[b][u]Northeast of Sovereign[/b][/u] --- [center][youtube]N6JteoZvcLU[/youtube][/center] The walls of Sovereign had long disappeared behind the cover of trees that hid the group of five men running through the forest. Damian had to slow himself down a bit, knowing that the other four couldn't keep up with his pace. The five were rather agile, displaying a natural fleet of foot as they jumped, ducked, and dashed through and over branches or trees and foliage. "Hurry up! They're gonna gain on us!" yelled Rom, the only other man besides Damian who lacked any signs of fatigue. The men had been running for a long time, and they had narrowly escaped a M.A.T that tailed them all the way to the border of the woods. However, they knew that the military would send more after them. Probably not as much as they would need, since Damian had his own tricks up his sleeve. But he didn't feel like fighting, he just wanted to see the light of safety for just a mere moment. He was done with all the running bullshit. *[i]crack[/i]* A bullet tore through the trees and hit Rom dead center in the back of the head. He fell forward, limp as his momentum carried him towards the ground and then some. Damian cursed and picked up the pace, while one of the other Roys, who faltered at the death of his comrade, was picked off as well. Now leading only a group of three, Damian called to his men to hurry. However, the sound of a patrol up ahead caused him to panic - he had sandwiched himself between the enemy. Thinking quickly, he redirected his momentum at dove to the side, his followers following suit. The four man military squad that ran after them, ahead of the M.A.T caught up to the two bodies. Damian and the two other Roys hid behind a large line of logs and greenery. They were mere feet from the soldiers. The sound of the gunfire had attracted the attention of the soldiers on the other side as well, and the two patrols met up. "Civies?" asked one of the second patrolsmen, leading a group of six infantry. The man holding the single shot rifle nodded, "Probably, they dropped like normal humans. Usually the baddies are much harder to bring down. But there's more, like three or four; they were running towards you, did you see them?" The second soldier shook his head, "Negative. Should I call?" Damian cursed under his breath, and one of his men tapped his shoulder. "Yo Dee, do the thing..." he whispered. Damian looked at his comrade and shushed him, "I don't want to," he said in a hushed voice. [b][i]'Why not? Why are you afraid?'[/b][/i] Triliq's voice was calm and casual as always, despite the intensity of the situation. [i]'They think we're ordinary men, chance are we aren't a priority. They'll probably call off the search, but if they know what I am, it turns into a whole new ballgame,'[/i] Damian thought. The second Roy heard the military men moving about and began cursing under his breath: "Damnit, Dee, ah'yah tryna die t'day?" he spat. Damian simply ignored his comrade's question, until he heard the sound of footsteps approaching him. [i]'Great, these idiots got us caught,'[/i] he thought. A lone soldier walked towards a small clearing in the woods while his superiors spoke. He reached his leg over a log in order to examine the clearing for footsteps or any other traces. At this time, Damian thought to himself [i]'Stealth. Stealth is always an option.'[/i] As soon as the man's leg hit the ground near Damian, mere inches away from his body, he thrust his hand into, and in an instant, three tendrils shot out from his forearm, creating a [url=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/13/Pok%C3%A9mon_Deoxys_(Normal_Forme)_art.png]triple helix[/url]. They stabbed into the man's leg without penetrating him, a mysterious invasion of the spiritual shell of the man left no blood or wound in the wake. Before he could retreat or yell, he felt his vision go black. And then, it was Damian. The soldier turned around and walked towards the group. Damian remained seated behind the bush, his right arm resting on his leg as he concentrated on acting as the soldier. The soldier's eyes may have seemed a bit glazed over and dull, but other than that, none of the soldiers could tell that he was a mere puppet of Damian's will. [i]'Distraction? Mayhem? How should we escape this...'[/i] The soldier than pointed his gun at the second patrolsmen who had approached the first. This startled the entire crowd and the entire second patrol aimed their rifles at the man. "DROP YOUR WEAPON SOLDIER AND STEP BACK!" "What the fuck are you doing, Roony?!" "WHOA! WHOA, CALM DOWN!" The group erupted into a mess of chaotic chatter and confusion, and Damian smiled as he made his decision. The puppet squeezed on the trigger and sprayed the man with a burst of plasma rounds which decimated the target's head. The second group began firing at the puppet, and he instantly fell limp, dead on the ground. In response, the first group backed up and raised its rifles, but the second group didn't hesitate in firing at them, killing them all within second. The sounds of bodies and breaking bones sent a dubious euphoric chill down Damian's spine and he took a deep breath before chuckling devilishly. "Wait here," he said while the soldiers began reporting what just happened. Standing up, he jumped over the log and ran at the second group, catching them by surprise. Thrust both hands forward, he shot out tendrils from both arms, initially piercing through the chests of two soldiers. While they did this, the soldier who was reporting cried out: "A HOST! WE GOT A HOST IN THE WOODS EN ROUTE TO KELL, I REP-AGHH" his transmission was cut off by a sweeping Tendril that slammed into his head, wrapping around his neck and twisting it with ease. The last soldier fired off a few rounds his way, but he simply spun out of their path. He then used his left tendrils to pick out the rifle from the man's hand, while the second one wrapped around the soldier's leg and lifted him up in the air, suspending him upside down. The soldier cried out as he was trapped by the tendrils in mid-air. He tried cutting himself free, but his knife did little to nothing on the fleshy, muscular tendrils. Damian chuckled as he tasted the fear and spirit of the man. "Run," he said boldly before swinging his right hand backwards, tossing the man about forty feet through the treeline. The soldier didn't hesitate as he got up, feeling broken bone. His adrenaline made up for his wounds and he ran with all his energy towards the direction of Sovereign.