"H-hello? yeah, I'd like to report a salmonid sighting."
He should have seen this coming. He knew something like this was bound to happen upon seeing Jade rush into the house. He should've been prepared for it, regardless of where it came, and yet allowing himself to feel relief for Jade in a single moment was enough to discard his own warning.
With just a few words, Salem's relief had been smashed to pieces. He could do nothing to stop his hearts from skipping a beat or his blood from running cold.
He looked to the crowd on his right, and found the owner of the voice—an inkling— speaking to their phone. 'Report a salmonid sighting', Salem replayed in his mind, and held no doubt it was meant for Grizzco.
They were still speaking to the person on the other end. They were only a short distance away from him. Perhaps he could stop the call somehow, take their phone and throw it into the flames before they can finish. Yes, it might serve as a decent distraction for Jade to escape, too!
But there were too many people huddled around him, too many forms and bodies way too interested in the scene before them to move aside, blocking any path he could take to reach the caller in time. How was he supposed to get through them, or even around them? He was trapped!
If he could just push his way through the cephalopods in his path then perhaps he could make it.. But Salem soon found out people were very stubborn about letting some scrawny stranger pass. He tried again and again to bump his way in toward the inkling with the phone, but the people surrounding him were bunched up so closely to one another and were so adamant about staying in their spot that they often forced him back to the same corner he'd been in or knocked him off-balance.. Even slithering below them as a squid only led to being stomped on one too many times for comfort.
Salem could only grit his teeth and glare all around him. What was their problem?! Was it too much to ask to simply let him get to a person and simply take their phone?!
"Um, 35th Coral Avenue, sir. I-it's still here, it hasn't left yet!" Salem heard the caller explain.
"Just shut up already!" Salem screamed in his mind. Salem began to hyperventilate, his eyes darting about from one side to another as a terrible feeling swelled in his stomach. What to do, what to do?! If he stayed here twiddling his thumbs, that idiot would only bring Grizzco down on him and Jade, and that was the last thing he wanted after tonight's events. He tried to find something, anything, but with many solutions of his having no concept of discretion, they were as good as useless.
Superjump at him? No.
Shoot ink at him? With what weapon?
Yell and sucker punch him? Ah yes, ousting himself as a madsquid and be promptly restrained sure was a sound idea!
Warn Jade? He'd only draw more panic, toward her or otherwise, and that was the last thing he wanted at the moment.
Salem felt stumped. Too many flaws, too many obstacles, too little time to do anything!
He had no choice but to again force himself into the crowd. Step by strenuous step, pushing aside cephalopod after cephalopod, he inched ever closer to the nuisance that was the inkling caller. He was aching all over from the people that constantly bumped and pressed into him, and their murmurs and whines rang loud in his ears.
But he was close. Just a bit farther, just few more strides and this would be over! he'd finally get to that moron with the phone and shut him up—
"Alright, thanks," Salem heard the voice from earlier on his left, along with the distinct sound of a phone clicking shut.
His breath hitched his throat as he stopped just inches away from the caller when his mind finally processed what he'd just witnessed. The deed was done.
Grizzco was coming.
"No. Nononono, this isn't happening!" Salem panicked internally. "How could I let something so simple stop me from getting that guy?!
"Uh.. can I help you with anything?" The caller asked Salem, turning toward him with a puzzled expression.
He decked them in the face in response.
Immediately, the cephalopods surrounding him were abuzz with shocked yells, and Salem took the opportunity to not only take the inkling's phone and throw it into the flaming house as he intended, but to also throw a few punches at the other cephs as well. Some backed away, others tried swinging back, and of course, the bigger ones tried to restrain him, and he even got a few of the firemen to step in and drag him away from the others. But what did that matter?
Excessive? Perhaps. But it allowed these people to look away from the house, away from the salmonling for a good minute. And that was exactly what he wanted.
Salem spared a glance at the house, and found Jade and the mother still in the same spot they'd been in for the past 6 minutes or so. They still appeared to be conversing with one another, and Salem could only wonder how those two could carry on as if a neighborhood wasn't observing them like a strange zoo animal right this moment. Ignorance was bliss, he supposed...
Luckily, Jade was able to notice him from where she stood. Their eyes met; viridian touching amber, confusion reflecting off of panic. The boy nudged his head to the left and attempted to sign in a manner that could clearly scream 'Get out of here!' to the girl.
He would've yelled out a warning had the distant wails of sirens not beaten him to it.
Another pleading look sent her way and Jade quickly understood. She gave Salem a silent nod, yet before she could so much as run away, geysers of orange suddenly erupted all around her.
Whatever apprehension remained in the huddled mob rapidly devolved into full blown panic. More explosions sprang up all around him, and people scattered every which way just to avoid the blasts. Some glancing around quickly revealed the cause: Grizzco bombardiers, throwing bomb after bomb at the house's yard from their rapidly approaching vehicles.
Salem could only look on in disbelief from where he sat. Everything had gone so, so wrong, and he was sure that Grizzco could and would do much worse if they so much as got their hands on Jade. Once again, he had to act just so things wouldn't blow up in his face again.
Simply wonderful.
At least he was free to move now, seeing as how everyone that tried to drag him away had seemingly run off. He caught a dash of grey and blue from the corner of his eye, and Salem barely managed to spot Jade before she too had gone away. So he sprung to his feet from where he lay and ran, as hard and fast as his legs could carry him, in the direction Jade had gone.
With phone in hand, Salem dialed the first number he could find, and as soon as he got a response from his vagabond friend, he yelled into the phone.
"Yzel! YZEL, I NEED YOUR HELP RIGHT NOW!"
She couldn't stop. Not now.
Even if she had already reached a good distance from that house, she couldn't stop. Even if her chest heaved at a frantic pace, lungs straining themselves to give her air, she couldn't stop.
Even if her throat burned and her mouth hung dry, she couldn't stop.
Even if her eyes, wide and alert, couldn't spot a single patch of orange or a white cap anywhere nearby, she couldn't stop.
Even if her nimble steps were enough to put some distance between her and those dastards, she couldn't stop.
Even if there were people all around her falling into panic at the mere sight of her snout, she couldn't stop.
Even if her entire body was screaming at her to do so..
She. could. not. Stop.
Just as the salmonling looked over her shoulder, she felt something wet pierce her back. She toppled over with a cry of pain and landed in a heap on the concrete floor. Yet even in a pinch, Jade still had enough energy to roll away from the hail of ink globs that were pelted at her right after.
As soon as she leapt to her feet, she was slammed against a wall with such force that it dazed her. An upward glance revealed the assailant: A bulky bipedal shark that towered over her, and was currently keeping her pressed against the wall.
"Nowhere to run now, you overgrown searunt," The shark taunted with a smug grin.
A guttural growl ripped out of Jade's throat as she struggled to push the larger creature off her. The pitter-patter of nearby footsteps reached her ears, and a glance to her left showed her the row of Grizzco hunters stood before her, all decked out in traditional salmon run gear and aiming various weapons at her.
"Get your tranquilizers ready!" The one from the center barked, and the rest complied. Strange square barrels were placed over the tips of the various shooters, chargers and blasters the hunters held, and the shark even pulled her forward and changed his grip on Jade— holding her by the neck and the backs of her shoulders— just to give his mates a clear shot.
Jade's hearts rattled against her chest as she gazed upon the row of Grizzco hunters. They surrounded her on all sides, and with nothing but a wide wall behind her and a blockade of a few offroaders and a lone helicopter in front, she was effectively cornered.
Overcome with panic, her struggles renewed. Once again, she had become a target of persecution. Once again Grizzco's legions had descended upon her and her friends, ready to snatch her freedom away. Once again, she had allowed them to subdue her.
Jade didn't know whether to cry or yell;
They raised their weapons, all of them pointed toward the same face.
"Ready!"
Jade couldn't stop a tear from coming out. She couldn't let it end like this..
"Aim!"
She wasn't about to fall like this.
"Fire!"
She couldn't stop.
Before the darts even hit her, she slid out of the shark's grasp as a fish and launched him crashing into his peers with a powerful kick.
Those that weren't caught in the attack or lay safe inside their vehicles could only stare at the hybrid in disbelief, stunned beyond words. It happened so fast, none could even process what had transpired.
"What just happened?"
"How did she do that?"
"We had her cornered.."
"No one could be that fast!"
The chorus of confusion continued. Even Jade had a hard time comprehending how she managed to escape upon regaining her bearings and looking around. She felt nothing. Almost as if her body moved on its own...
"What does it matter?! You still have a salmonling to catch, so get on with it!" A haughty voice demanded suddenly, coming from what Jade could only assume was a communicator device nearby.
She had no time to ponder over the owner of said voice or of her strange actions, however, for the remaining troops immediately took their emissary's words to heart and began firing at her with orange ink.
With a yelp, she leaped away from the salvo of ink. She tried to fight back by spitting out ink globs of her own toward the infantry, yet for every shot she landed against one of the workers, a dozen more orange pellets pierced her in return, like small stones coated in acid. The cover fire provided by the overhead helicopter didn't help matters either.
A hit on her chest caused Jade to stumble back with shaky legs, and she spat one last glob of green before turning on a dime and retreating from the attackers in her fish form.
Unfortunately, she didn't get very far before a splat bomb was thrown in her direction and landed a short distance away from her. It exploded soon after, and though she managed to hop away and avoid an untimely splat, the blast still sent the salmon flying and left her coated in a swathe of orange ink.
The fish landed in a heap, sprawled out across the street. Even as she returned to her humanoid form, her limbs ached, and the ink that clung to her scales brought searing pain all over.
Two of the workers approached, weapons drawn and cuffs in hand. The way they so effortlessly pulled her up and cuffed brought no shortage of aggravation to the girl. And the satisfied smiles with which they did it.. Was she truly so pathetic that the sight of her weakened state could only bring satisfaction to these lowlifes?
They made no comment as they dragged her off the street, yet by the barely contained snickers that slipped through their lips Jade could tell they enjoyed this.
One of Grizzco's heavy-duty vehicles pulled up right in front of them, and from what Jade could assume, probably ready to haul her off to some faraway office, never to be heard from again. She could almost picture the workers waiting inside…
The side doors flung open, but Jade did not find any hunters inside. Rather, she came face to face with Salem in the passengers' seat, gaze stern and splattershot in hand. Quick on the draw, he had already fired on both of Jade's captors and reduced them to orange puddles before either of them could get a single shot on him.
"S-Salem?! What are you—"
"Get in!" Salem snapped, cutting Jade off.
The salmonling couldn't object to that even if she tried. So with no time to waste, she barged into the vehicle and quickly shut the doors. Even as it was pelted by ink pelted, the vehicle sped away from the site of the battle, into the busy streets of inkopolis.
"Ha-ha! Nailed it, didn't we?" A cheerful Yzel exclaimed, glancing at his friends with a grin.
"Don't celebrate just yet. Those guys are still on our tail," Salem reprimanded in a displeased tone.
"Well we got Jade outta that funk. That's something, right?"
"It won't be anything if you let Grizzco catch up to us. Stay focused."
Jade had propped herself up on the passenger's seat while the boys bickered.
"I'm sorry, Salem. I—"
"Save it," he cut Jade off with a stern look. "I'd rather talk about this when we´re not putting our lives at risk. Just take it easy, alright?" He added in a softer tone.
Jade could only weakly nod before she felt the orange ink seep beneath her scales. She trembled and shuddered as limbs and organs began to forcibly rearrange themselves. Strangely enough, Jade didn't feel as much pain as before..
As soon as it began, the transformation drew to a close, and in the passenger's seat lay an exhausted yellow-haired inkgirl.
"Take it easy, huh? I'll.. try…"
Something strong slammed into the back of the truck, rattling the three inklings inside. A glance outside by Salem revealed the cause: The helicopter from earlier was hot on their trail, and firing powerful whirlwinds of ink with an inkzooka.
"We need to throw that chopper off!" Salem yelled, looking at his two companions with worry in his face.
"Already on it, boss," Yzel said as slammed his foot down on the pedal. With a burst of speed, the stolen truck began to move faster, zipping down the street in an instant.
From his aerial cradle, Constantine was besieged with frustration as he looked on to the armored carriage of his specimen. It was not as if he didn't expect resistance on her part; far from it. Survival was the base instinct of a salmonling after all, and even a humanoid one would be no different.
No, it was Salem's deceitful manner of denying him his specimen that so thoroughly made his blood boil. Stealing one of Grizzco's own trucks with that buffoon friend of his.. How did no one notice anything until it was too late? Why did none of the fodder do anything down there before they got away?!
Constantine breathed out a sigh. Another error to correct, he supposed. The night was still young, and there were countless opportunities ahead for him to end this game of hide and seek with Jade. All he had to do was guide the crew under his command..
And make this city her cage.
With a furrowed brow and a tight grip on the wheel, Constantine steered the helicopter in the direction the stolen truck had gone. A flick of a switch on the aircraft's dashboard had turned on the spotlight attached to the bottom hull,
The helicopter swayed in it's advance prompting an annoyed grunt from his inkling partner.
"Keep it steady!" Nephrys barked from her position at the heli's door, down on one knee and poised to strike with her silver-coated inkzooka."I won't be able to get a good shot if you keep this up!"
"Cut me some slack, I'm still a novice at this," Constantine replied in an equally displeased tone.
"Could've saved us the trouble if you hired an actual pilot for this.."
"True… But where's the fun if I can't pester the beast myself?" He asked with a nonchalant shrug.
The only answer he received from the woman was a head shake and a huff. She took aim at the streets below and fired another gale of ink. "What's the plan tonight?"
"Oh not much, just cut off any route they could possibly take, get them out of that vehicle, and corner them on the roof of the tallest building in the sector," Constantine explained. "You and your friends can manage that, no?"
"We can keep up with them, but…"
"But..?" Constantine raised an eyebrow as he turned his snout toward her.
Her expression was as unreadable as a hawk's while she observed the city below. Distant. Calculating. Like she was looking for something. Constantine could only wonder what was it that had begun to gnaw at her head, what had caught her attention so swiftly and completely.
"Just stay on your toes. We don't know what kind of tricks that salmonid could pull next, especially with her supposed accomplices now," Nephrys responded at last. She took aim once more and fired two more ink-coated gales at the stolen Grizzco truck.
Constantine merely rolled his eyes. She could keep her secrets if that's how she wanted to act. He had no place for curiosities now, not when there was still a rebellious brat to catch.
Jade felt like throwing up. That wasn't simply because she had been knocked around and reduced to Grizzco's plaything only a few minutes ago, or because she'd just returned to her inkling body and still found her limbs weak and her head spinning. It wasn't because she was currently in the bumpiest car ride of her life either, swaying to and fro along with the vehicle whenever its careless driver turned a corner.
It was because both of those things alongside a mounting headache and no food in her stomach left her nothing less than exhausted. And if this kept up? Jade feared her brain would simply burst and knock her out for good due to stress. Or perhaps it would sizzle out into nothing and leave her with a thick head? That sounded fun…
The tiny bit of common sense still left in her could lament how much longer would this possibly last.
A screech of rugged tires signalled a sudden swerve to the right, and Jade fell off her seat for the umpteenth time in a row. If she didn't feel like death had wormed its way inside her body, perhaps she might have tried to get up and put on a seatbelt this time.
Jade whined weakly. Cod, her head was killing her.
It seemed as if Salem was the only one to overhear her, seeing as how he instantly perked toward her, his features marred by a furrowed brow and a firm jawline. Despite appearances, Jade did not believe the eyes that stared back at her held ire. If she could take a guess.. Salem probably looked worried out of his mind.
His sizing up of her crumpled form ended as swiftly as it began, for his attention now turned toward the world outside. She saw him peek out the window before throwing some words at Yzel.
"Don't get careless. Remember we still have a patient inside," Salem prodded in a tone that was both firm and troubled.
"Sorry boss, can't go gentle when I'm being hit by a damned inkzooka every FIVE SECONDS!" Yzel punctuated with a sudden shout. The way his hands tilted and spun the wheel with such speed and finesse enabled their stolen vehicle to skid out of the way of the inkzooka's repeated blasts. Yzel's strings on his new puppet were firm, and Jade could only wonder if his commandeering of it
Mewling sirens alerted the trio to the presence of assailants trailing them, and a peek behind showed twin armored carriers decked out with a spongy carapace in hot pursuit.
Jade sucked in a nervous gulp. She didn't need to be a genius to know those would be troublesome.
"Ah, come on! why did I even go with the cheap one?" Yzel complained aloud after sparing a glance at the rearview mirror.
"Always with a new trick up their sleeve, aren't they?" Salem groaned. He kept his stare on the vehicles a bit longer than the other two inklings, and caught something in particular about the spongy menaces.
He turned to his friends once more with a request. "Can either of you see any burst bombs lying around?"
Jade looked behind her own seat to find that indeed, there were a number of burst bombs stored inside the vehicle.
"Here!" she called. She took four of them from her seat's back pocket along with two more strewn about and handed them over to her blue-haired friend.
She witnessed Salem peek his head out the window and couldn't help but wonder what he could have in mind against their pursuers. Surely it had to be something clever, something that would catch them off guard with those bombs, right?
Jade did not know what surprised her more: the fact that Salem resorted to simply launching the burst bombs out of the barrel of a blaster at the vehicles, or how they actually managed to blindside them. Two of the bombs struck against the window of the nearest carrier, leaving behind a smattering of green ink on the window large enough to cover it completely.
With no wipers on the windshield, the carrier was essentially left blind, as it soon spun out of control and toppled over. The boy repeated that same action on the other carrier, and it too spun uncontrollably before crashing onto a lamp post.
"That'll teach 'em!" Yzel hollered after glancing at the rearview mirror on his side. Even Salem couldn't help but smile at his little stunt. A sigh of relief fluttered out of Jade's lips. That's one problem taken care of…
"Alright. Now we should focus on—!"
Suddenly she felt herself lurch forward, and then sent tumbling and rolling uncontrollably as the world around her flipped and spun over and over and over again. Only after the 10th spin or so when she slammed harshly against the back of the driver's seat did that nauseating experience end. Though once again, she was left sore all over.
Her head was still spinning, and her blurred vision showed a street and buildings that had swapped places with the sky. That, coupled with broken chunks of the interior, the disparate items and pieces shuffled about, and the splayed out forms of Salem and Yzel, told Jade all she needed to know about what the heck had just happened.
"Ugh.. and here I thought we had something nice going.." Yzel groaned weakly. He was struggling to undo his seatbelt even as his legs hung out above him.
Salem had quickly undone his, on the other hand, and resorted to laying on his abdomen on the steel surface. "It's no good. This will keep going in circles if nothing changes."
"Where else could we go..?" Jade muttered, her words pained and raspy.
"We won't be able to get anywhere if that thing's still on our tail," Salem grunted in return, as he shifted over and tried to open the door on his side to no avail. "But how could we possibly shoot it down without a weapon of our own?"
"Can't we just.. lie down here?" Yzel proposed, having managed to undo his seatbelt and plop onto the smooth surface. "They're probably chomping at the bits to chase us down the moment we crawl outta here. Maybe if we bunker down for a while, they'll get restless and leave.. Then we could sneak away when they're not looking."
"I don't know.." Jade lamented. "Grizzco was able to wait a few days before they attacked the salmonid's island, and even put up bounties on me and Skipfin before either of us showed ourselves tonight. If anything, they're persistent."
The distant, muffled rumble of a helicopter's blades reverberated through the air, even reaching the trio's ears. Judging by the outside world suddenly lighting up around them, Jade figured that the helicopter that's been hounding them has caught up. This was.. to say it was bad would be an understatement.
"So we can't run.. and we can't fight or hide for that matter," Salem said with disgust after taking a glance outside. "This can't be it…"
Jade, too, felt at a loss. With a helicopter trailing them everywhere and reinforcements likely coming soon, she could not think of many options that would help her escape capture. If only she could just slink away somewhere out of sight…
Wait a moment. She was a squid. With a puddle of ink, she could do just that, like in every other game of turf war she's been in. And if she could do it outside this truck then perhaps she might get out of this unscathed.
She even found the perfect spot to go to after taking a peek outside. To the right of the vehicle lay a sewer grate, with metal thin enough for her and her friends to slip through.
"Hey.. can either of you find something we could fill with a lot of ink?" Jade asked, inching closer to the door closest to the grate.
"Like a bucket? There's this pot lying around, but I doubt it will hold much," Yzel said
"What are you planning?" Salem asked confusedly.
"There's a grate nearby. We can make a path toward it, and if we take it slow we'll be able to swim through it and enter the sewer without Grizzco noticing us."
"It could work.. but we'll have to be careful about the ink. If it's too spread out over the street, we won't be able to get to the grate safely."
"I mean, if we can't reach it normally, we can just close the gap before they get the chance to shoot at us," Yzel added in a nonchalant manner.
The trio quickly got to work. Upon deciding to use the color of blue as their method of escape, they began to gather ink from everything they could find: Stored bombs, hidden canisters, even a broken weapon or two. Whatever they could find, they took and sucked every last drop of ink the items could possibly have. By the end of it, they had only filled half of the pot with ink. Hopefully it would be enough.
They huddled together near the door that led to the grate. With great care, Yzel and Salem pulled the door open slowly inch by inch. The gap to the outside world was thin, but it was enough for the ink to pass through in a smooth manner.
"Okay. Now let's pour it out onto the street slowly…" Salem cautioned, holding one end of the pot tightly. As one, the trio tilted the pot ever so slightly forward, and the ink within began to stream through the gap onto the cement road. More and more orange coated the area around the door, spreading farther and farther away, and though the resulting puddle looked a bit too wide for their liking, one trail of it did reach their objective.
There was now a path leading straight to the sewers. And with it, freedom.
One after the other, they each plopped onto the ink, careful not to make a splash. Then, without further ado they began to slither quietly through the puddle.
To the naked eye, their stunt appeared to be little more than a technical mishap: a damaged Grizzco truck with no passengers aboard having its stored cache of weapons and items all smashed and leaking ink, enough for it to pour through the cracks and form a puddle around it. Yet no one suspected of any lurking squids hiding away in the resulting puddle or even moving in it.
Even as they inched closer and closer to the sewer grate, the dozens of guns that had surrounded the stolen vehicle sometime after it crashed remained blissfully unaware of the three stowaways making their escape. The thought that their fugitives would be hiding in plain sight never crossed any of the troops' minds.
Progress was stiff and slow, agonizingly so, but Jade only needed to hold out. Her hearts hammered against her chest as she inched forward. She risked a peek at the world beyond the puddle and almost trembled. Just a couple more inches, one last stretch of ink, and she could put this disaster of a night behind her. Just one more push and then—
Slurp
The ink rippled. She moved too fast, too suddenly, too carelessly and caused a stir in the liquid as a result. It was only for a brief moment— negligible at best— yet it was enough to punish her and her friends for their foolish scheme.
Pellets of orange suddenly rained down on the puddle, and had the kids not dived out of the puddle as soon as they did they would've already been sent to the nearest spawn point.
The constant hail of fire forced the three inklings to scatter in different directions, yet it soon became clear that there was nowhere to run. Troops surrounded them on all sides,
"Run! we have to— Gah!" Salem cried out in pain upon being hit by two blue pellets, and dropped to the floor writhing.
"T-this isn't so bad, just gotta make a break for the— Urgh!" Yzel stammered before being knocked onto the floor with a well-placed shot on his leg. Both of the boys were soon handcuffed and apprehended by a small number of Grizzco workers.
Jade, however, managed to limp back toward the truck and quickly slip inside before any of the worker's shots could hit her. Her body was wracked with tremors, and taking a peek at the scene outside only caused her to hyperventilate.
Why was it that she kept getting cornered? Why did everything she tried always amount to nothing? Every time she showed her face, every time she went outside in her freakish visage, she would proceed to come dangerously close to falling prey to her adversaries. Only through dumb luck did she ever manage to slip away from capture. That was all she could do, really: run, run and run some more, until someone or something would miraculously show up and allow her to escape her troubles.
Just like a weakling. And not only was she paying for that weakness once more, she had dragged her friends into it this time. It made the tremors intensify with boiling ire. She just wanted them to leave her alone…
Jade's green eyes noticed a small puddle of green inches away from where she lay. Her gaze drifted between it and the sight of her apprehended friends, and even saw some of the troops releasing swarms of glowflies into the night sky. The buggers flew about everywhere, it would be impossible to evade them.
"Or maybe I don't have to…"
Jade looked down in thought. It was a risky notion, dangerous even. She had lost control once to those pests, and left destruction in her wake. To follow their call would surely play right into Grizzco's hands.
But maybe, just maybe, they could grant her the power she needed to overcome Grizzco's legions. Even if the actual memories were lost on her, Jade could still recall echoes of what she experienced in that stupor: No fear or concern to distract her, and no pain holding her back. If she could guide her berserker self even just a little toward freedom, then she might escape out of this one all on her own.
A chill crept up her neck. She wasn't sure how this would play out, but Jade felt there were no more options.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," Jade shuddered. She dipped her hand into the puddle, closed her eyes and took a deep breath..
Right before she was overcome with pain and her body rearranged itself once more. Upon opening her eyes, Jade came face to face with a swarm of glowflies, and soon felt her thoughts drift away and the world around her slip into a blurred haze, until there was hardly anything left in her mind.
Nothing save for a lust for chaos.
There were others outside, patiently awaiting for their quarry to come out right into their arms.
The salmonling clicked her tongue. The fools had another thing coming.
With fire in her now crimson eyes, the salmonling burst out of the vehicle and immediately moved to attack the nearby assailants. She gave one last glance at her companions; still held down and apprehended before turning her attention toward the nearby shopping mall. With unnatural grace, she evaded every projectile and attack thrown at her, before barrelling through the blockade of workers and running into the building's door.
From their aerial cradle, Constantine and Nephrys looked on at the scene, differing expressions of intrigue and concern respectively on their faces.
"And there she goes. Right where we want her," Constantine noted aloud. "Would you rather lead the others from here or—"
"Set me down on the roof. I'll finish her off there," Nephrys commanded as she stood next to the helicopter's door. The eel did as told with a nod. Once the helicopter touched down on the roof's landing pad, he witnessed as the inkling woman hopped off and ran toward the nearby stairs, roller in hand.
"Good luck, Nephrys. I do hope tonight is a fulfilling one for you…" Constantine glared with a thin smile, his fingers drumming on the chopper's dashboard.