alastor all at once as he was sent to the ground, yelling in pain.

He lay on the ground for a second, before scrambling to his feet, staring at Caen, seemingly unfazed by the blood seeping out of his wounds.
"W...Wilhelm," he spoke, with genuine fear in his voice "we must withdraw."

-----

As Caen was busy dealing the finishing blow, Wilhelm was standing, looking at Yukiko with bewilderment. Parts of her seemed to be... Freezing?

When she summoned a snowball, and threw it at the wolf, he gave a weak grin, as he saw this ice spread. '[i]zat is a weakness I must take note of[i]' he thought to himself.

The snow leopard clicked her fingers, causing the snowball to crack into several razor-sharp shards. Eyes widening, Wilhelm attempted to dodge, again, and he nearly succeeded, until one shard entered his arm. He yelled out, his scream loud, and piercing.

He stared at his wound, quiet, and shocked. The pain was immense, but it seemingly just missed an artery, once again. As he stood there, he heard Alastor's order, and he nodded, making one final button push on his gauntlet.

Within minutes, a helicopter flew overhead, stopping right in the middle of the clearing, before hovering downwards. The wind whipped through Caen's spines, as it kicked clouds of dust everywhere. A large claw came from the side, gathering up the robotic remains of Xavier, before both Alastor and Wilhelm ran towards it.

Wilhelm climbed inside, hanging onto a handle inside the cabin. Alastor turned to the duo, grinning "Caen, you and your friend are strong. We underestimated you. When we meet next, I assure you, the ending will not be the same."

With those words, Alastor jumped inside, and the helicopter began to fly upwards. Caen gritted his teeth, but did not speak. He merely watched the helicopter.

(Red you skipped me again. It's all good.)

((Sorry, Smook, totally forgot! Feel free to take your turn, now))

The grey wolf cracked his thumbs. He threw a punch at Turqoise, him dodging and hitting back, nailing it. The grey wolf only went a few feet back, then got back up and ran. He hit him at his turqoise leg, then punching his face. The hedgehog flew back. He quickly opened his eyes, and put his legs in a sitting-standing formation. He went into a ball and went for him, but missed.

He hit a tree and bounced back to him.

The cry of agony from Wilhelm was what made the somewhat dire situation a little brighter. Yukiko smirked darkly as she began to focus on the one shard that found its way into the canines skin, only to be disrupted by the loud whirring of helicopter blades.

The next thing the violet female knew, the man before her had made a beeline towards it as she watched a large claw-like structure come from nowhere and pick up the mostly destroyed remains of Caens father before retreating back into the hovering metal bird.

'They're retreating?' Was all she could think before the words of Alastor reached her white tipped ears. Her hair billowed out like a black fan around her as the winds continued to flow wildly around the group. Yukiko took a look at her hand again to see the ice had finally stopped moving up her arm when her adrenaline had slowed down and ever so slowly began melting away to leave no evidence.

As the helicopter began to take off and away from their location, the reality of what just transpired finally hit Yukiko like a ten tonne truck. Along with a searing pain in her chest.
"Ahh..." the pain had managed to escape from her mouth as she dropped down to one knee to try and catch her breath. Before she knew it, she had fallen to the ground unconscious.

--------------------------------------------------------

Not ten seconds had gone by when the violet female regained consciousness. Her dull brown eyes were replaced with her usual bright amber orbs once again as she slowly sat back up, feeling the pain in her chest, and feeling pretty clueless.
"What? What...happened?"

The words were more like a whisper as she saw her fiery hedgehog friend standing a little ways away from where she was, looking pretty bruised and battered. Was she hit on the head? Had that scientist knocked her out and left her?
She looked around and couldn't see them at all. "Caen?" Her soft voice returned, full of worry for his well being, and completely bewildered to what was even going on. Just what had happened?

(wait who go's I'm sort of confused now.)

((YOURS!))

(Oops, my bad .)

The wolf, once again, dodged, but this time disappeared. "Huh?" He looked around. He looked once more. Guess he'd be gone for good... or was he? The hedgehog walked over to Yukkiko. "Man, my bad for getting myself involved." He told them. He scratched his head, looking toward Yukkiko.

As the helicopter disappeared out of sight, the hedgehog had hardly noticed Yukiko fainting. At that point, all of his fatigue hit him at once, sending him to his knees. He breathed heavily as his eyes slowly returned to his normal blue colour.

Caen forced himself backwards and onto his back. He needed to rest. He winced when his pain had finally caught up to him. Cuts and bruises nearly covered his body. He looked up, touching one bruise on his arm "well, I guess it worked..." He muttered to himself, lying back again "but I had become so reckless... What is this pin?" He asked aloud, looking up at the night sky.

His gaze turned to Yukiko when he heard her soft voice call out his name. Shakily, he stood up, smiling softly at her "Yukiko... We drove them off. You did great," he spoke, walking slowly over to her. He knelt beside her, speaking quietly, "he's alive, Yukiko. Even if he's stuck in a robotic shell, he's alive!" He spoke, his smile turning into a grin "this isn't over, but, for now... We can breathe easy." He said.

His ear twitched when he heard the turquoise hedgehog speak out. He looked over at him, frowning "now you can see why I told you to run. Just be glad that this night didn't end with your death," he said quite sternly.

Complete and utter confusion plastered itself on Yukikos face. Things were more than hazy right now, and she had no idea what Caen was talking about. 

"We... We did? They listened to us?"
It appeared that whatever caused the emotions to cut ties with the poor leopard also meant she had memory loss to what happened. She had no recognition of even fighting Wilhelm other than the attempted unintentional murder. 

"Y-your father? He was the robot?" The vague viosuon of Caens troubled struggling expression popped into her mind. 
"Yes... I heard you converse.. I'm glad he at least spoke to you to let you know he is s-still in there." 

Yukiko pulled her legs underneath her before she flopped backwards onto the ground, her hair fanning out around her and letting out a deep breath. She spotted a turquoise hedgehog who seemed to be directing his comment of 'getting involved'. She was beyond confused at this point. 
Sitting up and turning around for a moment to raise a curious eyebrow at the bright hedgehog, she took on a shy expression. 
"I uhm... I mean n-no ill intentions, but who are you? And why are you here?" She looked between the two, noticing that she must have sounded ridiculous. "E-everything over the past while is rather blank to me. What exactly happened?"

Waiting for a response, Yukiko lay back down and closed her eyes to try and focus in remembering things. She saw fire, that much was sort of obvious, given the company. Then she saw ice. Again that was pretty obvious. 

Then she felt the overwhelming intent to end that wolf's life and her heart began to hammer in her chest. 

"N-nobody got seriously hurt though... Right? Please tell me nobody died!"

"Well, I basically came here because I thought some shady business was going on. Turned out I was wrong. Also I'm pretty sure nobody died, right Caen?" He scratched his head, waiting for the red hedgehog to respond. "Also also, I can handle myself." He informed Caen, with an annoyed look on his face.

"Well, it was nice meeting y'all, I gotta get going, y'know." He told them, as he waved goodbye and ran back home.

------------------------------------------------

"Hmph... Speed... Wit... He's the hedgehog I know." He crossed his arms. He appeared to be at an unknown location. He grabbed a letter, of some sort. He opened the letter, and wrote back.

(Alrighty, so that wraps things up for me. I'll still read the rest though, I just won't be responding.)

Caen scoffed at Yukiko's question, though he did not change his expression "I wish that were true, but we had to make a more... Convincing argument." At that point, he raised his eyebrow "don't you remember anything?" He asked "then again, maybe you lost control... At least, a little. Wilhelm's arm looked damn-near unusable."

When Yukiko's attention shifted to the turquoise hedgehog, Caen also turned his head to look at him. When this hedgehog asked Caen a question, he nodded "yes. I can't say I didn't want to kill them, though." He said, his voice slightly melancholic in tone.

Soon enough, the hedgehog waved goodbye, and left almost as suddenly as he came. "Um... Goodbye, then," he replied quietly, watching him go "why was a child that young going around at a time like this?" He asked aloud, looking back towards Yukiko.

The rather stern tone directed towards Caen from the turquoise hedgehog made Yukikos ears fall back in concern. The male swiftly turned away and uttered a goodbye before disappearing back through the trees as if he hadn't even been there in the first place. 

Violet and white ears swiveled towards Caen when he spoke of Wilhelm's arm being damaged. Was he trying to say it was her that caused the damage she saw? But she didn't remember how she even did it. How was that even-

"So it happened again... Things must have been looking rather bleak if that happened." The reliasation happened across her face as she put a hand on her chin in thought. "When I was younger, my father told me I had another side to me... That I was quite like a blank canvas when it came to caring about anything. Emotions just seemed to disappear, then when I came back to the right mindset I wouldn't have a clue."

She held her bare hands out to look at them. They were scratched and dirty. They were also gloveless which made her feel slightly naked. Those gloves were a personal safety net for her. If they were on then she knew she was in control of herself. She balled them into fists as she looked up to Caen again. 
"It may just be a case of bad timing. Maybe he lives nearby?"
She glanced over to where the smaller male had vanished off to. She had a feeling it wouldn't be the last time they would see the hedgehog however. 

Looking up to the sky to see the faintest rays of sunlight, Yukiko began standing back up on to her feet to dust herself off. 
"We've been here for a long time. It's... Morning."

Caen thought for a moment, taking the information that he had just been given on board "hm. I could see that you had changed... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought you here if it would bring you pain..."

Caen stood up again, looking above the trees in the general direction that the helicopter took off in. The first rays of morning light began to leak into their surroundings. "It is." He replied simply, before sighing "this really isn't over. I must find out where they went. First, however, I think you and I both need rest. Right, Yukiko?" He asked, finally looking over at the snow leopard.

"I don't mind, really. I always have to make sure that a friend is helped, no matter the circumstances."

The fiery hedgehog already knew that, and once again she felt it was rather corny to say it, but it was true. He basically cried out for help, who would be if she just left him to fight alone? Two on one isn't fair at all. 
Yukiko spotted the injuries all over her companion and raised a hand to ghost some slight frost over the more serious ones on him to cool them down. It wasn't much, but she knew injuries stayed open for longer of they were warmer. She simply gave a soft smile and looked out towards the sun as it ever so slowly raised into the sky. 

"This is just the tip of the iceberg, right Caen?" She half whispered. Her voice nearly failed to even come out so it sounded as if she was a little nervous about what to say. It was quite the opposite however as she just wanted it confirmed. "At least there is some good to come from it all though. Your father is somehow alive and conscious in that shell. He knew it was you. And even if he couldn't do anything... He still knew you were strong enough to stop him."

Some tears began forming in her eyes as she realised how much emotional turmoil the red hedgehog must be going through. To be under the belief that your father has been dead all this time, only for him to return under the control of a mad man in the form of a robot. If it were her in his position, she wouldn't be sure she could handle it. 

Words of rest perked her dual coloured ears as she nodded silently. She did feel very exhausted somehow, and her chest area felt unnaturally cold. She must have been over using her abilities whole she was blacked out as it wasn't uncommon to happen in times of a crisis like this. It was worse than before though. 

"I believe we must head back home. I might need to take a day off of work though to get back to normal. I only hope my boss understands." She mostly spoke that to herself as if she were thinking out loud. "Or... I could possibly call Kai and ask if he could swap with me instead... "

Amber eyes looked to Caens sapphire ones and nodded. No words were needed. They had to go back if they wanted to recover after all.

Caen couldn't help but smile as Yukiko delivered a rather corny and clichéd line, ever if it were true. "Yukiko... Thanks. For all of this. You're a good friend, even if I have known you for less than 24 hours," he said, looking over at the snow leopard. His words of rest clearly hadn't fallen on deaf ears, as he noticed that her fatigue had become a little more noticeable.

As she spoke of how this one night was 'just the tip of the iceberg', and how there was a small amount of good from it, all Caen could do was give a quiet "mmm" in agreement.

Suddenly, Caen felt an uncontrollable urge to yawn, and he gave into this urge, letting out a rather odd sounding noise as he did so. With that, he began to start on his way back to town "are you sure you don't need to visit the hospital?" He asked, a little worry in his voice "you took a few nasty hits, after all. One from a bomb, I believe."

A short, but calm laugh escaped the purple feline. "And you don't? I think it would be best just to patch ourselves up if you want to avoid questions from those uninvolved in the whole thing." Yukiko gave Caen a knowing look. Earlier on, it took a lot to get the situation at hand properly out of him, and even then she still couldn't get the full story until they were actually out there fighting. 

"You know I can defend myself, right?" She fell into step beside the fiery hedgehog. "Ice is pretty decent as a shield, if you know what to do with it of course."
Amber orbs gave a once over her bruised friend. "How did you manage to keep yourself relatively intact anyway? Fire is a very offensive ability, I can only imagine that you tried to ensure your uncle kept his distance. Unless... " she glanced at his scabbards. "Your swords worked to some extent... Hmm. "

Caen laughed as well, even if some of his bruises made it a little more painful "that's true. I think I'd get some funny looks, stumbling in in the middle of the night, covered in cuts and bruises."
He rolled up his sleeve a little, uncovering what appeared to be a rather nasty burn on his wrist "I must've overdone it a little bit," he muttered, wincing as he touched it with his other hand.

He glanced over when Yukiko spoke again, his face quickly turning back to a smile "oh, I certainly saw how well you could defend yourself. I mean, you managed to pin that wolf's arm to a tree! That's certainly something your run of the mill snow leopard can do, hmm?"

He looked down at the scabbards strapped to his sides "well, I can only use so much of my powers without ill effects, so it's good to use them when I can." He said, brushing off a little dirt on one of them. "I didn't come out completely unscathed, though. I doubt anyone could."

Yukiko lowered her ears when she saw the burn on Caens arm. It looked painful, which said a lot to how it must feel to him. If that was a form of backlash to his abilities, then maybe his was similar to hers. 

"I, uhm... Kind of have a similar thing happen if I over do it." She began. "If I use too much of my power reserve, I begin to tap into my own life force. I can build it up if I train and practise to gain stamina with it, but life gets in the way..."

She gave Caen a sad smile as the walked and she began to play with her fingers. "Over doing it for me sort of... Kind of freezes my heart..."

The sun was halfway up and now in amongst the trees, casting random rays and beacons of light through the branches and foliage they were amongst. In the distance from where they were walking, the trees steadily thinned out and a road could be seen. 

Yukiko swept her long hair out of her face and smiled up at the gradually brightening sky. It was going to be a beautiful day. 

"You were amazing, Caen." It came out loud, louder than she expected, but it was only the truth. "Not everyone can stand against family when they do wrong. You must have a strong heart to do what is right to defend your parents honour like that. Never give that strength up."

Caen stayed silent as Yukiko spoke of how she herself could potentially overdo it. It was incredibly similar to himself, with her elemental affinity working against her. Perhaps they were not so different?
"I've never tried training my stamina, myself. These burns are sort of a side effect, because I'll be burned up as fuel if I go too far," he spoke bluntly.

When Yukiko almost instinctively talked of how well Caen had fought, he couldn't help but blush a little. It was a little embarrassing, to say the least. "Alastor... He's hardly family to me, anymore. We merely share blood. Also, I don't think it's simply about honour, anymore..."

Her chest wasn't hurting as much any more, but she knew that once she had a well deserved sleep that she would more than feel the extent of the battle from not half an hour ago. At least it hadn't lasted longer. If so, she may not even be here. 
She really needed to get back to training her stamina reserves. If this happened again, who knows what would happen if she had to go on longer? 

Yukiko kept her pace as calm and stable as she could, but the bruising on her body was starting to build up, and she was certain she managed to do something to her leg at some point. It would heal though, nothing to worry about. 
Amber eyes stole anither look at the fiery hedgehog who reiterated that honour played no part in his actions. 

"You may not see it that way, but it looks like it from where others stand." She lowered her gaze almost in a shy manner as she clasped her hands together. "I know you probably do it every day, but thinking back to leaving your home, the way you lingered on your parents photograph? That tells at least me that you wanted to do something right. At least for their memorys sake."

Woah. She said all of that strongly and with no stuttering. That earned a metaphorical pat on the back. 
Yukikos purple tail swayed around happily. It was as if it knew things would be alright for now. She only hoped the same would go for Caen. After all, he had to go out and fight family to earn his right to even live it seemed. Whether he considered Alastor family or not, there was an unusual similarity to them. She just couldn't put her finger in what it was, minus the hedgehog part obviously. Perhaps it may be the desire to exist with nobody standing in their way? She couldn't be sure. 

Taking another look to the red hedgehogs hands, she then looked at her own, and remembered where the ice was not too long ago. Yes. They were very similar. She closed her hands into light fists, one over the other and moved her amber gaze skyward. 

"Maybe that's what happens when you use the elements in such a way..."

"Yes, but..."
Caen stopped, taking a deep breath, "the way I see it, it's merely for revenge. That man has taken so much from me, and... Well, he's the reason I picked up my sword in the first place. Maybe somewhere, deep down, I'm not doing it for such a selfish reason, but, as far as I see it, I..." He shook his head, tightening one hand into a fist.

"I blame myself, Yukiko. If I had just seen it coming, neither of my parents would be dead, or, at least in my father's case... Worse. That's the real reason I want revenge... Or is that even revenge? I'm not sure, anymore."

Yukiko proceeded to stop and reach forward to take Caens hand firmly. 
"Nobody saw him coming, Caen. Please. Stop beating yourself up over it. You were younger, and uninvolved in affairs like what was going on with your parents and him. You cannot be psychic and know what was going to transpire."

It was true that Yukiko didn't actually know if the red hedgehog had anything to do with what happened really, but she had a feeling he was innocent until everything went down. He wasn't the type to just stand by and allow it to happen unless there was absolutely nothing he could have done to stop it. She tightened her grip on the males hand as she looked deep into his eyes with a strong determination. 
"You don't want revenge. You want answers. There is a huge difference. That, and you're fighting to stop massacres. You, are a good person. Know you are not doing wrong by following the right path."

Black gloves hands let go of her companions before walking ahead and possibly even leaving him behind. She just pulled a very bold move, contrary to her shy nature, but she felt he needed those words to be spoken. 
She only hoped he allowed the words in to understand he wasn't the bad guy in this whole thing. 

The cities buildings now stood a mere few feet in front of them. They made it back. Bruised and exhausted, but they got there. Yukiko took in a deep lungul of city air, and winced a little at a pain in her chest. It felt like a cracked rib. Not too serious, she could bind her body up to help out if needed. 

"This is the end of the road for now I guess..."