Part One: Retrieval
"They have the Amp!" A male soldier dressed all in black screamed as he fired his weapon at two escaping figures in the foggy evening rain. As soon as the male spoke out, all of the others standing guard near him also turned their attention to the figures and started to feu at them. The people who were firing all seemed to be dressed in black and red, and they all seemed to have a hat of some kind that bore a symbol of a red shield on it.
"Move, Ace, move!" One of the figures, a female, a dit to her partner as they continued to run as fast as they could while attempting to run in aléatoire directions to avoid being shot. This female was a average height skunk with white hair and white stripes on her body; these stripes also seemed to fade into a reddish color as well. She was currently dressed in a manche longue, manches longues navy blue shirt, thick dark greenish-grey pants, black gloves, blue and white combat boots, and a grey-green protection vest.
"You think I'm not trying?!" The other figure "Ace", this one a male, snapped back at his female partner. This male was a slightly tall snow leopard with light grey fourrure and dark grey hair that seemed to streak to brown on the ends; his spots located on his face and body also oddly seemed to be a brownish color instead of black. He was currently dressed in slick black and white pants, a slightly thin green t-shirt which complimented his slightly muscled build, grey open-fingered gloves, grey and white combat boots, and a dark grey protection vest. He also seemed to have white bandage going from his upper arm down almost to his wrist on his left arm; this indicated a récent injury due to the red stains dotted along it. He seemed to be carrying a small black case with the same symbol as the red shield symbol on the shooters' hats as well.
"Where's Rawst?! Did toi see him anywhere before we got out of there?!" The skunk female asked as she continued running. She quickly scanned the foggy distance in an attempt to try to look for a place of cover from the gunfire.
"I don't know, Hannah! I thought toi saw where he went!" Ace replied in between breaths as he continued running alongside his female partner. He quickly turned his head and noticed that the dark woods were coming up to their right. "The woods are to the right! Let's go that way, the trees will provide cover and will hide us!"
"But what about Rawst?! We can't just leave without him!" Hannah a dit as she quickly turned towards the treeline along with Ace. Both adults quickly flinched and ducked slightly once the sound of a bullet whizzing over their heads hit their ears.
"He may have already went ahead! Plus, toi know what he told us before we even arrived here! He a dit that we needed to get out of here as soon as possible if we were able to get our hands on the mission item!" Ace a dit as they continued their mad dash towards the treeline. "I'm sure he'll meet up with us if he hasn't already gone ahead after seeing that the Amp was no longer there if he got there after we snagged it!"
"But we don't know that for sure!"
"Yeah, I know that! But all we we can do is hope he's fine and that he's going to meet up with us sooner ou later!" Ace a dit as he and Hannah quickly ducked under large branches to enter the woods. They were seriously hoping that would provide them cover from the gunfire. Playing into their hopes, the gunfire quickly ceased after they ran into the thick trees, which made them think their idea had worked and that they were no longer visible to the gunners.
Hannah quickly looked around in chercher as soon as they had entered the woods, but Ace quickly grabbed onto her arm with his own bandaged arm, which caused him to cringe with a pained look on his face. "Hannah, we can't stay and look around! I'm sure they're not stupid enough to not send a team out to come and chase us down! Let's keep moving!"
"Fine, let's just quit talking and go!" Hannah a dit with a slight frown as she quickly began running with Ace once again. Both the male and female were finding it quite difficult to keep their balance on even the smallest mounds of dirt because the combination of fallen leaves and rain made the ground quite muddy and slippery. Ace and Hannah both found themselves making extremely sharp and quick turns and movements to avoid trees and other obstacles that came up in their way. They felt as though they had little time to dodge as they could barely see anything in front of them due to the heavy rain and fog. They hadn't been running for an extremely long time at all before they started hearing faint voices behind them.
"They ran here! chercher out and find them!" A female's voice shouted, which was soon accompanied par the sound of quite a people dashing into the woods area. This surprised Hannah.
"How did they get there already?! There's not a possible way they could have caught up to us that quickly!" Hannah a dit quietly as she continued running with Ace, hoping to only be heard par the male and not par the people now searching for them.
"Think about it, this is their territory! For all we know, they could have taken some kind of hidden shortcut that only they know about! ou some of them could have teleportation devices of some kind," Ace replied quietly as they continued moving. He quickly looked around as they came up upon a divisé, split path, trying to decide which was the way they were supposed to go. The sign on the trees seemed to be too ruined and illegible due to years of wear. Hannah quickly stopped along with Ace and looked behind them, hoping that someone hadn't noticed the very obvious tracks that had been left in the mud. Unfortunately for them, someone did.
"Their footprints are visible in the mud! They went this way!" An enemy soldier's voice said, which caused all the sound to direct towards them as the chasers most certainly started coming in their direction. Trying to quickly decide what to do in a moment of rushing, Ace quickly grabbed onto Hannah's arm once again with his bad arm and quickly jerked her down one of the paths that seemed to be covered with a ton of trees above them. He was hoping that maybe par some chance the ground wouldn't be as muddy due to the way the trees would have shielded the ground from the rain.
"Are we even sure this is the right way?!" Hannah questioned quietly as she ran with Ace, who was still attempting to pull her along down the path. "What if the road and the car are down the other path in that direction instead of this one?!"
"We can't know that for sure and we can't just stop moving because they can see those footprints we left in the mud!" Ace replied as he continued pulling her along with a pained look on his face from using his injured arm. "I'm sure we'll get to the car eventually! If this doesn't take us to the road, at least we can try to lose the Red Shield and go from there."
The partners continued running down the path, attempting to avoid all of the trees and branches once plus as they moved at a quick speed in the foggy area. They continued running until the fog cleared just enough to montrer a rather large, steep colline in front of them. Both quickly came to a stop before they accidentally ran off over the edge.
"Now where do we go from here?" Hannah asked quickly, noticing that Ace was already looking around for another place to go ou a way down the colline that didn't involve falling down. "We definitely went the wrong way!"
"I'm looking, I'm looking," Ace replied quickly, still turning his head from side to side to chercher for any way for them to get down the colline ou for any other area they could go. He knew that they could try to run off into the woods and get off of the path, but he was afraid that they would either get hurt par doing so ou they would wind up completely Lost if they strayed from the path. He also knew that they couldn't try to run back to the other path ou they could risk running into the enemy team and possibly getting caught.
"Are we going to have to go down this hill?" Hannah questioned, also looking around for somewhere to run. "I can't see anywhere else to go and that Red Shield team could be gaining on us at any moment!"
"That looks like what we're going to have to do," Ace a dit as he quickly scanned his eyes over the hill, trying to chercher for a area where they could climb down without falling on the hard rocks that were covering the large mound of mud.
Both of the partners continued to look around until they heard the sound of a loud whistle as if something was flying through the air quickly; whatever was approaching was most certainly moving at a very fast speed. Both the male and female tried to turn around quickly in an attempt to see what exactly was approaching them and how they could try to dodge whatever was approaching, but they didn't have any time to react.
"Get down!" A male's voice shouted. This voice was revealed to belong to a silver-furred renard with blonde hair as he quickly dashed out of the woods and threw himself into a tackle against Ace and Hannah... which sent all three flying over the side of the hill. As they fell, they were able to see what looked like a spray of bullets shoot past the area where they had just been standing. It would have surely hit them if they had not been shoved over the hill.
Normally Ace and Hannah would have reacted with serious shock and even slight panic if someone had tackled them like this and especially down a hill, but they knew who this person was and they knew that he had just saved them from being hit par knocking them down the mountain. This renard was their commander.
Ace and the male Commander quickly wrapped their arms around Hannah in what looked like a sort of hug, however they were not trying to be friendly ou romantic. They were attempting to hold her close and use their own bodies as shields to prevent her from being hurt on the hard rocks as they bounced and rolled down the hill. All three continued down to the colline until they finally landed roughly on the ground at the bottom, which had been turned into basically a mixture of straight mud and rocks.
"Do toi two have the Amp?!" The renard questioned as he quickly rolled off of both of his partners and landed on the ground suivant to them. Both seemed fairly pained though Hannah seemed to have been at least a little protected during the fall thanks to the boys.
Ace quickly looked down to see if the case was still in his hands... and then he realized that a dit case was not in his hands. He looked around quickly in chercher for where the case had gone as he felt that it had most likely come out of his hands when he grabbed a hold of Hannah. "We got it but now I don't have it!"
The Commander and Hannah both realized that Ace must have dropped it somewhere during the roll down the colline and quickly began searching for the small black case. Ace quickly began searching around as well, attempting to ignore the pain that had been caused par bouncing down the hill. The snow leopard turned his head, and was quickly able to notice the black case lying not too far up the muddy hill. "There it is!"
The Commander quickly tried to déplacer up the hill, attempting to use some of the rocks to stand on and grab with his hands, though he quickly found this was very difficult to do as everything started sliding in the mud once he put his weight on it. He quickly began to reach out for the case in an attempt to grab it, but a hand that suddenly came out of the darkness knocked the case away into the distance. The renard quickly brought his gaze up with a glare, seeing that one of the black-dressed Red Shield enemies was the one who kicked the case away.
"Not this time, Rawst," The female Red Shield member a dit as she quickly aimed her gun at the fox's head. "You may have stolen from us before but the Amp is far too important for toi to just take without a fight!"
"Ace! Hannah! Get the Amp case!" Rawst a dit as he quickly brought his foot up and kicked the female's arm and gun away. He quickly brought his foot up once plus and attempted to kick the female away before she had the chance to attempt to shoot him again, but the female moved backwards quickly enough to dodge the kick.
Hannah quickly tried to déplacer towards the black case that contained the Amp, but she was met with resistance as well. The female enemy that attempted to block her from the case quickly threw a kick at Hannah, attempting to try to strike her in the head. Hannah ducked down in enough time to dodge the kick, but ducking meant that it was going to slow her down and she couldn't immediately start after the Amp. She hoped that Ace would be able to get to it instead.
Ace quickly scrambled towards the case on his knees in an attempt to get to it before one of the Red Shields did, which was made quite difficult due to the pain that keep stinging in his wrapped arm as he moved towards it. He quickly reached out towards the case as he got close enough to reach it, but a foot from behind kicked him in the side and knocked him away from the case. Ace quickly brought his attention up to the person who had just kicked him away, and quickly threw his hands up in the air to grab a hold of the arm and couteau that was shoved down towards him. The snow leopard and the attacking Red Shield member both struggled, with Ace trying to shove the Red Shield's arm and couteau away while the attacker attempted to shove the couteau closer to Ace. The two men continued to struggle with each other until Ace was able to jerk his knee up and hit the Red Shield in the stomach, causing him to double over and jerk back slightly. Ace used the open spot that he gained par quickly kicking the Red Shield back and scrambling up to his knees.
"Ace, be careful!" Rawst a dit as he quickly swung his foot at the female Red Shield's arm in an attempt to knock the gun away again before she had the chance to shoot. The arm and the gun were both hit, which sent the latter weapon flying away and onto the ground. Wasting no time, the female quickly released a growl before attempting to physically attack Rawst par swinging a kick at his face. Rawst quickly rolled to the side, just barely missing the female's foot as she swung through with her kick. Missing the kick caused the female to become slightly off-balance, which gave Rawst the chance to quickly scramble up to his knees. Seeing that Ace and Hannah were still busy with the enemies that they were trying to fight, Rawst quickly tried to déplacer away from the female Red Shield that he was fighting to try and get to the black case. He moved towards the case, but the Red Shield member recovered from her off-balance kick and immediately ran towards Rawst. She attempted to feu her gun at Rawst, but the renard Commander was able to déplacer quickly enough to avoid being shot par the gun. He quickly grabbed a hold of the black case before quickly flipping over onto his back and kicking towards the female in an attempt to hit her. This kick did indeed hit the female and sent her stumbling back, which caused her to fall and claque, smack her head on a rock that she fell on, which made her quite dizzy from the impact and dazed her, though it didn't knock her unconscious. Using that time that he had just bought, Rawst quickly scrambled up to his feet before quickly looking over at his two partners who were still locked in combat. "Let's go! Let's get out of here!"
Ace and Hannah both looked towards Rawst in confusion once they knocked their rivals back, thinking that he wanted them to leave without the black case, but they realized that their commander was indeed holding the case and so they realized that it would be a good idea to try to escape with it. Rawst quickly turned and began running away with the case in hand, moving away from where the colline was that they fell down in hopes that the direction would lead back to the roads. Ace and Hannah quickly followed, hoping to get away from the Red Shield members.
"Do either of toi two recognize where we are yet?!" Rawst questioned as he quickly ran into the trees along with his two partners. They were hoping that they would be able to hide in the trees and slip away from the Red Shield members before they were able to recover and come back after them.
"No, not yet!" Hannah a dit as she tried to look around as she ran. She found it difficult to look around the area and pay attention to the trees in front of her as well. "I think all we have to go is get back to the road and then we'll be fine! The car is fast enough to easily get ahead of people running on foot!"
"I think we know that, Hannah!" Ace a dit to the female as he ran alongside his commander and continued to dodge trees. "But the problem is that we have no idea where the car is ou where we are in this forest!"
"Which means we're going to have to get away from the Red Shield and find our way through this place!" Rawst said. "Do we even remember which way we came from to even get to their base in the first place?!"
"I don't remember the exact way but I had a general idea when Ace and I ran away from the base! We ran in the opposite direction!" Hannah said.
"Why did toi do that if toi thought toi knew where the general direction was?!" Rawst questioned.
"It was either try to go in that direction and risk getting shot while running ou go the direction that we actually went!" Hannah said. "The trees that we ran to were much closer than where we came from so we went towards where we went to for cover from the guns!"
"Well, okay, that was a rather smart thing to do," Rawst a dit as he quickly thought over what Hannah had said. "It probably was most likely a better idea to go towards the closest cover than run to the further area. However, the only problem that we have now is we have no idea where the car is."
"I think we just need to keep moving and then try to recognize the area when we come to it," Ace a dit as he tried to focus his hearing on what was happening around them. "I can hear footsteps that I don't think are our own. We should probably be quiet so we can't be heard talking, right?"
"Most likely," Rawst and Hannah both responded with the same response, which caused Ace to reply with a simple "okay" before staying quiet.
The three partners moved as quietly as they could, making sure to try to dodge any trees and branches that were in their way as they moved. Each one of them was tempted to look back and try to see if the Red Shield members were gaining on them, but at the same time they were afraid that it would slow them done if they tried to do so. They continued at their quick paces and continued to force themselves to run even when they began to run out of stamina and breath. They didn't allow themselves to slow down and stop until they had ran through enough trees to get themselves to a dirt path.
"Okay, do we know where we are now?" Rawst asked between heavy, quick breaths as he looked around the path, searching for a sign of any kind. "I'm not sure if we Lost them but surely we at least bought some time."
Hannah quickly moved her head from left to right, observing the area with a careful eye before quickly widening her eyes and nodding her head. "Yeah, I actually realize where we are! I've been done this trail before on a hike. I think I still know my way around it and I think I can get us back to the road."
"So toi know where we are. That's good," Ace a dit as he quickly released a heavy breath and put his hands on his knees. "Can toi tell which the correct way to go is even though it's dark and raining?"
"Yeah, I think I can. If I can even recognize it from a good long while's memory then I'm pretty sure I can find the way to the road," Hannah a dit as she quickly began running down the path, heading towards the left. "Come on! Let's go!"
Rawst and Ace quickly began running after Hannah, making sure not to stand around and lose her. In a few short moments, they were able to run up beside her and continued vers l'avant, vers l’avant with her, making sure to avoid tripping on arbre roots and rocks that were scattered about the path. They continued running and didn't look back, once again fearing that if they turned around the Red Shield members would be there and be ready to shoot them. The three partners were breathing rather heavily par the time that they finally dashed out of the trees and out onto the pavement road that ran beside the woods.
"Okay, now I can recognize where we are," Ace a dit in a heavy breath, swallowing hard before looking around the area quickly. "Now where's the car? Where did we park it? We have to get out of here while we have the case!"
Rawst quickly moved his head from left to right, searching for the vehicle that they had drove over to the woods before they had entered on their mission to retrieve the case for their leader. He moved his head over towards the right and looked in the distance, noticing a dark grey van in the distance, just barely able to be seen due to the darkness and the rain. "There it is!"
Ace and Hannah quickly turned his heads upon hearing what the renard commander a dit and quickly began running after him once they saw that he was running towards the grey van in the distance. They both caught up to Rawst just as he was running up to the van and unlocking the driver's siège to climb inside. The renard quickly scrambled inside the car and tossed the black case into the backseat.
Rawst, who was now sitting in the driver's seat, glanced towards the backseat as he reached around his chair and unlocked the door for Ace and Hannah, who quickly opened the door and climbed inside once they watched their commander unlock it. Hannah quickly shut the door behind her and sat down in her siège along with Ace before speaking to Rawst, who was already starting the car up. "Go, go! Get us out of here before those Red Shield soldiers montrer up!"
Rawst certainly didn't waste any time in waiting and quickly slammed his foot down on the accelerator and sent the car immediately off down the road and gaining speed. He also made sure to turn on the windshield wipers to allow himself to see through the rain-covered windshield. "Okay, I think we can allow ourselves time to breathe now. Are toi two alright? I can see that your arm is bandaged, Ace. What happened?"
"Knife wound," Ace replied as he let himself just sink into the backseat, hoping to try to relax just a bit and allow himself breathing time. "I got into a struggle with one of those Red Shield goons while I was still in the base with Hannah and my arm got cut par the guy's couteau during it.
"Nothing too serious, right?" Rawst questioned as he kept his eyes locked firmly on the road as he continued driving the car at a rather fast speed. "Do toi think toi will need stitching for the cut?"
"I'll most likely need at least some stitching," Ace a dit with a nod, though he knew that Rawst wasn't going to be able to see it. "As far as I know I haven't Lost an incredible amount of blood and the cut isn't deep enough to cause any serious harm."
"You're not feeling like you're about to pass out, right?"
"No, I don't feel like that. I feel out of breath, yeah, but not like I'm about to pass out due to blood loss."
"Alright then. Hannah, did toi receive any injuries that need to be looked at when we get back to base?"
"Nothing serious, ou at least I don't think. I have the occasional scratch and bruise here and there but nothing as bad as what happened to Ace," Hannah replied as she grabbed the black case off of the chair suivant to her and started examining it. "So this IS the case that we were after, right? We didn't go through all of that for nothing, right?"
"I'm pretty sure I could hear one of those Red Shield soldiers screaming about the fact that we had the Amp," Ace said. "And if I remember correctly, the Amp is what we were after, so either that case is the Amp ou it's inside of there."
"I'm certainly not going to open it, that's for sure," Hannah a dit as she turned the case in her hands a few times before simply setting it down in her lap and turning her attention towards Rawst. "Be careful not to go off of the road with the rain and the speed that you're going at."
"I'm not going to run off the road," Rawst a dit with a slight frown as he continued driving. "Besides, even if I did drive us off the road, all you'd have to do is jump out of the car before we get smashed in it."
"Very funny," Hannah a dit with a slight roll of her eyes at what Rawst had said. "Talk like that and you're going to get us all afraid and then we're actually going to go off of the road. Just take us back to base." Rawst replied with a simple "okay" before going silent and continuing to drive.
The three partners simple stayed quiet for the remainder of the drive, with Rawst keeping his eyes locked on the road while Ace and Hannah stayed silent in the backseat. The drive continued for quite some time until Rawst turned into a driveway of an old store building, making sure to drive the car around the back of the building. The renard commander quickly parked the car in between two large air vents before turning the car off. "Alright, we're here."
"I think we can obviously see that," Hannah a dit as one of her ears drooped slightly. "Now, what are we planning to do once we get the case turned in? Relax for a while?"
"Obviously Ace needs to go to the medical center and get his arm fixed," Rawst a dit as he looked out the windshield of the car. The car suddenly began to lower along with the ground, which revealed a tunnel full of metal and pale green lights. The car continued to lower further and further into the tunnel until it opened up into a very large room filled plus lights and many cars of various kinds. The platform that the car was on suddenly shifted vers l'avant, vers l’avant and moved towards the back of the room before lowering down onto a empty parking space. Once the car had been gently set down, the ground-like platform slowly moved out from under the vehicle and quickly went back up the tunnel and set back into place where it was before.
"Everybody out," Rawst a dit as he opened his car door and climbed out. He closed his door and watched as his two partners climb out of the car with the case in hand, making sure to shut the car doors behind them. The three partners quickly made their way across the large parking lot, making their way over to what looked like a large elevator. They stepped into the elevator before Rawst hit a button on the wall, which caused the elevator to close and begin going down until it stopped and opened back up. The partners stepped out of the elevator, stepping into a very large and well-lit hallway.
"Alright, Ace, toi need to head over to the medical center," Hannah a dit as she turned her head towards her snow leopard partner, who simply nodded his head before saying his goodbyes and walking off down the left side of the hallway. The female skunk turned her attention to Rawst afterwards before handing the case over to the fox. "And toi can turn that in. I'm going to go get something to eat and try to relax."
"Alright then, thank you, Hannah. That was a job well done," Rawst said, which caused Hannah to nod her head in acknowledgement before turning and walking off down the hallway on the right. The renard commander quickly walked vers l'avant, vers l’avant down the hallway in front of him, on his way to the room where the leader of the base usually stayed.
After a short while of walking and going through various hallways, Rawst quickly arrived at the metal door that lead to the leader's office. He quickly gave the door a sharp knock, attempting to get the attention of whoever was inside. "It's Ampshane."
"Come in, Rawst," A female voice spoke through the door. Rawst waited until the door opened before walking inside and walking over to a bureau where a female figure sat with her chair turned away from him.
"Mission accomplished, ma'am," Rawst a dit as he sat down the case on the bureau and gave the female a slight salute before putting his hands in pockets on his grey military vest. "We've retrieved the Amp weapon as tasked."
"They have the Amp!" A male soldier dressed all in black screamed as he fired his weapon at two escaping figures in the foggy evening rain. As soon as the male spoke out, all of the others standing guard near him also turned their attention to the figures and started to feu at them. The people who were firing all seemed to be dressed in black and red, and they all seemed to have a hat of some kind that bore a symbol of a red shield on it.
"Move, Ace, move!" One of the figures, a female, a dit to her partner as they continued to run as fast as they could while attempting to run in aléatoire directions to avoid being shot. This female was a average height skunk with white hair and white stripes on her body; these stripes also seemed to fade into a reddish color as well. She was currently dressed in a manche longue, manches longues navy blue shirt, thick dark greenish-grey pants, black gloves, blue and white combat boots, and a grey-green protection vest.
"You think I'm not trying?!" The other figure "Ace", this one a male, snapped back at his female partner. This male was a slightly tall snow leopard with light grey fourrure and dark grey hair that seemed to streak to brown on the ends; his spots located on his face and body also oddly seemed to be a brownish color instead of black. He was currently dressed in slick black and white pants, a slightly thin green t-shirt which complimented his slightly muscled build, grey open-fingered gloves, grey and white combat boots, and a dark grey protection vest. He also seemed to have white bandage going from his upper arm down almost to his wrist on his left arm; this indicated a récent injury due to the red stains dotted along it. He seemed to be carrying a small black case with the same symbol as the red shield symbol on the shooters' hats as well.
"Where's Rawst?! Did toi see him anywhere before we got out of there?!" The skunk female asked as she continued running. She quickly scanned the foggy distance in an attempt to try to look for a place of cover from the gunfire.
"I don't know, Hannah! I thought toi saw where he went!" Ace replied in between breaths as he continued running alongside his female partner. He quickly turned his head and noticed that the dark woods were coming up to their right. "The woods are to the right! Let's go that way, the trees will provide cover and will hide us!"
"But what about Rawst?! We can't just leave without him!" Hannah a dit as she quickly turned towards the treeline along with Ace. Both adults quickly flinched and ducked slightly once the sound of a bullet whizzing over their heads hit their ears.
"He may have already went ahead! Plus, toi know what he told us before we even arrived here! He a dit that we needed to get out of here as soon as possible if we were able to get our hands on the mission item!" Ace a dit as they continued their mad dash towards the treeline. "I'm sure he'll meet up with us if he hasn't already gone ahead after seeing that the Amp was no longer there if he got there after we snagged it!"
"But we don't know that for sure!"
"Yeah, I know that! But all we we can do is hope he's fine and that he's going to meet up with us sooner ou later!" Ace a dit as he and Hannah quickly ducked under large branches to enter the woods. They were seriously hoping that would provide them cover from the gunfire. Playing into their hopes, the gunfire quickly ceased after they ran into the thick trees, which made them think their idea had worked and that they were no longer visible to the gunners.
Hannah quickly looked around in chercher as soon as they had entered the woods, but Ace quickly grabbed onto her arm with his own bandaged arm, which caused him to cringe with a pained look on his face. "Hannah, we can't stay and look around! I'm sure they're not stupid enough to not send a team out to come and chase us down! Let's keep moving!"
"Fine, let's just quit talking and go!" Hannah a dit with a slight frown as she quickly began running with Ace once again. Both the male and female were finding it quite difficult to keep their balance on even the smallest mounds of dirt because the combination of fallen leaves and rain made the ground quite muddy and slippery. Ace and Hannah both found themselves making extremely sharp and quick turns and movements to avoid trees and other obstacles that came up in their way. They felt as though they had little time to dodge as they could barely see anything in front of them due to the heavy rain and fog. They hadn't been running for an extremely long time at all before they started hearing faint voices behind them.
"They ran here! chercher out and find them!" A female's voice shouted, which was soon accompanied par the sound of quite a people dashing into the woods area. This surprised Hannah.
"How did they get there already?! There's not a possible way they could have caught up to us that quickly!" Hannah a dit quietly as she continued running with Ace, hoping to only be heard par the male and not par the people now searching for them.
"Think about it, this is their territory! For all we know, they could have taken some kind of hidden shortcut that only they know about! ou some of them could have teleportation devices of some kind," Ace replied quietly as they continued moving. He quickly looked around as they came up upon a divisé, split path, trying to decide which was the way they were supposed to go. The sign on the trees seemed to be too ruined and illegible due to years of wear. Hannah quickly stopped along with Ace and looked behind them, hoping that someone hadn't noticed the very obvious tracks that had been left in the mud. Unfortunately for them, someone did.
"Their footprints are visible in the mud! They went this way!" An enemy soldier's voice said, which caused all the sound to direct towards them as the chasers most certainly started coming in their direction. Trying to quickly decide what to do in a moment of rushing, Ace quickly grabbed onto Hannah's arm once again with his bad arm and quickly jerked her down one of the paths that seemed to be covered with a ton of trees above them. He was hoping that maybe par some chance the ground wouldn't be as muddy due to the way the trees would have shielded the ground from the rain.
"Are we even sure this is the right way?!" Hannah questioned quietly as she ran with Ace, who was still attempting to pull her along down the path. "What if the road and the car are down the other path in that direction instead of this one?!"
"We can't know that for sure and we can't just stop moving because they can see those footprints we left in the mud!" Ace replied as he continued pulling her along with a pained look on his face from using his injured arm. "I'm sure we'll get to the car eventually! If this doesn't take us to the road, at least we can try to lose the Red Shield and go from there."
The partners continued running down the path, attempting to avoid all of the trees and branches once plus as they moved at a quick speed in the foggy area. They continued running until the fog cleared just enough to montrer a rather large, steep colline in front of them. Both quickly came to a stop before they accidentally ran off over the edge.
"Now where do we go from here?" Hannah asked quickly, noticing that Ace was already looking around for another place to go ou a way down the colline that didn't involve falling down. "We definitely went the wrong way!"
"I'm looking, I'm looking," Ace replied quickly, still turning his head from side to side to chercher for any way for them to get down the colline ou for any other area they could go. He knew that they could try to run off into the woods and get off of the path, but he was afraid that they would either get hurt par doing so ou they would wind up completely Lost if they strayed from the path. He also knew that they couldn't try to run back to the other path ou they could risk running into the enemy team and possibly getting caught.
"Are we going to have to go down this hill?" Hannah questioned, also looking around for somewhere to run. "I can't see anywhere else to go and that Red Shield team could be gaining on us at any moment!"
"That looks like what we're going to have to do," Ace a dit as he quickly scanned his eyes over the hill, trying to chercher for a area where they could climb down without falling on the hard rocks that were covering the large mound of mud.
Both of the partners continued to look around until they heard the sound of a loud whistle as if something was flying through the air quickly; whatever was approaching was most certainly moving at a very fast speed. Both the male and female tried to turn around quickly in an attempt to see what exactly was approaching them and how they could try to dodge whatever was approaching, but they didn't have any time to react.
"Get down!" A male's voice shouted. This voice was revealed to belong to a silver-furred renard with blonde hair as he quickly dashed out of the woods and threw himself into a tackle against Ace and Hannah... which sent all three flying over the side of the hill. As they fell, they were able to see what looked like a spray of bullets shoot past the area where they had just been standing. It would have surely hit them if they had not been shoved over the hill.
Normally Ace and Hannah would have reacted with serious shock and even slight panic if someone had tackled them like this and especially down a hill, but they knew who this person was and they knew that he had just saved them from being hit par knocking them down the mountain. This renard was their commander.
Ace and the male Commander quickly wrapped their arms around Hannah in what looked like a sort of hug, however they were not trying to be friendly ou romantic. They were attempting to hold her close and use their own bodies as shields to prevent her from being hurt on the hard rocks as they bounced and rolled down the hill. All three continued down to the colline until they finally landed roughly on the ground at the bottom, which had been turned into basically a mixture of straight mud and rocks.
"Do toi two have the Amp?!" The renard questioned as he quickly rolled off of both of his partners and landed on the ground suivant to them. Both seemed fairly pained though Hannah seemed to have been at least a little protected during the fall thanks to the boys.
Ace quickly looked down to see if the case was still in his hands... and then he realized that a dit case was not in his hands. He looked around quickly in chercher for where the case had gone as he felt that it had most likely come out of his hands when he grabbed a hold of Hannah. "We got it but now I don't have it!"
The Commander and Hannah both realized that Ace must have dropped it somewhere during the roll down the colline and quickly began searching for the small black case. Ace quickly began searching around as well, attempting to ignore the pain that had been caused par bouncing down the hill. The snow leopard turned his head, and was quickly able to notice the black case lying not too far up the muddy hill. "There it is!"
The Commander quickly tried to déplacer up the hill, attempting to use some of the rocks to stand on and grab with his hands, though he quickly found this was very difficult to do as everything started sliding in the mud once he put his weight on it. He quickly began to reach out for the case in an attempt to grab it, but a hand that suddenly came out of the darkness knocked the case away into the distance. The renard quickly brought his gaze up with a glare, seeing that one of the black-dressed Red Shield enemies was the one who kicked the case away.
"Not this time, Rawst," The female Red Shield member a dit as she quickly aimed her gun at the fox's head. "You may have stolen from us before but the Amp is far too important for toi to just take without a fight!"
"Ace! Hannah! Get the Amp case!" Rawst a dit as he quickly brought his foot up and kicked the female's arm and gun away. He quickly brought his foot up once plus and attempted to kick the female away before she had the chance to attempt to shoot him again, but the female moved backwards quickly enough to dodge the kick.
Hannah quickly tried to déplacer towards the black case that contained the Amp, but she was met with resistance as well. The female enemy that attempted to block her from the case quickly threw a kick at Hannah, attempting to try to strike her in the head. Hannah ducked down in enough time to dodge the kick, but ducking meant that it was going to slow her down and she couldn't immediately start after the Amp. She hoped that Ace would be able to get to it instead.
Ace quickly scrambled towards the case on his knees in an attempt to get to it before one of the Red Shields did, which was made quite difficult due to the pain that keep stinging in his wrapped arm as he moved towards it. He quickly reached out towards the case as he got close enough to reach it, but a foot from behind kicked him in the side and knocked him away from the case. Ace quickly brought his attention up to the person who had just kicked him away, and quickly threw his hands up in the air to grab a hold of the arm and couteau that was shoved down towards him. The snow leopard and the attacking Red Shield member both struggled, with Ace trying to shove the Red Shield's arm and couteau away while the attacker attempted to shove the couteau closer to Ace. The two men continued to struggle with each other until Ace was able to jerk his knee up and hit the Red Shield in the stomach, causing him to double over and jerk back slightly. Ace used the open spot that he gained par quickly kicking the Red Shield back and scrambling up to his knees.
"Ace, be careful!" Rawst a dit as he quickly swung his foot at the female Red Shield's arm in an attempt to knock the gun away again before she had the chance to shoot. The arm and the gun were both hit, which sent the latter weapon flying away and onto the ground. Wasting no time, the female quickly released a growl before attempting to physically attack Rawst par swinging a kick at his face. Rawst quickly rolled to the side, just barely missing the female's foot as she swung through with her kick. Missing the kick caused the female to become slightly off-balance, which gave Rawst the chance to quickly scramble up to his knees. Seeing that Ace and Hannah were still busy with the enemies that they were trying to fight, Rawst quickly tried to déplacer away from the female Red Shield that he was fighting to try and get to the black case. He moved towards the case, but the Red Shield member recovered from her off-balance kick and immediately ran towards Rawst. She attempted to feu her gun at Rawst, but the renard Commander was able to déplacer quickly enough to avoid being shot par the gun. He quickly grabbed a hold of the black case before quickly flipping over onto his back and kicking towards the female in an attempt to hit her. This kick did indeed hit the female and sent her stumbling back, which caused her to fall and claque, smack her head on a rock that she fell on, which made her quite dizzy from the impact and dazed her, though it didn't knock her unconscious. Using that time that he had just bought, Rawst quickly scrambled up to his feet before quickly looking over at his two partners who were still locked in combat. "Let's go! Let's get out of here!"
Ace and Hannah both looked towards Rawst in confusion once they knocked their rivals back, thinking that he wanted them to leave without the black case, but they realized that their commander was indeed holding the case and so they realized that it would be a good idea to try to escape with it. Rawst quickly turned and began running away with the case in hand, moving away from where the colline was that they fell down in hopes that the direction would lead back to the roads. Ace and Hannah quickly followed, hoping to get away from the Red Shield members.
"Do either of toi two recognize where we are yet?!" Rawst questioned as he quickly ran into the trees along with his two partners. They were hoping that they would be able to hide in the trees and slip away from the Red Shield members before they were able to recover and come back after them.
"No, not yet!" Hannah a dit as she tried to look around as she ran. She found it difficult to look around the area and pay attention to the trees in front of her as well. "I think all we have to go is get back to the road and then we'll be fine! The car is fast enough to easily get ahead of people running on foot!"
"I think we know that, Hannah!" Ace a dit to the female as he ran alongside his commander and continued to dodge trees. "But the problem is that we have no idea where the car is ou where we are in this forest!"
"Which means we're going to have to get away from the Red Shield and find our way through this place!" Rawst said. "Do we even remember which way we came from to even get to their base in the first place?!"
"I don't remember the exact way but I had a general idea when Ace and I ran away from the base! We ran in the opposite direction!" Hannah said.
"Why did toi do that if toi thought toi knew where the general direction was?!" Rawst questioned.
"It was either try to go in that direction and risk getting shot while running ou go the direction that we actually went!" Hannah said. "The trees that we ran to were much closer than where we came from so we went towards where we went to for cover from the guns!"
"Well, okay, that was a rather smart thing to do," Rawst a dit as he quickly thought over what Hannah had said. "It probably was most likely a better idea to go towards the closest cover than run to the further area. However, the only problem that we have now is we have no idea where the car is."
"I think we just need to keep moving and then try to recognize the area when we come to it," Ace a dit as he tried to focus his hearing on what was happening around them. "I can hear footsteps that I don't think are our own. We should probably be quiet so we can't be heard talking, right?"
"Most likely," Rawst and Hannah both responded with the same response, which caused Ace to reply with a simple "okay" before staying quiet.
The three partners moved as quietly as they could, making sure to try to dodge any trees and branches that were in their way as they moved. Each one of them was tempted to look back and try to see if the Red Shield members were gaining on them, but at the same time they were afraid that it would slow them done if they tried to do so. They continued at their quick paces and continued to force themselves to run even when they began to run out of stamina and breath. They didn't allow themselves to slow down and stop until they had ran through enough trees to get themselves to a dirt path.
"Okay, do we know where we are now?" Rawst asked between heavy, quick breaths as he looked around the path, searching for a sign of any kind. "I'm not sure if we Lost them but surely we at least bought some time."
Hannah quickly moved her head from left to right, observing the area with a careful eye before quickly widening her eyes and nodding her head. "Yeah, I actually realize where we are! I've been done this trail before on a hike. I think I still know my way around it and I think I can get us back to the road."
"So toi know where we are. That's good," Ace a dit as he quickly released a heavy breath and put his hands on his knees. "Can toi tell which the correct way to go is even though it's dark and raining?"
"Yeah, I think I can. If I can even recognize it from a good long while's memory then I'm pretty sure I can find the way to the road," Hannah a dit as she quickly began running down the path, heading towards the left. "Come on! Let's go!"
Rawst and Ace quickly began running after Hannah, making sure not to stand around and lose her. In a few short moments, they were able to run up beside her and continued vers l'avant, vers l’avant with her, making sure to avoid tripping on arbre roots and rocks that were scattered about the path. They continued running and didn't look back, once again fearing that if they turned around the Red Shield members would be there and be ready to shoot them. The three partners were breathing rather heavily par the time that they finally dashed out of the trees and out onto the pavement road that ran beside the woods.
"Okay, now I can recognize where we are," Ace a dit in a heavy breath, swallowing hard before looking around the area quickly. "Now where's the car? Where did we park it? We have to get out of here while we have the case!"
Rawst quickly moved his head from left to right, searching for the vehicle that they had drove over to the woods before they had entered on their mission to retrieve the case for their leader. He moved his head over towards the right and looked in the distance, noticing a dark grey van in the distance, just barely able to be seen due to the darkness and the rain. "There it is!"
Ace and Hannah quickly turned his heads upon hearing what the renard commander a dit and quickly began running after him once they saw that he was running towards the grey van in the distance. They both caught up to Rawst just as he was running up to the van and unlocking the driver's siège to climb inside. The renard quickly scrambled inside the car and tossed the black case into the backseat.
Rawst, who was now sitting in the driver's seat, glanced towards the backseat as he reached around his chair and unlocked the door for Ace and Hannah, who quickly opened the door and climbed inside once they watched their commander unlock it. Hannah quickly shut the door behind her and sat down in her siège along with Ace before speaking to Rawst, who was already starting the car up. "Go, go! Get us out of here before those Red Shield soldiers montrer up!"
Rawst certainly didn't waste any time in waiting and quickly slammed his foot down on the accelerator and sent the car immediately off down the road and gaining speed. He also made sure to turn on the windshield wipers to allow himself to see through the rain-covered windshield. "Okay, I think we can allow ourselves time to breathe now. Are toi two alright? I can see that your arm is bandaged, Ace. What happened?"
"Knife wound," Ace replied as he let himself just sink into the backseat, hoping to try to relax just a bit and allow himself breathing time. "I got into a struggle with one of those Red Shield goons while I was still in the base with Hannah and my arm got cut par the guy's couteau during it.
"Nothing too serious, right?" Rawst questioned as he kept his eyes locked firmly on the road as he continued driving the car at a rather fast speed. "Do toi think toi will need stitching for the cut?"
"I'll most likely need at least some stitching," Ace a dit with a nod, though he knew that Rawst wasn't going to be able to see it. "As far as I know I haven't Lost an incredible amount of blood and the cut isn't deep enough to cause any serious harm."
"You're not feeling like you're about to pass out, right?"
"No, I don't feel like that. I feel out of breath, yeah, but not like I'm about to pass out due to blood loss."
"Alright then. Hannah, did toi receive any injuries that need to be looked at when we get back to base?"
"Nothing serious, ou at least I don't think. I have the occasional scratch and bruise here and there but nothing as bad as what happened to Ace," Hannah replied as she grabbed the black case off of the chair suivant to her and started examining it. "So this IS the case that we were after, right? We didn't go through all of that for nothing, right?"
"I'm pretty sure I could hear one of those Red Shield soldiers screaming about the fact that we had the Amp," Ace said. "And if I remember correctly, the Amp is what we were after, so either that case is the Amp ou it's inside of there."
"I'm certainly not going to open it, that's for sure," Hannah a dit as she turned the case in her hands a few times before simply setting it down in her lap and turning her attention towards Rawst. "Be careful not to go off of the road with the rain and the speed that you're going at."
"I'm not going to run off the road," Rawst a dit with a slight frown as he continued driving. "Besides, even if I did drive us off the road, all you'd have to do is jump out of the car before we get smashed in it."
"Very funny," Hannah a dit with a slight roll of her eyes at what Rawst had said. "Talk like that and you're going to get us all afraid and then we're actually going to go off of the road. Just take us back to base." Rawst replied with a simple "okay" before going silent and continuing to drive.
The three partners simple stayed quiet for the remainder of the drive, with Rawst keeping his eyes locked on the road while Ace and Hannah stayed silent in the backseat. The drive continued for quite some time until Rawst turned into a driveway of an old store building, making sure to drive the car around the back of the building. The renard commander quickly parked the car in between two large air vents before turning the car off. "Alright, we're here."
"I think we can obviously see that," Hannah a dit as one of her ears drooped slightly. "Now, what are we planning to do once we get the case turned in? Relax for a while?"
"Obviously Ace needs to go to the medical center and get his arm fixed," Rawst a dit as he looked out the windshield of the car. The car suddenly began to lower along with the ground, which revealed a tunnel full of metal and pale green lights. The car continued to lower further and further into the tunnel until it opened up into a very large room filled plus lights and many cars of various kinds. The platform that the car was on suddenly shifted vers l'avant, vers l’avant and moved towards the back of the room before lowering down onto a empty parking space. Once the car had been gently set down, the ground-like platform slowly moved out from under the vehicle and quickly went back up the tunnel and set back into place where it was before.
"Everybody out," Rawst a dit as he opened his car door and climbed out. He closed his door and watched as his two partners climb out of the car with the case in hand, making sure to shut the car doors behind them. The three partners quickly made their way across the large parking lot, making their way over to what looked like a large elevator. They stepped into the elevator before Rawst hit a button on the wall, which caused the elevator to close and begin going down until it stopped and opened back up. The partners stepped out of the elevator, stepping into a very large and well-lit hallway.
"Alright, Ace, toi need to head over to the medical center," Hannah a dit as she turned her head towards her snow leopard partner, who simply nodded his head before saying his goodbyes and walking off down the left side of the hallway. The female skunk turned her attention to Rawst afterwards before handing the case over to the fox. "And toi can turn that in. I'm going to go get something to eat and try to relax."
"Alright then, thank you, Hannah. That was a job well done," Rawst said, which caused Hannah to nod her head in acknowledgement before turning and walking off down the hallway on the right. The renard commander quickly walked vers l'avant, vers l’avant down the hallway in front of him, on his way to the room where the leader of the base usually stayed.
After a short while of walking and going through various hallways, Rawst quickly arrived at the metal door that lead to the leader's office. He quickly gave the door a sharp knock, attempting to get the attention of whoever was inside. "It's Ampshane."
"Come in, Rawst," A female voice spoke through the door. Rawst waited until the door opened before walking inside and walking over to a bureau where a female figure sat with her chair turned away from him.
"Mission accomplished, ma'am," Rawst a dit as he sat down the case on the bureau and gave the female a slight salute before putting his hands in pockets on his grey military vest. "We've retrieved the Amp weapon as tasked."