Night play (open)

[Hunter]

Hunter sprinted silently through the inky darkness, darting between trees and past long deserted park benches. The air was crisp and cool with a slight bite that made it interesting to breathe but Hunter was too preoccupied to notice.

Pausing behind the shadows of a large oak tree, he scanned the darkness searching for a glimpse of Silence. It was almost too easy to spot her, what with his way of "seeing." In his world of darkness there she was, a blazing star streaking through the darkness, tailing him with remarkable accuracy given that her night vision wasn't too much better than a normal human's.

Chuckling low in his throat, Hunter stooped down and snatched up a stone, throwing it in a perfect ark at a nearby street lamp. The bulb shattered a moment latter, raining a shower of glass that Hunter could only sense. None living objects that weren't commonly handled by things that were alive were beyond his range of sight.

[Silence]

"That's cheating!" Silence hissed, skidding to a stop to give her eyes time to adjust to the new lack of light before she could run into a tree. "You're fixing that before we leave!"

Sighing in mock exasperation, Silence pressed on with a bit more caution, her arms gingerly outstretched to brush the rough bark of the trees as she went, hoping this would keep her from running into any. Leave it to Hunter to make Sardines harder than it already is, she thought with an amused grin, shedding her overcoat and shirt as she went. Unfurling her wings, she ran a couple steps and then launched herself straight up into the night sky. When she was relatively certain that she had cleared the tree tops, she fell into wide circling, scanning the shadowed earth below for Hunter but she didn’t see anything.

Come on you, she thought to herself, Show yourself!

[echo]

Echo was strolling leisurely through the local park, he breathed in the cool midnight air. He liked coming here at night, it was quiet and peaceful. Unlike the middle of the day in downtown Hampton. He was not wearing his beanie and his bat-like ears poked out from under his hair, visible to anyone who might have been watching. He was just passing through a copse of trees when he heard the shattering of glass, if he hadn't been blind he also would have noticed how the area around him darkened significantly.

Echo changed his course and started walking over to where he had heard the sound coming from. He was fairly sure that it wasn't anyone from itex or chimera corp, his dreams would have told him if something like that was going to happen. But his dreams didn't tell him everything, and so he remained fairly cautious as he drew closer to the source of the sound. That's when he saw the light post, he could "see" the jagged edges of glass where something had broken it, and there where pieces of glass scattered on the ground as well.

Echo let out an extremely high pitched sound that no human would be able to hear, the sound left his mouth and echoed throughout the landscape around him. The echoes moved back towards him and entered his ears where his brain created a mental map of the surrounding area based on the pattern of the echoes. He noticed a vaguely humanoid shape moving down the path, the shape was looking around periodically as if watching for someone. Echo was also surprised (and slightly disturbed) to see that the boy had no eyes. He began to walk silently towards the figure.

[lanes]

It was possibly well past twelve, or just becoming. Besides that, it was a very peaceful night, not including Lanes grumbling stomach, or the footsteps she heard. The stars were twinkling in the sky with the huge, round moon that looked like cheese to Lanes at the moment. The grass was covered with leaves from the just passing autumn. Lanes walked over them, hearing them crunch softly under her combat boots. It was probably very idiotic what she was doing, but Lanes was walking towards the person she heard.

Lanes passed through a small haven of trees; they cleared out forming a small patch of grass. What Lanes saw totally creeped her out. There, floating above the ground was either a freaking large, abnormally shaped bird or an experiment from Chimera Corp. or Itex, which ever. Was she a spy, or an escapee? Beside the point, or at least beside the higher point, Lanes was hungry and when she was hungry she didn't care about others. Just imagine unleashing a starving lion into a large crowd of stakes, medium rare and covered with that nice sauce that always gives food that awesome spicy yet tangy taste. It was kind of like that.

Also beside the point, Lanes climbed up a tree and crouched on a thick branch. Her hands wrapped around the end of the branch tightly, almost breaking it. After she settled herself, sitting in a comfortable position and such, she felt very dumb. What was she doing? Waiting for the person to kill her? Why not just walk up to her? Then her stomach grumbled. Why not get a match and have cocked meat for dinner/breakfast?

[Silence]

Silence circled the whole park again but Hunter seemed to have hidden himself very well for now because she had yet to glimpse him. During that second sweep however she thought she saw something in one of the higher reaching trees, something that glowed and glittered in the darkness like two rather large fireflies but Silence knew better.

Eye? Silence thought in surprise. She certainly felt the weight of some unknown gaze but what on earth could such eyes belong to?

Out of sheer curiosity, Silence abandoned her game with Hunter for the moment and wheeled closer to the tree, straining her eyes in hopes of getting a better look. Maybe if Hunter thought she'd given up he'd give himself away for a second.

[Hunter]

Hunter frowned, inching ever so slightly out of his hiding place. Where was Silence wandering off to? Brushing his hair out of his "eyes" somewhat impatiently, Hunter gripped the rough bark of the oak he'd been hiding behind and hoisted himself up onto one of the lower branches in one fluid, effortless motion.

He saw Silence moving closer to a tree, a tree that had something brighter than its branches within it. Only an idiot would have wondered if the thing in the tree was merely some kind of fruit, given that it was by far too large for that. This wasn't the world of James and the Giant Peach after all.

Hunter focused on the form in the tree, trying to decipher what it was, when another glow appeared in his peripheral vision, just below him. What is this, All Freaks Day? Hunter thought grumpily, his formally playful mood dying almost instantly as the threat of danger presented itself in his mind.

Snapping his head around he starred down into the darkness with a piercing glare, shifting slightly on his branch so that he was better positioned for a fight, if need be.

[echo]

Echo continued to follow the boy at a slow pace as the boy climbed a tree and seemed to be looking for something. Echo directed his hearing to where the boy seemed to be "looking" and noticed two more humanoid shapes, but they were very different. One of them was flying. The figure looked sort of like Silence, the girl he had met at the Wal-Mart earlier that day, and he thought that he had heard her voice when he was walking. This guy was following her for some reason, and it couldn't be good. This guy must have been from Itex or Chimera, and he wasn't going to capture any of them if Echo could help it.

Having made up his mind, Echo turned his head so he was "staring" at the boy. He had noticed Echo standing there and had tensed as if getting ready for a fight. Echo glared at the boy and jumped up to the branch he was on. He grabbed the boy by the collar of his shirt and pushed him up against the tree. "Why are you following her?" Echo growled in the most menacing voice he could muster.

[Hunter]

Hunter snarled as his back struck the trunk of the tree. Pushing back against the unrelenting back, he shoved back, springing to a higher branch as soon as he had gained enough ground to loosen himself from the other boy's grip. "I could ask you the same," he hissed venomously, unfurling his wings with a sharp snap. At any other time he would have simply taken off but something didn't make sense. "Why do you care? What's she to you?"

[echo]

Echo snarled back as the boy escaped his grip, and unfurled his own wings as the other boy unfurled his. He was about to take off and go after the boy, but then he noticed that he hadn't left. "She's a friend," He growled in answer to the boys question, "And you're not gonna take her back to those labs if I can help it!"

With that, Echo jumped off the branch he was on and flapped his wings. He grabbed the boy and they tumbled off the branch and towards the ground below.

[Hunter]

Hunter hit the ground first. The drop hadn’t been long enough to give him the time to right his fall and as luck would have it, he didn’t land well at all. The earth was hard packed, studded with small boulders and sharp edged rocks and he fell against them at a rather awkward angle. He heard the unmistakable crunch before he felt the wave of pain assault his rib cage but he was up and on his feet before he could properly register the full extent of the damage. It wasn’t hard to block out what he felt, especially given the situation. Too much of his early life had been spent in agony for him to allow it to hinder him now. Growling low in his throat, he lunged, bracing an arm against the other boy’s throat and pinning him easily to the ground before the kid could rise and strike at him again. “Can't know her that well if you think she'd let anyone drag her somewhere she doesn't want to go," He said hoarsely, "Who the hell do you think I am?"

[echo]

"That's exactly what I'd like to know," Echo growled before rolling over and switching positions with the boy. This kid was really starting to piss him off, but Echo wasn't going to let him bring anyone back to the labs. "Now answer my question," Echo snarled, "Who are you and why are you following her?!?" Echo noticed how the boys wing bent at an odd angle and noted with some satisfaction that the boy wouldn't be able to fly off. He focused his hearing on the other to figures in the area, they hadn't seemed to have noticed yet. But it was only a matter of time before the other two noticed and came over to see what was happening.

[Hunter]

"First of all," Hunter growled fiercely, using his legs to throw the other boy off him, "If you had any brains at all, you'd have noticed that she was following me, not the other way around. Better learn to use your head fast, boy, or you'll end up losing it one of these days. Just because you can't see worth a lick, doesn't mean you get to jump to conclusions and not suffer for it. Look for all the details before sticking you nose in someone else's business."

Breathing though his teeth, Hunter unfurled his wings again, hissing quietly as the fiery pain blazed up his ribs with the movement. He judged that if he really had to, he'd be able to take off well enough but he wouldn't be able to stay aloft for any endurable amount of time. His wings were fine, and he could bare the pain well enough, but he was still human enough to have his limits.

Without taking his eyes off the boy, he expanded his range of sight, searching for Silence but she must have been just beyond his range because he couldn't see her. Not good, he thought crossly, a cold sense of unease coiling in the center of his chest.

"I don't know who you think you are, but if you consider yourself anything of friend of Silence's then you'll get the hell out of my sight and let me find her before she gets herself hurt." He said coldly to the boy before storming off in the direction he'd last seen his mate. "Believe it or not, I have kept her safe this long, and as long as I'm still breathing nothing dangerous is ever going to lay a hand on her. I think I can manage that much without some kid trying to take my place."

[echo]

It took Echo a moment to compose his thoughts, but as soon as he did he jumped up an ran after the boy. He shoved the boy to the gound again. Echo grabbed the boy's right arm and twisted it behind his back as he put his knees on the boy's legs to keep him down. He used his other hand to grab the boys right and pin it above his head. "Bullshit!" he snarled, "She told me she was living alone, and I am much more inclined to believe her than you!" Echo was really pissed now. First the boy tells him he can't see, which really annoyed Echo, he hated it when people pointed out his blindness or made fun of him for it. Then, the boy had claimed to be protecting Silence and not trying to hurt her. He had even gone so far as to say that Silence was following him not the other way around! This kid was seriously going to get it from Echo.

[Hunter]

"She told me she was living alone."The words echoed coldly in Hunter's ears. Why would Silence tell some strange guy that she was alone? Move now, think later, Hunter thought quickly, struggling to come up with a way to stop fighting and start gaining some ground.

Reacting quickly, Hunter struck out with his wings, catching Echo full in the face, then he rolled away and scrambled to his feet again. There wasn't time to sit around and fight this out, he had to find Silence now. Breaking into a reckless sprint, he lunged into the air, hissing though his teeth as the pain of his broken ribs exploded with the movement.

“Silence!” he screamed, his voice hoarse with the pain. The air was cold and bracing around him but Hunter hardly felt it. He’d never flown as fast as he was flying now but fear often gave people the power to do so much more than they normally would.