Mere minutes later, the crash of rhinos came tumbling their way towards doom, barely even noticing the purple energy bubble quickly floating over to their leader and dispensing a small, marbled cat onto the back of their leader. Quickly gaining her bearings on the rampaging behemoth her legs and arms were wrapped around, Marbles began nudging the lead rhino's ears as best she could. "Hey! I need you to listen to me!" She attempted to growl out, but her variation of "beast speak" was...Lacking, compared to Raccoon's lifetime of development, and all she could get out was a mewl barely audible above the barrage of stomping rhinos.
Meanwhile, near the edge of the cliff, Cyber, Jack, and Raccoon all stood in the path of the herd, preparing distractionary measures to try and warn the rhinos of the danger ahead. To the right, Cyber lit the flames of her Burst Wispon, and waved it in the air. To the left, Jack activated his energy sword and began to spin it, creating a rainbow pattern. And in the middle was Raccoon, utilizing two flares they had taken for the journey and waving them in the air like the signal batons used to land airplanes. But as the herd drew closer and closer, it became a game of chicken neither side seemed to be winning.
On the back of the lead rhino, Marbles continued to try and get him to listen to her, but nothing was working to gain his attention. He probably didn't even realize she was on him by this point. So, in a last-ditch effort, Marbles popped out all of the claws on her hands and feet, and closed her eyes. "Hope you don't stay mad about this." She muttered to herself, before digging her claws into the lead rhino's back.
At the same time, Jack had begun to sweat. Cyber was trying to hold her position, but she was honest enough with herself to admit that she was at least SLIGHTLY nervous. Raccoon, however, seeing how desperate the situation was becoming, threw his flares to the ground and unleashed the mightiest roar either of his two friends had ever heard him bellow out. Birds in the distance flew from their roosts in a panic, smaller critters peeked out from their holes and burrows to see what all of the commotion was about, and most importantly, the simultaneous assault on his ears and back finally broke the rhino leader out of his crazed state, and sent him(and subsequently, his entire herd)skidding to a halt, ultimately stopping mere feet away from certain death.
As the dust began to settle, Raccoon fell to one knee from the exertion, clutching his now ragged throat with one hand as he panted. Cyber quickly walked over to check on him as Jack looked over to the lead rhino. "Marbles! Are you okay up there?"
The young girl, quite dusty and woozy from her rough ride, enthusiastically waved her arms in the air, yelling, "WE DID IT!" before promptly falling off of the rhino's back and hitting the ground hard. "I'm okay!"
Jack just shook his head as he chuckled slightly. For all her foibles, maybe this kid wasn't half bad...But wait...Something was wrong with this picture. "Hey kid, where'd you put my Wispon?"
"Your what?"
"My...That purple thing I let you use!"
"Oh! Right..." Marbles said, putting a nervous hand to her mouth as she laid on her back, feet up on the side of the lead rhino. "I maybe, sorta...Dropped it?"
Immediately, Jack ran off to the trail of destruction the rhinos had left in their wake, only stopping once he finally came across a dirty, incredibly twisted hunk of purple metal. Gently knocking on what was left of the head piece, the wolf was relieved to see that his Void wisp had come out alive, merely dazed from its ordeal...But his long-standing Wispon, a veteran of almost as many battles as he was, was totaled. Yet another long-standing companion of his had fallen in battle. A piece of his own history was now permanently destroyed by that...CHILD.
"Hmm, I think I might've cracked a claw digging into that rhino." Marbles said, casually walking up behind him, oblivious to the impact of what she had just done. "How...Unfortunate for you." Jack replied through gritted teeth, clutching his former weapon in his hands as he began to walk away. Marbles gave a questioning glance towards Cyber and Raccoon as they caught up. "What's with him?"