A-V R1P4: Off to a Rocky Start

Horrendously painful tingles greeted Azure as she drifted back into consciousness. She clenched her jaw, willing the feeling to go away and tried to shift positions. Jagged edges dug into her side, forcing her into wakefulness. A strange crustiness caused the Podekusai to groggily glance down her form, and the sight of drying blood made her recall the situation.

"He blew me up," she remembered, scowling. Azure's fists clenched and she quickly, if clumsily, struggled to an upright position. She felt about for her polearm, drawing it closer to her just in case before checking herself over.

Of what shrapnel had flown at her, her armor seemed to have caught most of it. Dents patterned the pauldrons, and in more than one place pieces of twisted metal peeked from between the links of her mail. Azure glared at them moodily, wincing as she yanked each one out in turn with her fingers, massaging the tips to rid them of the strange feeling before going to the next.

Luckily for Azure, only two shards had found a route to her flesh and had punctured the skin. Most of the blood seemed to be welling only out of minor cuts acquired from her tumble due to the explosion rather than from the grenade itself. Azure shuddered in relief as the last of the metal was removed, chucking it disdainfully into the brush. "And good riddance."

Her attention now shifted to the initial problem: Xander. Azure hadn't seen him since she had awoken, and she wasn't sure whether that was a good or a bad thing. With a heave and a wince, Azure righted herself and peeked out from behind her sheltering tree.

The crater marking the impact site of the grenade glared at her from a couple of meters away. Azure glared back before craning her neck to the check the damage she had left on the cliff. Her tail flicked with satisfaction.

There was a deep crevice running up the face of the stone, growing wider the higher it wound. Rocks began to pile up about halfway down, messily placed on top of one another in a mismatched collection. However, at the very bottom, the slightest glint of metal amidst the chaos hinted at the captive within.

Triumphant colors gleamed as they snaked out, searching for Xander's off-white. Azure found the colors, duller than usual and a bit patchy, and she realized that he was unconscious. Alive, but unconscious.

Giving the crater a wide berth, the Podekusai slithered out of the cover of foliage and quickly crossed the brief open space to the pile of rocks that hid her opponent. Azure stopped beside it, tapping the pile lightly with her tail to make sure it wasn't about to fall on her. It wasn't.

Satisfied, the Gladiator began the hard work of digging him out. Had the SCAR been made of anything but metal, it would have been much easier, but Azure had already had her fill of metal for one day and took extra precautions.

Her head was beginning to ache, a mixture of stress and the previous effort of bringing the cliff down, but she forced herself to use her stone manipulation a few last times. First was the easy part, breaking up all the rocks in front of her. Azure gave the large ones a good whack of her fist or tail and they obediently shattered into little more than pebbles, scattering on the earth beside her.

But, once that was done, the chore of getting the SCAR out of there became more of a problem. Azure stayed put for a moment, tapping her fingers together in thought before settling on a plan. She glared at the unconscious Xander, as if doing so would change the make up of his armor, but finally she got to work.

Azure dug through the smaller stones with her tail, pushing them out of the way and flinching whenever a sharpened point dug into a sensitive spot. Finally she got more of a view of the Red Grizzly.

It seemed he had fallen forward, exposing his back rather than his front. But it seemed that would make matters easier. A small crease could be traced up and down the back of the SCAR; Azure guessed correctly that it had to be where the pilot was admitted.

"Looks like I won't have to dig you out after all," Azure told him telepathically with relief. She brought her polearm up and tried to slide the blade into the slit to pry it open. The opening was too small.

The Podekusai, however, was already at the end of her patience. With her half of a mane rattling angrily, she began to slam the butt of the weapon into the metal, the air humming with the violent vibrations. Although it didn't seem at first to be making much of an impact, the more that Azure worked the more obvious it was that a dent was forming next to the opening, creating a little handhold.

Or, in her case, a polearm-blade-hold.

Azure slammed her axe once more into the slit. The blade struggled, but finally was granted admittance, and she quickly began to lever the back open.

Once she had finally gotten the weapon in place, it was easy. It only took a few heaves before the door flung open. And there was Xander, unconscious form slumped against the side. Or, maybe, slumped wasn't the right word. Both the front and the back of the SCAR had caved in, squishing him between them. Even without full sight, Azure could tell he was far from unharmed. An arm was bent at several odd angles, and his chest looked painfully smashed as well a leg, all on the right side.

"But that's none of your concern, is it?" Azure reminded herself. The Podekusai grimly continued, tail reaching forward to grip the man about his waist. She began to lift, but a piece of metal blocked the way of his head. She flicked at it irritably, tingles running up her arm, but it wouldn't budge. Instead she had to maneuver his head out of the way, a task that took frustratingly long. It was as if he was attached to the machine itself, the way he stuck to it.

Nonetheless, Azure finally got him free. She plopped him roughly onto the ground and squinted, searching with colorblind eyes for the tattoo. Not an easy task.

Finally she spied a smudge through a tear in his shirt. With colors practically bursting with relief, Azure proceeded to rip his shirt off. She recalled too late, a scrap of fabric in each hand, that humans disliked removing their clothes in public. …Oh well.

The tattoo, about the size of a human palm, was on Xander's chest. "Was" being the key word. Though her polearm isn't even close to being the most delicate and precise of blades, it was a blade nevertheless and with a bit of luck she managed to remove the inked symbol without leaving behind too much unnecessary. scaring. Probably.

The Podekusai took the skin in hand and quickly wandered back into the trees. During their aerial battle, she had spied in the distance something that appeared to be the ruins described by the round's objectives. And, with only a short trip, she ended up at its doorstep.

Azure slithered in, paying no attention to the surroundings, the craving of victory taking precedence over sight seeing. She made her way down the winding, nondescript halls to a strange door marked by a tattoo identical to hers and Xander's. And, with a quick glance, she confirmed that she needed two tattoos.

With one last roll of her eyes in disbelief at her next action, Azure glanced down at her tail. There it was, that hideous thing that started it all. Her eyes narrowed. "By Maroon the Eldest's mane, I hate tattoos."

Her polearm whipped up and, before she could convince herself against what had to be done, she swiftly swiped downward and severed the mark from her skin. Azure's eyes screwed shut as fresh blood welled out of the wound, and many colorful curses lit up in her mind.

Moodily Azure stormed the last few feet to the door, leaving a trail of blood behind her, and slapped the scraps of skin against each sensor. The air hummed with a pleasant vibration that seemed to signal a valid offering, and the storage doors shot open.

The Podekusai glared at the technology as she passed, venting all of her anger in one infuriated look. She crowded herself into a painfully small escape pod (she'd bet her tail it was made so just to piss her off) and the doors slammed shut. One thought was prominent in Azure's mind.

"Damn tattoo. Damn Zelians. Damn Games."