Unexplainable Occurances (Private)

[Rhindeer]

Oh, Beatrid knew she was in danger. And that was just the thing. She was a Mordecai, and danger was a part of her job. Every time she went out on a mission she was putting her life on the line and one day, well, she might just very well lose it in her line of work. But she knew the risks and she accepted them; her family was a military family, for Gods' sakes, so it really wasn't like she was some innocent ninny who joined up in ignorance and then balked at the sight of blood and threat of death. She knew what she was doing, and she lived for it; she loved the adrenaline rush, the risk, and the fact that she could die. Maybe it was crazy, but, hey, some people got their fix jumping off cliffs with weird flying devices. She just got hers in cases like this. For her, this was fun. Of course, she found plenty of other things fun, but hey, it was good to love her job, right? No, she didn't like killing people, but beating the crap out of people who deserved it? That was awesome.

It happened quickly, but not quickly enough. Kuro yelled out and once again Beatrid ignored him save for a jolt of surprise at his outburst--or, at least, she would have ignored him if not for the fact that Reiwhateverhisnameis was suddenly not where he once was. Which, from Beatrid's experience, usually meant that he was behind her somewhere, because when people suddenly vanished, well, that was the typical thing to do. With a hiss of surprise, she spun around and, sure enough, a foot was flying right toward her. Whatever Kuro's condition was, she couldn't see it, and she wasn't even thinking of him at the moment. Her mind went blank, instinct kicked in, and she pulled the trigger right as that foot connected point blank with her pistol.

Rule number two: if you're going to attack someone with a gun, don't do it when they're already anticipating an attack.

Thwack!

Even if you may still get a good hit in.

The sound of the pistol going off was muted in her own head as she struck the ground hard, landing on her back and getting the wind knocked out of her good, pain exploding through her mouth. Goddammit! Her hands ached, too, but her face hurt the most, and she could taste blood filling her mouth with a metallic tang, and she wasn't sure if the liquid by her nose was from her nose or also from her mouth. Whatever the case, her lip had split and she'd bitten the inside of her cheek, hard, which always hurt like a fucking bitch. Oh well...she was pretty sure she got him. From how he'd been coming at her, from the point blank angle, she had at least shot him straight up the foot, or at the very least shot his torso if she'd missed. But he'd gotten her, as well, his foot connecting dead-on with that pistol and her hands, sending her hands and the butt of the gun snapping back to strike her in the face. Well...if not that, it would have been a foot in the face. Hurt either way, and for a moment she could just lay there sort of stunned.

Then she jolted and rolled back onto her hands and knees with a groan of pain, quickly snatching up her pistol from where it lay beside her, even as her fingers throbbed. Dammit. She flexed her fingers painfully...well...as long as they still worked and could still bend. Spitting blood onto the grass, she glared over at where Reiwhatever was and quickly fixed her pistol back on him, now able to see him with his dagger stabbed into Kuro's side. Shit...that idiot...she probably looked like she was gaping in shock, but the truth was that, indeed, her nose had been fucked up and now she had to breathe out of her mouth.

"You little bastard..." she growled, her voice thicker as she spoke around the blood. And, once again, she pulled the trigger.

[Anonymous]

That little event injured everyone in some way. Kuro, with a knife in his side, Beatrid, with a gun to the face, and Reikoku with a bullet trail over the right side of his chest. If he had not thrown that kick at Beatrid at a near horizontal angle, he would have been hit with the bullet, dead on. But for now, his wound is a minor annoyance. Another round was fired and Reikoku smirked at that. He quickly pivots his body into a spin and the bullet catches his right side on time with a Ting. The bullet ricocheted off him and flew off in a random direction for some reason. Kuro knows good and well, but anyone else would be baffled beyond belief.
Kuro wastes no time in yanking the dagger out of his side and swinging it at the assassin next to him. Reikoku predicted such an attempt and threw the upper half of his body back into an arch. While his feet remain on the ground, Kuro continues with the same motion and throws a sweeping kick at Reikoku's legs. The Kumori assassin had not thought of that and got tripped forward by the attack. Grace paid off in this minor setback as Reikoku plants his hand on the ground before himself and launches himself at a nearby tree. He lands his feet on the tree with no problem and falls into a quick crouching position. In the same instant, he reaches just below his waistline and under the cape to lock his hands into metallic, bladed gauntlets. Perhaps that is what ricocheted the bullet. He throws his arms forward on time to launch himself in Kuro's general direction with a spiral. Reikoku's well known drill attack, lethal and hard to avoid if not prepared. By the look of Kuro's face when he turns around to see his nemesis launch off the tree, he's not prepared.
Hard to believe this whole event occured in less than ten seconds.

[Rhindeer]

Beatrid cursed loudly when the bullet ricocheted off of Rei, though the metallic ting informed her of the reason. Bastard was wearing armor or something, because even the shot to his leg wasn't doing much, even if it had knicked him and his chest. The bullet that glanced off of Rei's hidden gauntlets struck a tree near Beatrid, and she cursed again, flinching in alarm. Well. That complicated things. She'd have to be bloody close to him to get a hit in; his torso seemed protected, but his head wasn't, and neither were his legs. Maybe there were weak points at the parts guarding his torso, but she couldn't see them from here and it would be dangerous to fire on him--the bullets would just bounce off with the possibility of hitting she or Kuro. Not a chance she was willing to take. She had to get closer.

As Kuro launched himself at Rei with the knife that had stabbed him, Beatrid did just that. She crept closer while Rei was distracted, never taking her aim off him. But she didn't fire. Or do anything yet. Kuro had it under control for now, and she let him handle it for the moment while they did their interesting body bending things. There wasn't much time to do much of anything else, anyway, because then Kuro had kicked out Rei's legs, for a second gaining the upper hand. Or...so it looked.

Because that was when Rei leaped back, whipped out those damned gauntlets, and dove toward Kuro. Who looked surprised.

Who wasn't moving.

He was going to get hit. And dead on. The blades would cut right through his middle and that would be it.

If there was one thing about Beatrid, it was that she was loyal. Sure, she may dislike a fellow soldier, but she wasn't about to let them die if she could help it. Regardless of differences and disagreements, they were a team--that was the fact of the matter, and Beatrid took it to heart. Maybe that's why she did what she did. Whatever the case, there was hardly any time to think--there was scarcely time enough to even react, but react Beatrid did. A first impulse might have been to shoot the bastard, but she couldn't chance the bullets glancing off of him, and with the momentum of his body, a shot to the leg wouldn't halt his forward motion. There was only one thing to do.

God, she was going to regret this later, she knew it.

Biting down on her bloody lip hard and tightening her grip on her pistol painfully, Beatrid lunged forward to tackle Kuro forcibly from the side, shoving him down and bracing herself against the pain she knew was going to come. But she wasn't going down without hurting that Rei fucker, too, which was why she fired a shot toward his chest right as she rammed into Kuro. She wouldn't see if it did any damage, though. Not yet. The pain struck a second later, a blinding, cutting agony that swept through her left side as she fell with Kuro, and only her teeth clamping down on her lip kept her from screaming, the sound locked away stubbornly in her throat. Because Beatrid just did not scream. She refused to, even if it was probably stupid, but it was a pride thing. Still, she couldn't keep entirely silent, and a choked, gurgled gasp wracked her which sounded, much to her annoyance, almost like a sob. It was the blood in her mouth, though. That she was certain of.

Or, she would have been certain of that if her head was clear. It took her a few moments to realize she was laying on the ground, agony blossoming outward from her side. Actually...not quite the ground. On second glance...yeah. Great. Kuro was right beneath her, and getting all messy in her blood, too. Fun.

Shit...

With a groan, Beatrid rolled off of him and onto her back, gasping, and turning her head to the side to spit up more annoying blood--damned mouth wounds bled like a stuck pig. Augh...holy fuck, that hurt...and a tentative hand at her side showed her that it wasn't pretty from the feel of it...not that she really wanted to look, because she sure didn't need to--she could feel the blood and split flesh good and well! Shit again...why the hell did she do that? To save the bastard's neck, of course, but...ow...

Grimacing, she attempted to sit up, and found that the most she could do was to roll over onto her uninjured side and prop herself up on an elbow at the moment. Cursing the whole time, she struggled to try and get onto her knees, at least, which was a bit of a struggle one-handedly. One had gripped her side firmly to try and hold herself together, and the other hand, which also held her weapon, she clumsily used to try and pull herself up. "Goddammit...fuck..." she growled between her bloodstained teeth, unable to be any more eloquent than that at the moment, but she kept her grip tight on her pistol. What the hell had she been thinking? Stupid, Beatrid! Fucking stupid! She broke her own damned rule...though...well, granted, when Kuro did it she wouldn't have been hurt badly if he didn't. Kuro...he looked like he'd been about to die. And while she was a bitch but she wasn't callous.

[Anonymous]

Just as Reikoku sailed over Beatrid and Kuro, he took the full shot to the chest. Though he was a moving target, there's no way he could have avaoided that in midair. His arms fall limp and the gauntlets slide off as he continues forward. He hit the ground hard and tumbles to a dead stop, head first into a tree. Consciousness is quite a distance away for him now.
Everything happen at a fast pace that Kuro could usually handle. His main reason was the big distraction known as, Beatrid. He could have taken Reikoku easily, but he couldn't concentrate. Now she was injured and on top of him?! It's be a surprise if Beatrid didn't see Kuro's face become a brilliant shade of red. Did she just save his life? Since when do things like this happen?
Now she's bleeding profusely and things like that could lead to one's death. Kuro knows she's nohing like him. She doesn't heal as immediately as he does. Kuro wastes no time in picking himself up to his feet to evaluate the situation more. Reikoku is unconscious and Beatrid is bleeding to death. Great. He has absolutely not time to finish off his rival.
Kuro quickly pulls off his scarf and wraps it tightly around Beatrid's waist to slow the bleeding a bit. He then lifts Beatrid off the ground into his arms. Finally, he leaps up into the branches above to dash across them towards the city. He know good and well that was deffinately not enough to down Reikoku for good. He will be back for Kuro.
"Damnit, Beatrid! Why couldn't you have left?" Kuro notes softly as he keeps his focus on the trees he's travelling through. Just their luck how they had to be so far from the city.

[Rhindeer]

[Whee, tired. Hopefully this post is more coherant than that last one. XD]

Hah...she got him. A weary glance up showed that Reiwhatever had fallen, and Beatrid couldn't help the slight grin. Hah. Take that, bastard. Hell, take that Kuro, even. Telling her to leave like--ack!

"Wha...Kur--ow..." It didn't hurt so bad until Kuro started moving her around, tying his scarf tightly around her waist. Amazing what adrenaline could do--well, adrenaline and shock, that is. Her torn up side hardly hurt! For now. Yay. Now she was resting and growing oddly tired and weak, so soon enough all those fun chemicals would wear off, she'd come down from her natural high, and then she'd feel the full force of the injury, which would bite, especially since she knew it was pretty bad. Blood was seeping through her fingers and she felt kind of dizzy in a familiar sort of way. Usually, she'd been lucky--most of the time if she got wounded, it really was just a scratch and some bruises, maybe she'd get grazed by a bullet or break a finger. Usually, she was good at doing her job and coming out of it in one piece with most of her blood still inside of her, but, really, luck only held out for so long. Shit happened.

And Beatrid, despite her injury, couldn't help but groan in a mixture of pain and indignation when Kuro lifted her up off of the ground...and into his arms.

Argh...

She was in no condition to protest, however, and while she was proud, she wasn't proud enough to refuse his help and allow herself to bleed to death. So, she simply allowed herself to go limp in his arms, though her crinkled brow and pained scowl easily showed that she was not all too pleased with this turn of events. Gods...why'd she have to go and do that...?

Gritting her teeth as Kuro leaped into the trees and took off, jostling her as he dashed back toward Reajh with her, Beatrid rolled her eyes up toward Kuro's face as he spoke, and if it wouldn't have hurt her side, she might have laughed. Well, actually, she did laugh, and indeed it did hurt, even if it was a hoarse, cautious chuckle. The pain was finally beginning to become more pronounced, throbbing achingly as her body began to normalize. "Heh...right...like I'd let ya...order me around..." she muttered simply between labored breaths before frowning and knitting her eyebrows together. Psha...who was he to ask her to leave? She'd been attacked, after all! Thus, it was her fight, too. Besides, what the hell did he think she was? She wasn't in the military to twirl her gun and look pretty and she wasn't about to let him have all the fun--not to mention she could be as stubborn as a mule and she didn't like being treated like she was somehow less qualified. Shit, he'd nearly gotten his ass handed to him there.

"Fuck...see...you always do that..." Beatrid added with a grimace before letting her eyes close tiredly. She'd let him figure that one out on his own because at the moment she was in far too much pain and felt way too out of it to be able to talk a lot, so Kuro was spared the lecture for now. He was always so patronizing, and even wounded Beatrid had the energy to be annoyed by it, even if she didn't outright say it. However, one thing did randomly pop into her head as they grew farther away, and she had to spell it out...

"...Shit, Kuro...I got him. He dead? Damnit...go back. You gotta...arrest 'im if he's...if he's not..." Maybe it wasn't the best thing to think up while she was bleeding profusely, but it was only logical! Right? If the bastard wasn't dead or imprisoned, then he was as good as free to try and kill them both again.

[Anonymous]

Kuro's foot lightly tapped on a branch before he propelled himself up to land on another, not too far away. At the same time, he listened to Beatrid complain and talk.
"Look, Beatrid... I wasn't giving orders to anyone. Reikoku is a ruthless killer and matches my strength to the bone. He targets whatever weakness he sees available. And I..." Kuro stopped before he could finish what he was saying. He thought about whether or not it would be logical to tell Beatrid that her presence was his weakness. Her safety from Reikoku was more important than his life. He shook off the thought right when she snapped at him. He always did what? She was making less sense by the second, which was not good at all.
"It takes more than a shot to the chest ro take down Reikoku. More than likely, he's still alive. That doesn't matter right now. Your life matters more to me than his condition." Kuro explains as his journey through the trees takes the two of them closer to the city. He spoke too fast for himself to realize what he just said;
Your life matters more to me than his condition.

[Rhindeer]

Heh...was that so? Well, that Rei guy had been pretty easy to take down, actually. Even if he was still alive. She didn't say that, though. It would take too much effort, so she'd just move onto more pressing matters.

"...You better not be...calling me weak," Beatrid muttered, letting her eyes droop shut again and wincing as her body was jolted. Okay, maybe that wasn't more pressing, but she couldn't pass up the comment; that was just how she was. And hey...he didn't finish his sentence. And he what? She sighed shakily and coughed, swallowing--which was possible now that the bleeding in her mouth had finally stopped. Whatever...he'd tell her later, she was sure, and right now it was getting more difficult to concentrate or focus on any one thing, a bad sign that she was able to recognize in a disconected, objective sort of way even in her state. Blast it, she was probably going to pass out, which would suck because passing out was just so, uh...what's that word? Weak. Yeah. It was wimpy. Or something like that. It certainly wasn't the best way to prove a point, whatever point she'd been trying to prove. She couldn't really remember at the moment. Gah. Oh well, she was still determined to tough it out. Like always.

As Kuro spoke, Beatrid only groaned lightly and tilted her head to the side, leaning it against Kuro's chest wearily without even being fully aware of what she was doing. Either that, or she just wasn't trying to think of it. Whatever, her neck was more comfortable that way, and it was bad enough that he was hauling her around. Augh. Wasn't much that could make it worse unless he accidentally groped her ass. Yes...only Beatrid would worry about getting groped when her side was split open. "Still should...finish him..." she insisted, though she did slit open one eye when she vaguely caught Kuro's statement. To him...? Eh...that was an odd way of putting it. She didn't really know why, but it rang in her head as strange. Probably just her head being funny, though.

Was he worried about her or something?

Sighing again, she clenched her eyes shut and gritted her teeth at another jolt of pain. "Just...hurry up..." she said quietly, doing her best to stay alert and conscious. She was determined to go into that infirmary wide awake, just to make sure they patched her up correctly.

And, of course, she knew losing consciousness wasn't really a good thing, and she wasn't keen on dying yet. Not that she was hurt that bad. Psha. Little scratch never stopped her before...the blood just made it seem worse than it was!

[Anonymous]

Beatrid was losing blood fast and Kuro had already slowed it down as much as he could. It's only a matter of time before he...! Solid? Kuro's thoughts instantly traveled to the fact that he's no longer bounding off tree branches. Realizing exactly where he is, the ninjaesque Mordecai races across the rooftop and bounds to the next. They are within the city. Now it's only a race to the Palace.
"Stay with me, Beatrid. We're almost there." Kuro note, calmly as he travels to the Palace, via rooftop. If she's still conscious, Beatrid would probably realize why Kuro travels the rooves. It's much better and faster than fighting the daily crowds.

[Rhindeer]

Wha? Stay with him? Well, he was kind of carrying her around, so it wasn't like she could really go anywhere. "Heh heh...where would I go...?" she slurred slightly with a weak laugh, grinning a little. Wait, he probably hadn't meant that literally, had he? Probably not. Oh well. Same difference, really.

Beatrid couldn't see where they were because her eyes were closed, but she could vaguely tell that they were no longer bouncing around as much, which was nice because it didn't jar her injury as much. Not much movement came from her at all after that last sentence, though she was still conscious, if really out of it now. In fact, as Kuro was racing across the rooftops toward the palace, suddenly Beatrid's eyes snapped open again and her moved abruptly to sit up, though that attempt failed miserably. She let out a loud gasp as white-hot pain flared up in her side, and her vision actually whited out for a moment as she once again went limp.

"Ah...Kuro...Hek..." she managed to get out breathlessly, panting heavily and wincing as each breath made her sides heave. "We...I need to find 'im...he'll get...he'll get lost...dolt..." Another cough, and she went still again, blinking dully and focusing on her breathing. What? She couldn't let the idgit get lost out there. He'd probably get mugged...

Yeah. She was definitely out of it.

[Anonymous]

She was starting to lose it and it showed. This was not a good sign. Kuro had to move quick. He almost lost his balance when she suddenly shot up and began mumbling about Hek. Yeah, she was losing it. Either that, or she really cares for him.
"Don't be a fool. Keep still so that you don't flair your injury too much." Kuro noted as he continued to focus on moving towards the Palace.
"Besides, I can easily track him down. I'll help you look for him when you get treated." He finishes just as he lands on another building from a prior one.

[Rhindeer]

"Ah...yeah...sounds good...idiot'll kill himself..." Beatrid said distractedly.

Yeah. Keeping still sounded good. As did finding that dolt later. He could fend for himself, right? He could...toss apples at anyone who tried to attack him or something, and he had that big stick, too, right? Haha. Big stick. Heh heh. That sounded so wrong, and Beatrid suddenly found herself wanting to giggle--and giggling was something she most certainly never did, and she was blessedly spared making that sound because her throat currently didn't have that abiity, aparently. Ahem. No. The shovel handle...thing. Anyway, he'd be fine. Besides, really, she wasn't in the mood to look for him right now. She was tired, and she could feel the world beginning to grow more distant as unconsciousness began to take over. Sleeping sounded really nice right now. Something told her it wasn't the smartest thing, though, so she fought to stay awake, focusing her attention on the sharp pain in her side. That helped.

"Hm...thanks..." she suddenly murmured faintly, eyes fluttering as she fought to keep them open. "...But...hey...where're we goin'...?" Injury...? Ah, right, duh, that Reiwhateverhisnameis guy...pushing Kuro out of the way. That's why her side hurt. Yeah. Ugh. It was so damned hard to think right now.