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Nothing in Alyssa wanted her to follow Paul back down the road.

"Leave them, we probably don't have time for this." She called after him, her frustrated tone sending malice into her words. If she knew what steroids were and had the cultural inclination to do so, she'd call him a 'roid rager, but as it was she could only say one thing, "Idiot!"

Alyssa turned on her heel and went back to the truck, the gung-ho Mr. Man could probably take care of himself, to seek out Zoidberg. Upon seeing him tinker with the truck she closed her eyes, sighed, and decided her fear of psychic pokemon could be overruled in the case of survivor instincts (she couldn't help that she wanted to run) and spoke to the creature.

"Convince him that we need to go, you must be smarter than him." She said with strain and gritted teeth.

She knew the tactics of raiders well, they would herd people into traps with fear alone, or they would come in wave after wave, relentless. Alyssa didn't know what to make of these raiders, the woman plowing through her shotgun fire shook her more than she realised; only crazy people, deluded people, could pull that off.

She had come this far avoiding the crazies, she didn't want that to stop now.

Ever a prideful creature, Djinn was affronted that Synapse could so lackadaisically evade and attack- and do so almost simultaneously. There was no fighting an opponent that could dodge everything without trying, so a different approach was required.

Ulysses was on the verge of suggesting something when he noticed a shift in Djinn's expression. Instead he waited, observing the gengar's new plan.

Djinn swooped closer, and shouted his species at the 'lightning rat' in an attempt to gain its attention. Having earned it, the purple ghost would proceed to emulate a pendulum with both eyes and first fingers with slow, almost lethargic arcs; his eyes would droop significantly, as though he were suddenly drowsy; patiently he would lure Synapse to sleep with this entrancing, surprisingly graceful little ritual.

Alyssa's eye twitched.

Zoidberg was crazy too, and he was speaking in her mind, again. In the moments it took her to reach the passenger side of the Hilux she had decided that as much as she wanted to leave these trellos she still had a better chance with them, or at least waiting for them to die, to reach her destination.

Paul could traipse a mile, die in some ambush Zoidberg didn't see coming, Zoidberg could go off and die trying to avenge him, hopefully fixing the truck before doing so, and she could either take the Hilux, the motorbike, or fade into the woods.

All in all very juvenile thoughts. She leaned in a huff on the side of the Hilux while musing over how to drive a motorbike.

It was marvelously lucky that Ramsden managed to dodge his bike around the relatively weak spray of softball-sized stones the onix produced (-1 AP), but when he opted to play chicken with a thirty-foot snake and zip around the side, that luck ran out. Said snake, agile in its form despite its tremendous size, whipped out its tail as the morsel of a human drove past, crunching the motorcycle without much effort and sending Ryan and Sparks flying headlong over the handlebars, just barely out of reach of the next sweeping tail that was throws at him. Defenseless except for a gun that had not nearly the knock-back force to save him from a combined ninety feet of pissed off boulders, all the man could do was look up while they rounded on him - and were promptly distracted by a blast of powerful water that nearly crippled two of them. Once the third had realized his intended prey was out of reach, all three turned again, now facing directly at Ramsden and, by default, Juno. All three let out a screech, the stronger one and one of the weaker again thundering their tails against the ground to produce yet another airborne avalanche in Ryan's direction (but out of Juno's range).

---

Synapse turned at the sound of Djinn's taunt and regarded him with sudden fury, electric charge building in his cheeks as he readied an attack, and then... he just kind of... "...chu?"

It took no more than a few seconds for the rhythmic, hypnotic swaying to land the creature limply on its front, fast asleep (-1 AP). The corner of Terrian's lip twitched upward briefly, before he suddenly cried out, "Synapse! Wake up, you idiot!" Sadly, an ether-induced sleep is not quite the same as a more natural one, and near impossible to wake from by a mundane source so soon after it's begun. The charge on its cheeks leapt into the earth harmlessly.

---

The stronger of the downed foes, on his knees, was foolish, or desperate. He scrambled for his weapon, and was soon either incapacitated or killed by Paul's well-aimed shot. The other winced, but was in no position to try anything, and merely raised his arms a few inches off the pavement, making an effort to show them palms-out. His knees were bent at an odd angle, and he made small, constant gasping noises from the pain of his mangled legs.

Between the sudden downshift of Synapse's signature, the odd looking pose of the Djinn some ways in front of him, and Terrian's comment Roger didn't need to turn around and see that the raichu had become vulnerable. Instinctively he began switching around charges and rerouting them, but he was weary to throw away the old plan so quickly, he hesitated. From the sidelines Maddy half shouted "Plan B!" Before the letter finished resonating in her throat the grass and dirt surrounding Roger for ten feet out compacted itself in a pattern of interconnected circles and took on a blue glow. Less than a second later the ground was as bright as the sky and the grid erupted lightning skywards, consuming the circle and all those on or above it in electric energy. The discharge lasted several seconds and faded quickly, leaving the circuit pattern smoldering in the ground.

A direct attack might have done more damage, and would have cost less, but Roger would have had to dismantle the magnetic conduits he'd laid to capture Synapse's attack. That would take time and there's no telling how long the rat would be down, with any luck this attack would leave it numb even after it wakes up, then Djinn could get in a solid shot. Or five.

Paul had paused at the foolish one's motion and double-tapped him - one round through the lower chest, one through the upper. He fell and very likely stopped breathing; Paul didn't much care. The live and kicking casualty was far more interesting. Now within thirty meters, Paul could easily keep the sight on the downed man with the movement sway. As he approached, he also watched for plundering-worthy stuff, not intending to walk away from this at a disadvantage.

"Now as you can see," he told the man, "I'm not afraid to kill a person. I'm also not afraid to hurt them, so keep that in mind. I'd very much like to know who you are, what you want from us, and how you knew who and where we were." Better dead than in the wrong hands. They hadn't know him but they'd known the girl, and they'd known enough to call his hands the wrong hands. So they knew something about Dido, and they knew who Paul wasn't, and Paul intended to find out how they knew.

If they'd known, then, it was also no coincidence that they'd been found. Probably. Chances happened, but Paul was inclined to believe they'd been hunted down. At least the foe hadn't actually been prepared to deal with the force they were up against.

Toby glanced frantically left and right, his brain frantically trying to sort out the facts, the images, and the fear to develop a plan of action. The only thing he knew for sure was that he couldn't stay where he was. He took one last reflexive look at the sidecar as he thought of it, and saw Ramsden's bag stuffed into the tip of it, with the few loose items around it. With Juno holding onto Ramsden for the whole trip, he had stowed it there, and Toby had placed his feet awkwardly around it for the whole journey. I'm sorry, really... Toby grabbed the bag, opened it without stopping to see what was already inside, and started grabbing supplies to toss in. If you live, I'll give it back, promise.

He was haphazardly shoveling the boxes and packets the group had placed there for quick access when he heard a voice behind him, and felt a hand on his shoulder that made him jump and hit is head on the sidecar: "Hey. Glad you're OK." He turned and through his wince of pain saw Juno, which was pretty much better than he could have wished for. He told her they needed to move away at the same time she told him, and he worked the pack closed over the few things he could stuff inside... Ramsden didn't pack light, there was reason supplies were in the sidecar for quick access. Juno pointed out some trees a ways away where they could duck down and make their next move, and they took off, Tobias slipping under the weight of Ramsden's pack before he eased into a stance and pace. They circled a boulder to break line of sight with the battle, and just as they couldn't see what was going on anymore they heard the loud crack of a firearm, and then another, and a third at a higher pitch - Tobias couldn't speak for Juno, but he knew he was glad he didn't know who shot whom, and what happened immediately after.

Aaron Cummings, Battlefield

Aaron focused all of his attention to listening to the battle and as it progressed, he noticed something strange. Dr. Terrian did not seem to be making any audible cues to his raichu whatsoever. In fact, the rodent seemed to be acting in a similar manner to its elusive master, almost dancing through reality as if it had no bearing on it at all. That was when he decided to test his theory. If Terrian was controlling his pokémon psychically, perhaps distracting him would allow Aaron's cohorts the time to defeat it. As the battle progressed, Aaron skirted a wide circle around the battlefield. He could not tell if anyone saw him, but he hoped he could at least get to Terrian before anyone noticed his actions.

He was approximately three fourths of the way there when the electrical discharge from Roger's attack knocked him over. Aaron was not sure which side the attack came from and, panicking now, he scrambled back to his feet and began to run at Terrian whilst waving his arms wildly. This is never a good idea for someone who cannot see the terrain and after a few seconds, Aaron tripped on a rock and face-planted into the dirt. Slightly dazed, he managed to lift his head and yell from his prone position.

"Hey, Terrian!!" he yelled, "What is your name?!"