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Bullet curled into herself as strange images passed behind her eyes. Am I dreaming? she thought to herself. No, she couldn't be. She moved to the water and lapped at it. Her eyes looked to Frost and she relaxed a bit more. The wolf seemed to be on her way to recovery. "Well looked like we will be calling this place home for awhile." she said with a dry humor. Bullet had not wanted to stay here long, she wanted to see if there was other places that had recovered like this. She took in the wonderful site as she looked around, she took a deep breath of the grassy fields.

Her body froze as she held still. Someone else was here. Ember and herself would not be able to hide easily here, also they couldn't leave Frost out in the open. Bullet slunk over to the unconscious Frost and started kicking sand over her. They could hurt the wolf if they tried to move her, better try to mask her scent then. Once she felt enough sand and dirt covered the wolf she rolled around in the sand and slunk into the tall grass. From an aerial view Bullet would be visible, but the grass grew higher than her form so she would be close to invisible until nearly next to someone. She moved around trying to find the new scent again but was having no luck.

Ember froze when the images past by behind her eyes, she wasn't used to seeing things like this but pushed them away as her blood erupted on her back and went on full alert. She growled as a thing of thorns exploded in front of her she quickly jumped back from it and then the smoke was the thing that scared her the most as she could not longer see or smell. She relaxed the blood in her back back over her fur as her world if smell vanished from her, the inky thing she could rely on was her hearing. She listened for the blood pumping in the others around her, and one was pumping irregularly, a sign that it was hurt.

Ember followed that sound until her nose poked into a torn bush that was surrounding Scarlett. "Stay still I'll get you out." She quickly said as her eyes slowly began to open and she could just barely see in front of her. She went down the the base of the problem and tried biting at it, but thorns threatened to peirce into her mouths soft skin. Growling she tried to think if something to get the wolf out, but didn't want to resort to her blood pelt again, it took too much energy out of her.

Ugh, goddamn, Sno-cone was heavy. Marta grumbled to herself, unused to the physical labor. She had decided to skirt the edges of the tall mountainous plateau, using the rocky ground as additional covering rather then risking being seen easily on the open wasteland. Her explorations were rewarded when she found a fairly deep cave and gratefully took her chance, but not before making a confusing trail of her scent all around the area, then rubbing herself in dirt much to her dismay to further clear the foul stench from her coat. She was already in a dangerous black mood from the smell and now the dirt all over her fur she so prided. Hopefully, the rescue of her former teammate would prove worth it...

She ventured far back into the cool darkness of the cave, feeling nervous and hoping there were no bugs nearby. How she hated the damned things! In an effort to turn her thoughts, she laid her heavy load down on the cool stone with a grunt.

She had suffered a bad injury to her shoulder, Marta noted. It was not from a wolf's fangs, and looked oddly like a knife blade wound. Further damage from Chain-Fang? Could it be possible the once so feared and admired "Spectre" had gotten so sloppy? Marta gave a scoffing sound before turning her attention back to the wound. She laid her paw on it and a small whir sounded as a dull green powder drifted from a side port into the flesh. The precious ground herb would help strengthen the muscle tissue and protect from infection in the meantime. Marta stretched languidly then sat with an air of boredom, one eye on the cave entrance and ready to duck out of sight if she saw the slightest movement.

Frostridge stirred uncomfortably and she suddenly felt a slight curiosity of the ever quiet enigma she remembered. Quiet, always focused on the mission, equal parts efficient and brutal as needed, these were the things she remembered of her former leader. Always calm, and (forgive the pun) chillingly cool. Even when Marta had tried to irk her so by flirting with Jarek, whom she knew Frost had feelings for, or teasing her about her lack of "feminine wiles" Sno-cone never gave her a single emotion to work with and leaving those impossible to enter mental walls up firmly. She just murmured in that same chilly voice that made her wither instantly...

Now might be a good chance to see just what was hidden behind those walls... Marta made a faint, mental link, then with the air of a naughty maid, peeked past the mind barriers weakened by exhaustion and hunger.

Darkness. Darkness that fluctuated between a depth impossible till where she could just see, but darkness none the same. Something was disturbed, rumbling and rolling beneath her feet.

Marta opened the door a little more, tense. There were no images of dreams or memories, only pitch darkness of sleep, but abnormal sleep. And true to her name, cold. So cold that in her real physical body she could feel herself shiver. But something was wrong, nonetheless, some storm had passed and now she was witnessing the aftermath.

It seemed that the legendary "Spectre" was teetering on the edge of a coma. Not good. Something big had happened here in her mind, and there was no way in hell she was delving any further to figure out what. She turned to go when she heard something whisper in the dark behind her.

She turned and froze. A white wolf stood there, ethereal and ghost-like. A faint glow seemed to emanate from it as its smoky aura curled around its body, periodically disintegrating into nothingness the further it got.

"...Arrow? How?..." her voice stammered and that old fear and uneasiness filled her as before, standing before the entity she had thought dead, but she scrunched her eyes in observation. No, it was not Arrow...

Suddenly a blast of shrieking wind hit her, freezing cold, so cold her body was encased in ice instantly and her scream frozen in her throat the air gone in an instant, her wide, terrified green eyes forever still-

The mental link snapped, Marta reeled back, her heart hammering as she fell and trembled, hyperventilating. Her body felt cold as if still encased in ice but she reminded herself it hadn't been real...

Had that been the avatar of Frost's subconscious? It was certainly fitting. Never had she been discovered so quickly before, and never so violently removed her mental presence. Still, it hadn't been like an avatar she had ever encountered, never so powerful- A new grudging respect filled her, if not with some self-reproach. But what if it hadn't been her subconscious avatar? What if it had been something else...? Marta shook her head. No it was impossible.

It seemed her mental probing had somehow jump-started Frost's brain activity however- Her eyes roved under her eyelids which fluttered on the verge of waking, and she stretched a leg reflexively.

"Frost-ridge?" Marta called softly, then a little louder. "Sno-cone?"

The wolf groaned but did not respond, sinking back into a more natural looking sleep. Disappointed, Marta decided to lay down near her without contact, eyes on the cave entrance. She slid and clicked the parts of her satchel-gauntlet in boredom via her biotic/mind link, waiting for her comrade to waken.

Marta had instantly taken cover behind the rock sheltering them from view of the entrance as soon as she had heard a noise.

The familiar wolven tongue echoed against the walls, causing her to growl softly to herself. Conceited witch. If it was just herself, she could have easily slunk out the back-way she had found with her quick explorations, but having Frost on her back was equivalent of wearing a neon sign at night. Her white pelt was just too easy to spot amid the darkness. She was half a mind to just leave her there... But another idea came to mind.

A small, vicious smile spread across her lips, and a canister shot out, clattering silently and unnoticed into a patch of moss just nearby. She made a lot of noise, scuffling her claws on the ground as it echoed loudly back out to where the wolf called her challenge to indicate that Marta was in fact within the cave...

Now she just had to wait till she came to them.

The dark wolf scrapped claws as she sprung her attack. Scarlett braced and threw her own weight at the wolf as she pounced, away from the wall that would hold whatever trap she had set. Scarlett had just enough weight to stop the wolf from pushing her backwards. However the open jaws that meant to bite would fall onto her shoulder. Scarlett raised herself onto hind legs with the wolf dangling from her shoulder. She turned her head and snapped at the wolf's muzzle as she shifter her weight to try and shake the wolf off and back near Frost.

The walls protecting her mind shivered against the wolf's mental attack. While pushing away from unknown trap Scarlett threw her own mind at the wolf. Images unlike Marta's attacks. The white-coats with there knives, syringes, and papers. Moving so stiffly cages. The animals, chained, muzzled, and held down. The humans didn't care about them, they did whatever they wanted, to whoever they wanted. Puppies, wolf puppies, held in the hands of people they loved. All the lies the spoke. They pretended to care. Piles of dead animals, useless, old, young. On the top of the murdered hill laid two young pups, pups who thought humans were good. Scarlett slammed her walls up just as Marta's images began leaking through. She stopped fighting and stood stone still, eyes watching the wolf as her mental-self monitored the wolf's. She made no move to attack or run. She just waited. The humans are the real monsters, nothing we'll see here can ever be as bad as they. her mind whispered to all listening, but mainly to herself. Her body rolled with heat of anger, the cave was becoming a sauna with the heat and dampness.

A telepath attack. Marta was ready, as the horrific images washed over her, a grim, laugh echoed in her mind, her eyes glittering dangerously. Was that all she had for her? She, who was so well acquainted with the human sins?

In retaliation she hurled a few of her own imagery back up the mental link; images of wolves turning into Altered, their bodies twisting and crunching as they screamed, still aware, still alive, while the humans merely observed and made notes on a checklist. No stranger to the cages, the chains, the bright lights and nauseating chemicals, humans in white lab coats- Test subjects gone wrong, brutally put down without remorse-

The white wolf had been quick to react; she obviously was a skilled fighter. But what Marta lacked in speed and strength, she more then made up for in strategy. The twin-tail suddenly went stock still, as if not to attack or flee, her imagery pouring stronger. From experience, Marta allowed it in rather then fight it, absorbed the vicious, gruesome memories and trapped them within her own. This she knew; this the humans had subjected to her so she simply just didn't care anymore in her training to become an interrogator. They had carefully sculpted her into a remorseless weapon, never backing down no matter how horrific the task.The humans are the real monsters, nothing we'll see here can ever be as bad as they. A voice not her own, not entirely seeming directed at her, but she could hear it simply because of its strength; she could hear the bitter rage rolling off every syllable. Seemed like somebody had issues. Marta wanted to scoff at the childishness of her prey; the humans had been top-dog for a reason... Heat seemed to roll off the body before her as the white wolf merely observed her. Seemed she had the same unnatural abilities as Marta had, what with her connections to flora and fauna. She wondered if she was a project from a rival City. The air was becoming humid and warm like a greenhouse. All the better. There was a long moment as they locked eyes, a tense standoff in a battle of mind, body and will. But Marta suddenly grinned, giving a hint of the not entirely stable mind behind those sparkling, unnatural green eyes.

She had bitten deep into the wolf's shoulder; the seed she had hidden beneath her tongue was shoved into the wound where it began to take root, the same gnarled root like vines beginning to wrap around the leg, rooting it to the floor, as the began to spread slowly across the body.

As if on cue, the vines that had been slinking in the shadows spread rapidly toward the new source and continued the encasement. One particularly thick vine was raising up off the floor beside Marta, a massive, garish red bulb on the end; a gigantic flower. There was a sickening crunching, ripping sound as it split open, revealing a huge "head", its jaws ridged with sharp spines; A Venus flytrap from hell. One of Marta's favorites and one of her most cherished genetically/modified seeds, the Devil's Maw. It snapped its jaws eagerly, shaking the large petals behind its head like some extravagant lion's mane. A strange rustling snarl emitted what was essentially its throat.

Marta would have to make this interrogation quick; already, the simple, predatory instincts of the Devil's Maw were beginning to scratch up her mental chain, tiring her further. Lucky they were in this dark cave; when her mental link gave out it was much more likely that it would die pretty quick...But she still wanted to be far away when that happened.

"Let's make this quick." she stretched languorously, running a tongue along the sleek fur of her foreleg. "I want you to tell me how you made acquaintance with my little friend over there, and what you were doing to her." she gestured to Frostridge.

Marta felt the incoming mental-attack a fraction too late; splitting pain erupted through her back leg buckle, only mildly reduced by her tenacious mental walls. Her mental links snapped for a moment, which she frantically reconstructed.The hell? Another telepath? For it had to be; this mental attack was not via imagery, but rather actual pain, as if her leg was really in fact broken. It had a different taste, a different flavor...Someone with alot of baggage as well,a t least mentally. Her mental chain slipped and she felt the giant plant-beast beside her shuffle in confusion; she could not risk losing hold; it would easily kill her if she lost control. And well, everyone else as well. Not that she particularly minded that latter point.

The vines had loosened around Scarlet, but not enough to release her fully, the vines embedded in her flesh holding her fast. Instead, she took whatever mental focus she left, not holding the massive plant in her sway and mental barriers and found the mental link to her mind. With some effort, she concocted her own rudimentary version of the attack, a mixture of her personal experiences. She hurled the ball of imagery and pain indicators back towards her unknown attacker, a grim smile crossing her face even as she panted in agony; her leg felt like the bones had splintered and were poking through. Mental feedback was a b***h, as the attacker was soon going to find out.

But things had gone poorly. She was wasting too much energy, risking loosing her mental controls and being subjected to mental attack. One telepath, she could handle but two was not favorable to say the least. Might as well kill them both. Plus the fact she had sprouted a verifiable ticking time bomb.

"Well, I was all in favor of talking, but seeing how rude you are, I think I'll have to pass."her wolven tongue held a strange accent, her voice almost bored. Her hidden markings glowed a brilliant green as she entered into Overcharge, the new swelling of energy making her mind links much stronger; she could feel the plant's hunger as her own as her mind fell under the strain of trying to multi-task the two different scenarios. She was one with the plant, the same raw energy, and ruthless brain, as she shoved the pain from her mind, shoved everything out, leaving her...hungry.

The vines were already shooting out in search of her second attacker, covering the floor and the walls in search of warm flesh. She turned her attention back to the white wolf, slowly making the vines constrict, ready to crush as the bloom of the plant, the giant head went in search of its unrestrained prey, digestive juices dripping from its "mouth".

"We...we are so hungry. So small a morsel, you are." her voice was odd and disjointed, her eyes glowing green, almost unhappy with how small the white wolf was. Barely a snack for...the plant. Had to stay in control. She shook her head to better isolate herself from the Devil's Maw. She turned her voice to behind her, where the newcomer was. "You should learn to stay out of business that doesn't concern you." She was close, she knew it, the vines had arched around the entrance, leaving a space of the cave floor completely surrounded. It was only a matter of time. But she had to hurry; time was in fact, running out...