Heh, sorry it's taking so long for us to get to posting this... We've been celebrating the job well done. ^_^

So, mission successful, and y'all wanna know exactly what all went down, right?

Well, a friend of Ben's had lent us some 4by's, a few of which were stickshifts, for the mission. I got the keys to one of the stickshifts; all in all, we used 4 of the vehicles...

Shadow and his team took one; Kolya, Sasha, Natasha, and their surveillance equipment took a second; Ron and Bert took theirs late, late, late last night (or really, really early this morning); and Michael T, Eric Eland, Pendragon, Robin, and myself in the last one.

Well, once Shadow's, Kolya's and my cars had all personnel and equipment loaded up, we were ready to--

Whoops, my turn to sing again. ^^; I'll post some either later tonight or tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow. I'm wiped.

I feel bad for the dogs they used to try and track us as we were leaving. I left sprinkles of CS crystals all over our area... kinda like riot gas but in crystaline form. Fucks with their sense of smell, but doesnt do any permanent damage.

*Damn, is it my turn to by rounds this time?*

I'm awake for now, so I'll continue the story a bit... We brought our cars to the rendezvous point. We checked our radios and their frequencies, and Kolya started up his satellite surveillance.

Shadow's team stayed a good distance away, to provide cover in case things went to Hell farther than we could've possibly feared, and our team needed to draw back hella fast.

Everyone else; Sasha, Natasha, Pendragon, Robin, Michael T, Eric Eland, and myself moved into position at the Outer Perimeter fence. By my reckoning and by the map Ron had drawn out for us before, this point was effectively a "chink" in their defenses... Because of the tree formations, the point was hardly visible to their surveillance teams...

The Outer Fence was a basic chain-link with barbed wire atop it. Pendragon had a set of wire-cutters that made short work of that.

I stuffed my radio in a rabbit-skin pouch I had brought along for the occasion, and wished everyone luck... I had no idea how much we were all going to need it.

I shapeshifted into a falcon, grabbed the pouch and the radio inside, and took to the air... I flew my "catch" over the Outer Perimeter fence... I could see Shadow, Michael, Eric and Robin sneaking into the area between the fences, watching out for the traps and making their way through the trees... I lost sight of them as I came within visual range of the compound itself.

I saw the children out working the yards... I saw several of them a bit further than the rest. As I flew in closer, I caught sight of her...

Something plowed into me from below. An angry jay had spotted me and decided I was intruding. I flexed my claws to strike out at it, and the fight was on... Our fight was bringing us closer to the compound, and eventually, I could hear Hannah singing...

So could the jay, apparently. It fluttered mid-air for a moment, looking startled, then darted off... That was when I realized that I'd dropped the damned rabbit-skin, and the radio with it, and I had no idea where it had ended up...

I hoped Kolya hadn't been recording that as I flew in closer to the sound of her voice... I don't even know how I knew it was her voice; it just made sense that it had to be.

As luck would have it, it was...

I flew into a nearby bush to shapeshift more without interruption or being seen... A black stallion was the form that emerged from the bush when alarms went off from the far side of the compound.

I raced towards where I'd seen Hannah... She smiled as I approached, obviously expecting me.

Sadly, she wasn't alone. One of the adults, a lanky guy who looked about like he might blow over if he sneezed wrong, came over to her. It's hard for me to remember much of what was said, but he seemed quite adamant that she needed to get inside, and she rather serenely was telling him she was fine, or something to that effect.

I heard Ron's old name come on over the radio. They both gave very different reactions. The guy went white as a sheet, and started stammering; Hannah, after I knelt down for her, vaulted onto my back and held on as I started running.

I didn't know where I was running to; I didn't have the radio, anymore... I just knew I had to get away from where I was, fast, and that I'd been seen carrying Hannah off.

We ran in the general direction I'd come from, to the perimeter fence. I knew the guys were going to be somewhere around there, in general, at least...

Again, our luck was two-faced; for while I was seen (and though I didn't know it, being pursued already), I saw the guys. Michael T waved the pouch through the air, pulled out the radio, and tossed it to Hannah. She caught it a bit awkwardly, not being used to riding bare-back, and Michael teleported himself, Robin, Eric Eland, and Shadowstalker all back to the Outer Perimeter breach point.

All I had to do was get Hannah there safely, and hope for the best for Ron's group...and there were only a few miles of well-wooded lands; yes, there were traps, but they were easy to spot. I figured it would be a cakewalk getting out of there.

That is, until I heard the "whing" sound of a bullet bouncing off a tree somewhere in our vicinity...

Kolya's voice crackled on the radio; six bogies, one vehicle and five horsemen...and that wasn't all we had to deal with through our escape.

Yeah, thanx to the info given to us about what traps to lookout for and avoid, and the live satellite feed, getting to the Inner Perimeter wasnt too difficult. I was quite impressed with the breach teams ability to move quickly and quietly. The only problem I noticed was a slight headache I had developed almost as soon as bypassed the outer perimeter. Once we were at the inner breach point, helped conceal the team, I got to work on disabling the alarm on the inner fence.

He was also apparently in more than one place...because as I made a mental note to thank Michael later, I felt a spike in the energies. Hannah felt it, too... The radio started giving us static. I could feel her trying to get it to work as I ran through the forest, going in the last heading that Kolya had given me...

I heard a crackle from behind me; the wall that Michael had put up suddenly winked out of existence... I heard Asshole's voice laughing in the back of my head, and I snorted out of frustration. Hannah had to grab onto my mane as I took off running hard...

We must've run by fairly near to where Michael was... We also must've missed each other.

Fortunately, even though our radios weren't working, it appeared that Kolya's satellite surveillance was, because it didn't take Robin and Shadow much time at all to find us. Shadow put down some cover fire for us, which slowed down the horsemen pretty easily, and Robin, hidden in the bushes, waited until the jeep was driving right past him. He lashed out with a blast of telekinesis, knocking both the driver and the gunman (who was focussed on Shadow) right out of the jeep. I heard him make a smart-ass comment about seat-belts as he jumped into the passenger seat, and Shadow took control of the vehicle. Between their two kinetic abilities working together, they managed to put it into a controlled spin pretty easily, blocking the horsemen for at least a bit more time. They took advantage of the armor from the jeep to keep themselves safe as they burst out, Shadow using his psionics to get himself and Robin outta there, pronto.

It slowed them down pretty effectively, and with Shadow and Robin there with us now, we knew how to get out.

I kept running. It was easier than strategizing with the mind of a horse...

It was Hannah who realized first that something wasn't right. "We're going the wrong way!"

We stopped for a moment, and we realized that the sun was in the wrong position in the sky... The radios were still non-functional, which was getting to be a pain in the ass.

I could feel the vibrations in the ground, of something approaching, fast, but they were subtle. I stamped at the ground, snorted, whinnied, anything to get people to get us moving again.

Hannah pointed a direction, and we turned and continued on...which was when we spotted two jeeps coming straight towards us, guns blazing.

There was a pair of popping noises, and next thing we knew, Pendragon had disabled their engines. "Hope I'm not too late," was all he said.

Eric Eland was there next, making a force bubble around us as we all made the last half-mile run to the breach point.

Michael was there when we all got there, along with everyone else...and when our pursuers reached the fence, they all dropped to the ground, sound asleep, thanks to Natasha's runes.

I have to say, it was the most efficiently we've all worked together that I think I've ever seen before...

I shifted back into my human form only after Hannah was lowered off my back and helped into the SUV I was going to be driving. We got everyone packed up, pronto, and radioed into Ron to meet us at the rendezvous. Mission successful.

I put Pink Floyd's "Money" on the radio for our victory music...

You're very welcome, Hannah. Don't worry about paying me back, at least. ^_^ It seriously was the least I could do.

I'm just glad you're alright.

And...Ben? Ben taught you how to do that?

Err... o.o; Thanks. ^^;

It's good to hear that Ben's doing okay, since, y'know, nobody from the group that went to try to help him has reported back about his condition...

I assure you Mr. KonThaak, your friend is recovering in the safety of a hospital and is under the best of care. For a thrall, he is rather resilient.

Perhaps out of the respect of a fellow hunter, I will not speak of another wounded who is unable to continue the hunt as of yet. Im sure once Mr. Holister leaves the hospital,
he may tell his tale. I just do not see it as my place to do so.

You're very welcome Hannah. And you don't need to pay me back at all, seeing you and your dad together is more of a reward than anything in heaven and earth.

And, uhhh, Holister and yer Dad don't really see eye to eye on very many things. But, other then the occasional villain that comes by to spout off (Like Loki in another thread) there aren't any enemies here that I'm aware of.

Bert_the_Turtle wrote:And, uhhh, Holister and yer Dad don't really see eye to eye on very many things.

To say the least. But I think they try . . . more or less.

Welcome to the society, Ms. Hannah, I hope you will find your stay uneventfull. I am not sure if Mr. Caliburn and I are friends, but I do respect him greatly. If you have inherited his determination (some would say stuburness) you will quite likely do well in any endevour you apply it to.

You both have my sincerest apologies for my interruption of your ride home.

Mr. Caliburn, you have my congratulations - had I know the truth I would have sent something more... apropriate than tea sets.

Azrael wrote:I assure you Mr. KonThaak, your friend is recovering in the safety of a hospital and is under the best of care. For a thrall, he is rather resilient.

Hannah wrote:Ben is a thrall? To what? He seems to be a nice man . . . aside from his signature.

That would be Celeste. She's controling him.

Celeste is not controlling him. His hormones are controlling him.

Bert_the_Turtle wrote:Celeste is not controlling him. His hormones are controlling him.

Dublo dude:

You know your a redneck if you make doe eyes to a dead girl that sucks blod.

Cee is a beautiful person, inside and out, blood sucking or no.

Said like a true thrall.