[hr][i][h1]The Black Hound.[/h1][/i][hr]
[i][u]Havenfield Market, Roseview.[/u][/i]


[i]All this chaos....[/i]

The Black Hound was the direct cause of it... His very presence was enough to strike fear into the hearts of innocent people. All they saw was the symbol of the snarling hound on his chest, and they would start running. 

In this case, all they wanted to do was get the hell away from him.

Which was fine with the mysterious man. He prefers that he keeps things clean. Especially with a plan like this... The Black Hound began marching towards the massive glass shield placed between himself and his target. It wasn't going to do much to stop him. Barely even slow him down. He pulled his fist back, and punched clean through the glass. The barrier shattered to pieces - an utter rain of glass.

It fell on the titanic man, and didn't even bother him. His armor, and durability made it impossible for such a minuscule attack to even bother him. Once he stepped out, he brushed all the glass off, and continued his march as if nothing had happened.

The Hound was closing the distance between himself, and Deborah, but at this rate, the Black Hound would catch up to them. As he was already informed of where the DOVE vehicles were in the area. So, he already knows where they're heading.

Bringing his march to a sprint that no normal human should be able to reach, the Black Hound charged through the festival... Everyone gave him room. Members of the Intimidation Unit stepped aside, while people ran away in fear.

Until he came face to face with his "target."

Deborah Javuant was desperately being carted to a vehicle. When they noticed him, they all pulled out their weapons, and opened fire on the Hound. The barrage of bullets barely phased the Hound, he put his arm up over his face, and dipped behind cover. 

The Black Hound grabbed a canister of Meta-Suppressant gas, and tossed it in their general direction. However, he quickly lunged out of cover with his revolver in his hand, and then he shot the canister. The high pressurized gas blanketed the area in a thick layer of red fog.

"Run!" Cindy shouted.

The Black Hound merely used the red gas as cover... but, he couldn't see that well in it himself-

There was a massive wind coming from above. Just before the Black Hound could do anything, he was launched aside with a massive gust of wind. He went crashing into the stands, which utterly decimated them.

The gas was being pushed aside... annoying. The Black Hound looked up, and saw a man overhead.... no, not a man. A [i]cloud[/i] shaped like a man. He had his arms crossed, and his lower body appeared like a spinning vortex.

"I'm going to hold him off, move!"

Malik shouted at the DOVES... who were honestly confused as to who he was.

The Black Hound got up, slinging his assault rifle over his shoulder... and an odd robotic laughter came from his helmet. One that would unnerve even the hardiest of souls. He looked up at Malik, and the scanners in his helmet examined him from head to toe... There wasn't anything in the files on [i]him[/i]. Which means he's an ambiguity to the Intimidation Unit, and the Founding Family.

"Well now," The Black Hound said. "You're willing to risk your life to buy time for them to escape?" He asked.

"I have a good reason for doing all of this," Malik said... trying to buy into the Black Hound's banter to avoid pissing himself. "But, I have to ask... do [i]you?[/i] Do you see all of this? All these lives you're ending?" He tried to appeal to some kind of humanity within the Hound.

Those words struck deep into the Black Hound.

[i]... No.[/i]

The words appeared in his mind's eye, but he remained silent.

"... That's [i]irrelevant.[/i]" The Black Hound said. "If you're willing to stand in my way, you're willing to [i]die.[/i]" He quickly aimed his assault rifle at Malik, and fired off a few shots before he could react.

The man barely had time to react before the bullets went at him. Most of them missed ([i]Man, was this guy trained in the Stormtrooper Academy?[/i]) but one of the shots nailed him in the sides. Malik let out a loud cry as he descended. He shifted back into his human form, and hit the ground hard as a rock.

The man whimpered in pain while on the ground. The Black Hound took a few steps forward, and looked off to the side... Deborah and her group had escaped.

... The plan couldn't have gone better.

The Black Hound turned his attention to Malik, who was on the ground... maybe he'll spare this one. He marched towards him at a slow pace.

"You risk your life to battle a terrorist, to buy time when you could be saving yourself," The Black Hound started off, each step brought him closer and closer to the pained wreck that was Malik. "But, for what? You state you have good reasons... is it altruism? Or some other agenda?"

His voice was oddly more robotic than usual... yet, his tone was curious, rather than condescending.

"Which is [i]real?[/i]"


[hr][i][h1][color=dodgerblue]Lihua Zhao[/color], & [color=9e0b0f]Charlie Peterson[/color].[/h1][sub](Written in collaboration with [@DreadPirate])[/sub][/i][hr]
[i][u]Havenfield Market, Roseview.[/u][/i]


The celebration was going swimmingly for the Zhao Matriarch.

It wasn't a place where Lihua herself wanted to be - to be honest, she would rather spend this night drinking herself to sleep - but she was at least happy that Lijuan was enjoying herself. At least, even slightly, get the child walking again. She walked through the area... and quickly realized that there wasn't much for them to do other than play some games.

Speaking of which, Lijuan pulled her mother over towards one of the carnival games. It was simply a game where someone mans the water guns, and tries to fill up the balloons. She wanted to try it. Lihua wanted to avoid the carnival games - because most of these people are so utterly dishonest that they would cheat for a quick buck. But, Lijuan gave her the [i]eyes[/i].

Those huge brown eyes, with her thick eyelashes and that dramatic look in her eyes. Most people would refer to them as "puppy dog eyes." It was enough to always win Lihua over, and warm that cold heart of hers.

"Alright, Lijuan," Lihua said as she began to willingly walk over towards the carnival game. She handed the cheap carnie five dollars as he requested, and Lijuan squeed in delight as she manned one of the water guns. The lights came on, and Lijuan shot squirts of water into the targets.

Lihua herself leaned up back against the stand, and crossed her arms as her vigilant eyes scanned the area around her. She wasn't going to let her guard down here of all places. She got a few looks... but nothing more than what she was used to. Ah. Being a six-two woman was [i]bound[/i] to produce that kind of response.

Not that it bothered the aging tiger... She had more important things to worry about-

Gunfire rung out in the distance, and Lihua's eyes immediately narrowed. She could sense danger. People were screaming in the distance. That meant something was attacking. It wasn't long before men waving guns around appeared in the scene. Lihua instinctively grabbed Lijuan's wrist, and ducked down. Using her free hand, she punched the ground hard as she could, and flipped some concrete up to form some cover for herself.

If any stray shots were to go her direction, there was a thick slab of concrete to protect herself and from anything.

Lihua didn't know what was going on, but the stone was large enough to allow other people to take cover. Lijuan was utterly panicking, screaming at the top of her lungs. The child just didn't have the ability to deal with things like this - which is why Lihua pulled her daughter in close as she could, and wrapped her arm around her. Pressing her head against her ribcage.

"It's going to be okay, mommy's here."

She said in the most reassuring voice she could - and she sure as hell meant it. There was such a massive crowd of people running around, that Lihua saw an opening. She yanked Lijuan along as she beelined for an alleyway. Instead of rushing right into danger, Lihua made sure to keep as much awareness of the enviroment as she could.

Okay, her plan was to take alleyways back to her car, and get the hell out of here.

Charlie tried his best to remain calm as he dipped in and out of alleyways. In order to keep his premonition and nerves in check he needed to remain calm. His mind was racing as he pushed anything in his way aside, those goons most likely called their other goons about him. Which made him a target, something he didn't want to be in the slightest. Just as he thought he saw an empty road where he could get his bearings, he tripped. He tumbled and looked back to see what caused the fall. 

One of those masked men had pushed a heavy box in his path. Charlie scrambled hands and legs backwards on the ground. He was immediatle booted in the back of the head. Two goons,the other moved quickly to his position on the ground and began barking at him. Charlie had no idea what the man was shouting, as his head spun. Then the man fired a shot off near him. His ears rang, he was overwhelmed, no defense mechanism to help him brace. The two began kicking and beating Charlie as he squirmed on the dirty concrete of the alley.

The nearby shot caught Lihua off guard as she looked over her shoulder. There was some boy being beat within an inch of his life by some of these goons. There was something inside of her that prevented her from just running off, right when she could help. She covered Lijuan's eyes with one hand, and raised her fist up in the air, and slammed it down hard as she could - like she was hammering something in the air.

It caused spikes of concrete to violently erupt out of the ground, and turn the men into pin-cushions. When their screams of pain pierced the air, that should be enough to turn the tides of that fight. 

[i]Holy fucking shit[/i] Charlie's eyes widenened as the concrete pierced his attacker's skin. He gasped for air and wiped the blood from his face, he struggled to his feet and stumbled to the nearest wall. His eyes looked down the alley at a mother and her daughter. He tried to shout thanks but only dropped to his knees coughing up blood.

Apart of Lihua just wanted to leave him there - but, there was something oddly familar about the boy. As if she's seen him around. Oh... It's Charles. She wanted to protect Lijuan, but she couldn't in right conscious leave a [i]student[/i] behind. That's the funny thing about morale compasses. "Lijuan, cover your eyes." The child did just that as Lihua quickly approached..

"Take it easy, Charles," Lihua said. "If you get up too fast, you'll only hurt yourself some more."

Charlie looked up inbetween coughing at his new instructor, what luck, [i]great[/i] way to make an impression. He attmpted to stand as slow as possible using the wall to steady himself. "Thanks." He was able to choke out in between winces. 

Her mouth opened up as if she was about to say something - but changed her mind at the last second. "You're coming with me." Lihua bluntly said as she grabbed him by the arm. "And you better not bleed all over my car... do you know how [i]hard[/i] it is to get blood off carpet? You're going to need detergent, ammonia, cold water-" She stopped herself there.

In defeat, Lihua merely just yanked Charlie along. "Just come with me!"

Pulling Charlie along from alleyway to alleyway, Lihua eventually made it to the parking lot where her [i]brand new SUV[/i] was parked (And yes, it [i]was[/i] covered by insurance). The problem was that the crowd of people who were panicking were in the way. It was like an utter sea... but, fortunately, no one seemed to want to pursue them after this point.

Which was a relief - what was extra relieving was the fact that Lihua finally made it to her car. She fished through her purse for her keys, and pressed the button to unlock the doors. She opened the back doors for Charlie, and pointed inside.

"Get in."

She said, as she picked up Lijuan, and placed her in the passenger seat.

Charlie nodded along at everything Ms.Zhao said, and followed along submissivley. After all he did owe his life to her. He took off his robe and laid it onto the back seat and just fell in. He held his wounds, each bruise and bump ached and each cut bled. He made sure to keep pressure on the cuts that could possibly make a mess in her car through the robe. He laid on his back there in focus on the ceiling of the vehicle.

It was finally Lihua's time to get moving, and she hopped into the driver's side of the vehicle, threw the keys in the ignition, and sped off. She took the one route that had the least people... Lihua's first goal was to get this boy to safety.

Then her next goal was to get a raise for her [i]heroism.[/i]

Either way, the three were getting far away from the festival as possible.