Breaking the Ceiling

"I thought we weren't meant to attract attention!"

Well, this was a bit awkward.

He ducked past a corner just in time for another bullet to punch a hole in the wall behind him. "The ceiling was old!"

"Stop bickering, you idiots!" Eden snapped, flinging some glimmer he'd gotten from somewhere in a viciously sharp blade and drawing a cry of pain. "We need to get outside!"

Lachlan glanced at the paper thin gridded walls and then to Drake, flattened against the wall next to Ariake. "Could just punch our way through."

Ariake followed his look.

Like a deer in the headlights, Drake stared back. "That's probably not a good idea."

"Can you think of a better one?" He tried not to flinch away from a glowing shard shattering off the corner. Bullets he could take just fine, but glimmer tended to leave a mark. "This place is probably just used for yakuza dealings, I doubt anyone'd care about the property damage."

Drake stared at the wall as if there wasn't an entire crowd of angry yakuza trying to drill through the hallway with bullets and glimmer knives alone, and sighed. The only warning they got was a flicker of a glow in his eyes.

And the entire corridor exploded.

"Sun's light," he cursed, shielding his face from the rain of cheap plaster and wood splinters, squinting at the massive hole blasted straight through. "When I said nobody would care about property damage, I didn't mean blasting the whole thing to the damn ground."

"Then pick your words carefully, little Islan man!" Floated back.

Ariake barked a startled laugh.

The shouts from back down the corridor had gotten louder, if anything. Lachlan twitched away from a glowing arrow curving blindly around the corner and decided not to waste his breath. "Let's get out of here. Nokami, cover us with a shield if you have enough!"

However much he had, it was enough to block the hail of bullets and shards as they sprinted through the remains of rooms that'd held boxes, dust, and one with a naked couple cowering in a bed. Whoops. "Sorry about this!"

They followed the trail of destruction up stairs and out a splintered doorway, into the light of glimmer lanterns strung between plum trees and startled Hanami-goers sitting beneath them.

Ah hell. He glanced back, no sign of the yakuza yet, but it was only a matter of time. "Not out this way. We need somewhere out of the way."

"Make a hole, don't make a hole. Go outside, don't go outside," a horned Drake grumbled as Lachlan shooed them all back in and propped a splintered board in the gap. "Make up your mind!"

"Do you want them caught in the crossfire and us in trouble?" Shouts came closer as he shouldered his own way through a door to a stairwell, wrenching the thin metal off its hinges and using it to barricade the street exit. "Blast the biggest hole you like here. Make it obvious."

Didn't need to tell the big lad twice. He almost took out the rickety metal stairs as well, boiling up the stairwell in a flash of dark grey and orange scales.

Bounding after him, the others hot on his heels and Ariake opting to disappear up through the middle in a flutter of feathers, Lachlan heard the yakuza's shouts echo up just as Drake crashed through another door back into the night.

On a little segment of sheltered rooftop this time. Thankfully only populated by plants and a string of fairy-lights, more balconies with lights and lanterns twinkling along the narrow way formed by the block rising further down.

"How are you a dragon, again?" Ariake puffed, back to being human again as he peered through the doorway, and flinched back from a sharp crack. "Damn, they're still coming!"

"They know the Guardians'll come if we get away." Lachlan vaulted over the rail past a coiled Drake crouched on top. "Which means it's time to leave, lads."

The others followed him as he hit the next roof in a roll, dashing across the rooftop and dodging streaks of glimmer. And the projectiles kept coming until they dropped out of sight onto a bridge spanning little shopping complexes, the yakuza evidently determined enough to try following them at least that far.

"They shouldn't be this angry about it." Ariake kept glancing over his shoulder as they jogged along the little balcony walkway down the side.

Lachlan glanced back himself as they slowed, stepping out onto another bridge, the entire neighbourhood deathly silent after all the shooting. "I think we've escaped. For now, at least—"

He made it all of two steps before the flicker of a shadow caught his eye, and his body inexplicably froze.

"Lachlan?"

Strolling out under the pool of light cast by a lantern hung just ahead, a silhouette stopped, waiting for them. A mask reflected the lamp, the orange glow slipping off a skin-tight, full-body suit dark as pitch.

Every muscle refused to move as that blank face turned to him, air stuck in his frozen lungs. Oh god, when did I fall asleep?

"What the—?"

Flaring into glowing life, swirling lines traced across its surface, down to the arms, gathering in the fingertips.

And it raised a hand.

He thought he'd gotten used to Samurai throwing beams around. Damn his subconscious pulling a fast one.

Someone shouted something. He braced to feel Da tackle him, burning light to melt his arms again, the smell of blood and cooked flesh already curdling his stomach—

A hand yanked the collar of his shirt.

He choked, plucked out of the way like a leaf, a flash burning close enough to singe his sleeve . Slamming into concrete, he tumbled into the railing, belatedly twisting to catch his feet and shoving off into a crouch, heart abruptly hammering back to life in his ears. Damn— What the hell—

Couldn't be a nightmare. His shoulder and ribs throbbed from the abuse, the pain flaring and burning away as he pulled his yuurei around him with gritted teeth. Burnt wood and melting tarmac itched in his nostrils instead of blood. Too real for a dream. Probably.

Didn't explain where the boogey-man had come from, though.

His fingers dug against rough stone as the figure calmly flicked out a pair of swords from thin air, meeting the flash of Drake's claws in a hiss of sparks. Whatever's going on, this is a bad place to be. Core-En would leave more than a mark.

"We need to get out of here!" He rose, hackles prickling like ants crawling across his skin. "Drake!"

Fiery eyes flicked to him, and for a moment he thought he'd refuse. But with a flick of his claws, dodging a hail of shards the masked man had summoned from nowhere, he leapt back. "Fine."

Lachlan didn't get much of a chance to breathe again before a flash of ash and fire snatched him straight off the ground.

Howling wind filled his ears, his head spinning as he clenched his teeth against the lurch of his stomach dropping through his toes. Eden must've been plucked up with him, because he heard a truly spirited litany of cursing somewhere nearby damning their teammate to the depths of the sea and the hell outside its gates.

Twisting, he tried to see past the dizzying whirl of light and dark, catching just a glimpse of a star streaking up past them. A hint of swirling patterns and a black mask stared into his soul, then passed out of view behind the ridge of a rooftop.

"Is he following?" Drake rumbled.

Lachlan squinted, his view weaving in and out, but apart from that beam, he couldn't catch anything. No streak of light following them, nothing. "Don't think so."

"What was that? Is he yakuza?" A glimpse of a hawk flapped hard next to them, Ariake shouting over the wind.

Group nightmare? Whoever he was, he hadn't fought that hard. He'd practically let them get away. "Who knows. Let's just get the hell out of here."

He closed his eyes for a moment, driving back the image of a glinting sword stained red haunting the darkness behind his lids. He could still see crimson dripping onto a pristine floor as clear as if it were yesterday.

Wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight, that was for sure.