((Congratulation on the jobs both of you! I too was called about a job, the moving company I worked with last year wants me back, so I have a summer job too! I have my last final on Wednesday, but I don't think it will really effect my responses as these things don't take too long, and make for a great break from studying.))

Aven had started sprinting, giving Mutt had a chance to flee. Mutt's comment on Russians was taken fairly lightly by the older Russian, and he seemed to treat it as what it was; a young boy trying to act tough. It was the younger Russian that really took offense to the slur, perhaps revealing that this one was rash, and probably new to the group. The two looked similar, but whether this was from being related or just from similar areas Mutt was unsure.

Mutt knew he was no match for these guys, apparently professional assassins of some sort, but he didn't want to abandon this Aven man who saved him from the sailors. Mutt ran after the men, towards the ally. A man walked out of the nearby liquor store, saw the men with swords and dropped his bag and fled. Mutt saw this as his opportunity, and grabbed the bag, leaking bourbon as he ran. The bottle was broken, but being near a liquor store, the alley was littered with empty bottles. Mutt grabbed a bottle, poured the remaining whiskey into it, bunched the paper bag up, and stuffed it into the top. Mutt pulled out his brother's lighter and flipped it open, thankful that the top was waterproof. as Mutt rounded the corner he lit the paper on fire, and took aim.

The archer and the group of assassin were arguing over who would take Aven, and the young Russian was on the ground with an arrow in his leg. Aven was cornered, but Mutt caught his attention, nodded to Aven, and threw the bottle at the cluster of assassins. Flames burst from the bottle, attracting plenty of attention. Mutt turned and ran, knowing the assassins would be on him in seconds, and that Aven was much faster, and could catch up. Mutt only hoped Aven understood that was his chance to run again.

((You know what's better than an arrow to the leg? An arrow to the knee.))
((Short post, I know.))
The little boy from earlier attempted to attack with a Molotov, but failed. "Bear, catch him!"
The American took off, his spikes on his guantlet extending yet again. "Come here, we want to talk to you!" He yelled at the boy.
((To clear it up, they all have different weapons. Nikolai has Battle Morphs, Zaro has his Scimitar, Bear has a guantlet with extendable spikes on the knuckles, Moniter has his poison blades (plus his own creations), Lizard has the Battle Staff (a seven foot long staff with a retractable blade at the end, plus a club on the opposite end, something to be very afraid), Tiger has his Charkram stars, and Lion has the Shiungi, swords that are masters of death. So only two have swords, but all have their back up Sawtooths.))

"Wolf! He got away!" Moniter yelled, groping the knife in his thigh. ((Wow, a lot of sharp objects to the legs.)) He pulled it out and ran off.
"Nice knowing you!" Zaro walked over and pulled the arrow out of Nikolai's leg. "Let's go Nikolai. He's not our prey." They ran off after Bear and Moniter.
-----
Bear stopped. Oh man, Zaro's going to kill me. Moniter caught up. "Where did they go?" Bear hought. "The kid? Some guy took him into an alleyway." Zaro showed up, with his limping apprentice in tow. "Moniter, what info did you obtain?"
"Well, his majesty is a two-timing jerk. We've been played. All along."
"That stupid fool!" Zaro pulled out the job info card and handed it to Moniter. "Now, we steal!" Moniter acknowldged. He began hacking into the card to obtain the bounty.
Zaro caught a shop door closing. He thought for a moment. "Bear, follow me. Nikolai, protect Moniter." Zaro and Bear took off to the shop. A liquor store. "I've never seen you so depressed after a mission fail." Bear said. "Because we never fail." Zaro said as he walked through the door. "Sorry. This is liquor store. No vodka for the Russians. Haha!" The owner said in an italian accent. "Bear, if you'd be kind, punch this man in face."
"Will do." Bear let off a jab. The man dropped to the ground, dead. "Perhaps I punched him too hard?" Bear asked. "Maybe next time, he'll hold his tongue. Like my ancestors did once a mellenia ago and again, three centuries ago." Zaro and Bear chuckled. Zaro put on his thermal vision. "Now, Aven. I heard what you said about his majesty." he walked around the store. "I feel your pain. He betrayed us." Zaro scanned through the shelves. "If you want, I'm willing to form a truce. Against Xan." He located an unusual heat source. "And I see you. Dont be alarmed, though. I wont do any harm." He turned the corner and raised his empty hands. "See? I just wanna talk."
((Should we start, like, you know, banding together? Since there is a lunatic after us?))
((Also, dont kill Moniter, Nikolai, or Bear. These characters will have importance in the end. So will Lizard.))
((Espescially since... Nevermind.))

Mutt curled in a ball next to Aven when he heard, "If thing's get nasty...I need you to pull that bottle trick again, okay?" Mutt smiled, and crawled over a few isles and grabbed several bottles of vodka, and proceeded to break the tops off and pour a trail from the shelves of spirits back to where Aven sat. Mutt whispered, "if you say 'this is Mutt' those exact words, I'll burn the store down. I think he'll be too focused on finding us to see the trap." Mutt proceeded to rip a strip of his shirt off, and wrung out as much water as he could. Mutt was drying the strip with his lighter as the Russian burst in the room.

((Mutt will follow Aven's lead either way))

Zaro replied back. "I wont turn back on my word. That's a promise." He said. He took the vodka downed a quarter of the bottle. "Ah, potatoes. A lot of uses for them." Bear's eyes found the boy. "Where did you learn such... Prejudice?" he asked. Zaro caught on. Passing the bottle back, he said, "One thing. Dont use the word 'Russian' in any bad manner. Nikolai is angered by it, and I sure as hell wont tolerate such language. Now, to business-" Nikolai rushed in through the door. "Zaro-" Zaro looked up at his apprentice with utter disgust and ferociousness. "Err... Wolf! Come! Quick!" the 19-year-old left.
-----------
As soon as the transferring was done, Moniter heard footsteps. He through the card into the air and with one simple tense of his forearm, three knives launched and carried it off. There's was a scream that sounded like that of an untamed animal. Moniter looked around and saw the archer from earlier. "Please, I mean no harm!" A shadow loomed over Moniter. He turned around and was instantly smacked into the wall.
((Enter Mugetsu))

"I wouldnt do that if I were you." Mugetsu looked at Zaro with a smile on his face. "Why not?"
"Because. I'll personally tear your face off, then put on upside-down. Then, I'll behead you, and shove your head up your ass, where it seems to be now." He turned to Nikolai. "Stay out of this." Zaro turned and lunged at Mugetsu. The monster didnt have enough time to respond to such speed. Zaro delivered blows to the knee, neck, ribcage side, and head before Mugetsu could even fight back. Zaro landed. "Now for the final touch!" Mugetsu knocked Zaro back. "Youre next!"
"You're first!" Bear said. He extended the spikes on his gauntlet. He delivered a blow to the neck. Zaro followed up with a slash to the stomach. "Youre a Cylum addict! Of course!" Zaro jammed his fingers into the bottom of Mugetsu's mouth. "Ahh!"
"Feel the pain, Mugetsu! This overrides effects of Cylum, as dad taught me." With a roar, Mugetsu knocked Zaro back a good 30 feet.
----------
Zaro opened his eyes. The sound of a V-TOL landing and footsteps made him bolt upright. "Brother, what happened?"
"It was him, Lizard. Mugetsu."
"He knocked you 30 feet? That has to be a new record." Lizard said. "It is." They both laughed. They started to walk towards Mugetsu.

The speed of one of the hunters was mildly impressive, he might even rival Shadow. The arrow was flawlessly knocked from the string and skipped across the pavement of the docks. Then out of nowhere flames erupted in front of him.

Shadow watched as Aven and the boy ran off. The Russian and a few others soon followed. Shadow took this chance to grab his two arrows and disappear. He quickly scaled the nearest building to monitor the situation.

"Alright seems that the team are no longer after Aven. So I guess I'll have no choice but to find out why at some point." As Shadow was muttering to himself he heard manic laughter that came from somewhere up the street. He quickly grabbed his bow and and zoomed in to see a hulking figure walking towards one of the team members. "Well this looks troublesome."

Sure enough Shadow watched as the member was tossed aside by the figure like a child's doll. Damn this guy is abnormally strong. He saw the other members, as well as Aven and the boy, come outside to see the commotion. The team immediately rushed into a battle. "Fools. Recklessness will only get you killed." Shadow aimed an arrow at the man, waiting for the moment to shoot.

As soon as the leader was thrown across the street Shadow released the arrow. "98%" He smiled as the arrow sore towards its target. It was quickly stopped as it was grabbed by the man's bare hand. "Oh damn.......this is going to be a big problem." Shadow had a face of completely shock as the figure didn't even acknowledge his existence.

Mutt stared at the large man that was drawing the attacks of the bounty hunters. Everyone was so focused on the target, but seemed to forget the minor details. The fighting had been going on for several minutes, and the police should have arrived long ago. Perhaps the Russian's friend had something to do with this, but Mutt doubted that the police of New York could be bribed. It was obvious enough to Mutt that this brute they called Mugetsu was too tough, and they would need to return after better preparation. Mutt ran to the liquor store, grabbed a bottle of absinthe, and thrust it at Nikolai. The teen glared at Mutt assuming it was another racist remark so Mutt cracked the seal, and poured some on Nikolai's hurt leg before handing it to him again.

"Why you hate Russians?"
"I don't. Mr. Alder just complains about 'em all the time."
"Who is Alder?"
"Mr. Alder is a business man that keeps an eye out for me while I wait for my brother to come home."
"Where is brother?"
"I dunno. He hasn't returned from the war." Mutt smiles as he continues, "he kinda looks like Aven, but with curly red hair."
"The war ended--"
"He's coming home!"

((Aww man! I had an awesome idea for a post. Oh well.))
Zaro zoomed in on the brute has he caught something then threw it on the ground. He glanced at his wrist, then said something. He threw a cylinder in Zaro's direction. "It's a bomb!" Aven yelled. "Lizard, help?" Lizard's responce was already in action. He assembled his battle staff and knocked the bomb upwards. Punching the blunt end into the ground, Lizard launched himself into the air. He pulled out his Sawtooths and grabbed the bomb. Tossing it up in the air even more, he landed on a rooftop. Calculating the drop velocity of the bomb, the time it has been activated relative to now, and his speed, he deduced that it detonates on impact. He took off running within two seconds of figuring this all out. Slashing with both blades, he tore apart the bomb, which detonated behind him. He parkoured his way down the building and picked up his staff. He looked at Aven, then at Zaro. "This our target? Why is he still alive? Or free?"
"Because Xan double-crossed us. We now have a bounty on our heads. Guess who issued it?" Zaro said. "Xan?"
"Yep!" Nikolai spoke up. "Umm... Guys?"
"What?" Bear asked. "We have a problem." Moniter stood up. "What is it?"
"Cops."
"Oh s***!" Bear yelled. "Disperse, but stay close." Zaro ordered. Lizard got back in his V-TOL. Zaro parkoured to a rooftop, Nikolai following behind. Bear hid in the shadows of an alleyway, along with Moniter. Lizard landed his V-TOL on the same rooftop Zaro was on and shut it down. "F***!" Bear exclaimed. "What is it?"
"The cops will know our faces."
"No problem. In fact..." Moniter typed out on his portable card a slew of letters. "Taken care of." He pushed 'EXECUTE' and released a ground based EMP burst. "All cameras in a one-mile radius are fried." As Moniter admired his work, the lights cut out. "As is the power." He sighed. "Why cant I ever get that right?"

((Hawkeye? Someone saw Avengers over the weekend!))
When the cops cleared out, Zaro called his team out. "Since youre a team, you have some safe house, right?"
"Yes. But..." Zaro turned to Lizard. "We need our replacements."
"Tiger is bringing them in. He'll be here in a minute." Zaro turned back to Aven. "Yes, we do. In fact, we have nine. And I have suspicion to believe one of us is being tracked by Xan. Mugetsu found us too quickly. So, we have to make sure." After seeing everyone's puzzled responses, he explained. "Moniter's lineage invented a tracking system awhile back that Xan uses. It tracks all past info on the subject while gathering present info, of which location is one of." Moniter stepped up. "Therefore, there'll be a base detector in the hometown of the subject. We begin our search with Bear. Detroit, anyone?" The aircraft arrived. "Alright. Aven, Nikolai, youre coming with me. Mutt, you can go with Lizard. Moniter, archer, you go with Bear." Lizard stepped up. "Are you sure about that last choice?"
"Yes. Even subject wont know its him." Lizard helped a scared Mutt into his V-TOL. "Now, I know you trust Aven, but trust us all. We wont hurt you."

Shadow watched as the bomb exploded in the air, shielding himself from the explosion. Well that was quite a show.

He jumped down from the building as Aven addressed him. "Well I guess I don't have much of a choice now. Seems that everyone is a bounty now so best to go along with it." Shadow scoffed as he was given an amusing name, "The name is Shadow."

Once the formalities were over the lead Russian began giving instructions. Shadow grouped himself with the two other hunters. At least it'll be easy to understand these guys.

((sorry for the pause, I had finals))

Mutt didn't want to be separated from Aven and glared at Lizard as he tried to convince Mutt to trust him, but Aven seemed alright with this agreement, so Mutt reluctantly followed the man to the jet, and was asleep within minutes. Only after the jet was landing did Mutt wake, and when it did, Mutt returned to scowling at Lizard. As the doors opened Mutt ran out and anxiously searched for Aven, locked eyes with him, and run to hug him.

Lizard felt a tension that the boy had with him. I'll address that later, he thought, for I have to concentrate on keeping this thing in the air. The tension almost got us killed!
---
"Alright everyone! Straight shot west to Detroit." Zaro said. "Be careful. The british military are also looking for us, and we have to fly over Canada!" Lizard knew the risks. Flying through enemy territory was not good with the Japanese Shadow Bloodline. But he was an exception in dogfighting, as was most of his ancestors. "Aww s*** guys. We're spotted." Bear's voice cackled through the com unit. They were going all out. At the same time, both Lizard, Nikolai, and Zaro could be heard shouting "F***!" in their own native languages. "Watch out comrades! They have air mines." Lizard got the warning too late. His right wing blew up and seperated from the craft. "S*** guys. I just lost my starboard engine. Where are we?"
"Over Toronto." Bear answered. "Alright. I'll be a little late. I have to gain elevation. Switching to hover." Lizard disengaged the V-TOL's twin-thrust engines and aimed his gyro engines at the ground. Without downward thrust on the right side, the craft listed to the right and started to roll over. "Damnit. All engines thrust mode, I guess." The remaining 4 engines screamed out as he opened th throttle.
---
"Jeez, Lizard! Were you trying to kill yourself?" Moniter asked. "No, I was saving myself. Damn airmines!"
"Yeah, they can be a real trick. Espescially the newer ones. The American military put sensors in the newer ones sense they started finding them floating off into space." Bear explained. "I'll look for Lucuis. He'll be able to fix Lizard's V-TOL. Until then, divide and conquer. To the temple."
((The Shadows are known in their countries (and ONLY their countries know them) as just a fighting force. Their Martial art, Soku Uchinasai, is actually studied by many. No outsiders know of what they really do, nor the power they carry in the world's affairs. But all of them are treated as national heroes in their nation.))

Can I join, Saint_Jimmy?

Dont worry, Samurott o.k.-ed all of this with me. And I know about s.u. since he is teaching it to me.