[color=lightgreen][center][h3][i][b]Day 2: 00:45:10
Outside of Koley Railyard, Koley,
Libor Province,
Republic of Polavia
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The fight was going nicely. About as good as it could considering they were not meant to be in full blown warfare with a forest behind them gently catching alight, but armed recon in stealth. Silas and Rowan on the flank were dragging bullets their way, the poison gas and Rowan's magic were making them think differently, while Borys was moving up on Felix. The Libolian wasn't quite sure what was going on, but Borys decided to take matters into his own hands.

Well, fingers, as Felix was about to kick the shit out of him as Borys pulled his finger out, the gag interrupting Felix's words....

"Borys, the fuck are you...."

BLRUGH.

Felix immediately chundered out a mass of...what can only be not described, and immediately cleaned up his mouth, so close to just putting a bullet into the pisshead, him thinking this was a game. Silas and Rowan were laying down fire effectively, 12.7mm rounds slamming into trees, as Felix put two and two together. And realised what Borys was trying to do. A bit of sick had landed on Borys, mind. 

Suddenly feeling rough yet pumped with adrenaline, Felix decided to take a little imitative, breaching fibreoptic in hand, feeling the mana burn a little inside of him, the reserve tanks on for energy inside to get him through this fight. As any good operative would need to do. He hoped the team had his back, looking at Borys square.

"Stop fucking drinking and start shooting." Felix tapped Borys on the shoulder, and the lion that Felix switched to nearly barged him over.

Clearing the ground through the grass, what looked like Felix was just running out into the open, the MG switching to blast fire onto Felix, the illusion falling apart, and the lion, what the PSA militia thought was actually the illusion, kept going. 

Diving into the back of the UAZ, the distraction was grateful, as Oksana took the opportunity of the gunner and the remaining fireteam pulled in too many different directions to act, into actually getting a bead on the gunner. And that she did. The bullet felt divined, in how it covered about 150m of ground and splattered into the gunner's head, before Felix casually took a chunk out of one of the guys taking cover behind it, a filet steak sized portion of shoulder and neck that crunched in his teeth like butter. 

The others cleaned up nicely, Oksana pipping two more in the rocks in the clearing, easily putting them out with surgically placed bullets.

Felix showed in that moment, why perhaps maybe his ability was a little bit broken.

The last man standing, the former driver screamed as he tried to run, but Felix was so much faster. He didn't play with his food. He just went for the neck and thorax, jaw peeling him apart like a tangerine, spitting out the bits of lung he'd caught that he really wasn't a fan of. His digestive system, and his lion's were a little different. And now all of Babushka's food being empty in his human form had meant that as a lion, he had a gap to fill. 

The lion turned back around, playfully running along as Oksana ran down the hill, all enemies clear, their team leader unable to communicate but from his enhanced hearing and sight, not seeing much. A graceful ginger-haired lion covered in blood in the middle of a chilly Polavian forest felt a little contradictory, but hey, he didn't choose this life.

"You diabolical fuck!" Oksana called out almost in shock, as Felix gave a playful roar, a grin if possible on the lion's face that they were out of the woods. He made a move to the UAZ, shifting back, looking around as he broke into a jog, taking in his handiwork. A little almost embarrassed, but, impressed at the same time by Borys unleashing him.

"I'll give Borys credit where due. Consider a career as a beastmaster if this shit doesn't work out because....nobody's made me be sick for that. Please don't be sick yourselves. I'm uhh....cannot help it. I'm a pescatarian!" Felix added, awkward, as the Polavian sniper jogged down, Oksana looking at the state of the body by the UAZ, accustomed to the images on the internal emails that emerged when he was at work.

"I'd have been sick by now if I wasn't. Ammo is getting low my end. We got a plan apart from getting shot by another patrol and you feasting on medium rare Polavian at Mach Fuck?" The Polavian dryly retorted, flicking a new magazine in, direct in thoughts.

The sound of tracks rustling in the distance and a train horn made echoed made a plan for the unofficial team leader quickly.

"Idea. Rowan, jump up on the DShK. I'll drive.....we have a train to catch, if it's cargo, we can sneak aboard. You're right that the resistance is too heavy, we're going to get squished if we head to the trainyard with this lot on us. Just means we need to burn any tail first." Felix asked, as Oksana looked around.

"Easier said than done. Polavian trains do not slow down for anyone. Big efficiency drive. Mostly because the train drivers get to finish once they complete their shift. Our window is small." Oksana retorted, realising that Felix was proposing jumping onto the train. A poor idea in a field of potato-powered bullshit and very rare human meat.

"Well, that sounds like an even bigger win to me. They in the pocket of the Albani?"

The team clambered in, as Oksana replied to Felix's question, loosely sitting in the back of the open-topped communist jeep, loading a new mag into her Vityaz, counting her remainders out.

"Mostly not. Don't need to pay them when the containers are." She replied, as the UAZ chugged, Felix turning the key inside of it.

"Come on!" Felix yelled, as he slapped the dash, and with almost a comical timing, the engine belched out black diesel smoke, the former Captain awkwardly shoving it into gear, with more abuse than a Kalan prison getting put into the gear shift into second given he realised the UAZ was a machine built on BDSM like demand. It understood no other language than mechanical violence, in exchange for questionable quantities of oil.

"And you still look think you're in control?" Oksana asked, the question open, knowing Rowan was thinking it, and increasingly, so was she. This was a complete fucking mess.

"Trying. Not got much choice but to play the cards we're dealt, aren't we?" Felix replied, as driving down, more PSA tracer fire darted above, as Felix kept it as steady as he could over the rough and tumble of the forest tracks, another patrol in the forest firing on them and the team firing back. Spotlights were out, as mud and dirt sprayed everywhere, the ride about as bumpy as a trampoline made of bare concrete.

"Contacts!" Felix called out, as another UAZ emerged, more swearing and shouting audible, and bullets flew from the team. Oksana sprayed her PP-19, taking out a couple of the. There was something to be said about it all, as Felix turned left, a massive hit to the vehicle as it bumped and rattled alongside the train track, where the train was still at running speed. The UAZ behind tried the same move, and two of the PSA militants were actually thrown out by the size of the bump, skidding to a halt to pick up the two that had been flung out.

"Hah! Okay! Here!" Felix yelled, keeping the UAZ alongside, gunfire dying down, peeling alongside the train, the box cars a mixture of ISO containers and traditional cattle wagons, old units put into service that were also being used to store loose goods. Felix kept the revs high, next to one such container, as Oksana unbolted the latch and drew it open, making a bigger opening than the gap between the carriages, which would be insane.

As Felix kept throttle pinned, Oksana helped Borys in, given his shitfaced nature, it was best he went and caused as little hassle here. Then next up, she offered a hand up to Silas, the bumps difficult but her holding the frame to give him a chance to leap up, before she would follow.

But something hit her mind and immediately set her off. The visions halted.

"Wait, not yet!"

"Oksana, fucking go!" Felix yelled back, as Oksana did as she was told, despite the burning feeling in her. It was impossible, like a hunch backed by so much more. Because the moment she made the jump, following after Borys, throwing herself into the carriage, the car had to dodge a gap in the road, that then suddenly was filled by the emergence of another UAZ smacking into the side of it.

[hr]

The crash was a hard hit, with Felix and Rowan scattered, thrown from the UAZ, the jeep in bits and them lucky to be breathing.

The other UAZ that had smacked into it was a write-off too, but the militia inside had fared better.

Felix groaned, as the PSA team from the crashed UAZ flooded the area, at least a fireteam's worth, four or so in his vision.

"Shit. You're not friendly are you." A hit to the face and a hard kick was that reply, Felix was aware that any switch or escalation now would be a risky move. One of them was carrying a big iron looking staff, and it was throwing him completely for everything. No craft available to him with a ward like that. Probably why Oksana was not able to see that coming. That was a smarter move, Felix realised, as before Rowan could move, she got kicked in the side and thrown to the floor.

And next to him, Olygarkov, emerging from a polished looking Range Rover, cigarette in hand, breathing it out. Ushanka and leather coat on, he didn't half look like the evil spawn of a police state.

He walked along the crunched glass of the UAZ's windscreen, cackling almost, looking around at the two he'd managed to get in his hands.

"Rowan Morgana! I cannot believe this, you have made my day....and fallen right into our palm. With another caster causing us..... inconvenience." Olygarkov announced as if he was some minor noble, almost rather pleased with what felt like a lot of other works, not his own.

And leaning in, as the other militant held her up, Olygarkov's smile became like that of a Cheshire cat.

"What is it they say? Two for one? Capitalist scum come in capitalist numbers! You, and the fucking lion.....for free!" Olygarkov was now monologuing. Like any two-bit wannabe bureaucratic, secret policeman.

"And you followed him after it all? After what he did? He does not know what to do. No.......he got you in front of us though." Olygarkov yanked her by her plate carrier, dragging her away from the mess, leaning her against the car, bloody and hurt, away from where Felix was now getting attention.

"But now we have you, nobody else has to die. The rest of your team need not worry." Olygarkov added, his voice trailing from the Libolian's view, as rifle was still pointed at him. The next words were likely going to be to shoot said lion, he thought to himself. People full of themselves did that.

Felix looked up, sighing, coughing up, the hurt deep inside him, watching Rowan get dragged away. He didn't make too much noise, staying compliant, not wanting to rile his captor while the boss talked. He might have been full of bad decisions, but this was a moment where even without vision, he could make a good one.

"Two for one is a bad deal." Felix lept up and yanked the AK-103's barrel from the hands of the man in front and kicked at the same time, taking a couple of rounds from the ward-carrying militant before turning the rifle he'd stolen onto the man who held him, before putting a round through the head of the ward-carrying soldier next to him. It wasn't much to crawl and hurl it as far as he could across the tracks, as Olygarkov and his other soldier reacted. But he was bleeding. Badly. Felix barely was up before stumbling forward and about to look like he was going to drop dead, a bullet through his side and top of his throat, making him fumble, and fall to the floor.

As Olygarkov turned and pointed his Makarov at him, trigger pulled to finish the job, the special forces operator vanished.....and the lion appeared.

And that lion tore off his arm as Felix darted forwards and up, the AK dropped, as he snarled, before then leaping onto him and ripping out his stomach, another soldier leaping on top of Felix with a knife.

Brave trying to fight a lion, but Felix felt the cut into his side of the big knife, but rolled across and drove forward, making a really brutal, horrid scene of it, basically just putting his jaw to the militant's head and taking a bite.

From behind, it was a bloody scene, probably worse than anyone had seen Felix do from earlier. 

By the time Felix was done, he was licking bits out of his teeth, panting hard, bleeding. He couldn't change back, not until he saw a medic in his human form. He'd been hurt badly there, the cut bad now, but managable. He sauntered across to Rowan and put one of his sharp paws into her arms as carefully as he could pulling her and the ziptie down, but peeling through it, looking on at the train that was now getting further away, with their medic aboard. He brushed his mane and paw against Rowan's broom and her headset, and stood rampant with his....arms, legs, front legs? Whatever they were, looked her in the eyes and made a bark that sounded like the low frequency rumble of a V8, giving a nod (as best as a lion could), and turned his head to the train, making a pained noise. With that, he proceeded to bolt, running towards the train, leaving her there and then. Hoping she would understand what to do next, where to go, the Range Rover still running, but another option available to her. He wasn't getting on her broom to get where they were going.

The lion strained, Felix hurt, full, and most of all, feeling like he would crash out. He had to get to that train. He'd make it. He just hoped Rowan would because they'd do so much worse to her if she didn't. 

It must have been a strange response, irrespective of how Rowan treated that situation, but he was chasing the train, and she had alternative means. It had happened so fast, Rowan must have been confused, but in a strange way, perhaps he hoped in that moment that she'd get herself to safety. 

[hr]

Meanwhile inside the train, Oksana exhaled, watching on as the car was hit, and smacked into a rock, barely as she clambered up, looking back and realising that Rowan and Felix hadn't joined them.

"Rowan? Felix? Come in! I fucking told him....fuck's sake. No chance we get him back. Every time I throw myself out of this thing to save his stupid ass, I break myself. Rowan though....fuck. I hope she can make a run for it." Oksana blurted, exhaling, realising jumping from the train at this speed now would be broken legs territory. She didn't want to rely on luck, so trusted they'd get themselves out. Or at least, worst case scenario, the lion that had caused all the shit they were in was left behind.

Peering out of the train as it hit a right hand curve, the sound of distant roaring could be heard, a lot of screaming, and it seemed to continue, more than the gunfire had.

"Felix, Rowan, status? You both alive?" Oksana asked, her foresight unclear, the sound of clinking making her stop. 

They hadn't actually checked what was in the modified train car, as Oksana looked to Silas and Borys. The wooden floor and feeling of it felt like it was from 100 years ago, not a modern train system.....yet Polavia felt like it sometimes didn't always roll with the times.

"Oh god. You're not going to believe this." Oksana tittled, gently pulling the fabric cover off the container behind her, revealing dozens and dozens of crates of vodka bottles.

There was more Medlandia than Borys had likely ever seen in his entire life, but the awe must have been completely broken when Oksana tapped her fist against the side of a crate, it making a loud clink, rather thank the deeper.

"Empties." She added, drawing one from the near hundred crates in this carriage alone, and rolling it backwards across the floor, looking to Borys and Silas, a realisation she was with two of the team who could hold their own in drinking.

"We are definitely going to Novy Jork......"