[u]Zun - Airport[/u]
[hr]

Just as he was about to eat an unhealthy diet of led some jacked looking nomad jumped between him and the young lady, deflecting their shots off him like hail off a car roof. While this was certainly a cheesy spectacle as the guy seemed to be eating all of this attention up Al was never one to stop and gawk, his attention immediately back on the frightened young woman and, consequently, the men who were after her.

Of course one human sized piece of cover was by far not enough to keep an entire squad of dudes from getting shots in at him. Just as the young lady held herself tight against him several rounds rang forth, hitting him dead on. He grimaced slightly as piping hot led splattered against his cheek, the bullets impacting his skin and flattening out like rain drops against concrete. Each bullet that hit him was met with a momentary glow beneath the surface of the skin that was hit, his skin turning a radiant sky blue as his energy reflexively hardened his body in passive response to the incoming attacks.

While these troops were equipped to deal with most nomad's defenses against mundane attacks and regular firearms even the shots that hit him dead on did little more than break skin. He remained hunched over the small frame of the girl as he started to move, careful not to expose any part of her to the oncoming gunfire that struck him. That was of course until their weird red Splinter Cell-esque agent made his entrance.

_
Al grit his teeth, scowling with contempt for these Eclipse guys or whatever she called them. Killing some normal security personnel for no good reason was a real shitty thing to do. Having been on the receiving end of such an attack he knew full well the only reason he wasn't dead right now was because of what he was. Dead like that guy there was, crushed under the boot of some good-for-nothing punk with nothing better to do than pull shit on people who have no business being involved. He was already pissed that these guys would try and shoot up some poor girl and go to the lengths of shooting up an entire airport just to isolate her but this? This was personal.

But this wasn't some street fight. The girl cowering behind him was at risk of being murdered by these homicidal gestapo and he wasn't about to throw down when someone else's life was on the line. He looked at the hooded guy dead in his glowing red goggles, the air between them metaphorically crackling like static as the tension held despite the gunfire and chaos surrounding. The fact this guy was gunning for him right here and now remained true. The moment to their clash so ever close yet for that moment time felt to be crawling past like even it knew that once past the threshold there was no turning back.

And in that moment Al made a conscious decision. He raised his left hand and flipped the middle finger at this guy. After that it all came together like thunder after the lightning.

_
He spun on his heels and grabbed the girl tight. Even despite the rampant booming of gunfire filling the air he could hear the squeal of the assassin's boots against the floor tiles. Before the blades attached to the assassin's arms could strike him Al kicked off the floor, leaping up to the second floor with ease. It was one of the many benefits of being very strong without being weighed down by hundreds of pounds of muscle.

"Hold tight and don't look down!" Al ordered her over the din of mayhem, glancing down to see what the assassin was doing. The hooded killer's feet were squared, the subtle mechanical pneumatic supports that boosted this killer's physical abilities kicking into action as he braced to jump.

[i]Crap.[/i] Al could tell this ninja wannabe was going to come up to the second floor for him. That didn't change Al's course but it did complicate what little of a plan he had cobbled together. Not waiting a second longer Al launched himself towards the windows overlooking the landing strip. Simultaneous to that he channeled his power into her, bestowing half of his protection into her. It was going to be a rough landing but being half as hard as a diamond would be more than enough for either of them to withstand it.

_
[b]SMASH![/b]

Al's frame hurtled through the window like a rocket propelled brick, thousands upon thousands of shards of glass raining out from behind them. Arcing through the air they soared for nearly a hundred feat, his trajectory taking them right over a parked airplane. Despite the speed at which he had launched them they seemed to linger as they reached the peak of their jump. It was as though he was weightless for that brief moment, the feeling of soaring seeming to linger until the pull of her weight reminded him that gravity still reigned supreme. She would notice it too, that moment where it felt almost as though they were floating just a little longer than would be natural.

Thud.

Al had angled his jump so he'd be at the bottom of the landing. When they hit the ground it was a remarkably soft landing, nowhere near as hard a landing as one might think falling from the top floor of a building would pack. This was no new experience for Al, just something that seemed to be a fact of life since he was a child. Falling hurt, yes, but the closest likeness to compare if he knew of the difference would be like launching oneself off a swing set and landing in the sand. High enough heights still packed a punch but the landing was always dulled somehow. The fall was likely far more strange to the young lady as the ease of the landing for Al would count for even more to her since she landed on top of him instead of the hard pavement.

"You okay?" He asked her, gently moving her off him while sitting up and looking over to the airport to see if they were still being followed. Back at the base of the building right below the shattered windows the assassin could be seen, having just jumped out from the window albeit at a much shorter distance than they. Al scowled, looking first at the killer agent and then to the skies to see if there was anything in the skies that might be threatening the two of them.

_
"Get below the plane." Al quickly ordered, standing to his feet and assisting the young lady to her own before turning back to the attacker and moving towards the underside of the jet they had just vaulted. With one last glance to make sure there wasn't anything else making a move on his current ward he looked back, locking eyes with those three beady glowing red lenses. His fists tightened as the man approached.

The assassin had the natural advantage of reach, mitigated of course by the fact that he had his swords mounted on his forearms like some Baraka wannabe. To try and even this out Al opened with a straight kick aimed for the agent's midsection but due to his training and physical augmentation he simply parried his kick while sidling past the length of it. The assassin moved past with superior speed as he brought both blades up from where he had blocked the leg. He twisted as he moved past Al, using the natural rotation of his motion to slice at him with greater power. Since Al had both his hands up in a defensive guard as he always did whenever he entered a fight the assassin picked his targets carefully, choosing spots left open in his guard. One shining blade ran across Al's stomach, right below the elbows while the other was poised for his neck. Despite the superior skill in his weaponry the assassin could only score a cut across the left side of his jaw since his shoulder was hiked up on that side to try and shirk blows off on it.

Given the strength of his weapons and the power of the blows he struck the assassin stood past Al, waiting in that moment for the inevitable visceral spray of blood that ordinarily accompanied his attacks. After all these focused energy blades were more than capable of making short work of most nomad's defenses. Heck, they had performed tests that showed that these blades could even pierce tank armor with a straight on thrust. He was confident that there was no way that this nomad in particular could survive the combined might of his energy blades and the mechanical enhancements of his armor.

Just as the assassin turned his head to look back, notably confused by the lack of immediate death caused by his attack he was struck with a fast jab right in the middle of his mask. Metal and plastic bent and shattered around the fist as the knuckles dug in, leaving a deep impression all the way down to the face of the wearer who immediately flew back. The stunned form of the assassin fell to his side from the force of the blow, rolling across the ground before smacking into the parked wheel of the plane. Not only did his punch crush his helm's armor and send his whole body flying but it was only a jab, a straight punch that Al wasn't even putting that much of his weight behind.

_
There Al stood, fist dripping with another man's blood as his own wounds wept. The cuts that the assassin had dealt to him were shallow but wide. The gash across his stomach exposed part of the stomach itself though it was hard to tell amidst all the red. The fact that he was even alive, let alone not spilling his guts everywhere was testament to just how much more potent his defense was compared to the passive protection of most conventional nomads. The slice on his jaw was far more than just a bad shaving wound but nothing that would impede him any. It just hurt but he was used to hurt.

"You're not hurt, yeah?" He inquired as he looked over to the young lady, wincing as his body turned. The motion pulled at the wound across his body. As he started walking towards her however he noticed something was wrong as surprise flashed across her eyes. The assassin who looked to be defeated had, in the time that Al was not watching him, gotten up and dashed up behind him. Just as he turned to see his attacker the two energy blades were driven into his side with the full force of the assassin's weight and speed behind the thrust. One blade was stopped dead by his rib-cage which was too solid for even the likes of this guy's weapons to pierce. The other however met only resilient flesh, the glowing red energy plunging just a couple inches into the sky blue flesh which shined like he was made of neon.

Despite being a rather shallow stab since even all the force that charge afforded the assassin still couldn't best Al's protection completely it was still pretty bad. Getting stabbed was never pleasant and depending on where for most people even a stab a couple inches deep could be lethal. Al wasn't most people but his survival wasn't for lack of the assassin trying.

_
In this all out attack the assassin had made he had to come in close, abandoning the safety of range to try and secure victory. With the attacker now in his reach Al lashed out in response with a fast back-fist coming down across his head diagonally. The force of the fast strike drove him into the ground where he just laid in a slumped over pile of unconscious Eclipse agent. Well, Al assumed he was unconscious but it wasn't all too clear. All he knew was that he held his strength back enough to keep from fully gelatinizing the guy's skull which was about as much mercy as this assassin could expect out of Al at this point.

So he stood. This was no victory. There was still danger around every corner as this Eclipse group was still very active and very much present. He staggered forward a bit, lurching towards his side as he held his hand over the stab wound he sustained. Already he could feel the pain in his wounds dulling as he started to concentrate on his healing. He looked warily to the sky to see if this mysterious gestapo had any helicopters covering this area. He then looked back to the airport's main hub itself to see if there were any more agents coming up on them. Finally he looked back to the girl to make sure nothing was happening around her either.

He didn't really have a plan this far forward outside of keeping her out of harm's way. It was what he was going to do until this whole debacle was done and through.

He had failed to stop all this. Keeping the gunmen from their target was the least he could do now.