<div></div><br> <br>Tau knew what he was doing. He'd been doing this for god knew how long. He gave up counting the days, it only made things depressing. As far as he figured, the rescue was *never* coming. He'd just have to hold out as the last bastion of humanity. I Am Legend, motherfucker. Despite his collosal failure, fate had seen him through all this time. Today, it would fail him. Food was going low, so he carefully scanned the skies outside the window for a bit until he was certain there were no creatures flying around. After opening the window, he made a double check to make sure none were waiting outside the visible area from inside. Then, he began scouting. Things were different in the good old days, you'd have a partner calculate things out for you. Your job was to aim the rifle at just the right angle and pull the trigger when signaled. He hadn't been a sniper exclusively before all this, but he'd learned, somehow picking up all the training over time and remembering it all again like it was nothing. He could even do his own scouting and calculating now, figuring out distance, corrections for wind pattern and speed, whatever. After a bit of looking, he found a group. They were all different stuff, but nothing he hadn't seen before, nothing he couldn't handle. He usually didn't like gunning into a group. He'd rather just pick out a loner, and then when others came to feast or fuck the carcass he'd pick them off too. He'd get up to three or four like this, the dumb animals, and then he'd head down to collect the bodies. Unfortunately for him, today he got prideful and sloppy, assuming he could just take them one by one, or that the others would run. After all, they'd never find him up here. From his sixth floor home base, aimed at the targets some three-four hundred yards away and fired at one in the middle.<br> <br>A gentle breeze flows through the bleak and dreary streets. It's an awful sight to behold, what with all the ruin and various stains of fluids everywhere. However, an interesting scene would soon take place on this empty street. A rather large group of hodgepodge species careful stroll down the lane looking every which way in an alert fashion. Are they simply walking from place to place or perhaps they're hunting for something? The tallest of the group is a silver furred alley cat wearing his traditional semi-formal suit and pants. A rather nice target for someone with a long ranged weapon. Suddenly, he stops in his tracks for a strange reason. Dio spins around to look at the group and uses an arm to itch at his head. "Have you gu-" *BANG* A round rips into the alley cat's left arm that was once on his head, causing him to immediately fall to the ground. "FUCK ME, MY SUIT!" His suit is all he can think about? The cat has probably been shot before. Blood begins to pool while he lays down upon the street, grunting in pain. A burst of adrenaline due to his life being threatened allows him to begin rolling towards a corner for safety, leaving a trail of blood as he does.<br> <br>Kesai The little vixen understood gunfire and recognized the crack or a rifle bullet, she'd been shot at enough times. Kesai reacted, as she usually did: With a loud, high pitched squawk and curling herself int the smallest ball imaginable behind the largest pile or rubble she could find.<br> <br>Antiman instantly flattens hir self on the ground when sie hears the shot. Seeing Dio wounded sie scrambles after him. Sie asses his wound, "Flesh wound, you're lucky. I'll need to cut your sleave off at least." Sie pulls out a pair of medical scissors from hir first aid pouch and starts cutting Dio's suit sleave off.<br> <br>Meniatz hits the floor before transforming into a wyvern and flying in the direction of the shot. Sie bobs and weaves between buildings and never maintains an easily predictable trajectory as sie rushed towards the location of Dio's assailant. Seeing a barrel peeking out of a window, the wyvern crashes through the glass and pins Tau to the ground before grabbing his gun and tossing it out the shattered remains of the window. Sie prepares to rend the small sniper with hir claws when sie notices that he smells awfully odd for a feral. Looking down, sie notices that sie has just tackled what appears to be a human. Sie brings hir face up to his, bearing hir sharp teeth at him as sie interrogates him. "Who are you, and why did you shoot my friend?" Sie asks telepathically. "What did Dio ever do to you?"<br> <br>Tau cursed. He typically didn't, but this one kind of warranted it. His target lifted his arm. No matter, he was down. He was somewhat surprised by the formal wear it had on, usually if any of the beasts had any intelligence left they wore some type of armor or held weaponry. Whatever. One reacted as expected, scrambled behind cover, another dropped to the ground. It was wearing some sort of clothing, so by it's actions and wear, it was intelligent. Better do a little prep. He quickly reloaded and looked through the scope again, trying to catch it getting back up or moving out of the cover of the building tops during its crawl. Wait...what in the hell was *that*?! Some sort of flying serpant was coming this way. Where the hell did it *come* from? He couldn't get a good aim on it, not at this distance and the way it was moving. He dropped his gun, the end angling up and out the window as he scrambled backwards, yanked his sidearm from his pocket and prepared for the worst. Just as it bursts through he begins firing off shots, a few hit it, but it seemed to not phase it very much. Out went his rifle through the window and then she, the female gender becoming evident for a moment, lands on top of him and tosses his hand gun out as well. The man stunk badly of body odor, and the room smelled faintly of piss. He wore dirty, stained and frayed army fatigues, gloves, boots and a gasmask that covered his face. From the skin and hair that was visible on the back of his head, he was a black man, mocha skinned. He let out a muffled shout through the mask and struggled to escape.<br> <br>"But it's more than just a flesh wound! It's a suit wound!" While some observers may think the cat was making a poor attempt at comedy, Dio looks genuinely concerned for his clothing. "Augh, fine" He sticks out his arm and allows Anti to cut off the sleeve. "Alright, sorry about that ma'am." The adrenaline surging through the cat's body gradually started to wear off, causing Dio to clutch at his arm and growl in pain. "You're a lifesaver ma'am, but I hope you know what you're doing with that."<br> <br>Tau broke her hold just enough to crawl out from under her and scrambled to the back wall. This was it. The End. He wouldn't become one of them, fuck that. He pulled a combat knife from his waist, raised his head, and started cutting his neck. The last human left unsullied by the disgusting disease.<br> <br>Kesai picks her head up ever so slowly and she looked left, right, and up as Meni leaps into the air. Just as slowly, she crawled towards the others, nose twitching at the smell of blood. "Sh...should we carry him somewhere safe?"<br> <br>Meniatz would raise an eyebrow if sie still had them. Sie holds up hir hands non-threateningly and creates an aura of calm to try to diffuse the situation. "Please wait. I may be upset with you for shooting at us, but I don't want to see you die." Sie lowers hirself to the ground. "Please put the knife down. My name is Meniatz, and I just want to talk to you. I mean you no harm." Sie removes the chainsword from hir belt and sets it on the ground. "And as you can see, I am now unarmed."<br> <br>Tau didn't know what the hell was happening with the calm that was falling on him. Resignation to his death perhaps? Never trust the monsters words, he'd been fooled before, but not again. Never again. He pressed the blade to his neck just under the mask and began cutting, groaning in pain.<br> <br>Antiman pulls out a small bottle of peroxide and a tube of Neosporin and rolls hir eyes, "Spiritual Mother save me from a clothes horse." Sie pours some of the Peroxide onto the wound, "Don't worry Dio I know enough to at least get you back to the facilities at Zypher." Sie looks over at Kesai, "Get back down! We're fine here." Sie looks up as hir sister-mate flies off in hir wyvern form, "You get 'em, love." Sie pulls out and prepares an absorbent pad from hir pouch.<br> <br>Meniatz gasps and tries to grab the knife away from him. "Stop that! I don't like seeing people hurt themselves like that!" Sie cries out as tears begin to fill hir eyes. Hir aura had changed to fit hir emotions--now a melange of fear, guilt, and sadness. "I forgive you for trying to shoot us, okay!? Just stop trying to kill yourself!"<br> <br>Tau already had more than enough fear guilt and sadness in the last five years, hir aura was nothing new. He wouldn't have any of hir garbage, sie just wanted a chance at infecting him. Soon it'd all be over. He had a good run. His arm shook as sie tried to pull the knife away,a nd it was all he could do to keep hold of the knife from the much larger creature, let along keep pushing it across his neck. Enough damage was done though, one of the main arteries was cut, he could feel it running out his neck. He just had to hold on til he died, and he'd win.<br> <br>Kesai flattens her ears and flattens herself to the ground at Antiman's stern order, her ears flickering between Dio and the shooter in the distance and feeling quite helpless.<br> <br>Dio continues to grunt in pain. The pool of blood gets larger by the moment, staining the rest of his clothes. He started to sway a little from the large amount of blood loss and leaned back against the brick wall to support himself. "Very well, I trust you my lady. I shouldn't have had any doubts for an excellent mother like yourself. I'll see what I can do to pay you back..." The feline closes his eyes for a moment, but it didn't last long with the intense pain and all.<br> <br>Meniatz holds Tau down after wresting the knife from his grasp and tossing it out the window and tries to treat his wound using what little first aid sie learned from watching hir sister-mate. "Hold still. This is going to sting, but I think I can stop the bleeding." Sie disinfects the wound and affixes gauze to the cut using band-aids. Sie feels hir aura has become somewhat...less than pleasant and alters it again--this time choosing to focus on hir love for hir family to create a feeling of warmth and trust. "Please, sir, I promise you that neither I nor my friends or family will harm you. We were just on an outing to collect nanite samples from ferals for my research." Sie pauses. "Um...would you maybe...be more comfortable if I assumed a less...intimidating form? Perhaps something about your size?"<br> <br>Antiman puts a pad on one side of Dio's wound and a pad on the other side, and starts to wrap it with bandage gauze, "You shouldn't, dear." Sie thinks a bit about the pain and pulls out a morphine ampule then puts it away, "How bad is your pain? One for nothing ten for perfect agony." Sie looks at Kesai again, *I'm going to have to make it up for yelling like that to her*, Sie then gets an idea, "Kesai, come over here. I need your help." Sie hopes that the lack of shooting indicates that hir sister-mate was taking care of the problem.<br> <br>Tau started struggling as best he could the moment sie said to hold still. It wasn't very effective however, and shouted in anger as sie treated his wounds. The sudden, foreign and unwelcome pleasant feelings deeply confused him, and he wondered if maybe his self mutilation had been a terrible mistake. He still didn't know for certain how the infection was passed, and perhaps he'd just opened a door for it to come in and it was now eating his mind? He shouted through the mask, the muffled voice combined with the inarticulate nature of his cries rendered it impossible to figure out what he was shouting. He put the last of his strength into fighting and trying to get away, and failed. He fought back tears and failed there as well. He'd failed so many times, in so many ways. Was it any wonder he'd failed here too? He at least managed to keep from sobbing, his sorrow at odds with the forced emotions of love.<br> <br>Kesai picks her head up as her gryphon friend requested her help. "Ok... I'm coming." First, she glanced back towards the building Meni had flown into then, seeing nothing immediately threatening, scrambled across the distance and skittered around the wall with such haste that she bumped, nose first, into the wall.<br> <br>"I'd say it's about a mother f-" Dio coughs after realizing his rude language. "I mean, it's about a seven, ma'am. But I don't need anything for it. This isn't the first time I've been shot after all." It wouldn't take a deep observation to notice that Dio has probably seen his fair share of combat considering the chunk of his right earlobe missing and the scar on his left hand running down his arm. "Thank you again for the help. Once everything said and done, we'll check up on Meni and I suppose we can have a nice trip down to the triage."<br> <br>Meniatz sees Tau crying and gives him a gentle hug, hir maternal instincts taking over. "I'm sorry I scared you. To make it up to you, I'm going to take care of you from now on." Sie pats him lightly on the back as hir aura emulates a feeling of love and devotion, which mingles with a feeling of dependance as Meni begins to view the small human as a defenseless little creature...almost like one of hir children. "Though, it might be easier for me to understand you without the mask."<br> <br>Antiman's ears flick in a wince as Kesai bumps her nose into the wall. She looks unharmed by it though, "Okay, Kesai I need you to help Dio to keep his arm raised up. I also need you to put pressure on the wound. It will hurt him when you do that but it will help stop the bleeding." Sie chirp laughs as Dio nearly cracks his oh so polite exterior, "It's not a problem, but if the pain gets worse or it impairs your movment don't hesitate to tell me."<br> <br>Tau was having a hard time fighting the emotions. He never wanted it to end like this. He'd wanted a blaze of glory, or death before dishonor send off. Not to be one of them. Not just end up eating and fucking and being an animal. The continued feels screwed with his sorrow, and he eventually stopped crying, settling on being numb. He wouldn't look at hir, wouldn't do anything that'd show acceptance of the strange feelings. He just stayed limp and unresponsive. His last hope was that if he kept that up long enough, sie'd leave him alone. Then sie said thatsie'd take care of him from now on, and a sick feeling went through him. So much for that. Again despair warred with the aura. Niether side was getting any ground and he was soon just being mentally drained.<br> <br>Kesai steps back from the wall and sneezes once before rubbing her nose. Still rubbing her nose, she approached gryphon and lion, watching what Antiman was doing quite carefully before attempting a rather close approximation. "Like this?" She asks while squeezing the dressings and resting Dio's elbow on top of her head.<br> <br>"Augh! Damn it!" Dio yells in pain as his arm is lifted, springing forth a bit from the wall. "Yeah, just like that, sorry. Impressive technique you two." The pain continues to flare in his arm like a violent sun, but the feline does his best to rest against the wall once more. "I'll be fine here for now with Kesai. Why don't you go ahead and check up on Meni," he says while facing Anti. Trying to distracts himself from the pain, Dio lets out a weak chuckle and says, "Hey, how much you want to bet shi's snuggling the shooter up there?"<br> <br>Antiman nods at Kesai, "Like that dear, as long as you keep his wound above his heart you're doing it right." Sie looks Kesai up and down, looking for any injuries, sie doubts that there are any, but Sie's the closest thing to a medic right now. Not finding any sie looks at Dio, "You're sure you don't need any meds?" Sie peeks around the corner to check on the situation. <br> <br>Meniatz nuzzles up to the strange human. "Now, I would like to take you outside and introduce you to my family. Don't worry--I won't tell them anything about you trying to hurt us. I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding." Sie picks Tau up and cradles him in hir arms. "But, I think they might start to worry if I don't come back soon." Sie picks up hir chainsword and affixes it to hir belt before sie unfurls hir wings and glides down to where sie saw Tau's weapons lying on the ground. "You can have these back later if you want them, okay, sweetie?" Sie then makes hir way back to Dio and the others, flying slowly and smoothly so as not to frighten or sicken hir new charge.<br> <br>Tau was sickened alright, especially by hir acting all sweet and stuff. He would have preferred hir acting animalistic. Soon they were in the air, and the moment he felt up to it, he began fighting to get out of hir arms and hopefully plummet to his death. With surprise on his side, he suceeded, and began falling.<br> <br>Kesai flattens her ears and cringes as Dio shouts out in pain, even stumbling a bit as he springs off the wall. But she managed to keep her feet, though her eyes were clenched shut as if she expected to be struck at any moment.<br> <br>Dio holds out his uninjured arm and shakes his head. "I'll be fine, I can take it. I just need to rest for a bit while the bleeding stops and then I'll go get the bullet removed down at Zephyr. Go ahead and see what Meni- Ah..." Dio watches Meni fly towards them with an interesting piece of cargo. Was that a human? He must be the shooter. Upon seeing him fall, he really couldn't care less that his attacker would be getting what he deserved. <br> <br>Meniatz dives down to Tau and catches him in the air. Sie holds him tightly against hir soft breasts and pays close attention to him the rest of the way back. "Please be more careful, hon. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if anything happened to you." Sie says earnestly. "I...can't stand to see people hurting themselves or others. I've seen too much pain already." Sie says a bit more softly, nuzzling up to him about two minutes before sie reaches hir loved ones and lands gracefully before them. "I've returned, everyone." Sie announces, still clutching the small human close to hir.<br> <br>Antiman glances back in time to see Kesai's wince and eye's closed shut speeking of past abuse. Sie filed that away for latter refrence. Sie looks back as hir mate comes back with their assailent, *Strange sie must have worked something out with the shooter*, Sie spreads hir wings to take flight as he falls from hir sister-mates grasp, but folds them again as sie catches him again, "So I see love. Dio has a flesh wound to the arm an needs to go to triage." Sie looks at the uniform on the shooter, "Misplaced RSX agent?"<br> <br>Tau didn't know if he ever hated breasts like he did right now. He didn't know what RSX was, and didn't care. He just wanted to die.<br> <br>Kesai slowly peels her eyes open, one at a time. First her eyes flickered up to Dio and his arm on her head and, seeing no threat of being struck, followed his gaze towards Meni and her passenger as Anti addressed the succubus turned wyvern. Her gaze was especially focused on their recent assailant, looking quite... uncertain of her, or anyone else's, safety whilst he was here.<br> <br>Dio points to his wound and flashes the human with a strange smile. "Yeah, just a little flesh wound over here. Why don't we take a trip down to the triage where we can have a nice chat. HA! See, I'm laughing already. What a good joke." The feline's right paw claws at the cement without him noticing, a nice indication of his increasing anger.<br> <br>Meniatz holds Tau out to show off to hir sister-mate and their friends as if he were a stuffed teddy bear. "This little guy was hunting ferals. He managed to clear out a room of them, but apparently a stray shot managed to richochet off of a metallic beam and hit our beloved Dio." Sie feels bad about lying to hir friends, but doesn't want to frighten Tau any further. "He's quite a brave little human," Sie says with a warm smile as sie sets him down. "I was thinking we could take him home with us and treat him to a nice home-cooked meal to celebrate his recent victory...and to apologize to him for me accidentally nicking his neck with my claw." Sie says sheepishly.<br> <br>Antiman nods once at Meni's unspoken comment and tries not to give away hir fib that sie's told every one else. Sie chuckle purs as Meni presents him like a prize won at an amusment park, "If it was an accident, I guess I can't hold it against him." Sie looks back at Dio and notices his claws dug into the brick, "Dio, you're sure that the pain isn't getting to you?"<br> <br>Tau honestly had no idea what was happening by this point. They acted like normal humans or s- WHAT THE- He be jerks in hir hold and lets out a muffled shout, looking around suddenly.<br> <br>Dio wasn't going to buy that lie for a second. They were the only people out on that street and didn't look anywhere near feral. What kind of feral wears a suit? He probably would've been able to hear the ricochet as well. "Why yes, of course," the feline says with a sheepish smile, "That sounds rather lovely now doesn't it? I'm sure we're all quite hungry after this tiny encounter." As Anti speaks to him, he finally realizes what his claw has been doing and lays it flat on the ground. "No no, I'm fine Anti. Really. Just a reflex is all. While he was certainly angry with the human, he has to wonder if he's really never seen a non-feral like himself.<br> <br>Kesai turns her gaze from the human to the unluckiest lion in the entire world, her eyes rising and going cross eyed to try and see the wounded arm she was compressing and supporting on top of her head. That's when she spotted his clawing, and her eyes slowly clenched tight again and ducked her head as much as she was able with Dio's arm resting where it was.<br> <br>Meniatz nods and gives Dio a hug, taking great care not to put pressure on the injured arm. "I'm glad to hear that, Dio." Sie gives him a kiss on the cheek. "Um, little one..." Sie begins, addressing the  small human. "Would you like to apologize to Dio? I know you didn't mean to hurt him, but it would still be the polite thing to do." Sie says with a warm smile.<br> <br>Meniatz scratches the back of hir head sheepishly. "Um...what /is/ your name, anyway?"<br> <br>Antiman nods at dio, "If you're sure." Sie notes Kesai's clenched closed eyes again. Sie walks over to her and crouches down to be at eye level, "Don't worry, Kesai. No one here is going to hurt you. Not on pourpose as least." Sie looks up at hir sister-mate, "Love I would really like to get Dio to the traige unit. It's only a flesh wound, but I don't want it sealing up with anything that shouldn't be in there still in there."<br> <br>Tau was hearing voices now. This was it. The infection was in his head. It was gonna drive him nuts like everyone else. He only hoped that it wouldn't get too far into his head before he had a chance to...wait.maybe...he lifted an arm up and pulled at his mask just enough to say "put me down." and placed it back onto his face. These ones talked. Others had in the past of course, but these seemed the most lucid. Maybe he could talk his way out. Maybe. Wait, little one? Oh, she could go fuck herself. He didn't care how much bigger than he she actually was.<br> <br>Tau was hearing voices now. This was it. The infection was in his head. It was gonna drive him nuts like everyone else. He only hoped that it wouldn't get too far into his head before he had a chance to...wait.maybe...he lifted an arm up and pulled at his mask just enough to say "Uh...I'm just gonna go. Th-thanks." with a point of his thumb behind him and placed it back onto his face. These ones talked. Others had in the past of course, but these seemed the most lucid. Maybe he could talk his way out. Maybe. Just...make like it's no big deal. He turns and walks calmly away, hoping it was one of those things were if he didn't run, they wouldn't chase.<br> <br>Dio felt a bit better after Meni gives him a kiss, but the burning sensation of rage and pain still burned deep within him. "An apology would be quite welcome. After all, it was just an accident, /right/? We can have a goooood laugh about it later." Dio attempts to hide his sarcasm the best he could with only some effect. Turning towards Anti, he smiles and says, "Ah, it's not that big a deal. I can always take myself. No need to trouble yourself anymore than you already have." As he watches the human leave without so much as a simply sorry, Dio squirms about in place while violently gritting his teeth, doing his best not to explode in anger.<br> <br>Kesai starts, her eyes snapping open to Anti's eyes and beak before her. Incidentally, her startling may have caused her to clench her hands on Dio's wound. "But... Dio looks... angry." Her silvery eyes flickered up at Dio and back to Antiman, afraid to attract his gaze. She had begun to relax as Dio attempted to calm, but she felt, more than anything, the anger and rage humming through his form and her eyes fell shut once again.<br> <br>Meniatz follows after Tau. "You forgot your weapons! Don't you want them back?" Sie asks, holding out the gun and knife to Tau. "I know how dangerous it is out there. I wouldn't want my new human friend to get hurt by a pack of wandering ferals." Sie says with a smile. Hir mood begins to shift as disappointment begins to set in. Sie whispers softly to him as sie places the weapons in his hands. "I know you probably still don't trust me, but I really want to be your friend." Sie then scrawls something on a slip of paper and hand it to him. "If you ever want to come talk with me or if you ever need anything, I live at that address with Anti," Sie says, pointing to the gryphon. "We love having visitors and we have had experience with helping people adjust to life with sentient non-humans like us."<br> <br>Antiman glances up at Dio's poorly hidden sarcasim. Hir ears flatten as the human starts to walk away without so much as an I'm sorry. And this was after covering for the fact that he shot Dio on purpose and with fell intent. Sie however still tried to comfort Kesai, "He is angery, but not at you, dear. Being shot will make anyone angery, especialy if the one who did it won't even apologize for it when it was an accident." *If this human doesn't get his head out of his ass soon I may just forget about Meni wanting to make this sound like an accident. I love hir, but when the object of your mercy doesn't even recogonize the debt owed...* Sie tries to keep an incredulous expression off hir face as hir sister-mate hands the humans weapons back. *We're going to have a little talk soon, love.* sie thinks to hirself, *There are some things you don't do even when mataining a cover.*<br> <br>Tau hears the cat man be all pissed at him, and he turns around a bit. Shit, think fast. Just when he was scrambling for an excuse as to why he needed to leave, the winged serpent spoke to him and handed him his weapons? What was she playing at? This was a ploy to win his trust, had to be. Ferals she said? Must be what they call the animals that act more animal than they do. Cute. In his opinion, none of them were any better than the others, these ones were just more sneaky about trying to infect people. Things became clear that...*somehow* the snake could talk in his head. Or maybe he'd finally lost his mind completely and ALL of this was in his head. The wounds felt real enough. He'd been all kinds of lucky it seemed. They were letting him go. Without taking any more risk of infection by exposing his mouth (it was bad enough he did it once, he might be infected by now, not to mention the wound) He forwent apologizing. Instead he nodded, held up the weapons in a "see, I'm not using them" mannar, and started making his way back to his hideout. Just after he left sight, he crumpled the note and dropped it.<br> <br>It took everything Dio had not to just stand up and charge at the human and put him in his place even at the risk of making the wound upon his arm even worse. Upon recieving a certain telepathic message however, he simply closes his eyes and attempts deep breath exercises to stave away his anger. Even as the human continued to walk, he kept on with his breathing in a desperate attempt not to cause a scene.<br> <br>Kesai tried to remain calm. She tried to keep Anti's word's in mind. The vixen also tried to remember that she was supposed to be holding up Dio's arm and keeping pressure on the wound. Slowly, she peeled her eyes open once more and looked up at Anti and responded softly, "Ok."

<div></div><br> <br>Tau knew what he was doing. He'd been doing this for god knew how long. He gave up counting the days, it only made things depressing. As far as he figured, the rescue was *never* coming. He'd just have to hold out as the last bastion of humanity. I Am Legend, motherfucker. Despite his collosal failure, fate had seen him through all this time. Today, it would fail him. Food was going low, so he carefully scanned the skies outside the window for a bit until he was certain there were no creatures flying around. After opening the window, he made a double check to make sure none were waiting outside the visible area from inside. Then, he began scouting. Things were different in the good old days, you'd have a partner calculate things out for you. Your job was to aim the rifle at just the right angle and pull the trigger when signaled. He hadn't been a sniper exclusively before all this, but he'd learned, somehow picking up all the training over time and remembering it all again like it was nothing. He could even do his own scouting and calculating now, figuring out distance, corrections for wind pattern and speed, whatever. After a bit of looking, he found a group. They were all different stuff, but nothing he hadn't seen before, nothing he couldn't handle. He usually didn't like gunning into a group. He'd rather just pick out a loner, and then when others came to feast or fuck the carcass he'd pick them off too. He'd get up to three or four like this, the dumb animals, and then he'd head down to collect the bodies. Unfortunately for him, today he got prideful and sloppy, assuming he could just take them one by one, or that the others would run. After all, they'd never find him up here. From his sixth floor home base, aimed at the targets some three-four hundred yards away and fired at one in the middle.<br> <br>A gentle breeze flows through the bleak and dreary streets. It's an awful sight to behold, what with all the ruin and various stains of fluids everywhere. However, an interesting scene would soon take place on this empty street. A rather large group of hodgepodge species careful stroll down the lane looking every which way in an alert fashion. Are they simply walking from place to place or perhaps they're hunting for something? The tallest of the group is a silver furred alley cat wearing his traditional semi-formal suit and pants. A rather nice target for someone with a long ranged weapon. Suddenly, he stops in his tracks for a strange reason. Dio spins around to look at the group and uses an arm to itch at his head. "Have you gu-" *BANG* A round rips into the alley cat's left arm that was once on his head, causing him to immediately fall to the ground. "FUCK ME, MY SUIT!" His suit is all he can think about? The cat has probably been shot before. Blood begins to pool while he lays down upon the street, grunting in pain. A burst of adrenaline due to his life being threatened allows him to begin rolling towards a corner for safety, leaving a trail of blood as he does.<br> <br>Kesai The little vixen understood gunfire and recognized the crack or a rifle bullet, she'd been shot at enough times. Kesai reacted, as she usually did: With a loud, high pitched squawk and curling herself int the smallest ball imaginable behind the largest pile or rubble she could find.<br> <br>Antiman instantly flattens hir self on the ground when sie hears the shot. Seeing Dio wounded sie scrambles after him. Sie asses his wound, "Flesh wound, you're lucky. I'll need to cut your sleave off at least." Sie pulls out a pair of medical scissors from hir first aid pouch and starts cutting Dio's suit sleave off.<br> <br>Meniatz hits the floor before transforming into a wyvern and flying in the direction of the shot. Sie bobs and weaves between buildings and never maintains an easily predictable trajectory as sie rushed towards the location of Dio's assailant. Seeing a barrel peeking out of a window, the wyvern crashes through the glass and pins Tau to the ground before grabbing his gun and tossing it out the shattered remains of the window. Sie prepares to rend the small sniper with hir claws when sie notices that he smells awfully odd for a feral. Looking down, sie notices that sie has just tackled what appears to be a human. Sie brings hir face up to his, bearing hir sharp teeth at him as sie interrogates him. "Who are you, and why did you shoot my friend?" Sie asks telepathically. "What did Dio ever do to you?"<br> <br>Tau cursed. He typically didn't, but this one kind of warranted it. His target lifted his arm. No matter, he was down. He was somewhat surprised by the formal wear it had on, usually if any of the beasts had any intelligence left they wore some type of armor or held weaponry. Whatever. One reacted as expected, scrambled behind cover, another dropped to the ground. It was wearing some sort of clothing, so by it's actions and wear, it was intelligent. Better do a little prep. He quickly reloaded and looked through the scope again, trying to catch it getting back up or moving out of the cover of the building tops during its crawl. Wait...what in the hell was *that*?! Some sort of flying serpant was coming this way. Where the hell did it *come* from? He couldn't get a good aim on it, not at this distance and the way it was moving. He dropped his gun, the end angling up and out the window as he scrambled backwards, yanked his sidearm from his pocket and prepared for the worst. Just as it bursts through he begins firing off shots, a few hit it, but it seemed to not phase it very much. Out went his rifle through the window and then she, the female gender becoming evident for a moment, lands on top of him and tosses his hand gun out as well. The man stunk badly of body odor, and the room smelled faintly of piss. He wore dirty, stained and frayed army fatigues, gloves, boots and a gasmask that covered his face. From the skin and hair that was visible on the back of his head, he was a black man, mocha skinned. He let out a muffled shout through the mask and struggled to escape.<br> <br>"But it's more than just a flesh wound! It's a suit wound!" While some observers may think the cat was making a poor attempt at comedy, Dio looks genuinely concerned for his clothing. "Augh, fine" He sticks out his arm and allows Anti to cut off the sleeve. "Alright, sorry about that ma'am." The adrenaline surging through the cat's body gradually started to wear off, causing Dio to clutch at his arm and growl in pain. "You're a lifesaver ma'am, but I hope you know what you're doing with that."<br> <br>Tau broke her hold just enough to crawl out from under her and scrambled to the back wall. This was it. The End. He wouldn't become one of them, fuck that. He pulled a combat knife from his waist, raised his head, and started cutting his neck. The last human left unsullied by the disgusting disease.<br> <br>Kesai picks her head up ever so slowly and she looked left, right, and up as Meni leaps into the air. Just as slowly, she crawled towards the others, nose twitching at the smell of blood. "Sh...should we carry him somewhere safe?"<br> <br>Meniatz would raise an eyebrow if sie still had them. Sie holds up hir hands non-threateningly and creates an aura of calm to try to diffuse the situation. "Please wait. I may be upset with you for shooting at us, but I don't want to see you die." Sie lowers hirself to the ground. "Please put the knife down. My name is Meniatz, and I just want to talk to you. I mean you no harm." Sie removes the chainsword from hir belt and sets it on the ground. "And as you can see, I am now unarmed."<br> <br>Tau didn't know what the hell was happening with the calm that was falling on him. Resignation to his death perhaps? Never trust the monsters words, he'd been fooled before, but not again. Never again. He pressed the blade to his neck just under the mask and began cutting, groaning in pain.<br> <br>Antiman pulls out a small bottle of peroxide and a tube of Neosporin and rolls hir eyes, "Spiritual Mother save me from a clothes horse." Sie pours some of the Peroxide onto the wound, "Don't worry Dio I know enough to at least get you back to the facilities at Zypher." Sie looks over at Kesai, "Get back down! We're fine here." Sie looks up as hir sister-mate flies off in hir wyvern form, "You get 'em, love." Sie pulls out and prepares an absorbent pad from hir pouch.<br> <br>Meniatz gasps and tries to grab the knife away from him. "Stop that! I don't like seeing people hurt themselves like that!" Sie cries out as tears begin to fill hir eyes. Hir aura had changed to fit hir emotions--now a melange of fear, guilt, and sadness. "I forgive you for trying to shoot us, okay!? Just stop trying to kill yourself!"<br> <br>Tau already had more than enough fear guilt and sadness in the last five years, hir aura was nothing new. He wouldn't have any of hir garbage, sie just wanted a chance at infecting him. Soon it'd all be over. He had a good run. His arm shook as sie tried to pull the knife away,a nd it was all he could do to keep hold of the knife from the much larger creature, let along keep pushing it across his neck. Enough damage was done though, one of the main arteries was cut, he could feel it running out his neck. He just had to hold on til he died, and he'd win.<br> <br>Kesai flattens her ears and flattens herself to the ground at Antiman's stern order, her ears flickering between Dio and the shooter in the distance and feeling quite helpless.<br> <br>Dio continues to grunt in pain. The pool of blood gets larger by the moment, staining the rest of his clothes. He started to sway a little from the large amount of blood loss and leaned back against the brick wall to support himself. "Very well, I trust you my lady. I shouldn't have had any doubts for an excellent mother like yourself. I'll see what I can do to pay you back..." The feline closes his eyes for a moment, but it didn't last long with the intense pain and all.<br> <br>Meniatz holds Tau down after wresting the knife from his grasp and tossing it out the window and tries to treat his wound using what little first aid sie learned from watching hir sister-mate. "Hold still. This is going to sting, but I think I can stop the bleeding." Sie disinfects the wound and affixes gauze to the cut using band-aids. Sie feels hir aura has become somewhat...less than pleasant and alters it again--this time choosing to focus on hir love for hir family to create a feeling of warmth and trust. "Please, sir, I promise you that neither I nor my friends or family will harm you. We were just on an outing to collect nanite samples from ferals for my research." Sie pauses. "Um...would you maybe...be more comfortable if I assumed a less...intimidating form? Perhaps something about your size?"<br> <br>Antiman puts a pad on one side of Dio's wound and a pad on the other side, and starts to wrap it with bandage gauze, "You shouldn't, dear." Sie thinks a bit about the pain and pulls out a morphine ampule then puts it away, "How bad is your pain? One for nothing ten for perfect agony." Sie looks at Kesai again, *I'm going to have to make it up for yelling like that to her*, Sie then gets an idea, "Kesai, come over here. I need your help." Sie hopes that the lack of shooting indicates that hir sister-mate was taking care of the problem.<br> <br>Tau started struggling as best he could the moment sie said to hold still. It wasn't very effective however, and shouted in anger as sie treated his wounds. The sudden, foreign and unwelcome pleasant feelings deeply confused him, and he wondered if maybe his self mutilation had been a terrible mistake. He still didn't know for certain how the infection was passed, and perhaps he'd just opened a door for it to come in and it was now eating his mind? He shouted through the mask, the muffled voice combined with the inarticulate nature of his cries rendered it impossible to figure out what he was shouting. He put the last of his strength into fighting and trying to get away, and failed. He fought back tears and failed there as well. He'd failed so many times, in so many ways. Was it any wonder he'd failed here too? He at least managed to keep from sobbing, his sorrow at odds with the forced emotions of love.<br> <br>Kesai picks her head up as her gryphon friend requested her help. "Ok... I'm coming." First, she glanced back towards the building Meni had flown into then, seeing nothing immediately threatening, scrambled across the distance and skittered around the wall with such haste that she bumped, nose first, into the wall.<br> <br>"I'd say it's about a mother f-" Dio coughs after realizing his rude language. "I mean, it's about a seven, ma'am. But I don't need anything for it. This isn't the first time I've been shot after all." It wouldn't take a deep observation to notice that Dio has probably seen his fair share of combat considering the chunk of his right earlobe missing and the scar on his left hand running down his arm. "Thank you again for the help. Once everything said and done, we'll check up on Meni and I suppose we can have a nice trip down to the triage."<br> <br>Meniatz sees Tau crying and gives him a gentle hug, hir maternal instincts taking over. "I'm sorry I scared you. To make it up to you, I'm going to take care of you from now on." Sie pats him lightly on the back as hir aura emulates a feeling of love and devotion, which mingles with a feeling of dependance as Meni begins to view the small human as a defenseless little creature...almost like one of hir children. "Though, it might be easier for me to understand you without the mask."<br> <br>Antiman's ears flick in a wince as Kesai bumps her nose into the wall. She looks unharmed by it though, "Okay, Kesai I need you to help Dio to keep his arm raised up. I also need you to put pressure on the wound. It will hurt him when you do that but it will help stop the bleeding." Sie chirp laughs as Dio nearly cracks his oh so polite exterior, "It's not a problem, but if the pain gets worse or it impairs your movment don't hesitate to tell me."<br> <br>Tau was having a hard time fighting the emotions. He never wanted it to end like this. He'd wanted a blaze of glory, or death before dishonor send off. Not to be one of them. Not just end up eating and fucking and being an animal. The continued feels screwed with his sorrow, and he eventually stopped crying, settling on being numb. He wouldn't look at hir, wouldn't do anything that'd show acceptance of the strange feelings. He just stayed limp and unresponsive. His last hope was that if he kept that up long enough, sie'd leave him alone. Then sie said thatsie'd take care of him from now on, and a sick feeling went through him. So much for that. Again despair warred with the aura. Niether side was getting any ground and he was soon just being mentally drained.<br> <br>Kesai steps back from the wall and sneezes once before rubbing her nose. Still rubbing her nose, she approached gryphon and lion, watching what Antiman was doing quite carefully before attempting a rather close approximation. "Like this?" She asks while squeezing the dressings and resting Dio's elbow on top of her head.<br> <br>"Augh! Damn it!" Dio yells in pain as his arm is lifted, springing forth a bit from the wall. "Yeah, just like that, sorry. Impressive technique you two." The pain continues to flare in his arm like a violent sun, but the feline does his best to rest against the wall once more. "I'll be fine here for now with Kesai. Why don't you go ahead and check up on Meni," he says while facing Anti. Trying to distracts himself from the pain, Dio lets out a weak chuckle and says, "Hey, how much you want to bet shi's snuggling the shooter up there?"<br> <br>Antiman nods at Kesai, "Like that dear, as long as you keep his wound above his heart you're doing it right." Sie looks Kesai up and down, looking for any injuries, sie doubts that there are any, but Sie's the closest thing to a medic right now. Not finding any sie looks at Dio, "You're sure you don't need any meds?" Sie peeks around the corner to check on the situation. <br> <br>Meniatz nuzzles up to the strange human. "Now, I would like to take you outside and introduce you to my family. Don't worry--I won't tell them anything about you trying to hurt us. I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding." Sie picks Tau up and cradles him in hir arms. "But, I think they might start to worry if I don't come back soon." Sie picks up hir chainsword and affixes it to hir belt before sie unfurls hir wings and glides down to where sie saw Tau's weapons lying on the ground. "You can have these back later if you want them, okay, sweetie?" Sie then makes hir way back to Dio and the others, flying slowly and smoothly so as not to frighten or sicken hir new charge.<br> <br>Tau was sickened alright, especially by hir acting all sweet and stuff. He would have preferred hir acting animalistic. Soon they were in the air, and the moment he felt up to it, he began fighting to get out of hir arms and hopefully plummet to his death. With surprise on his side, he suceeded, and began falling.<br> <br>Kesai flattens her ears and cringes as Dio shouts out in pain, even stumbling a bit as he springs off the wall. But she managed to keep her feet, though her eyes were clenched shut as if she expected to be struck at any moment.<br> <br>Dio holds out his uninjured arm and shakes his head. "I'll be fine, I can take it. I just need to rest for a bit while the bleeding stops and then I'll go get the bullet removed down at Zephyr. Go ahead and see what Meni- Ah..." Dio watches Meni fly towards them with an interesting piece of cargo. Was that a human? He must be the shooter. Upon seeing him fall, he really couldn't care less that his attacker would be getting what he deserved. <br> <br>Meniatz dives down to Tau and catches him in the air. Sie holds him tightly against hir soft breasts and pays close attention to him the rest of the way back. "Please be more careful, hon. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if anything happened to you." Sie says earnestly. "I...can't stand to see people hurting themselves or others. I've seen too much pain already." Sie says a bit more softly, nuzzling up to him about two minutes before sie reaches hir loved ones and lands gracefully before them. "I've returned, everyone." Sie announces, still clutching the small human close to hir.<br> <br>Antiman glances back in time to see Kesai's wince and eye's closed shut speeking of past abuse. Sie filed that away for latter refrence. Sie looks back as hir mate comes back with their assailent, *Strange sie must have worked something out with the shooter*, Sie spreads hir wings to take flight as he falls from hir sister-mates grasp, but folds them again as sie catches him again, "So I see love. Dio has a flesh wound to the arm an needs to go to triage." Sie looks at the uniform on the shooter, "Misplaced RSX agent?"<br> <br>Tau didn't know if he ever hated breasts like he did right now. He didn't know what RSX was, and didn't care. He just wanted to die.<br> <br>Kesai slowly peels her eyes open, one at a time. First her eyes flickered up to Dio and his arm on her head and, seeing no threat of being struck, followed his gaze towards Meni and her passenger as Anti addressed the succubus turned wyvern. Her gaze was especially focused on their recent assailant, looking quite... uncertain of her, or anyone else's, safety whilst he was here.<br> <br>Dio points to his wound and flashes the human with a strange smile. "Yeah, just a little flesh wound over here. Why don't we take a trip down to the triage where we can have a nice chat. HA! See, I'm laughing already. What a good joke." The feline's right paw claws at the cement without him noticing, a nice indication of his increasing anger.<br> <br>Meniatz holds Tau out to show off to hir sister-mate and their friends as if he were a stuffed teddy bear. "This little guy was hunting ferals. He managed to clear out a room of them, but apparently a stray shot managed to richochet off of a metallic beam and hit our beloved Dio." Sie feels bad about lying to hir friends, but doesn't want to frighten Tau any further. "He's quite a brave little human," Sie says with a warm smile as sie sets him down. "I was thinking we could take him home with us and treat him to a nice home-cooked meal to celebrate his recent victory...and to apologize to him for me accidentally nicking his neck with my claw." Sie says sheepishly.<br> <br>Antiman nods once at Meni's unspoken comment and tries not to give away hir fib that sie's told every one else. Sie chuckle purs as Meni presents him like a prize won at an amusment park, "If it was an accident, I guess I can't hold it against him." Sie looks back at Dio and notices his claws dug into the brick, "Dio, you're sure that the pain isn't getting to you?"<br> <br>Tau honestly had no idea what was happening by this point. They acted like normal humans or s- WHAT THE- He be jerks in hir hold and lets out a muffled shout, looking around suddenly.<br> <br>Dio wasn't going to buy that lie for a second. They were the only people out on that street and didn't look anywhere near feral. What kind of feral wears a suit? He probably would've been able to hear the ricochet as well. "Why yes, of course," the feline says with a sheepish smile, "That sounds rather lovely now doesn't it? I'm sure we're all quite hungry after this tiny encounter." As Anti speaks to him, he finally realizes what his claw has been doing and lays it flat on the ground. "No no, I'm fine Anti. Really. Just a reflex is all. While he was certainly angry with the human, he has to wonder if he's really never seen a non-feral like himself.<br> <br>Kesai turns her gaze from the human to the unluckiest lion in the entire world, her eyes rising and going cross eyed to try and see the wounded arm she was compressing and supporting on top of her head. That's when she spotted his clawing, and her eyes slowly clenched tight again and ducked her head as much as she was able with Dio's arm resting where it was.<br> <br>Meniatz nods and gives Dio a hug, taking great care not to put pressure on the injured arm. "I'm glad to hear that, Dio." Sie gives him a kiss on the cheek. "Um, little one..." Sie begins, addressing the  small human. "Would you like to apologize to Dio? I know you didn't mean to hurt him, but it would still be the polite thing to do." Sie says with a warm smile.<br> <br>Meniatz scratches the back of hir head sheepishly. "Um...what /is/ your name, anyway?"<br> <br>Antiman nods at dio, "If you're sure." Sie notes Kesai's clenched closed eyes again. Sie walks over to her and crouches down to be at eye level, "Don't worry, Kesai. No one here is going to hurt you. Not on pourpose as least." Sie looks up at hir sister-mate, "Love I would really like to get Dio to the traige unit. It's only a flesh wound, but I don't want it sealing up with anything that shouldn't be in there still in there."<br> <br>Tau was hearing voices now. This was it. The infection was in his head. It was gonna drive him nuts like everyone else. He only hoped that it wouldn't get too far into his head before he had a chance to...wait.maybe...he lifted an arm up and pulled at his mask just enough to say "put me down." and placed it back onto his face. These ones talked. Others had in the past of course, but these seemed the most lucid. Maybe he could talk his way out. Maybe. Wait, little one? Oh, she could go fuck herself. He didn't care how much bigger than he she actually was.<br> <br>Tau was hearing voices now. This was it. The infection was in his head. It was gonna drive him nuts like everyone else. He only hoped that it wouldn't get too far into his head before he had a chance to...wait.maybe...he lifted an arm up and pulled at his mask just enough to say "Uh...I'm just gonna go. Th-thanks." with a point of his thumb behind him and placed it back onto his face. These ones talked. Others had in the past of course, but these seemed the most lucid. Maybe he could talk his way out. Maybe. Just...make like it's no big deal. He turns and walks calmly away, hoping it was one of those things were if he didn't run, they wouldn't chase.<br> <br>Dio felt a bit better after Meni gives him a kiss, but the burning sensation of rage and pain still burned deep within him. "An apology would be quite welcome. After all, it was just an accident, /right/? We can have a goooood laugh about it later." Dio attempts to hide his sarcasm the best he could with only some effect. Turning towards Anti, he smiles and says, "Ah, it's not that big a deal. I can always take myself. No need to trouble yourself anymore than you already have." As he watches the human leave without so much as a simply sorry, Dio squirms about in place while violently gritting his teeth, doing his best not to explode in anger.<br> <br>Kesai starts, her eyes snapping open to Anti's eyes and beak before her. Incidentally, her startling may have caused her to clench her hands on Dio's wound. "But... Dio looks... angry." Her silvery eyes flickered up at Dio and back to Antiman, afraid to attract his gaze. She had begun to relax as Dio attempted to calm, but she felt, more than anything, the anger and rage humming through his form and her eyes fell shut once again.<br> <br>Meniatz follows after Tau. "You forgot your weapons! Don't you want them back?" Sie asks, holding out the gun and knife to Tau. "I know how dangerous it is out there. I wouldn't want my new human friend to get hurt by a pack of wandering ferals." Sie says with a smile. Hir mood begins to shift as disappointment begins to set in. Sie whispers softly to him as sie places the weapons in his hands. "I know you probably still don't trust me, but I really want to be your friend." Sie then scrawls something on a slip of paper and hand it to him. "If you ever want to come talk with me or if you ever need anything, I live at that address with Anti," Sie says, pointing to the gryphon. "We love having visitors and we have had experience with helping people adjust to life with sentient non-humans like us."<br> <br>Antiman glances up at Dio's poorly hidden sarcasim. Hir ears flatten as the human starts to walk away without so much as an I'm sorry. And this was after covering for the fact that he shot Dio on purpose and with fell intent. Sie however still tried to comfort Kesai, "He is angery, but not at you, dear. Being shot will make anyone angery, especialy if the one who did it won't even apologize for it when it was an accident." *If this human doesn't get his head out of his ass soon I may just forget about Meni wanting to make this sound like an accident. I love hir, but when the object of your mercy doesn't even recogonize the debt owed...* Sie tries to keep an incredulous expression off hir face as hir sister-mate hands the humans weapons back. *We're going to have a little talk soon, love.* sie thinks to hirself, *There are some things you don't do even when mataining a cover.*<br> <br>Tau hears the cat man be all pissed at him, and he turns around a bit. Shit, think fast. Just when he was scrambling for an excuse as to why he needed to leave, the winged serpent spoke to him and handed him his weapons? What was she playing at? This was a ploy to win his trust, had to be. Ferals she said? Must be what they call the animals that act more animal than they do. Cute. In his opinion, none of them were any better than the others, these ones were just more sneaky about trying to infect people. Things became clear that...*somehow* the snake could talk in his head. Or maybe he'd finally lost his mind completely and ALL of this was in his head. The wounds felt real enough. He'd been all kinds of lucky it seemed. They were letting him go. Without taking any more risk of infection by exposing his mouth (it was bad enough he did it once, he might be infected by now, not to mention the wound) He forwent apologizing. Instead he nodded, held up the weapons in a "see, I'm not using them" mannar, and started making his way back to his hideout. Just after he left sight, he crumpled the note and dropped it.<br> <br>It took everything Dio had not to just stand up and charge at the human and put him in his place even at the risk of making the wound upon his arm even worse. Upon recieving a certain telepathic message however, he simply closes his eyes and attempts deep breath exercises to stave away his anger. Even as the human continued to walk, he kept on with his breathing in a desperate attempt not to cause a scene.<br> <br>Kesai tried to remain calm. She tried to keep Anti's word's in mind. The vixen also tried to remember that she was supposed to be holding up Dio's arm and keeping pressure on the wound. Slowly, she peeled her eyes open once more and looked up at Anti and responded softly, "Ok."