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Crim` gazed to the area that Kata gestured towards. He narrowed his eyes, a curious expression on his face. "What is that...?" he asked in a whisper , lowering himself a bit more.

Little did the two know they were being watched ever since entering the forest. A mysterious entity observed through cold optics, ruby beacons flashed as an arm rose, a small sound resembling that of a silenced pistol was heard from the bushes and in a split second a small object flew at the tree that the pinkhaired man had just vaulted off of. The object was a tan color and seemed like a sort of clay; due to it's material it stuck to the tree's trunk about 7 feet off the ground upon colliding with it. The one thing about the otherwise bland object that stood out was the blinking red light seemingly implanted in it, the blinking interval quickening by the second.

Suddenly...

Boom!

A powerful explosion would ignite the area in a flash and sever the tree from it's trunk.

Crim` jumped back away from the tree, taking a defensive stance as he tried desperately to look through the falling debris of the tree and the remnants of smoke from the explosion. He quickly reached into his jacket with his right hand, drawing his combat knife from it's hidden sheathe and then quickly dashed to another nearby tree, pulling himself around it and dropping to a bent knee with his back to it.

"Yeah... It's using incindiary weapons and there's a good chance it's got guns... Take cover and stay low."

Who was it? Thoughts raced through Crim's mind of any possible adversary he had run across in his many adventures. Offending dangerous people was something he had a knack for; Though this was not a skill he was proud of.

Silence came from the direction of the mysterious being, no signs of life. Had it fled?

Meanwhile, Seven was still on the third floor. He heard something from the forest and had his attention drawn away from his explorations. He could either continue, or go check out the exploding things. Not much of a choice.

He turned back to the rubble and reached for his magnifying glass. He walked to an area that his duckies seemed to be delibrately avoiding. There was a small clear puddle in the midst of a pile of metal. It was odd, the debris here was almost a perfect circle, as if the liquid was delibrate.

Seven reached out to grab a piece of wood to prod the puddle. It almost instantaneously combusted. Intrigued, and shaking his hand violently to put out the fire that had caught his glove, he found something else to play with. He pulled a metal pole out of the liquid and promptly dropped it into his left hand. It was hot, despite only being half submerged. The half that had been submerged was pressed against the ground, and it bent easily, molten metal dripping onto the floor.

Deduction time: Liquid heat, causes spontaneous wood combustion; Delibrately pooled over a metal floor/cieling; Metal melts, but is still holding rather nicely; Explosion in the woods.

"Oh sheet! We're under attack!" As many know, he too was once on Bizzaro Team Obvious. And with that, he runs down to the second floor yelling.

Luckily, gun shots make alot of noise in the bush, especially to an attentive catgirl, and Kat quickly lay flat on her stomach behind the cover of the tree, one of the bullets just grazing through her hair.

"Damnit Crim!" She yelled out, "Stop being right!" At least now she had an idea where it was. She slide her hand and her gun over the top of the tree trunk and, gun laying flat against the tree, fired a quick shot in the direction she thought the shots had come from.

She quickly pulled her arm back down and crawled along the length of the tree on her elbows, until she was in the area where the tree thinned out into branches. There, peeking out amongst the leaves, she fired several more shots out where she thought she'd heard the machine before, then quickly slide back towards the trunk. No use letting the machine find her the same way she found it, she thought as she peered out a gap left in the branches.

Audible echoes of the collission of Kata's bullets and the assailants reinforced exoskeleton filled the air of the forest as Kata's bullets bounced off of the well-defended foe. Mere dents were the only effect left by even Kata's high-caliber ammunition. The attacker ejected a cartridge, reloading with a long magazine and cocking back the hammer of the large gun it wielded. It then raised it's other arm as it lowered the main weapon. A cuff surrounding it's wrist would soon transform, a short-barreled machinegun flipping into it's gloved hand from under it's forearm.



Crim` slid the throwing knife he had just drawn back into his belt sheath.

That won't work.

He moved around the tree, diving along the ground and landing in a slide near Kata.

"I really don't feel like playing around with someting like this now. Whatever that thing is normal attacks won't work but everything has a weakpoint... Look for it." said Crim` laying on the ground close to Kat, staying low so the attacker wouldn't know he'd moved. "I know you're good enough to do it. Toss me a gun, I'll cause a distraction and it should give you enough time to look for it's vital spot and hit it..."

Kat handed her gun to Crim, and pulled a second magnum from her bra.

"Don't get yourself killed." She whispered. "And don't break that gun."

She peered out of the gap left in the branches to where she thought the machine was. The dying light made harder to see, even for her sharp eyes. It took her several seconds to find the grey blur that was the machine. However, even as she stared at it, she realized this wasn't going to work. She was no mechanic, and in this bad light she'd be lucky to spot a thing.

She reached out and grabbed Crim's arm before he could do anything. "Change of plans." She whispered. "YOU hit the weakpoint, I'll fix the lighting."

Covering her fire ring with her right hand to hide the glow, she concentrated on the area the machine was hidden. It took more effort than normal for her, since generally she summoned her fire a little closer. However, within a few seconds, the bushes surrounding the creature were completely ablaze, revealing it clearly against the flames. She quickly snatched up her gun again and crouched to the gap. She hoped Crim could find it's weakpoint, but if he failed, maybe she'd have a better chance with the better light.

Between the fire, the jump, and the machine gun, Seven now knew where everyone was. At least in general. The creature looked strange, but from Seven's viewpoint all he knew was Crim shot it and now there was blood. There was a chance it was Crim's but it was about time to join this battle anyway.

He took a second knife from his belt, three left, and was suddenly diving headfirst at the creature. Well, actually, knives first. If this thing didn't move, he'd be hitting it with a lot of force. Even if the knives didn't penetrate the exoskelleton, it would have some effect. Like breaking Seven's arms.

Well this was certainly a stupid idea.

An ambush attack from an unknown attacker was soon upon the creature. Seven's knives would bounce off of the creature's tough exoskeleton armor like nothing but in the end Seven's momentum did cause the creature to budge a bit, knocking it forward, off balance and toward Kata long enough to be easily overtaken by her firey close-range attack.

The creature jerked back soon after, the intense blast of fire heating it's metallic components to a high degree suddenly. It would stop firing, swinging it's arms outward madly to try and swat Kata and Seven away and then it would leap backward about 15 feet away from the trunk. Two small compartments at the sides of it's torso would open followed by four small marble-like objects hitting the ground surrounding it. A thick smoke would soon emit from the round objects, filling the air surrounding the creature quickly.

When the smoke would clear, the creature would be gone as if it had dissappeared into thin air, the only remnants would be it's clawmarks in nearby trees. The trail would soon be lost to anyone who would track it.

Crim` looked upward, his hair falling over his eyes slightly as he lay on his stomach and still clutched his wound. "She did it." he whispered, his voice weak.