Kneel in Pieces [Battle Thread]

Nightmare of nightmares, their enemies had caught up.

All Prince Christopher wanted to do was to find the Enchanted Suns. The itemized list—a list as neat as the Grand Duke had tutored him to construct in boyhood—of the duties he must fulfill before he could find Cinderella had just begun to shrink. For the first time since his kingdom fell. Item one; his people were no longer traveling like nomads. The fifty or so peasants had found lodgings, either in haylofts, the homes of generous Nottingham citizens, or the Snuggly Duckling tavern hosted by Master Robin Hood. None in the town knew of their collective identity. They should have been safe, and the Prince had been ready to move on to Item two: contacting the Enchanted Suns and hopefully his missing father.

But now, but now...

How had they found him? Why should the Thorns care about only fifty free people?

Christopher wasn’t sure if the pounding in his head came from the urgent hooves of his horse, or his body choosing now to relive the horrors of the palace siege, the blow that had kept him from saving his wife...

And it didn’t matter. No headache, or post-traumatic stress, could keep the young monarch from trying to salvage his people. Horror and rage covered his handsome face. He threw his own steed into the path of the giant brute, Shan Yu’s. As any King should, Christopher placed himself between the villain and the people he’d nearly trampled, as well as the fire-colored dog who had tried to help. With his blade up, and knightly fury in his eyes, none could have seen the bedraggled and cloaked man as anything but the Prince he was.

“Coward! Monster!” Cried the Prince, slashing his sword over the head of the enemy horse to get at it’s rider. “You would attack innocents?”

Colleen couldn’t help the yelp that escaped her as the brute pulled his horse up to strike. She hadn’t rolled far enough—he’d cut her and the child in two—

But then a man was there, clothed in rags but sitting upon a horse who was quite as naked as Shan Yu’s dark brute. Colleen didn’t waste a moment. She snapped quickly out of her terror and dragged the the little girl in peasant rags up. Her eyes were locked on the long legs of the hooved animals, nearly on top of them. Swords. She hadn’t seen a duel since she’d first traveled from Lambsley and had never imagined their clanging and the banter of their wielders to sound so shockingly personal.

The schoolteacher took two quick steps back and tried to tow the little human with her, but the poor thing was frantically reaching for her parents. Three adults were huddled on the other side of the white horse, too stunned by the battle to try and edge around it’s stamping hooves. Colleen was bewildered, herself. Her mind, quick to absorb facts, was registering the words of the villain. Kingdom? What—which kingdom? One that had called to the Thorns, of course.

The dog’s thoughts found comfort in the familiar flipping through her store of knowledge on the Merged Worlds, even in the midst of an emergency like this. Broken and confused, they skipped over a mental picture of the map she’d made. Paris? City, not kingdom. China? That man may be brunette, but this girl is not like that breed of human. Where else...?

The mother and father of the child had managed to dart around the Prince’s steed, and Colleen was startled back to the present. They were clinging to one another, but not moving. True to her herding genes, the collie slipped between them and the horses again and started to edge them back, but was distracted. Where should they go? Where was safe? Should she stay and help fight this yellow-eyed oaf...somehow?

"Smish!"

This was, admittedly... not strictly Six-Two-Four's area of expertise. While she could cause trouble just as well as the next experiment - if not better than, since she was more deliberate about it than just the 'chaos incarnate' that so many of the so-called cousins were - she also hadn't been built with catastrophic rampages in mind. That was the territory of Six-Two-Six (as well as some of his direct prototypes such as Six-Two-One, and apparently that new Leroy too), whereas she was much more a failsafe device, designed to intervene should something start to corrupt Jumba or his experiments to 'good'. She could kick ass as well as the next person, and was definitely durable, but if utter mayhem wasn't exactly what she'd been built for...

Well, she was a fast learner.

The drawback, perhaps, was that Jumba had never designed his experiments to be killers. Troublemakers, sure; but while the strongest could break a human in half easily, the mad scientist tended to much prefer for his designs to deliberately make life miserable for as many people as possible, rather than ending said lives. The warmaster here, however, was in contrast far more interested in the latter than the former.

But it didn't exactly take a genius intellect to adapt to that change.

Besides, she'd been given a specific task. Pulling down beasts seemed as simple as anything, and the ironically-named Angel's gaze danced across the animal that Shan Yu had indicated. The pink thing's head lowered as she bounded forward on all fours, leaping to ram the mule with every intention of tipping it over with that single hit and spilling its passengers across the cobbled streets.

The unfortunate animal, however, was sturdier than it appeared. Angel's strength, while not insignificant, wasn't a rival for that of Six-Two-Six, or other more destruction-oriented cousins; and though the mule certainly staggered as the pink gremlin crashed into its side, it didn't topple the way Angel had intended. Nonetheless, the man loading the animal hastened to try and shoo her away from it.

Just let him try.

"Try ikata meega!"

Her shrill purr of the words sat distinctly at odds with her confident body language; and when the man tried to swat at her with what looked like a walking stick, Angel easily captured the thing in her clawed grasp and wrenched it out of his hands. Watching the man's expression go from desperation to horror as he realised her strength was only just shy of priceless, and the pink thing tittered as she watched it.

The commotion behind her, as Shan Yu tangled with some other guy on a horse, wasn't any of her business. She had her own little scuffle here, and she intended to see it through, in whatever form that took.

Of course, it was just as likely that one of her allies may have got to the mule before she could; but either way, Angel was too committed to turn back to help her commander... not that she imagined he'd need it, anyway.



Translations:
Smish! = Got it!
Try ikata meega! = Try and get me!

None of this was what Denahi felt he’d signed up for.

First of all, he hated travel. The brunette could remember griping until even Sitka would lose his mastered temper every time the three hunters had to follow a herd migration. He’d done hardly anything but travel around the Merged Worlds, largely looking for these ‘refugees’ Shan Yu kept talking about, since joining the Thorns. Kenai would’ve loved it. New sights, new stuff to mess up. But Kenai wasn’t here, and furthermore, riding on a ‘horse’ the entire time was about as comfortable as sitting on a boulder during an earthquake.

Denahi also hated listening to the orders of the fur-clad man. He was beast-like. He was cruel, in a way Denahi had only expected bears and sabers could be. But being told what to do—that was the one thing the wolf-toting hunter was glad for. It was why he was here; the Spirits had guided him to this army. This army promised to fill the desperation for revenge currently sapping every other emotion from Denahi’s soul. And every time the Inuit wondered if he was doing the right thing, he two memories stabbed into his mind like the point of his spear.

The first, Kenai’s last words. A man wouldn’t just sit here and do nothing!

And that was exactly what he’d been doing during the second: huddled, alone and lost, on a mountaintop with no guidance.

Bouncing aboard his steed as he followed his Bishop, the dark boy’s mustache stiffened into a straight line. Couldn’t say that anymore. He was being guided—ordered—to take out the Thorns’ enemies. Any uneasiness he felt about hunting human beings the same way he used to track down caribou had to be shaken off.

Denahi’s horse screamed and skidded to a halt, narrowly avoiding running into Shan Yu’s. His leader had stopped—someone was fighting back. Under the dulling blanket of grief and rage that had permanently covered Denahi’s heart, he felt the faint throb of relief. At least this guy was armed, unlike their very ragged targets. He gritted his teeth and tugged the reigns of his horse to the left, spear raised. Hopefully he could swing around Shan Yu and help get rid of this enemy...

The fierce expression dropped. Now he could see why Shan Yu had set off on a charge in this direction, and who their opponent was defending. A little girl, and two parents, all pale like most of these ghostly people of the Merged Worlds. The skins they wore were thin and ragged. They were lean. They were terrified.

For a moment, Denahi’s expression was that of an open-mouthed boy, horrified at having to skin his first salmon.

Sitka...is this what I’m supposed to do? How can I—

His prayer was interrupted. One of the figures was not human. A beast, an animal. A type of dog. She was trying to protect the refugees. Denahi shut his eyes and forced himself to see her as the monster, the bear who killed his brothers, when they reopened. He could do this part of his job. He could spear her without remorse, and since Shan Yu seemed to be winning, maybe that would be all he had to do. Their victims were panicked and taken by surprise. Maybe this nightmare would all be over before he had to do anything—confusing.

“Hyaa!” Cried the Inuit, digging his moccasins into the flanks of his horse and trotting around the locked scuffle of the men. He threw his spear, aiming for the red-and-white dog’s leg on instinct (and forcing himself not to think of what would happen if he hit the little girl instead.) Wounded animals couldn’t run.

"That is not going to work."

Cassandra hadn't meant to end up in Nottingham, but during her second expedition with Audrey one thing had lead to another and they somehow found themselves in the small village. And then it ended up being attacked by the Thorns. So it had been an interesting day overall. But Cass was grateful she decided to show up in her armor today, and with a full pack of medical supplies just in case her friend shot herself in the shoulder again.

Serendipity all around.

When the Hun had shown up, chaos erupted and all Cass could do was duck behind a small cottage. Better to keep herself hidden and get her bearings before charging in with the Sun's symbol blazing on her chest. But the Suns didn't seem to be the target of this attack. It looked more like the refugees were taking center stage here. Which only served to make Cass angrier. The only other people on her side she could see was the Collie school teacher, and maybe a few others scattered around. But the dark-haired maiden wasn't going to let this place go down without a fight.

Her grey eyes surveyed the village and she saw the same schoolteacher being chased down by a soldier on a horse. That was not good. And while Colleen made a pretty good stand with those books, being surrounded by civilians was not the most helpful either. And neither was banging down a door trying to seek refuge. They were wasting time.

The Guard Captain's daughter took a deep breath before tearing into the fray. After she made her presence known, the maiden stood in front of the Zootopian, her sword drawn. It seemed that the soldier on horseback wouldn't go down without a fight. "You'll be hard pressed to find someone to open their doors right now," Cass started her grey eyes glancing around the town. The only place she could think of that was safe was maybe the Snuggly Duckling. She had heard stories from her father that it was said that secret tunnels existed underneath to shuffle criminals in and out. She didn't know if it was true but if it was...

"I don't think it would be safe in there anyway. There's not much to protect them inside. The safest thing to do is get the kids out of town," Cass, added, her gaze landing on Denahi. "And I don't know how we're going to do that."

    The air had become most decidedly...unhealthy with the arrival of the Hun and his band of Thorn solders. The black haired engineer had ducked behind the same cottage alongside her friend when Chaos broke out. Her back pressed against the cool wall and under the thatched eve. She had intended on finishing the survey so that the track gangs, which had already started outside Arendelle and begun to work their way east would have a grade to follow. She rolled her eyes and grimaced. How on earth was she expected to work in these conditions? At least with Rourke she knew when the fecal matter was going to hit the fan.

    “Just a little walk in the wood, just a little bit of map-making...wasn't expecting this mess. Eh, Cass...” Audrey looked back to see the armor clad guard bolt out into the street.
    “Oh, por el amor de Dios..." She hissed. Dropping her pack to the ground, she kicked it under a nearby overturned barrel where it and their surveying tools could be kept safe. Her heart was racing and her palms felt damp as she reached into her overalls and pulled out a pistol. One with a proper trigger guard this time, less her shoulder which was still rather sore remind her of that. While her weapon may have been more advanced then Cassandra's blade, Audrey had no where near the quality of training as her friend. She popped the chamber open and quickly slipped a few cartridges in, then snapped it shut.

    "Hold on Cass, don't go too loco without me!" The engineer darted out from her hiding spot and followed Cass's dust down the street.

    Immediately she found herself in the line of sight of the horse bound rider, blades drawn on behalf of her friend to protect the furry canine and their company from the present danger. Her boots pounded the earth and she felt her hat fall off her head as she pushed past one of Nottingham's populace who was going the other way in an attempt to be anywhere but where they were. She was on the other side of the street from Cass, Colleen, and those gathered under their protection. Suddenly, feeling very helpless as even with her firearm she stood exposed, watching the blue clothed horseman plow on.