Fire Upon the River

"I must have gotten your slang wrong. I meant they can jump really really high," Jeremy couldn't help but form a cheesy grin at Arabella's response - no, she'd gotten her slang right. He'd just managed to confused her by playing with the words a little... though thinking on it, when had the idea of pregnant dogs being able to jump really high come to be? Seemed so weird when one thought about it...
"These are fresh and they are hungry. They can't be more than 10 minutes... maybe 20 minutes old. They're either really close or they can cover a lot of ground quick," Though, it also appeared that her tracking skills were really good, as somehow just sniffing the dirt enabled her to make a judgement. Faerie power, or something she had trained? God, he could write an essay with all the questions he had...
Too bad he wasn't at school anymore, so no decent excuse to make such an essay. Drat.

"Angels know everything," Now of all the things she had said, he found that one hardest to believe. Surely, if they knew everything, couldn't she just have asked them what the deal was with these so called Werewolves? Or was he taking things too literally again?
"Do you know how to fight, kid?" Like many things she said, Jeremy paused at the question, though continued forward, doing mock punches.
"I can do the old one-two. Never really got into martial arts though - didn't need it." He was lucky, and was one of those kids who managed to avoid being bullied too much at a young age. He was otherwise fairly sizeable, and well, that made for a good deterrent as he got older.
"And can you run fast?" She then asked him, and he grinned even wider than before, feeling a little proud.
"You saw me run across the field there - and I wasn't even giving it my all. Was on the track team at school." Sure he wasn't like, their star player or anything... but he made reserves. That was good, right?

"Maybe you should go home. If you were Romanian I wouldn't mind, kids your age have probably killed a man, but American culture is different." This time he stopped... and instead of picking up the pace, he stared across at Arabella, his expression a mixture of confusion, and concern.
"Are you... serious? Actually serious?" And the confusion began to fade, leaving only the concern.
"I am eighteen. Unless Romania's military like... conscripts people, there is something wrong with that statement." By no means could he get how having killed someone would be the norm for someone his age, and it seemed to make him angry.
"If thats the attitude you're gonna have, you should be the one who leaves now. I came here to make sure nobody else dies, not have people murdered. And don't say that them being werewolves changes that - Faerie." He strode forward now, keeping a cursory eye towards the floor for traps, but otherwise wanting to get the woman out of his sight. He'd probably calm down later, but now... he just needed this.

So... that was the answer, eh? It wasn't that her country saw the notion of killing being acceptable or anything... but war had made it a necessity. That was probably one of the saddest ways it could happen, in some respects, and as far as he knew. It was different from killing someone by accident, or as part of murder... that you might eventually be allowed to regret that, or face punishment for what you did. Kill someone in a war? You not only had to live with that, but you were expected to have seen it as not only part of you duty, but in many cases, the right thing to do. Now, he wasn't saying shame on the military for that... but it seemed like its own form of cruelty, to the boy.
But still... after a few minutes of silence between them, his guilt was beginning to really bite into him, and each time he stopped himself from speaking his feelings, he was clearly growing more and more frustrated with himself. Dammit, dammit... he didn't like the idea of people his age killing... but he couldn't land the entirety of the blame on Arabella like this...

"I'm sorry." Panting several times over as the words escaped his mouth, that almost seemed like the hardest sentence - however brief - he'd had to say, and it made the following few a tad more bearable for him.
"I didn't know, and I made an assumption. Multiple ones." He corrected himself, thinking on how he'd jumped to conclusions on the state of Romanian culture, and Arabella's nature as a faerie.
"Plus... its not good to be mean to a Queen, right? Or is that in some informal way, like the whole faerie matter? Or am I getting that wrong again?" He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to think of something to say... try and ease the atmosphere a little.
"I mean... you've got the looks to be a Queen?" And that probably eased it like a particular iceberg tearing through the hull of the Titanic.
"Ugh... I'm not good at compliments. Sorry, again." He sighed as he brought his palm to his face, and groaned a little...

Only to stop at the sound of a slow, heavy breathing, mixed in a with a low grumble. Obviously, such a thing was not his own, and he highly doubted that the woman behind him was capable of making such a sound herself... so that meant...
"Down!" He yelled as the werewolf leapt out from the nearby bushes, and as Jeremy ducking left it flying right over him, it was airborne on a path to try and bite its way into Arabella's neck!
And on a less related note...
"Its wearing pants?!" He was gobsmacked by the revelation... seriously. Werewolf wearing trousers - and a jacket even!

Jeremy hadn't noticed Arabella's attempt to ruffle his hair, being a little too distracted by the hugeass werewolf that had just leapt over his head. Yeah, that was definitely six foot tall, if not bigger. Why hadn't he heard that thing coming earlier?
With the creature itself, it had fairly good reactions, and wasn't about to let itself fall victim to Arabella's strike again - not this easily. It ducked down as her blade swung, a few small hairs being sliced from the source, but the beast itself remained unharmed, diving forward towards her still. However, the woman proved more acrobatic than one would immediately suspect of her, much to Jeremy's amazement, as she deftly avoided the werewolf's strike, its clawed limb failing to make a second mark on her leg as she soared through the air. When she landed by Jeremy, his attention was caught between three things - Arabella, the werewolf, and the knife that was thrown by him. It was a lot larger and almost certainly more nasty than the one that had been thrown at him before.

"If you have super powers now would be a really good time to show them," She had said, and whilst he very much got what she meant and knew this to very much be the time and place for them. But, as long as there was a witness present, he couldn't, lest he expose his secret identity.
"I... I can't..." As much as he hated it, he was going to have to play the 'scaredy cat' card if he was to get out of here, and transform.
"Sorry!" He yelled out, almost immediately regretting the decision of leaving Arabella as the Werewolf leapt again, though this time, it intended to tackle the target to a tree, reducing her ability to get away. As it did so, Jeremy up and ran away, sprinting off into the dark depths of the forest. After a few moments, he'd be too far away for the woman to see, leaving only...

"Its good you came back. I don't like letting a catch get away." The werewolf growled to Arabella, grinning slightly at the prospect of getting to face her again.
"Who's the kid though? Wanting to help with my body count?" He asked, licking lips slightly at the apparent thought of getting slice Jeremy in two...

Though as for the kid himself, once he was sure he was far away enough, he slumped down by a tree, trying to catch his breath. He knew he'd be fine once he was transformed... but he enjoyed getting to scream out his lungs for this, and it may have been a requirement. He'd honestly not tried it any other way.
"Alright then..." He took in one last, deep breath, before spreading out his arms, and screaming towards the heavens.

The wolf seemed to enjoy its position of power over the woman, with its hand pressing down the side of her blade, and thus keeping it from being swung back in his face. Almost certainly deciding to toy with his 'food' a little, he had his face occasionally approach close to her's, sniffing her scent and taking it in.
"You know, ever since I got this change... I'm gotten used to picking out these little details in how people smell. And I smell fear on you, little lady." He snarled with a great deal of bravado, though a good deal of that seemed to escape with the wheeze of pain that came as result of the knee colliding with his stomach. It was brief though, and would not have given Arabella anything resembling her freedom, had it not been for the subsequently knife to his gut. The beast howled in pain, instinctively reaching the blade, extracting it, and tossing it aside as it stumbled back. A sizeable pool of blood dripped from the hole in its body, the beast looking back at the woman, before letting out a loud howl. Whilst there was no moon to cry to, it sounded similar to that which was imagined by many a man on the darkest nights... though far more bloodcurling, and terrifying.

"You're gonna get your's, ya dumb broad!" He snarled, and it was soon joined by a second snarl, as from within the bushes another werewolf leapt out, clawing at Arabella so as to prevent her from completely some action against the male. This new one had a few 'distinctions' that marked her as female, namely the fact she seemed to have the sensibility to still cover up her upper torso - however much the shirt she wore strained to do so.
"Lemme introduce ya - Alexis here's the one who found the guys willing to splice us. May not have the curves she used to, but I'm fine with the trade off." He chuckled a little, beginning to circle Arabella, and holding reasonably well in spite of his wound - though the occasional limp made it clear it wasn't a 100% deal.
"Don't flatter me Daisuke. Do that after I-" The one called Alexis spoke up, readying her claws for another attempt at Arabella, only for two armoured boots to press themselves into her chest, and send her flying back through the forest.

"'Lexis!" Daisuke turned his head as he witnessed his 'mate' get attacked, only to look back at just who had done that to her...
"What are you? Buckethead?!" He snarled at the red clad warrior, who with strange, ethereal wings of fire, settled themselves down near Arabella.
"The papers call me Wyvern Warrior actually." The hero remarked, slightly amused at the werewolf's increased frustration, though he looked aside to Arabella.
"Miss, you alright? Sorry I wasn't here sooner - finding these guys was like looking for a needle in a haystack." With his red hair and crystal like blue eyes, he doubted she'd be able to recognise him - it fulled everybody else, after all.

The Wyvern Warrior wasn't met by an answer to his question, and from the looks of her, not too much had been done in terms of damage. Good thing really, as he'd had moments where he'd been late... and those he didn't particularly like. Arriving in the nick of time? Waaaaaay more preferable.
"Did you see a kid running through the forest? He just bolted off, he could get hurt," He then blinked in mild surprise, though thinking back, wondered why he would be. She'd made it clear that she was worried about his (secret identity's) well being beforehand, whatever her standards and ideals were. Good to see that keeping people safe remained her top priority...
"I saw him. Told him to get up the hill side and stay there till I or a face he trusts, comes for him." Not to self - if Ari insisted on going off to find his real safe later, get there ahead of her without being spotted. Had to to make these bluffs work after all.

"Doesn't matter if there's one, two, or however goddamn many there are! We'll rip ya to shreds!" Daisuke yelled as he unveiled his claws, and in the distance, the one called Alexis staggered to her feet. As Daisuke charged with a howl at the Wyvern Warrior, knocking the young adult off his feet, Alexis tore a large branch off a nearby tree, before flinging it towards Arabella as a projectile. That done, she then charged with another in hand, intending on using it as a club against Arabella's sword, and her other arm attempting to claw her each time the two were in range of one another.

"Well ain't you just a prancing fairy?" Alexis snarled at Arabella's display of physical manueverability, having dodged the rather sizeable chunk of wood, which crashed upon the ground and tore up some of the dirt in the process. It seemed to put to rest the notion of 'when a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound?' because the one branch seemed to stir up quite a bit, regardless of what people themselves were doing.
"And I was never particularly nice... do you think a 'nice' girl goes out to turn herself into a half-wolf killing machine?" The werewolf asked the rather genuine question in response to Ari's little remark as they charged, swinging the club in a contest against the woman's blade... and it was a contest that was shortly lost, as the blade cut through the wood like a hot knife would butter. Splinters went flying and a werewolf's howl echoed through the air, but the blade didn't go any farther than the wood itself, as Alexis countered with her claws.

Whatever they were, they were certainly more durable, and way sharper, than natural born claws on a wolf - or a human, if they were to file their nails correctly - had any right to be. Otherwise, they surely wouldn't have lasted against the edge of the well honed blade, though the fact the werewolf was trying to make sure that her opponent couldn't pick up much momentum with the weapon again, probably helped.
"So whats your business with us?" The werewolf asked as she thrust her hands back and forth like a machine, trying to keep Ari on her toes, instead of fighting back.
"You don't look like a Cape... and I don't ever remember seeing your face. We kill your boyfriend or something? Husband maybe?" And she seemed similarly leaning towards the notion of psychological warfare, upping her 'rate of fire' as she asked the questions.

---

As much as Daisuke was strong, his brief moment of catching the Wyvern Warrior off his footing was, well, rather brief to say the least. It didn't take much for the armoured lad to kick his opponent right off of him, though having rolled a bit, it simply pushed the fight further away from the ladies. Using his power of flight to oppose his own momentum, the Wyvern Warrior skidded to a halt, as behind him, Daisuke rolled for a bit, until finally using the grip of his claws to similarly halt himself. The werewolf snarled at his opponent as they turned, attempting to close the distance with a quick sprint and a leap, but what he got for his troubles was a knuckle sandwich, liberally applied to the jaw.
"You're like some feral animal, y'know. Luckily for you, I don't exactly intend to put you down." Wyvern Warrior remarked as his opponent crashed onto the ground, before attempting to rise to their feet again.

"I'll be as damned feral as I want! I was sick and tired of all those stupid little laws... the day I first took somebody's life was the best of my own - the sight of their blood was intoxicating... and then I realised there could be an art to the murder... it was the greatest sensation." The werewolf seemed almost to laugh, as Jeremy folded his arms, tapping his foot as if waiting for the wolf to finish.
"You done?"
Which he was.
"Huh?" And that apparently threw the werewolf off more than a little.
"I said: Are you done? I mean... You're not the first villain speech I've heard. And I really don't buy into what you guys ever say... so... its just a waiting game really." Daisuke was gobsmacked at the Wyvern Warrior's words, staring in total disbelief.
"Why you little-!"

"So you're done!" The hero gave a cheer as he flew forward, readying his fist.

POW!

"So?" Alexis asked back as Arabella answered her question, though a moment of hesitation, and bad choice in aim, left the werewolf open to the woman's strike. If it wasn't obvious by now, whilst the creatures were physically tougher than humans to a degree, they were near a truly 'superhuman' level. Their flesh could be cut, there were limits to their strength and the fact a woman likely less than half their current weight could knock the wind out of them, were signs of that. It was the claws that were really off.
And whilst Alexis wasn't really 'sent sprawling to the floor', as such, she did indeed stagger backwards, dropping slightly, providing the opening that Ari required to slam down on the wolf's fist. Whilst it didn't break either, the howl of pain it let out made it clear that it hurt like utter hell.

"Y-You-" The werewolf was about to object, but stopped cold at the cool touch of the blade upon the back of her neck. All she could do, without likely risking a quick end, was to look out of the corner of her eye, up at the woman who now seemed more intent than ever on ending their life. What was once confidence and bravado gave way to genuine fear, as the werewolf realised more and more how unlikely it was survive this encounter.
"Y-you're crazy... as crazy as we are..." She muttered in a horrified tone, before the smaller blade cut across the werewolf's cheek. She was too scared now to even move as it took the place of the katana... she could only whimper...

---

~Earlier~

POW

The hard strike from the hero's right fist had sent Daisuke sprawling across the forest floor, his body rolling several times over before it slammed into the side of a tree trunk.
"Ugh!" The werewolf balled up the dirt in his hands as he tried to rise to his feet, managing to leap forward in time to avoid the Wyvern Warrior's foot coming down on top of him.
"You're persistent, I'll give you that." Jeremy remarked from beneath his mask as he stared at the wolf, who subsequently leapt at him, trying to claw him. What he couldn't catch or block, simply made no impact on the armour itself, the hits even making a little 'ding' as they bounced right off. He remembered the first time he had discovered that whilst like this, he was actually bullet proof, instead of simply strong. He had been pretty terrified by the shotgun pointed at him - after all, did you normally see people survive that? But nope, he had, and that fact had subsequently saved his life, and many others since then. It was what made him more than a fighter or a strong man - it made him people's shield.

"Though, honestly, I gotta ask." Managing to catch both of the werewolf's fists this time, the Wyvern Warrior proceeded to slam his well protected forehead against their own. He might not have been Bruce freaking Lee, but when an opportunity presented itself, he'd put it to use. That it didn't really hurt too much for him probably made it way easier than it rightfully should have been.
"Why don't you just make this easy on yourself, and give up? I'd say its better than continuing this pointless fight, and I won't have to drag you to prison, instead of you handing yourself over to the authorities." Walking over to them, he crouched down beside the werewolf, looking them over. Whilst he pretty much believed the villain's little spiel to be a load of bupkis... he still felt inclined to do what he could for the guy. And having them go to prison, and be judged for their crimes, rather than hunted down and slayed, seemed like the right thing.

"I'll even visit if you want. See how you're doing?" It was something he did with his villains, even the ones who seemed beyond help - such as Doctor Devastation. The thing was, in some cases, it was just a case of people having a rather bad day, than being actively malevolent towards society. So why not actually talk to these people? Try to help them? Taking the cynical route of just killing them off to end the threat seemed more like giving up, than anything else.
"Are you even listening?" But even he could get frustrated by how he was being ignored by the werewolf, giving occasional pokes as the creature seemed to be... picking something up.

"Blood... 'Lexis' blood..." Daisuke was sniffing at the air, and Jeremy ended up following his line of sight back where they had come. Okay so... his mate had some of her blood drawn. Couldn't be too big a deal, right?
"Fear..." And... she was afraid? Was there a reason to be? It wasn't as if...

...Wait, what was it that Ari had said earlier?

"...How much do you care for her?"
"She's the one thing I live for in life, save the hunt..." ...So the guy could care for someone. That'd be a start.
"You promise not to run off?" He asked, and there was a slow nod. Whilst some might call it stupid - and even Jeremy had to admit, it was iffy - to take the wolf at such... he wasn't about to let someone die, if he could help it.
And so, he was through the air, wings spread wide as he aimed for his top speed. They hadn't gone too far, so getting back to Arabella and the other werewolf didn't take too long...

And the Wyvern Warrior's crystal eyes widened in horror, as he saw the woman pushing the knife into the werewolf's neck. He could just make out her question, and much of the respect he'd held for her, began to fade away, in the heat of the moment.
"STOP!" He flew at the woman head on, intending to knock her off feet, and with any luck, pin her to the ground. If not, he would stand between her and the werewolf regardless. He'd arrived just short of the werewolf suffering a fatal strike, though her neck would be certainly be bleeding quite profusely, and the beast left struggling to breathe.
"You have no right to take her life, you hear me?! Neither of us do!" The anger in his voice was clear, as was his shame in realising that she was actually willing to go through with such.
"You're no better than them if you do! You're a murderer!" Well... depending on the scenario, he was technically right... but not entirely either.

As much as Arabella tried, the Wyvern Warrior could bench press a tank and had his flight to push into the ground as needed. As much as she made dislike it, she wasn't going to be getting up until he released her - or she pulled something clever.
"That doesn't change the fact you're planning to kill them, when you have neither the right or authority!" He answered rather angrily, eyes narrowing... almost rather feral really, which made sense given the fact he wasn't wholly human. Heck, he might have taken note of the woman's beauty from here, were it not for the fact he cared rather little for that right now.
"If they are handed to the police, then they are judged. By the proper authorities. And if they judge that these two deserve execution, or life imprisonment, then thats what happens. Or, if they decide that they deserve another chance, thats what happens. Neither you or I are allowed to decide what else happens." And as Daisuke bounded in, joining Alexis' side, Jeremy looked back.

"They're not monsters, they're people. People can have bad days, and people can be helped. And I hope somebody helps you sort out your priorities. I should honestly bring you in for attempted murder..." He muttered slightly as he rose to his feet, though he kept himself stood between Ari and the werewolves. With fists clenched, it was obvious that if she tried to pass him in order to get at the human canines, she'd have to go through him.
"...But I won't. You did at least try to help... and I get what you're saying. But thats just not how it works here." And it was how he hoped, it would never have to work. He'd so far avoided a situation that required him to kill, and hopefully, fate would be kind enough to keep that going.
"Leave. Or would you like to try your luck?" The Wyvern Warrior stared long and hard at the woman... hoping she'd make the right call.