Operation Alpha

The officers didn't pursue Caen and Shrike as they fled the area they had briefly been cornered in. Rather they began tending to their injured comrades.

Given Shrike's demonstrated weaponry, the forces in pursuit were issued new orders. They'd now try to avoid a direct confrontation with them. Caen and Shrike had shown that they were more than willing to use force with little regard for the consequences of doing so, especially in such a populated area.

Given the potential danger, and the chance that things could escalate further, a general warning was issued across the city on TV and radio informing people about the potential danger and describing Caen, Shrike, Shade and the wolf.


In response to their new orders, the helicopters following Caen and Shrike and Shade and Andrew drew back to a safer distance to continue their observation and tracking of them as best they could.


Meanwhile, the wolf had set off in a different direction than Shade, who had chosen to follow the rooftops. The wolf travels in a perpendicular direction, crossing a couple of smaller streets before coming to a stop between a couple of buildings to stay out of sight and consider his next course of action.

It was while crossing an intersection that movement in the skies caught the hedgehog's attention. There was another helicopter, seemingly off towards one of the city's neighborhoods. Maybe that's where either that wolf or the flying hedgehog had run off to and been followed. She paused there in the middle of the street. Coffee or more snooping...?

An oncoming car snapped Flame out of her thoughts and she finished crossing the street and made it to the sidewalk outside of the coffee shop. Coffee first. Definitely coffee. She wasn't going to endure more ridiculous drama without something to sip on in the meantime.

The hedgehog snorted out a breath through her nose and continued on into the coffee shop. There was a short line there so she let her eyes roam over the menu while she waited and looked over her options. This was likely going to take at least ten minutes or so.

However, she did note a television up on one wall of the shop, rather conveniently covering news of the 'dangerous assailants loose in the city'. It brought a little smirk to Flame's face as she watched the footage. It didn't tell her where any of them were if she did want to creep after anyone after getting her coffee, but it was something of an update now during her pause.

Andrew's antennae twitched, he raised his top left arm, peering at a number of dials below his palm, after a bit of turning the dials and tilting his antennae subtly, he eventually got the signal, "We're being tracked, but apparently there are two quarries making quite the ruckus, perhaps they could be the "Two Friends" of yours?" He asked, turning to search their surroundings, attempting to locate their pursuers. He sighed, and turned to the rest of them, "would you, perhaps, have extra-sensory perception? A way to locate your friends?" He asked, following behind Shade, he pressed the dials down, locking them in place, whenever he could stand still, he could locate the signal with his antennae again, but for know, he lost the signal.

( OOC: It's been a couple of days, and there has been no word from Storm, so we'll pass him for the moment.

It's now Red Blur's post. )

Caen continued running through the streets, noticing that the helicopter that was following had begun to slow, as though it was trying to put as much distance between itself and Caen. He skidded to a halt, looking back. He saw that the soldiers were not pursuing, instead tending to their injured. Caen looked down at the ground. He genuinely felt bad, and was reconsidering whether or not he was doing the right thing. He looked back up "I'm sorry." He muttered, continuing on his path. He gasped as he was pulled into a nearby alleyway, and breathed a sigh of relief when he realised that it was only Shrike. He asked Caen if he knew of the wolf's location, to which Caen responded with a snort, before saying "gee, I must be able to keep track of him when I'm running for my life."

He himself peeked out from the alleyway, still watching the soldiers "you really jacked them up, you know. A little bit unnecessary, don't you think?" Caen asked, as he watched one soldier hoist one of their comrades up onto their shoulder. He grumbled "I'm never gonna live this down..."

-Shrike checked the the area they seemed to be hidden, at least for now, but he was not content on it, know that other chopper was near by it would not be all that long till they would be found, he pulls himself back into the darkness of the alley way.-

" Look I had to do something alright, if not for what I did we probably be both heading towards prison, I ain't going to no prison...I used force but not lethal force...I didn't shoot them in the head or any thing now did I, but I had to break us out of there...some times..force is the only option to get something done...now gather your wits and self, we need to start moving back in the wolf's general direction if we are to have any chance of finding him...and of course getting to the bottom of it.

Before we move, is there any thing else you know of what is going on..any kind of clue or intel or something...this cat and mouse game is starting to get to me...and those enforcement personal are just making it worse."  

Shade watched as Andrew fiddled with some buttons but he did catch a glimpse of the wolf running off somewhere. Shade's eyes widened when Andrew mentioned they were being followed before asking if Shade had extra sensory abilities. Shade nodded, "yes indeed," he said before he held out his hand in front of him. He faced his palm towards Andrew before closing his eyes, taking deep and slow breaths, before opening his eyelids to reveal completely purple eyes.

Shade stayed completely quiet turning around occasionally, his hand leading the way. Shade could sense regular citizens but he tried to block them out. Eventually, Shade's hand stopped moving because he could sense two creatures hiding with emotions of worry and anxiety. Shade immediately recognised Caen's and Shrike's signals and felt quite happy with himself. Shade smirked, "that way," he remarked, looking at Andrew, "let's go. We need to hurry, make no mistakes or hesitations."

For the time being the officers that had been chasing after the four fugitives collect their injured or otherwise incapacitated personnel and pull back from the areas surrounding their most recent engagements. Their forces began to redeploy through the city trying to set up a perimeter with the intent of keeping the fugitives from moving further into the city, but it would take time for them to finish preparing it.


The wolf remains out of sight for the time being staying between two buildings. His display is being updated constantly as the authorities move away. He smiles slightly to himself. Then he head out of concealment and heads towards the nearest street.

With the area clearing out, he looks up and down the roadway, searching for an access point for his next move.

Flame still lingered in the coffee shop for the time being. She kept up with the news coverage on the television up until she made it to the front of the line and proceeded to order herself a cold coffee. Extra whipped cream was most certainly requested as well.
She saw the usual perking of ears as she gave her name and felt a couple of gazes turn to her. Someone likely recognized her or at least found her name and her face familiar. If they actually chose to say something or not, though, was another matter entirely.

The hedgehog moved away from the counter and took a seat at a table to wait for her coffee to be ready. Her eyes wandered out the shop windows, idly noting some people walking by, but seeing nothing all that interesting. Instead, she looked back towards the television.

It seemed the red hedgehog and armored guy had been cornered and they still managed to escape and wound several officers. Flame had to wonder just what kind of military or police force this was that they were having so much trouble. Regardless, the pair had fled again and this time no one pursued them directly.

Flame huffed her bangs from her face and shook her head a bit. This conflict was going to just keep going on and on, wasn't it?

"Well, alright, then, you lead the way." He replied, taking one more look, trying to spot an aircraft pursuing them. Seeing nothing, he ran in the direction Shade described, launching his grappling wires and activating his boosters, reaching the next building, quickly, for something of his bulk. He landed, on the side of the concrete building, on all six limbs and he skittered up the remaining wall, onto the top of the building, he turned towards Shade, "Approximately how far away are they? We don't want to overshoot them, do we?" he asked, making a little joke before running again, expecting Shade to travel alongside him, if not pass him.

Andrew looked at the streets below, it looked like utter chaos, and he wholeheartedly agreed that travelling over rooftop was much more efficient than wading through all of the cars and lawmen. "Just what did you and your friends do?" He asked, raising his metal brow.

"Seven-hundred sixty-two... Seven-hundred sixty-three..." The fox's ears began to droop as the task at hand dragged on. He barely even heard the reports of even more officers being injured in the scuffle to capture the fleeing suspects. At this rate, it was entirely possible that the military might be called in to assist. The fox rubbed his temples at the thought of martial law. Whatever. That was a long way off.

"And whatever to this whole thing." He rubbed the bridge of his nose as he slowly stood up. He had more than enough to suffice as a workable sample. He peered down at the floating cocoon of faint electrical impulses suspended between the crystals, holding the precious nanomachines in place. His brow furrowed for a moment. These machines were actually pretty resilient. In fact, as much as he had originally rejected the idea, he might need to reach out for some outside help in cracking their mysteries. He huffed a short, exasperated snort out his nostrils as he quickly made his way towards the bathroom in search of some contact fluid.

"who knows? They appeared to have been listening to me, so I guess we'll never know, now." Caen walked back into the darkness, sighing "this is not how I wanted to spend my afternoon" he muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He stretched his arms, making a quiet grunting noise as he did so, before turning to Shrike, barely being able to see him "I'm not waiting for this guy to come to us. So, if you wanna hide in the shadows, then that's your call." He said, before walking past him, towards the exit of the alleyway.

" I never said any thing about hiding in the shadows, but there is a chopper still out there, and if they see us again it will just be a repeat of the last encounter we had, only thing time they might use more force."

-Shrike followed Caen out of the shadow alley way and into the open, staying with in a 2 meter distance gap, he constantly checked over his shoulder to make sure he or both of them were no followed by any one never really knowing what may be around the next corner, but he sure as hell was not gonna throw up his arms and simply turn himself in, he had far bigger issues to deal with right now, he was starting to think perhaps leaving the area was the better option. -

" Soooooooo, got any where in mind you want to go to next ?" 

Shade nodded to Andrew's comment and was about to jump to the next building when he noticed how far away the next building was, "I ain't jumping that, no chance." He then watched Andrew almost expertly successfully grapple, boost and climb to the next building, "show off," Shade remarked, smirking. Shade then jumped off the building edge and telekinetically boosted himself to the other building, wincing a little and rubbing his sore arm when he landed, "oh suck it up, Shade," he thought.

"Honestly, I don't know h-" Shade started, chuckling but he was interrupted by Andrew speeding ahead, "I like a challenge," Shade said, chuckling before slowly lifting himself off the ground and flying after Andrew. It didn't take too long for Shade to catch up with Andrew but when he did, Shade finished his sentence, "I don't know how far away they are, my senses don't say so keep your eyes open."

Shade began to speed up and was gradually overtaking Andrew until he asked Shade a question, to which Shade responded, "well, long story short, a pyrokinetic, a super soldier, and yours truly were investigating the possibility of an alien who seemed to be really wanted by he government to whom we are all enemies to," he then smiled before speeding ahead.

As the nanomachines were suspended in close proximity to one another, they were able to send signals to one another undetected. Mainly it was to compare diagnostic and sensor reports, analyzing the situation and attempting to compute a solution between them.

No such solution was likely to be reached though. This wasn't a situation they had been programmed to deal with.


With the immediate area clear around him, the wolf had moved to a manhole cover on the street. Using a short pry bar that extended from his forearm armour, he shifts the metal cover loose. He wrinkles his nose slightly as he catches scent of what is below before climbing down into the opening. Once out of sight on a ladder leading down, the wolf slides the cover mostly back into place.

He then descends into the sewer tunnels knowing that it would make it very difficult for anyone to locate him. In preparation of this outing, the wolf had a structural diagram of the city's sewer system loaded for use on his visor. A map of the city, overlaid with the sewer diagram and updates about positions of the forces of the authorities that had been in pursuit of him and and the others, were now displayed for him allowing him to plan his route.

He navigates the tunnels using light enhancing filters through his visor to see where he was going down there and made his way further into the city.

Several minutes passed with the hedgehog waiting for her order in the coffee shop. Her chin was resting on her palm and her mind pondered over where to consider going from here. The scenario was panning out to be a bit less interesting than she had expected and having to actually go and hunt down anymore stalkees was growing more unappealing the more she thought about it.

"Flame!"

Pointed ears perked up to attention as her name was called. Ah, her coffee was ready. She pushed herself up from her chair and retrieved the plastic cup. The hedgehog couldn't resist dipping a fingertip into the whipped cream and then popping said finger into her mouth as she stepped over to grab a straw.

'Ugh, good stuff,' she thought to herself, heading for the shop's exit.

The straw was used as a sloppy spoon for Flame to continue eating the whipped cream off the top of her coffee and she paused out on the sidewalk to go over her options. Her gaze scanned the skies for nearby helicopters that indicated trouble was closeby.

'Maybe I should just do what I freakin' came out here for in the first place...'

Flame nudged the straw properly into her drink and had herself a long sip of the refreshing beverage. Sweet, sweet mocha! A quick glance around and she withdrew her phone. Surely not all of the stores had shut down, right? After idly guessing the way back towards the general downtown area, the hedgehog started off down the sidewalk, searching for a couple of particular stores that she knew would carry the shoes she was hunting for.
Because, of course, priorities.

((I'll give Dracnos a little longer to post, and if there's nothing when I get home from work tonight, I'll take my turn.))

( OOC: Well... that's not really your call to make, Storm.

But it has been two days since the last post, and DracNos has been online. So, if he doesn't post by the time you get back on, you can make your post. )

"Well, alright, then. I'll switch to wide vision." Andrew said, one of his hands touching a button near his jaw,which made the targeting reticle that doubled as a pupil to disappear, as well as an extra set of eyes emerging from behind, giving him almost a full 360 degrees of vision. "Someone who shoots fire and a superhuman? Sounds like we won't have much trouble finding them, if that's the case." He chuckled, half wondering what he had gotten himself into.

"Hmm, those officers seem injured." He muttered, seeing the policemen and stopping, peering over the edge to watch the policemen who were limping away. "Do you think they require medical aid? He asked Shade, as he peered towards the hurt people, wearing an expression of genuine worry.

((Sorry. Didn't mean to step on anyone's toes here :X))

Frustration rumbled out of the fox's gut in the form of an aggravated grunt. He shook the nearly empty bottle of contact solution before tossing it back into the mirrored medicine cabinet in his bathroom. He slumped down on the edge of his aging bathtub, ears drooped in grumpy, momentary defeat. Now that he'd caught a workable amount of the things, how was he going to contain them without contaminating the sample? He exhaled deeply out of his nostrils as his mind probed his options.

Well... there was always that option. He didn't like it. If he used that part of his "requisition" kit, he'd break the self-imposed promise he made to leave his old life behind. After all, the whole purpose of moving here was to try and start over with a much more manageable, normal life.

Ye gods! In fact, what was he doing bothering with this whole thing?! He had no actual beef with whoever the intruder was. All he wanted was to hock some parts for spare cash, and now he was devoting his whole evening to cleaning up an infestation of nanomachines that was slowly but surely becoming too tedious to be bothered with. Maybe it would be better to just burn the things out and be done with it. In fact, yeah! Screw whoever the armored wolf guy was! As long as he stayed away from the apartment, it wasn't any of Storm's business. The fox stood up to go do just that! No way he was going to let whatever this intruder was planning spoil his life!

...

But, the idea still hung in the back of his head. After all, it was a self-imposed promise. What if he did use the specimen gathering equipment that the company gave him? There was nothing that said he had to hand it over to them. Maybe... maybe he could ad-hoc a lab of his own out there somewhere and pry the little bugger's for information on his own time with better equipment than the appliances around his house. Or better yet, maybe there was a buyer out there who'd be interested in foreign nanotech?

Storm shook his head to clear his thoughts and took a deep breath. He slipped out of the bathroom, around the corner, and to the wide loft that made up his "bedroom," his mind still unsettled on just what he was going to do with the nanomachine cluster once he had it contained...

Caen was now out in the open, yet he knew that they were not being followed, as the same soldiers were still in the area that they were in when Shrike had injured them earlier. He breathed a sigh of relief "look, we're not being followed. That's a good opportunity to get back on the right side of the law. However, that is gonna prove difficult, as that wolf guy could be in the back of Timbuktu, by now." He looked through the streets, his eyes scanning the asphalt, soon coming upon a manhole cover "look, I know it ain't the best option, but if you're worried about helicopters, down there could be a good shot." Caen said, pointing towards the cover.

-Didn't seem like Shrike had a choice right now, being hunted down by soldiers, chased by helicopters..or go in  sewer and avoid both of them at the same time, so he decided to go with Caen's idea.-

" alright you make a fair point, between them and that helicopter..chances are now matter were we go they gonna find us top side any way, so stand aside and let me do this.."

-Shrike marched over man hole, using the power of his suit, he lifts it up, breaking it free from its lock system, holding it it up he gently nods to Caen, telling him to get inside.- 

"Alright step one complete..next floor..sewer level...crap I think I hear them coming back..got that whoosh whoosh chopper sound coming in again, quickly into the sewer...never did I think I would be doing this but I guess there is a first time for every thing." 

Shade chuckled at Andrew's sentence too, "if only it was that easy," he said sighing and looking around. Shade scanned again to see Caen and Shrike and moved a little, "wait Andrew," Shade said, looking around, "there," he said, repositioning himself, "they moved a little," Shade then began to fly again. Shade didn't see anything nearby but knew that he should probably stay away from any open places.

Shade then slowed down and looked at the officers, thinking for a few seconds before sighing, "yes, you could check them up but I can't go down with you, sorry. If you're going down, stay safe. I'll wait up here in case anything happens, okay?" Shade sat down and leaned against the edge of the building, smiling at Andrew, "ready when you are," he said, smiling a little.

The wolf continues unimpeded through the sewer system of the city. Making good progress, he's already approaching the perimeter the authorities have been hastily setting up around the points of engagement in the city. Clearly they hadn't anticipated anyone entering the sewers... or they just didn't have the personnel required to cover all that extra area. The wolf knows that in a few minutes, he'll be past this next obstacle and then he'll have a better chance of escaping pursuit entirely.

As the action all finally seemed to be winding down, Flame was more content to slowly make her way down the sidewalk, sipping happily on her coffee.

Her gaze occasionally lowered down to the phone in her free paw, following directions towards a store that she hoped was far enough from the earlier chaos that it would still be open. Otherwise, however, the hedgehog was doing little of note, easily able to blend in with any civilian group for the time being.