• Book Four Action Segments

    As Vincent leaves the store, he retrieves a red delicious apple from his bag, proceeding to eat it as he strides homeward.
    When he gets close to the core of the apple he sees his house rapidly coming into veiw. As he walks up the steps and up to his front door he raises his hand up to the lock and began to twitch his fingers up and down as if he were playing the piano. After a few seconds he stops and turns the knob on the front door. He then walks in and tosses the apple core into his trashcan.
    After that Vincent walks up to the calendar and marks tomorrow's date with the comment of "20 minutes of work needed to be done at the market". He then walks into the hallway and opens his pantry door. He reaches into the bag and empties it out one item at a time.
    After he finishes this he walks into his bedroom and sits down, searching his mind for what he could with the rest of the day. He then slowly relaxes and stretches out on his bed. He kicks off his shoes and pulls the covers over him as he decides that he would get some sleep for a few hours. Calming his mind, he turns into his lupine form, and drifts off to sleep in a matter of minutes.



    Vincent gets awakened a few hours later by a loud crashing sound outside. He immediately rises up and returns to his human form. He looks out his window and sees that it must have been close to sundown. He sees a crowd of people in the street running for their lives. He walks across the room, opens up the top drawer of his dresser, and pulls out his Raptor Magnum pistol which he has customized to hold rounds in the revolver chamber, as well as rounds in the chamber inside the handle which was originally built in to it.
    He then reaches two drawers down and removes two magazines of ammunition out of it. In addition of what is already loaded, with the two other magazines he has about fifty-six rounds total! He then grabs his hunting knife off of the shelf above his bed and straps the sheath around his waist in a quick-use position.
    He then puts his shoes back on and races outside to see what all the commotion is about. Hoping that he could get in on it. As he gets outside he is horrified to see that it is nowhere even close to sundown, but the skies are being blocked out by a fleet of strange looking ships. He runs in the direction of where he had heard the loud crashing sound earlier and he sees that a building collapsing is what had caused the loud noise.
    As he moves foward to get a closer look he hears another loud bang as a green beam rains down from the sky and destroys a house close to where he is standing. It bursts his eardrums and for a few moments, he could hear nothing at all. Not the screaming of the people fleeting whatever is attacking them, not the sound of the destruction happening, nothing.
    When his hearing does return he notices that the crowd of people is no longer moving only one way, but there are an increasingly large group of people running in the opposite direction, towards whatever is attacking them. As the armed men move towards their attackers, Vincent is at first ignored and then he is swept away by their confusion as they run. Vincent forces his way out of the rushing crowd and immediately takes cover along the side of a building to let the crowd pass him uninhibited.
    Vincent sees a half dozen of the men pass him. Then a full dozen. Then two dozen. Then after the crowd reaches three dozen it has thinned out a bit and Vincent starts running in the same direction that they are running in. As he continues running he hears a somewhat loud sound quite similar to the one he had heard before. Only this one doesn't appear to be aimed at any building, but at the group of people running towards whatever is attacking them.
    Vincent takes cover again behind a building and closes his eyes to focus his mind on finding where they are being attacked from. His mind immediately detects multiple targets on the ground after he has sorted out his friends from his foes. Without hesitation, he leaves the safety of the cover he is in and opens fire on his targets.
    His shots hit the targets he is aiming at, but they don't appear to be doing any damage. The shots just appear to glance off of them. He does manage to get a better look at his attackers though. And they appear to be ordinary human beings at first glance. But after a closer look, he could see that they are anything but ordinary humans. The first thing Vincent notices about them, is their impossibly large height and stature. He also sees that they have an easily noticable green tint in their skin. The faces are warped, distorted and deformed. Making them look like radioactive mutants several generations after. Vincent gets interrupted in these observations when they return fire on the people. Vincent manages to get back in to cover in time, however three other men in the group are not so lucky and are killed.
    The shots that are fired at them are not bullets, and are not even metal projectiles, but some sort of green supersonic energy. It leaves practically no blood on those unlucky enough to get hit by it, there is just a hole in their body where they get hit. As well as a hole in the buildings directly behind them. Vincent waits for the firing to stop, and when it does, he makes himself dim and moves in closer to his attackers. As he creeps through the wreckage he gets within a few feet from one of the attackers.

    He slowly walks in closer and, as he moves, he slowly draws his knife up to his chest.

    As he closes in on the final few inches of his first target he slowly raises his hand up and plunges the knife into the thing's back.

    The thing immediately freezes up and sickly green colored blood begins pouring out of the wound like a fountain.

    When his foe lies dead on the ground Vincent reaches down and takes the thing's weapon. As he looks at the weapon he notices that it too, appears normal at first glance. But as he looks closer, he sees that, like the wielders of the weapon, it is anything but normal. The gun greatly resemble the type Vincent is used to. But instead of being made of a silver colored metal, the material it is made of is very dark. Almost ebony colored. The metal, or whatever it is composed of, is very shiny and almost glowing. The is no area on the weapon for ammunition and no cranks to pull. Just a single trigger to pull to release the shots.
    After he looks at the weapon he has just stolen, he the goes back behind cover and becomes fully visible again. After he returns he raises his hands into the air when the other men aim their weapons at him. They then lower their weapons after a few seconds when they see he is human, but are interrupted by weapons blazing from behind them.
    Vincent runs with the other men as they are attacked and he frequently looks over his shoulder and fires the strange weapon. After firing it many times, Vincent is amazed at the amount of shots he has fired without needing to reload, or do anything of the sort.
    As he stops and catches his breath he takes time to actually aim the weapon before firing. He hits one of the attackers and is surprised that the shot penentrates the target. As he keeps shooting he drops the gun as it gets too hot for him to continue holding. As the burns on his hands heal, he grabs his knife again and charges the attackers.

    The first one to come across his path he kills by stabbing his knife into it's throat.

    He then spins around, avoiding taking a shot in the chest and stabs the second one in the chest. After which, it immediately falls backwards on to the ground.

    When he rushes towards the third, and final one, the attacker hits him with his energy gun on the shoulder. Vincent gets thrown back a little after being hit, and then he staggers towards his attacker with his knife raised in the air.
    As Vincent takes a step towards his foe it immediately takes a step back. Everytime Vincent takes a step towards his foe it immediately takes a step back, keeping just out of his reach. He realizes that his foe knows they are in a stalemate when it stops backing away and raises it's weapon to shoot him again. Vincent sees fear appear on the thing's face as he moves towards it. This is probably because the thing is surprised that Vincent's wound barely deterred him.
    When it is getting ready to shoot him again, Vincent locks the trigger of it's weapon in place. As the thing realizes that it has been disarmed, Vincent sinks the blade into the thing's chest.The thing then collapses on the ground.
    Vincent then falls to his knees and begins gasping in pain as he clutches his wounded shoulder. He then grits his teeth together as he focuses on the wound on his shoulder. It slowly begins to close up. As it nears completion Vincent begins standing back up. He then sees that most of the group is standing in front of him, with shock on their faces.
    "Get their weapons." Is the only thing Vincent says to them. He then gets up and walks away from them. Somewhat to his surprise they do what he told them to do. When five of the numerous people are armed with weapons that could hurt their enemeis, the man who appears to be the leader of the large group of walks up to Vincent and says, "What now?"
    "We do the only that we can do." Vincent says.
    "What?" The man asks him.
    "Fight back!" Vincent tells him as he sheathes his knife and picks up his trusty gun.



    Hours later Vincent walks around the crude encampment made by the dozens of soldiers who have arrived to join the fight. Most of the soldiers are either asleep, or about to be asleep from the incredible stress they are feeling. The only scent in the air is that of burning debris, and of burning corpses. Vincent's ears are filled only with the sound of distant gunfire. The only thing his extra sensitive eyes could see in the very dark night, is that the fleet of ships have not yet left the skies. His eyes are locked onto to them hoping and praying that the attack is over.
    No. He knows that this is not true. If it were true, their fleet of ships would no longer be in the sky. But the fleet is now bigger than ever. And it appears to only be getting bigger by the minute. Vincent's mind then tells him that now only one or two of the soldiers are still awake.
    He then picks up an unusual scent in the air. He follows it to the source of the scent which at first sight appears to be one of the soldiers. As he moves closer he realizes that it is not the soldier himself that he smells, but rather what he appears to be carrying with him. For the soldier is carrying standard issue rations.
    While Vincent only needs food to survive as much as any regular person, he does require an extra portion of food to be able to use his abilities. But since he finds that his mind's capacity to track people is rapidly weakening, he without hesistation steals the rations from the soldier. As he eats the rations he feels his mind's abilities start to return to their full capacity again.
    As his mind reaches it's full tracking capacity again, he begins to feel multiple contacts approaching from the front. His eyes widen and his mind shouts for every soldier to wake up. Without hesistation they get up and ready their weapons. Vincent prepares his weapons as well. He holds his Raptor Magnum pistol in one hand, and his knife in the other hand. Each one ready to be used. Everyone remains at the ready as they wait for something, anything to happen.
    As the soldiers continue to wait, and as their patience continues to grow thinner, they start to become convinced that Vincent has triggered a false alarm. Just as the soldiers start to lower their weapons, multiple rounds are fired at them from somewhere in front of them.
    Vincent and the other soldiers immediately take cover behind whatever they could find. As they take cover they blindly fire their weapons in an attempt to stall and delay their foes. Several of the soldiers are shot down by their unseen attackers. Vincent manages to get behind cover and begins tracking their enemies with his mind. He finds the first and closest target and immediately warps to it's location.
    When he arrives at his enemies location he at first sees nothing. He then faintly sees the outline of his foe. So he immediately raises his knife into the air and stabs the thing in the back. As the foe feels his knife in it's back, it freezes and stiffens up. After which his foe becomes fully visible again and falls to the bare and ruined ground. Dead.
    Vincent is then interrupted by the remainder of his foes opening fire on him. While none of them manage to hit their intended target, he does manage to trace his enemies by their gunshots and he warps away again. He reappears directly behind a group of two or three of them and slashes through the group of foes with his knife. One after another the knife cuts through them as it gets covered with their green blood. All done with a single swipe of his knife.
    As his foes are killed they all become visible before they hit the ground. Vincent then tracks his next foe with his mind. Before he could warp away however, he gets shot in the arm by his foe's weapon. Vincent clutches his arm and pulls one of his fallen foe's weapon into his hand using his telekinetic abilities of the mind. He raises the weapon and fires where he estimates his hidden foe to be at. He only hits his intended target in the arm, but this proves to be enough to reveal it's location. Vincent is about to fire again when a shot from an enemies weapon comes from behind him and hits Vincent's target directly in the head. The rest of the soldiers behind him begin to fire their weapons as their attackers start to return fire on them.
    As soon as their foes return fire, the soldiers immediately duck behind cover. Those who are armed with the weapons of their foes, and therefore the only weapons that can do them harm, become the main targets of their enemies when they take a little longer to duck behind cover than those who are armed with regular weapons. As one of the soldiers is hit Vincent draws the attention of their foes back on himself as he raises the stolen weapon into the air and fires at them. He takes down one then another of his foes with only a single shot apiece. He then goes back behind cover as all of them focus their attention on him.
    Seeing an opportunity to do some damage, the soldiers take advantage of their foe's distraction by firing their weapons on their enemie's now revealed locations. The foe standing nearly directly in front of Vincent suffers a shot to the head and falls down dead. Vincent then fires at the two targets who are starting to aim at the soldiers. Two shots are fired and two foes are killed at the hands of Vincent. He hears a loud shout in his mind that is in an unknown language.
    Vincent's eyes then widen in shock and awe from what he sees next. What he sees is his foes turning around and beginning to flee the battlefield. Vincent takes advantage of their retreat and fires five shots, each one falling another one of their foes. The men follow in his example and fire at their retreating foes as well. One by one their foes fall to the weapons of the soldiers.
    And when all is said and done, only around a half dozen of their foes escape with their lives intact. After the remainder of their foes flee the battle, the soldiers who are not yet armed with the weapons of their enemies immediately rush forward and pick up their foe's weapons. After they do this, they then join the assault upon their enemies until the few that remain escape with their lives.
    Vincent then raises his fist in the air and leads the men in a cheer of victory, as they realize that they do in fact stand a chance of beating their enigmatic attackers!



    Twelve hours later, (Or around twelve hours according to Vincent's estimation) the soldiers are waking up. The skys are getting brighter and clearer as many of the ships appear to be leaving the skies. As more and more of the ships leave, they relinquish more and more sunlight. The scent of burning buildings has lessened greatly but the scent of burning corpses has only grown stronger. The sounds of gunfire in the distance have quieted and nearly gone silent altogether. Having his vision no longer clouded, Vincent can see with his eyes as well as with his mind, that the humans are out of danger. At least, they are for the moment that is.
    Thoughts begin to appear in his mind, the thoughts, and hopes, that it is all over. Before, he knew that this was not so, because the fleet was still in the sky. But now, the fleet is vanishing. Maybe it IS over after all. But could it ever be over as long as even a single one of the attackers still draws breath? This is something Vincent knows he will have to find out for himself.
    Then he is interrupted because the soldier's waking up causes his mind to continue keeping track of them. One by one they walk out of their tents. After they take a few steps, each one stretches then lets out a loud yawn. As each one of them walks out, Vincent makes sure to greet each and every one of them. As the last one wakes up and walks out, Vincent recognizes him as the leader of the group. "Good morning." Vincent tells him. "Morning." He responds.
    "Hmmm. What's your name son?" Vincent asks him. Although he could just search his mind if he really wanted to know.
    "Henry. Henry Barringer." He responds.
    "Pleased to meet you Henry. My name is Vincent. Vincent Valentino." He responds. Offering his hand in greeting. To which Henry accepts.
    "So, are you the leader of this group?" Vincent then asks him.
    "I guess. As far as I can tell, this group doesn't really have a leader. But if anyone is the leader, I guess it would have to be you." Henry tells him.
    "Nah. I'm not the leader. If anything, I'm just the protector of the group. The one making sure as many as possible walk away from this fight alive." Vincent answers.
    "I see. So, what do you think happens now?" Henry asks him.
    "Hmmm. If I tell you, can you promise me that it stays between us?" Vincent asks him.
    "Of course!" Henry responds.
    "Between you and me, I don't think this battle is over. It was too easy." Vincent tells him.
    "Easy? You call that easy? Do you know how many people have died here?" Henry asks him.
    "Yes I do. And to let you in on a little secret, I have been through many battles in my lifetime. I have seen hundreds of people killed. Most of them I loved like my own family." Vincent answers.
    "Many battles? Just exactly how old are you?" Henry inquires in a curious tone.
    "Between you and me, I stopped counting after one hundred years." Vincent tells him.
    "One hundred years?" Henry responds, completely shocked.
    "Yes. Tell me, what do you know about a great conflict between a country and around five hundred alleged terrorists many years ago?" Vincent asks him without ever making any inflection as he talks.
    "Not much. Only that civilization collapsed only a short while after that. Why? Were you in that conflict?" Henry answers then asks.
    "No. I'm the sole survivor of it. My-my best friend was the only other survivor, but I lost him a few years after." Vincent answers him in a voice that nearly choked up.
    "I'm so sorry." Says Henry, with genuine empathy and meaning in his voice.
    "Thank you, but I have since gotten over it." Replies Vincent, the memories sliding from his mind like water off a duck's back.
    "Were you drafted?" Vincent then asks.
    "Yes, they called me in several months ago. I only recently got some field work. And yourself?" Henry answers.
    "I volunteered." Said Vincent.
    "You felt obligated, huh?" Asked Henry.
    "Strong patriotism?" He continues.
    "No, just bored." Vincent replies.
    Henry gives a stumped look out of the corner of his eyes.
    Vincent, partially from reading his mind, and partially from simply reading his confused face answers, "Ever since humanity has recovered, I've been bored to death. When I heard an explosion outside, I knew all my years of waiting were finally about to pay off." The confusion on Henry's face barely lessens, so Vincent laughs softly, leaving Henry in his confusion.
    After Vincent lets it all out he says, "Confused?"
    "Um, let me think, YES." Henry says. And this only makes Vincent laugh more.
    When he stops he says, "Well, what are you confused about?" After which, he laughs a little more.
    "Well, mainly I wonder why you would join a battle just cause you were bored. Especially when you could get killed easily." Henry tells him.
    "Allow me to elaborate a little." Vincent says as he removes his knife from it's sheath and places the blade on his wrist.
    "What are you doing?" Henry asks.
    "THIS!" Vincent answers, after which he runs the length of his blade against his wrist. Cutting it open.
    Henry flies back in shock and horror at what just Vincent did. His face gets an even more shocked look when he sees the wound on Vincent's wrist rapidly begin to stitch itself back together.
    "Who-What in the world are you?"
    "Nobody knows for certain. There used to be hundreds like me. Now, I'm the only one still alive. As far as I know at least." Vincent informs him.
    "Wha-what happened to them?" Henry asks.
    "You remember that conflict I told you I was in?" Vincent asks him with a hint of sadness and regret in his voice.
    "Um, yes. What about it?" Henry asks.
    "Well, it was more of an extermination. A genocide, if you will." Vincent informs.
    "Of people like you?" Henry asks.
    "Yes." Vincent answers.
    "Why would they want to kill them? They can do so much." Henry inquires.
    "That's exactly why." Vincent answers.
    "Um, okay you just lost me there." Henry says.
    "Tell me, do you think people who knew about us saw us as great soldiers, or as a great threat to their lives?" Vincent asks.
    Henry responds to this simply by saying, "Oh."
    "Yeah. I just wish there were more people with your viewpoint back then." Vincent says.
    "Indeed. Then there might be more like you left." Henry agrees.
    "Well...there might be one other." Vincent starts to say.
    "Who?" Henry asks with great curiosity.
    "That's a story for another time." Vincent tells him.
    "Aww man." Henry says in disappointment.
    "Sorry buddy. Don't get yourself killed, and I may tell it to you sometime! But for now, we need to get back to the task at hand." Vincent states.
    "Yes Sir!" Henry agrees.
    "Please, please don't call me that." Vincent corrects as he shakes his head and gestures his hand in front of him.
    "Why not?" Henry inquires curiously.
    "Cause it makes you sound like I'm your superior." Vincent says modestly.
    "Well, aren't you?" Henry asks.
    "No. I'm only human." Vincent answers.
    "Oh no. You're WAY more than that!" Henry tells him respectfully.
    Vincent then smiles at him. Liking his attitude, and liking what he said even more than that.
    A thought then comes into his head when he sees that Henry is carrying only a regular rifle. "Tell me, do you have one of these?" He asks, waving his enemies stolen weapon in the air in front of them.
    "No I don't." Henry answers.
    Vincent tosses him the one he has been carrying and says, "Well you do now!"
    "Thank you S-" He then stops when Vincent gives him a dirty look.
    "Um, I mean Vincent." Henry says gratefully and respectfully.
    "Don't mention it. I've got other weapons anyways." Vincent informs.
    "Really? Like what?" Henry asks him.
    "Heh, you might get a chance to see them if you stick around for a while longer." Vincent says, after which he winks at him. To which Henry smiles.
    "Let's go." Vincent says.
    "To where?" Henry asks him.
    "To kill all those who are left." Vincent answers.
    Henry nods his head and follows him. He stops after a moment and asks, "What about them?" after which he points at the rest of the soldiers.
    "They're coming too. Get them up and ready." Vincent says. To which Henry obeys.
    A few minutes later the soldiers are up and ready to fight. And Henry, instead of Vincent, leads the way. Vincent remains near the middle of the group of four dozen or so soldiers. Constantly keeping his mind and his eyes open. Finding no hostiles anywhere nearby. Henry leads them past many buildings. And many more former buildings that have since been either destroyed, have lost the coverings and had their foundations exposed, or have fallen down, or are falling down from fire damage.
    The ground that they are walking across is cracked in many areas, and the pavement of what used to be the road is nearly split straight down the middle. Instead of being black, the split pavement is gray in many areas from a mixture of dust and ashes. Some of it gets swept away as the soldiers move through what used to be the road.
    The buildings' heights begin to rapidly shrink, as they go from buildings to houses. Many of which are intact. The few people that they come across act like nothing is wrong. That is, of course, until they see that there are soldiers around. Meaning that there has to be something wrong if they were here. They only seem surprised that there is a small battalion moving through their streets. And they may well be right after all. The battle might not have reached them yet.
    The area around them seems normal by nearly every standard. The only thing not quite normal is how everything feels. It feels hard. Really tense. All of the men feel this too, although Vincent seems to feel it a lot more than the rest of them, because he is constantly looking over his shoulder like someone, or something is watching them.
    The feeling in the men then passes. And it then appears that Vincent is taking on the feeling for all of them at the same time. Because his posture only gets more tense and stressed. By the time the group decides that it is time for a break, it has not yet even reached mid-day. Henry and the rest of the men then sit down in whatever spot they were standing in. Vincent does not join them however. As there appears to be something on his mind.
    "Is something wrong Vincent?" And more than just Vincent hear him and respond to his question.
    "Hm? No, I'm fine. It's just-" Vincent then grabs Henry's shoulder and leads him away from the rest of the group. "-we saw them run in this direction. Yet the further and further we go, the less and less of a sign of them we find. And the people we have come across only seem confused by our presence." He finishes.
    "You make a very good point. Could we have taken a wrong turn?" Henry asks.
    "I don't think so. We have only moved forward." Vincent answers.
    "What should we do now?" Henry inquires further.
    "Let me go ahead. Get all of the civilians out of here. If we did follow them, I don't want any of them to get in the cross fire in the event that we DO find them." Vincent tells to him.
    "You got it! ALRIGHT, EVERYONE WHO IS NOT CARRYING A WEAPON, PLEASE, VACATE THE PREMISES!" He shouts and orders. And the civilians are surprisingly compliant. As all of them immediately vacate the premises. After that, the soldiers begin knocking on the doors of the houses and telling whoever is in them to leave for their own safety.
    Here however, the civilians decide not to be quite so compliant. As it's only rarely that anyone responds. Vincent's face grows a smile and he shouts to them with his mind. Immediately, the people begin to leave their houses, and Vincent, not wanting any more attention than necessary, makes himself hard to see and slips away. But not before he grabs some rations from the soldier nearest to him to keep his strength up. As soon as his hand touches the rations, they become as hard to see as Vincent himself is.
    After that Vincent places the rations in his pocket and walks away. And as he walks, he finds that now there are no longer any signs of their attackers anywhere at all. The roads are all black and there isn't a single crack in them. The houses are all orderly, and not a single one of them appears to be damaged even though many of them seem quite old. The air is completely clear of burning debris and burning corpses. The sounds of gunfire in the background have completely stopped. And the tense and stressed feeling is gone. Everything seems to be happening normally.
    Then, as Vincent is convinced that his foes are nowhere to be found, he turns around and sits down to clear his mind and try to figure out what their next move should be.
    As more and more of his mind becomes clear, the range of his mind's tracking and locating abilities increases. Something suddenly comes into range of his mind's tracking abilities. While he finds little to no thoughts in this thing's mind, he does recognize the feeling of the thing's soul. It feels dark, and almost empty. It is without doubt one of the attackers. But it has made itself dim much like Vincent himself has done.
    Vincent then takes time to count his targets as they show up in his mind. Two, four, six. Wait, six? Only two of them escaped from the battle. Where did the others come from? Vincent ignores this question and, with his scouting mission completed, he starts heading back. Then, he looks at his hand and sees that it is becoming more visible. He sits back and concentrates on remaining dim, but it doesn't help. He then sees that one of the attackers has taken notice of him and is moving towards him.

    Vincent then forces himself not to panic and leans back and relaxes. He then reaches in his pocket and removes the rations he took from the soldier.

    He wastes no time and immediately starts eating them.

    After that he sees that the attacker that had seen him is less than ten feet away from him.

    So he scrambles to get his knife out of it's sheath.

    His knife appears to be stuck and when he looks down to the sheath on his belt, he sees that he is now completely visible.

    He then is unable to prevent himself from panicking as he sees that his attacker is nearly upon him.

    As he finally manages to get his knife out of its sheath, he raises it up in preparation to attack when he suddenly loses his grip and it falls out of his hand.

    He blindly tries to find his knife on the ground as he finds that his attacker is standing in front of him.

    Vincent freezes up in horror.

    The attacker slowly raises its weapon to Vincent's head and Vincent suddenly snaps out of his petrification and punches the thing in the face.

    After the thing is hit, it's weapon falls out of it's hands, and the thing tries to hit him in the chest.

    Vincent blocks it and lands several more hits on him.

    At which it seems to show no pain or recoil.

    Vincent then raises his hands into a fighting stance, and he is surprised when he sees his foe assume the same position.

    He then jabs several times at his foe and again, his foe shows no reaction.

    He then hits his foe as hard as he possible could and the only reaction his foe makes is getting knocked back a few feet.

    His foe then steps forward and lands a punch on Vincent's face.

    Vincent feels his lip get split open as he is hit and feels rage. And rather than stopping it before it starts, Vincent lets his rage build up inside of him. When Vincent hits the thing in the face again it actually causes it to stagger backward this time. As Vincent wildly hits his foe, his arm starts changing. His athletic build starts to become bigger. After a moment, the build all over his body is nothing less than that of a proffessional body builder.
    Silver colored hairs then start to appear, then starts covering his arms as he swings away. His fingers start to grow thinner and start becoming claws, leaving numerous cuts and scrapes on his adversary as he strikes him repeatedly.

    Within only a few moments, Vincent as you have come to know him, is gone.



    In place of Vincent is an angry beast. It's unusually large build is covered by it's silver colored fur which is pointy and sharp. It's hind legs are bent and are digitigrade. Long, dagger-like claws form at the tip of each one of it's long thin fingers. It's eyes are Vincent's regular blue shade although they now have the shape and form of a dog's eyes. It's ears are long and pointy. And it's face reflects it's lupine origins with it's black nose that is at the end of a long point.
    The angry beast continues cutting up his foe with the daggers on the end of it's fingers long after it has ceased to be alive. After it has nearly completely ripped apart it's foe it stands up with it's back straightened, raises it's head to the skies, and howls.
    The rest of his foes, who somehow haven't noticed their little boxing match after all this time, begin advancing on him. But as soon as he growls at them, they are frozen in their tracks. Unbeknownst to his adversaries, he had sent a message to his allies when he howled. It would only be a short while before they arrive.
    Vincent's adversaries begin charging him, but only a few of them are actually trying to shoot him. As they charge him, Vincent waits until they are just within range. And as soon as they are, he raises his hand and pushes them back using his abilities of the mind. Not killing them because he wants to share the final victory with Henry and the rest of the soldiers.
    As he continues to stall his foes, one of them lands a shot on him. Vincent stares down at his side where he has been hit. Seeing that the shot had barely penetrated his thick, protective fur, he raises his head back up and lets out a slow, growl-like laugh. His foes stiffen up, in awe at what they have just seen. As they remain stiff and still one and then another of his foes falls to Vincent's allies as they arrive.
    Just then the foes raise their heads up to the sky and start trying to fight back as they begin making their final stand. One of the soldiers is killed in the cross fire and then the humans get even more determined to end it before any more of them die. The next moment, the soldiers have shot the rest of them down.
    Then, with every one of their foes dead, the humans are the victors.

    But as they celebrate their victory, they are all interrupted by the skies suddenly growing dark again.

    Shock appears in them.

    Disbelief claws at them.

    And fear grips them.

    For above them, all of the humans see the fleet returning to the skies. The fleet is directly above them. And this time, the fleet is more than twice as big as it was last time.



    After they come to terms with what they are seeing, they immediately see a green beam rain down on them. The humans run and take cover, but they then learn that it is not the weapon they were expecting, but some sort of transportation device. A half dozen of their foes are lowered down the beam and they immediately open fire as soon as they land. The few remaining humans who had not yet taken cover are shot down by their foes. Those who are not lean out of cover and return fire. Killing two of their foes as they land.
    The humans who have taken cover and weren't killed yet begin to flee the battle. "STAY WHERE YOU ARE! STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" Henry commands under Vincent's guidance.
    "FIGHT BACK!" He then commands after they obey his first order. The men obey and return to their posts and return fire on their foes.
    Two more of their foes are killed and more than six of the soldiers have been killed by this time and more are falling by the second. Six more of the invaders are lowered down on to the ground. All of the humans still alive immediately hide and cease fire, waiting for further orders from Vincent or Henry.
    Again and again more and more of their foes land on the battlefield. Each wave coming in groups of six. And more and more of the soldiers are killed as the enemies land and fire at them. Vincent, seeing that they are suffering heavy losses and the hands of their foes, grabs the stolen weapon from his nearest ally, "Give me that!" he says as he takes it from him. He then falls down on his stomach and crawls forward, tracking his foes as he moves.
    "What are you people doing? Get out of here!" He yells as he learns that his allies have not yet started fleeing the battle. As Vincent's mind tells him that his allies are getting mowed down as they retreat, he slowly rises up. The moment he has fully risen, he ducks back down as several shots fly past him. Many of them come close to hitting him, and are only getting closer everytime. Realizing that he has been pinned down, and that he can't risk getting up, he begins tracking the exact postitions of his foes and without standing up, he raises his weapon and fires.
    Shot after shot whistles past them until one actually finds it's target. As his foe falls to Vincent's weapon he continues firing away in bursts to make sure the weapon doesn't overheat. Many shots are fired and only about every fifth shot manges to find it's intended target. And his foes for some reason do not seek cover even when they are about to get hit.
    He then sees that his allies have gotten away, so he places the weapon in his mouth, lowers himself down onto all fours, and turns into his feral lupine form. He runs as fast as he can until he manages to get away from the battlefield.
    As he runs he rapidly regains sight of the humans. He stands up on two legs and returns to his human form. The humans at first have a fearful (and quite appropriate) look on their faces at the sight of the wolf. But this quickly vanishes soon as he quickly returns to the form they are familiar with.
    "Damage report." Vincent says after he catches his breath but continues panting heavily.
    "We have lost at least a dozen of our forces." Henry answers him.
    "Any wounded?" Vincent inquires further.
    "No. Only dead." Henry answers. Vincent then breaks down, angrily hits his hands against the floor. And nearly cries as many of the soldiers, including Henry suspect.
    Vincent's eyes then widen in shock. "We're not safe here. We need to move." Everyone then gets a worried expression on their faces and begins panicking.
    "I said MOVE!" Vincent yells, after which everyone gets up and leaves. Everyone, that is, except Vincent and Henry. Who draw their weapons again, getting ready to hold back their attackers. Vincent pulls Henry down until he is on his stomach, hidden for the moment from their attackers.
    "Henry, there's something that's bothering me. When I encountered the remainder of our attackers, there were six of them." Vincent tells him, knowing that they have a few moments before their attackers arrive.
    "So?" Henry responds.
    "So, there were exactly two that fled the earlier battle." Vincent continues.
    "Where did the others come from?" Henry asks.
    "I don't kn-" Vincent starts but is cut off by the approach of his foes. To which both of them go silent and raise their weapons. Their foes begin walking past them but Vincent holds Henry still to prevent them from getting noticed. As a dozen of their foes move past them Vincent lets go of Henry and slowly crawls away from the battlefield. Both of them are convinced that they are outnumbered, outmanned, and outgunned.
    Vincent moves at a speed that is slower than that of the slowest snail or sloth. And he doesn't even appear to be moving at all, unless you watch him for a while and see that he is not in the same spot that he was at originally.
    The two of them suddenly stop moving. Everyone else however, does not wait for them, and they continue moving at their own relentless, tireless speed. Vincent continues to hold Henry still as he continues to try and move. After a while Henry stops trying to move, and Vincent removes his hand from him.
    After the rest of the enemies pass them Vincent and Henry slowly stand back up. Henry quickly raises his weapon but Vincent pushes it back down. Vincent then motions his hand telling Henry to get behind him and follow him, which he does. The two of them slowly creep forward with Vincent in the lead and Henry not too far behind him. As they move, Vincent slowly reaches down and takes his knife out of it's sheath.
    As he inches towards the foe that is closest to him, he raises his knife, and Henry raises the weapon that Vincent gave to him. Pointing it not at the target that Vincent is aiming at, but at the next closest one in front of them in the event that Vincent fails to get the jump on him.

    As Vincent quickly sinks his knife into the foe in front of him, Henry slowly begins squeezing the trigger in case one of them manages to hear them.

    Lucky for them, none of them notice the two of them. So they continue creeping forward.

    Vincent and Henry continue creeping forward when they hear a "BANG". And after they hear this sound several of their foes fall dead in front of them.

    Both of them jump when they hear this. And they are even more surprised when they see that the source of this sound is a group of attacking soldiers. The men fire several more shots which in turn kill several more foes. Their shots for some reason kill their foes even though they appear to be using the same weapons Henry and the rest of the soldiers were given. After they make their attack run, the men immediately begin to flee the area.
    Vincent smiles as he recognizes the tactics of the soldiers. He recognizes it because he has always been a fan of using hit and run tactics. And not only has he found it to be loads of fun in the past, but it has taught him that it is one of the best strategies that one can use. It is also very similar to what the two of them have been doing.
    Henry picks up on the actions of the group of soldiers and uses their distraction to bullseye two of their foes. Vincent provides cover for them by using his abilities to stall their foes by pushing them back. He then notices that the group of their foes are standing in a pool of water caused by where they have destroyed the landscape and split the road apart.
    A smile slowly creeps its way on to Vincent's face and a killer idea forms in his mind. And killer being quite the appropriate term here. He tells Henry to hold them back which he does. Vincent then raises his hands and searches for any electrical circuit in any of the buildings closest to him. When he finds one he drains the electricity from it and takes it into his body.
    He grabs Henry and pulls him back. He then lowers his hand down onto the water and releases the electric current. Both him and Henry are pleased at the result of his actions. They watch as each and every one of their foes are burned and electrocuted to death.
    They then notice that one of the soldiers had not yet fled the battle and had gotten caught in the electric current. Vincent and Henry at first react in horror when they see this but they later realize that he was already dead. Vincent smiles a little because he knew very well that hit-and-run tactics often result in very few causualties on the attacker's side. The two of them also realize that they recognized none of the soldiers in the group. This leaves them with the question of who exactly they were.
    They decide not to dwell on the question and continue running. Vincent tries to locate the position of the men who he ordered to retreat using his mind. He finds no trace of any of them. He knows that this is either really good or really bad.
    He then sees that Henry is too tired to continue running. So Vincent runs over and picks him up and slings him over his shoulder. Henry is impressed by how little Vincent is slowed down by carrying him. Which is very little. If any at all that is. As he runs his back does not even slump despite the fact that he is carrying someone. After he gets what he considers to be a safe distance he sets Henry down. He lets Henry recover and takes out his weapon to ensure that they were not followed.
    He waits for Henry to regain his strength and then he says, "What should we do now?" Vincent asks.
    "I don't know, but we can't keep running." Henry answers.
    "We need to fight. But there are only two of us and dozens of them. And more are arriving every moment. We should find a narrow passage way where we can bottle neck them." Vincent tells him.
    "Agreed. But where?" Henry confirms then inquires.
    "We will need the rest of the battalion." Vincent adds.
    "Where are they?" Henry asks.
    "I don't know. They are either all dead, or they have all gotten away safely. They are beyond the range of my mind's ability to track." Vincent answers.
    "Can you make it track further?" Henry asks him.
    "Yes. But I won't risk it now." Vincent answers.
    "Why not?" Henry inquires further. "Making myself able to track further requires absolute concentration. What some call 'hyper-focus'." Vincent informs.
    "So why would you not be able to do that?" Henry asks him.
    "I would need to go into a trance. And I'm not willing to risk you needing me while I'm out and not being able to help you if the need arises. I-I failed to protect my best friend once before. I don't think I would be able to live with myself if it happens again." Vincent says nearly bursting into tears at the last part.
    Henry stands in front of with a very surprised look on his face as he learns this. The look of surprise and shock leaves him and a look of satisfaction and pride replaces it.
    "Am I really your best friend?" Henry asks in a serious tone.
    Vincent makes no verbal response and doesn't even turn his head and look at him, he only shakes his head affirmatively. A tiny smile invades Henry's face for a moment, but he forces it away.
    "Wait!" Vincent says in an unavoidably serious tone.
    "Wha-What is it?" Henry asks completely confused.
    "I-I'm not sure. But I am tracking movement both in front of us and behind us." Vincent answers as best as he can.
    "Are they hostiles?" Henry asks, not being able to think of anything else appropriate to ask him.
    "Yes-and no." Vincent answers, quite confused himself.
    "What do you mean?" Henry asks in his own confusion.
    "The group approaching us from the front, they are definitely hostile. But there is another presence I am detecting with them as well. And for the group behind us-I can...barely detect anything at all. They might be hostile. Might not be too." Vincent answers while pausing to overcome uncertainty in what his mind is telling him. He then feels distressed as this is something that has never happened to him before. His mind having problems distinguishing friend from foe that is.
    Henry shares in Vincent's distress. And this he could tell simply from looking at him and not from reading his mind as it would be quite unnecessary. Both of them ready their weapons and each one faces a different direction. Henry faces forward, preferring to fight his known enemy. And Vincent covers the area behind them, knowing that whoever he is tracking that direction, would require someone with many years of experience on their side.
    The two of them remain completely silent as they stay behind cover and await their foe's arrival. Several moments pass. But with things as tense as they are, both of them think that hours and not mere moments are passing. Vincent then feels the foes in front of them nearly within visual range.
    So he informs Henry of this fact and he sees them start to come into view. Henry slowly squeezes the trigger, having to use all of his willpower to prevent himself from firing at his targets before they get within range. When his own willpower begins to fail him, Vincent lends him some of his own, knowing that he has plenty to spare while his ally does not.

    As Henry's targets get within view, he is completely, and utterly unprepared for what he sees.

    For in front of him, Henry sees some of his foes walking towards them on the ground in formation. But what really surprises him, is that the rest of their foes are not walking, but appear to be riding strange devices. The devices possess a black shiny color, and appear to be made of an unknown substance. Many of these devices look like simple boxes and look like they couldn't possibly be anything else.
    But the fact that they are not travelling on wheels, and don't seem to be travelling on anything but were simply hovering in the air, makes him reconsider. Henry calls out to Vincent but his vocal chords would not obey him. Vincent hears him in his mind however and immediately turns around to face him.
    Vincent freezes up in terror also. But this lasts only a moment and he quickly runs over near where Henry is and takes cover in an area behind an identical building opposite him. Vincent gives Henry a signal and the two of them open fire, instantly killing one foe each. Their foes immediately return fire but are too slow to hit them before they duck in cover. Henry and Vincent time their foe's counterattack several times and then lean out again and kill another foe each and then immediately take cover again when they time when their foe's counter-attack would start.
    Then the boxes that their enemies are riding begin changing shape and the tops begin rotating and coming off. After the top pieces come off, a long tube comes out and extends. The tube itself then rotates and aims at the building Henry is hiding near.
    After a moment the tube pulls back and releases a red beam from it which is aimed at a building behind Henry. The building is hit by it but is unaffected at first. But then, a couple of seconds later the building has it's foundation destroyed and begins to slowly collapse. Henry is forced out of his cover and runs towards Vincent as he fires a shot at the enemie's vehicle.
    The shot penetrates its target but doesn't do any further damage to the target. Vincent fires several more shots at the enemie's vehicle which blasts several more holes into it and Henry begins assisting him by firing at the infantry troops on the gro