-Kunlun Mountains, ???-
It was all quiet as five monkey guards patrolled the parameter of the wall leading into Panda King’s domain, also his fireworks factory and materials production facility.
As they passed by a tree more than ten feet apart, the fifth guard didn’t see the frying pan flying into their face before it was too late and a pair of wool covered legs went under the guard’s armpits to drag them out of sight.
The fourth guard turned around at the next tree to look curiously behind him, only to get pulled into the tree they were standing next to by a big pair of pink arms wrapping around his neck torso. He didn’t even manage to get a strangled scream to warn the three others.
Even then, the third guard went on alert and leapt away from the trees and started looking around as the other two continued forward, knowing that something had happened to the fourth and fifth guard.
Suddenly, something with the grip of a vice grabbed his leg and dragged him under the snow from directly below him. A soft mechanical warbling sound could be heard.
The last two guards turned around and then immediately went back to back, there was no way anyone was going to sneak up on them as they held their lights aloft and watched for movements in the shadows.
A large tree slowly bent downwards into sight above them, a cane held by a gloved hand hooked around the second guard’s neck and before the first guard could react the tree snapped upwards and the second guard yelped as they were slung into the air and then disappeared when the cane hooked them again and pulled them out of sight.
The last remaining guard turned to run only to see a goat sitting in his path with grin on her face.
“Guess what? This be an ambush!” The guard just looked at the goat with a glare and slung his staff forward, only for the staff to split in half in the flash of a crescent before it could even get a quarter of the way to hitting its target. Three fourths of the guard’s weapon went flying off into the snow. “Also you be the guard that I am handling, isn’t that being great?”
The happy go lucky grin changed to one of a more serious nature as the goat leapt at the suddenly fearful guard.
-San Fransokyo, Junkyard, Pom-
I looked up at the moon, I couldn’t see the stars in the sky thanks to all the light pollution from the nearby city. I sighed and shook my head before returning my gaze to the Lynx studying me from atop a pile of junk.
“My name is Pom Lamchop, this is Dolly Dalmatian. We’re more commonly known as Leap Lamb and Caper Canine. It is not a pleasure to make your acquaintance because I’m quite sure you’re here to kill us.” She seemed upset at the notion of actually killing, which was a good thing in my book. “So can you at least tell me how many people are gunning for me tonight miss?”
“Momokase, and I am not one of the assassins or mercenaries that seem to be wandering around the city. If it is as you say and they are all trying to kill you, then it is only by luck that we are meeting here and I am one of the few that won’t kill you. That doesn’t mean I can’t cripple you and leave you to their mercies.” She said as slowly stalked towards us wielding those strange translucent blades, Dolly already looked ready to intercept and her fur was standing on end. “I am no killer or murderer, I am a thief first and foremost. My trade is in skill, precision and being able to get a job done. Which is both fortunate and most unfortunate for you, were I less talented… then my blades would have killed at some point.”
“Can you just walk away and pretend you never saw me?” The lynx just flicked a knife at me and I hopped to the right and watched as it slice through a piece of metal like it was made of nothing. “I’ll take that as a no… Caper Canine, get ready. Follow my lead, we’re going to sing our way through this.”
“Huh?” Momokase seemed confused as Dolly barked an affirmative.
I started shifting my hips and stomping out a beat, before I began running in place making my legs blur.
“Make haste, don’t waste, a moment since we have to keep dodging trouble… at a crazy pace~!” I charged and went into a slide under the knives and then I bounded off to the side as three knives struck the ground where I was and went straight up to their hilts. I landed on a garbage pile. “I’ll make do, run on through, there’s still so much more trouble tonight… that we must avoid too~!”
“What is the point of you, singing all of this, right now~?” Momokase threw one knife after another at me.
I dodge backwards, ducked down and the third knife entered something important on the portion of the rusty vehicle I was standing on, because a portion of it popped me up in the air over a mound of garbage.
“I’ll dip, duck, dodge, and dive~!” I shouted out as I looked out from behind the garbage pile and then ducked behind the pile avoiding a knife that ripped through it and Momokase nearly took Dolly’s whipping skateboard to the back of the head. “Please don’t mind the dog, we just want to stay a-live~!”
Momokase dodged and Dolly was quickly on her board and kicking it off the ground.
“What’s wrong, this song, why exactly am I singing this… I’m hoping this annoyance doesn’t last long~!” Momokase shouted as she launched some knives Dolly’s way, but she was already on her board and skidding up a pipe that was taken out in chunks by the knives behind her. “Sting like a bee, you won’t lose me, maybe a knife or two in the leg… then you’ll see~!”
“I just want to go home, is that so really so wrong, you know~?” I sang and then ducked as she slung another knife at me and that tore through everything in its path and slice a vehicle in half. I leapt onto a different trash pile and jumped again as each knife sliced through everything thing like it was hot butter, collapsing piles of garbage behind me. “Hey, watch it, with those, knives~!”
Dolly past by the garbage pile I was on to safety and I leapt down after her. I went to hide behind some of the large pieces of garbage, specifically a metal barrel. For all the good it will do me when that Lynx Momokase can just throw knives that can seemingly cut through everything.
Looking in the direction I felt Dolly to be in she was inside a derelict car wielding her skateboard, she sent a look my way and gestured. I nodded, I watched as the lynx stalked through the junkyard her shining eyes gazing around the junkyard for us and I considered actually taking the fight to her.
“You both better just come on out, because I’ll not give up because of this you see~!” Momokase sang as she looked around in the shadows while wielding her knives. “Not when I’ve got the biggest pay day coming my way~! Given its walking around right in front of me~.”
“I would just like to state that I don’t like the idea of death by mercenary~.” I sang and immediately rolled away from the barrel as Momokase flung a spinning knife my way, said knife sliced the barrel cleanly in half before the blade of the knife cut through a building girder and it nearly collapsed it on top of me.
I darted away and kept my eyes on the so called thief with ridiculous cutting blades that could possibly instantly kill us both if something went wrong.
“We’ll likely attract them given we’re belting these rhymes out as we flee~.” Dolly sang as she leapt out and down towards me coming off of a piece of metal, she flung her skateboard out to deflect the next two knives being sent my way as she passed by me.
She pulled her skateboard back in before Momokaze could hit the strap with another dexterously flung knife, the lynx looked a little bit distracted.
As we both leapt away and over a mound of sewer pipes that looked to be completely fine and yet were in this junkyard with everything else. Dolly had to bounce off several pieces of trash to get over them and I managed it in a single leap.
“Did that… dog just… actually freaking sing~?!” I heard Momokase stated in shock. “Hey wait, get back here and stop it with the annoying singing already!”
We stopped at an open space and looked up at a wrecking ball on one of the three surrounding piles, a nice open space to fight. We couldn’t leave the junkyard yet, any assault by mercenaries would have us fighting on two fronts and Momokase was proving dangerous enough already as I really didn’t want to test my wool against her blades.
Dolly got in front of me and I readied myself, Momokase likely hadn’t noticed the edges of her knives deflecting off of Dolly’s board in that last attack.
It was a little concerning that Momokase understood Dolly for a second there, might be the heart song magic.
When Momokose slashed her way through the thick pipes, they split apart in the middle letting her walk right on by them, it was really quite intimidating that building materials meant so little in the way of actually stopping her.
“What no attack, do you lack, I’m seriously waiting to see if you… find a way to fight back~!” She flicked out several knives, Dolly leapt up and knocked the blades away and one upwards to where I caught in my right hoof.
This made Momokase pause with wide eyes as I spun around and slung it back in her general direction.
I’m not an expert knife thrower, but with enough force and if my aim was true…
“Blades really flat, it’s so sharp that, it looks like they’ll cut through anything… including this annoying cat~.” Dolly sung wryly as the blade missed the lynx entirely, she sent me a look as my throw had probably looked somewhat good to her.
“Did you just seriously miss me, with that throw, just how~?” The lynx asked as the blade I threw back was nowhere close to hitting her. “It seems that… aghhh… ughhh… Mrowww~?!”
Half a rubber wheel smacked into the back of Momokase’s black and blue furred head, followed by a metal bar jabbing into the calf of her right leg bending her over and causing her to be in the right position for a heavy cardboard box to topple down on top of her head.
Not what I wanted, I wanted the bowling ball and a few different other things to hit her.
At least I knew how sharp the knives were now, that being impossibly so. She shredded the cardboard box off her head with two swings of a knife and then pulled out two blue long translucent blades while glaring at us both.
“Not fun, to run, with all this dangers after us… we could soon be undone~!” I charged forward and avoided the first two slashes by shifting back slightly. I grabbed her left claw by the wrist and launched a kick for her head. Momokase leaned back and tried to pull her left wrist out of my grasp and failed. I was tilting her left hand blade away from me and she brought her right hand blade around to slash at me. “This fight, my fright, can we please stop… and do this another night~?”
My left hind leg swung outwards and grappled to her right wrist before she could bring the blade fully onto me, her eyes widened at my flexibility. When she couldn’t move, she tried to jump and found her feet still firmly planted on the ground by me.
We were learning just exactly how dangerous it was to grapple with a fluffmancer now, at least I wasn’t on the receiving end of this.
“Come on Pom, you can do it, show some spine~!” Dolly shouted as she started skating for us. “Aw yeah~.
“Your, really, quite, tricky~!” As Momokase sang I was slinging a left hook for her face she leaned back and her right leg stomped and I pulled my head back as a knife flew by my chin going upwards, I let her go while rising my right leg to hit her in the side and she rolled out of the way. Only to receive the flat of Dolly’s board against her skull rattling her and knocking her to the ground. “Ugh, this night is not really going my way~.”
She slashed forward at Dolly and I quickly grabbed the back of the right blade, only I had to let go and roll away when she flung a knife at my face at near point blank range. She ducked under the strap swung skateboard and tried to attack Dolly’s again, I thrust my left hoof straight at her face and she blocked with both blades and was pushed back with a cracking noise.
“What the, how did you crack my blades that are made of purely thin graphene~? This stuff is supposed to be tougher than steel, or so it used to seem~!” She slashed at me and Dolly went to attack and when she attack Dolly I kicked her in the right leg almost toppling her, she threw a fan of knives at us. I moved to being behind Dolly as she hopped up and blocked two of the knives. “Why am I having so much trouble with a sheep and a dog, is this really just a dream~? The locals heroes never cause me this much trouble, even working as a team~! Why can’t… I land… just a single solid hit~!”
Momokase lunged forward bringing both her blades down towards me in an overhead swing ignoring Dolly entirely, Dolly leapt up and forward holding her skateboard horizontally in front of her. I put my hooves on the back of the board and immediately locked down my wool, both of Momokase’s blades collided with the board and both of them broke sending the upper halves of both her swords flying.
They both impaled the nearby junk piles with impressive force leave tons of cut through trash falling apart behind them.
A piece of the breaking swords cut through a wide eyed Momokase’s left cheek as she backed up and a knife came flying up from her quickly kicked left foot and it cut the strap holding Dormarch’s PET to my leg.
I quickly tried to glue the device to my wool, but it was too late as Momokase bull rushed both of us. We were both knocked over as she grabbed the PET in the middle of a stumble, before she started immediately running away from us at full tilt.
“You two are too much trouble, I’m cutting my losses here!” Momokase shouted as she threw a knife randomly at one of the piles of garbage. “Hope you two are good at cardio or you’re never catching me!”
We turned and tried to give chase, but I had to quickly throw myself on top of Dolly as the wrecking ball I noted from earlier was rolling down at us at an incredible speed.
It rolled over both our bodies and thankfully didn’t stop on top of us, because it partially crushed me into the ground. I at least made sure none of that weight went onto Dolly.
“Hopefully see you never!” Momokase threw down a smoke bomb and likely started off into the city from what I was feeling.
“Hey let me go, I don’t belong to you lady!” Dormarch whined in the distance. “You know what… activating mapping function!”
Well at least Dormarch was going to cause Momokase some trouble if I’m right about the map function being a way for mercenaries to track him.
“Darn it, she took Dormarch and she’s getting away!” Dolly was upset as she crawled out from under me when, I unlocked my wool and stood up dizzily. “We have to catch sight of her before we lose her!”
“We’re not going to lose her Dolly, or at the very least, we’re not going to lose Dormarch.” The look I received from Dolly was curious as I started moving for the nearby road in the direction Momokase was going. “I have a familiar connection to him, which means in some way he’s actually a living being.”
“Then let’s go get my little digital brother back!” Dolly moved after me on her skateboard and hopped up onto my back to point the nose of her skateboard forward as she took a seat.
I immediately galloped in the direction of where I felt Dormarch as being. As soon as I got to the road by exiting the junkyard, I threw myself to the ground. An APC launched itself upwards over our heads coming up the hill and a guy popped up out of the top of it with a rocket launcher, aiming it in the general direction I felt Dormarch as being.
Dormarch and I were right, it was the mapping function.
-Momokase-
I was climbing a building towards the roof. It seemed the device was angry with me, but why did it say it activated the map function like it was a threat?
The sheep didn’t have any way to track him if she didn’t have a second device like him, so what could possibly...
A bullet whizzed by my head as soon as I got onto the roof and I dove to take cover.
“I really hope the mercenaries don’t kill you, but you kind of deserve what’s about to happen.” The device stated to me somewhat smugly. “I also hope that you’ll hold onto me long enough for Pom and Dolly to get me back.”
Did he actually mean to say that… oh no… does this mean that all the assassins and mercenaries that were after those two now know where I was, is that what that whole map function thing the device mentioned was about?!
Well this will be a bit tricky, but I think I can still hand it off provided I was careful. I mean, it’s just snipers right?
A rocket slammed into the side of the building knocking me over and nearly making me drop the device. I leaned back and a sniper bullet passed right by where my head was, having been partially knocked out of cover. I looked over the edge of the building and saw an APC, which was some heavy military hardware that was now aiming its machine gun my way.
I darted out from cover and felt the speeding bullet pass by my spine as I leapt from the roof and a spray of bullets followed me as I landed on a different rooftop and rolled.
-Sabu Taj-
Why in the world would Leap Lamb activate the function, she had to know it would lead them right to her? Also it seemed she was heading their way.
Something stinks about this, but it wouldn’t hurt to set up a proper ambush. Apparently the Shred Treads were on the assault. Gamma team was actually not dead, but they came close when they came across Agent Forty Seven. That dog running around this city had me nervous, especially if he was after the same thing I was.
-Honey Lemon-
“Gunfire coming from near the junkyard and it seems to be heading in the general direction of… Krei Tech? Why is it always Krei Tech…” Go-Go grumbled and I smiled as the Battle Bunny Bus steered us towards the scene of the fighting by itself. “At least we’re finally testing out the… ugh… Battle Bunny Bus.”
“Hey friends, Hiro just wanted me to notify you that he, Fredmeleon and Wasabi are currently dealing with the tanks and SAM Launchers. They are going to be quite busy soon, they just want me to remind you that we need to find Leap Lamb and Caper Canine before anything happens to them.” The peppy and smiling bunny faced AI, one of whom I was best friends with, stated with gleeful cheer. It wasn’t enough to make me as cheerful, given the streets were crawling with guys armed with deadly weapons and they didn’t seem very keen to be discreet with them either. “Heading towards the disturbance now, also I have noted that public transportation is acting all kinds of weird around the city. I think someone has sabotaged various things in the general area and seems to be causing incidents throughout the city to distract us. At least emergency services are in action, but it’s starting to happen near where the scary noises are coming from.”
“Like that’s what we just need tonight, more trouble.” Go-Go may seem like a grumpy cat, but I knew she liked me and the rest of our friends. There’s no way she could really hate bunnies, because I’m a bunny too!
“We’ll find them, then I can protect that adorable doggy personally and make things up with the two heroes!” I stated bringing my both my paws together and up to my cheek. “Do you think we’ll have any problems protecting them Go-go, I mean our gear is more utility and defense than offense.”
“I don’t think the dog will need much protection...” What did Go-Go… oh… huh? I looked forward as the Bunny Battle Bus turned onto a street near the junkyard and we saw Leap Lamb and Caper Canine tearing through mercenaries, they looked to be easily dealing with them despite the guns and numerous bullets flying around them. Soon the two turned their sights to a noise and ran off into an alleyway with three guys giving chase. “What is an APC like that doing in this city?!”
Said APC was aiming it guns to a nearby rooftop and I thought I saw a panicked looking Momokase running along the roof.
“I’m going out there and following Leap Lamb, cover me from the Bunny Battle Bus and deal with things here.” I turned to our AI friend. “Ms. Shuttle, please stop… oh and use the chem-ball howitzer to disable that APC, please and thank you!”
I hopped off, checked my bandolier, my chem-purse gun and chem-boots. Once I was finished making sure my gear was ready, I snapped my boots together and was launched up onto the rooftops by a mound of pink rubber like substance erupting out of the bottom of my boots beneath me.
Once on a roof, I turned around to watch the Battle Bunny Bus produced a cannon to fire a giant chemical loaded ball that not only stopped the APC’s machine gun from working, it also covered the front half of the vehicle in a very sticky teal substance that would prevent the vehicle from going anywhere and hurting anyone.
Go-Go had that handled, I had to catch up with Leap Lamb! Another use of my chem-boots launched me forward as I hopped over several rooftops in a single bound.
-Pom-
I performed a flying bucked taking a mercenaries legs out from under them before slamming my left hoof into their helmet as they fell towards me. Dolly was taking care of another mercenary as the last one was about to fire on us, only to become encased in goo.
That's when a rather familiar costumed rabbit landed in front of us.