Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Indeed. But there is my character's mind set for you. He refers to everyone under the age of 21 as kids. To a person like him, who has never really had much of a childhood, they are.))

The three had been walking for a while when they came to the cave.
"Let's not go in," whispered Kevyn
"Why," asked Keerah, then she felt it too. She turned and gave Kevyn a look. We're being followed, aren't we? She said in thought.
Right, only let's tell Kooh too and not just keep this to ourselves, replyed Kevyn.
"Right," whispered Keerah, "sorry about that. Kooh, we need to be tricky. We think someone is following us."
"I suggest we split up and come back here," whispered Kevyn, "Whoever it is can't follow all three of us and one of us might have a chance of losing them. Sound like a plan?"

Aly stared out of the window. She saw grass. Corn. Trees. More grass. More corn. Oh look, a cow!
She watched the cow with interest until it was out of sight, then sank back down in her seat again.
Mirie gave her an apologetic smile in the mirror. "Ah know, Aly, but we're almost there. Just a few miles and we cross into Arkansas!"
Aly said nothing.
They were in and out of what used to be their apartment in only a few minutes. They knew they had limited time. Somehow, the government had found them. They didn't know how, but what they did know was that if they continued to leave a body trail they would be found very quickly.
So Mirie bought plane tickets for both of them to New York and then quietly bought a rusted junker from a shady dealer. She knew that as far as he was concerned, the transaction had never happened; he probably stood to lose a whole lot more than she did if anyone knew they had purchased a car from him. As it was, Mirie had had to stop five times already at the side of the road with her toolkit to repair the badly damaged car.
And now they were on the road to Arkansas, the feds hopefully following a false trail to New York.
Mirie whistled tunelessly as they drove towards the Mississippi River. Aly continued to stare out the window, clutching their bags. She had refused to put them in the trunk. They served as a kind of substitute stuffed animal for her.
Mirie grinned when she saw the vast expanse of water. She gestured expansively toward the Mississippi as they drove down. "See, we're almo-"
BOOM!
The car jerked forward, its back right side blown out by some kind of explosive. Aly screamed as the noise came again, Mirie's eyes opened wide in shock, the car flipped and tumbled like a child rolling down a hill, Aly felt herself being grabbed and ripped out of her seatbelt, she shut her eyes tight-
The shock of cold water made the child gasp, losing her last breath. Clawing and kicking, she fought her way to the surface.
The car was sinking. Their luggage was floating, and she made a grab for all three pieces to bring them under her control. As her senses returned, she realized it was Mirie who held her around her middle and was expertly keeping both of them afloat as she shouted instructions.
"...so just hold ya breath and do what Ah told ya, like last time, okay?"
Aly nodded, shivering. She knew what came next.
Mirie shucked off her pants and shoes and dove under the water. Surrounded by her element, she could concentrate on the transformation.
Dark green pebble-like scales, interspersed with blue, encased her legs, starting at her hips and spreading towards her feet. Her feet were no longer feet: they had merged into a powerful fin that could propel her through the water. She felt her second eyelids start to grow, protecting her eyes from underwater debris while enabling her to see. Finally, her headfins quivered as the three thin scars on either side of her neck developed into gills and she took her first gillful of clean, refreshing water.
And would have coughed, if she'd known how to with gills. This was the Mississippi. It carried the silt of thousands of streams, from Illinois to Louisiana. It could be called a lot of things, but 'clean' was not one of them.
Mirie surfaced and looked at Aly; the whole transformation had taken no longer than four seconds.
"Ready?" she asked, and Aly nodded.
Mirie put her mouth under the surface and began blowing. Soon a silvery bubble bigger than a grocery bag had appeared. Carefully, Mirie slipped her hand up to pinch the bubble off and then placed it over Aly's head.
Aly immediately felt better. This was one of the better parts of going underwater with Mirie. They'd discovered the Rebreathable Bubble (for lack of a better term) the last time they had gone underwater, to sink all those ships-
A shot zinged into the water by them.
"Quick," urged Mirie, darting glances at the shore. "Onto mah back."
Aly did as she was told, putting the luggage into the space between her body and Mirie's. The more streamlined, the better.
With a splash of tail and a sparkle of fin, they disappeared under the water, leaving an entirely frustrated team of User-killers on the banks of the largest river in the United States.

((I am so sorry for my delays in posting on this thread. I'm currently working 12 hours a day, but I should have a break some time soon. As soon as I can, I will make my post. Sorry for the inconvenience sad )

((I am back and ready to role play biggrin biggrin .................at least when everyone else is ready too. sweatdrop ))

((Where did everyone else go))

((I apologize for the length of this post. I have major writer's block this morning.))

Sesar 'looked' at the User for a long moment of silence. His fingers flexed and unflexed over the surface of the eight ball. His entire body was tense. So was his mind. Dammit, what was he supposed to do? He couldn't trust this man. He had just met him, and he knew that there were Users working under government jurisdiction.

All the same... if he fought now, all three of them would be in danger. There were cops at the front of the store. If they drew attention to themselves, they were done for.

His hand dropped to his side, and Sesar took a short breath. Behind him, he could sense Jeremy crouched around the corner, a large piece of metal in his hands. He was listening to what the stranger was saying, and ready to ambush him. Desi was still curled up behind the wall.

"What do you want to talk about? Sesar inquired. He was only speaking in questions, at least until he found out more about this man.

Just to be safe, he leaned against the store's wall, allowing his hands to press against the cool stone.