Guiding Light

Flame was a little ways behind Wolf, but she peered over his shoulder and into the store, taking note of the mess inside. She furrowed her brow as she saw no movement to indicate any conscious. And instead of getting in there and starting to look around, Wolf seemed to just take a moment to pause. At first, Flame didn't understand why. As she eased around him and spotted the expression on his face, however, she also paused herself.

"Hey... You gonna be okay?" the hedgehog asked, sounding at least a little bit concerned.

Wolf slowly opens his eyes and looks at her.

"No... I'm probably not." he replies.

He turns away from the ruins of the store. Back outside he looks around, taking in the other buildings. He sees several people looking into a shop a few buildings down. As it so happened, that was the building the coyote had been sent flying into.

Clenching his fists, Wolf starts walking over towards it.

Flame watched him, a bit confused as he didn't actually bother to go in the store to check things out. Instead, he started off down the sidewalk back towards where Flame had sent the coyote flying just a short time ago.

"Wait, where are you goin'?" the hedgehog asked, "We're tryin' to get away from the crazy douchebag, right?"

Judging by his clenched fists, she could only imagine he had some other, more emotional issues he was looking to settle. But considering how his last attempts to fight the guy had gone, what made him think this would be any different? Flame sighed and started after the wolf, whether he answered yet or not. She did keep her distance from him, however, not about to get caught up in another attack again.

Wolf pauses and looks back towards Flame.

"I've got to try and stop this if I can now." he replies, "Just look at what he's done already... He'll keep doing this if something isn't done to stop him."

Flame stopped a few feet away when he did and she met his gaze with her own.

"So you're just gonna walk over there and, what, strangle him?" the hedgehog asked, "In public? What makes you think he's not gonna send you flyin' again?"

"I don't know... but I have to try." he replies.

He turns away from her and starts walking. After a few steps, he stumbles as a wave of fatigue washes through him. He drops down towards the ground, landing on one knee and catching himself with his paws.

Flame sighed and rolled her eyes. She was having difficulty really seeing the logic in this course of action, which was probably saying something coming from as impulsive a person as she tended to be.

When Wolf stumbled, the hedgehog blinked and stepped forward quickly to close the space between them. She came to a stop beside him. "Y'alright there?" she asked, though she wasn't about to try and kneel down again. She at least held out her left paw in an offer to help him up.

Wolf shakes his head slightly, trying to gather his senses again. He looks up at Flame, then reaches up to take hold of her paw.

"You were right... We should go..." he says, "I felt like I was about to pass out.."

With her help, he gets back to his feet.

"Good idea," Flame agreed, hauling Wolf carefully to his feet again. She glanced towards the storefront again.
"Let's find some place low-key to get air back in lungs and look over ourselves," she suggested, nodding in the opposite direction. "There's gotta be a bar around here or somethin'..."

"I think we might have to get further away than somewhere else in town." Wolf replies.

"Like where?" the hedgehog asked doubtfully, "We're out in the boonies, there's not another town for a good ways off out there. And while it's a quick jog for me, I don't get the feelin' you're in any condition to get that far."

She started to cross her arms, but stopped at the pain that reminded her of her own injury. Flame inhaled a little more sharply, but held in the urge to vocally express the discomfort. Instead, she just added to her previous statement, "'Specially if you're about to pass out."

"Out in the middle of nowhere is not such a bad idea." Wolf replies, "If we stay in this town... he's gonna wreck this place if he gets back up... And I think he will."

He glances back towards where the coyote had disappeared.

"Maybe I can't get very far on my own... but I don't think hiding in town is gonna be much better for me." he adds.

"So it's better to be out there and isolated from help?" Flame pointed out. She didn't appear to be very fond of the idea. Then again, escape was easier for her... The hedgehog let out a little sigh and shook her head.

"Whatever the plan, let's just get movin'," she stated, "Standing around isn't helpin' us a bit. Someone's bound to have called the cops and I'm not about to try and explain why I just blasted somebody through a door."

"I should... find my bag." Wolf says, as he glances around.

His bag had come off back when this fight had started. It was still lying on the ground some distance away, near the intersection where the coyote had first attacked. It was about five building lengths away from them now. Once Wolf spots it, he starts walking over. He looks a bit unsteady, obviously fighting the effects of fatigue.

Flame had to peer around for the bag as well and, by the time she did spot it, Wolf was already heading that way. Rather than join him, the hedgehog stayed put.

"Yyyeah, I'll just keep watch," she said, raising up her good paw to rub her head a bit where she'd hit it earlier.

Wolf gets over to his bag and picks it up. To him, it feels like the bag has gotten heavier. He doesn't bother to sling it over his shoulder. He turns to look back towards Flame.

At that moment, he feels another 'reaction' like the one he'd had before the coyote struck initially... but this one seemed to be building more slowly.

"Flame! I think we need to go now!" he calls out to her.

Flame was gingerly running her fingers back and forth across her injured arm as she waited for Wolf. When he called to her, she noted the apparent urgency in his tone and glanced around. She wasn't entirely sure if he heard or saw something, but started off towards him anyway.

"Lead the way, I'm followin' you!" the hedgehog replied.

Wolf turns and starts away from the building where the coyote was, heading further into town with Flame.

"I think he's about to do something." he tells Flame once she was close enough to converse with more easily.

Flame tilted her head slightly at his words. "What makes you say that?" she asked, glancing back over her shoulder briefly. "I mean, obs he's about to do somethin', I doubt I killed the guy. But what, did you see somethin'?"

"It's a... feeling, I think." he replies, "I'm not sure what else to call it."

Once they had gotten a few more buildings down the street, about eight or nine away from the coyote, there is a shout of anger from behind them. Then an explosion of energy expanded out from the building the coyote was in, blasting out sections of that building, damaging the buildings around it, and rattling some of the ones beyond.

"A feeling?" Flame asked, "You got some foresight powers or somethin'?"

Granted, before Wolf could answer her query, Flame's ears swiveled around at a shout. She looked over her shoulder, as though expecting to see someone approaching. Instead, she heard something like an explosion, but... different?
It was enough to make the hedgehog's emerald eyes widen and her ears flick back. There was a short pause before she spoke, without even glancing at Wolf.

"Well, I'm suddenly voting that we pick up the pace."

"By all means... but I don't think I'm going much faster than this." Wolf replies, as he jogs along, glancing back over his shoulder towards Flame and the source of the explosion beyond her.

The hedgehog frowned a moment more before getting back to matching her pace with Wolf. "Do you even know where we're goin'?" Flame asked, "How do you know that guy can't just track us or somethin'?"

"No, and I don't. If you have any suggestions, they would be welcome." Wolf replies as he looks over towards her.

Flame shrugged her shoulders. "No suggestions here, I'm just good at complaining," she pointed out, "And maybe a little paranoia runs in the fam."