Daniel Takes charge and roars.
She was in control, and she knew it. She was powerful, she was large, and even tired and full she had the regal splendor one associates with the mythic and mystical. Watching Keth and Angel pull away from their two baffled assailants and the angry swearing die down, Daniel turns her attention to those at the road, those being locked inside a van. Those who were even in this moment trying to slip cuffs onto Charley for some unknown reason. If this was an arrest, it was being done with military precision or riot control, none of these people looked or dressed like ordinary police.
Which of course begged the question.
“WHAT!” Daniel roars, mouth wide and teeth bared. Perhaps not as intimidating as she’d hoped given they were the flat and dull incisors of a human and held none of the deadly sharpness one might expect from a lion. “IS GOING ON?!”
A few men flinch back. A few drop what they are doing and reach for something on their belts. At least one starts to mutter into a radio piece with a frantic zeal, too far away to hear clearly.
‘wrong target, wrong target’ Daniel thinks she hears in the scratchy distortion of a radio transition. ‘detain at all costs’ flickering in from the wind.
“I said …” Daniel growls out again through gritted teeth, stepping forward with heavy paws and kicking up sand as she strides closer to those trees. She’s too surprised herself to finish the question.
A small sound, the flit of something fast and tiny zipping through the air. The sharp pain on her shoulder as if she’d been stung by a bee, or someone had flicked a tiny stone. No, it was more comparable to being jabbed by a needle, feeling the long and thin metal stuck between layers of fur. It was only after she saw everyone else explode into a flurry of movement did she realize one of the men by Keth and Angel was holding a gun. Aiming the gun. No, he’d already fired it and now, well within reach of a quick paw swipe, was trying to keep his hand steady while loading in another dart.
Green and red and blue frills, the multicolored projectile seemed uncooperative in fitting into the thin, plastic looking pistol with a long barrel.
There were distant clicks, numerous clicks, and suddenly Daniel experienced the same level of shock as half of the other squad pulled out weapons of their own. Some small hand held pistols, but a few by the van were struggling to pull out long rifles. Others dive behind a log, behind a bench, one of the closest swung around to brace his shoulders against a tree as if that might provide some cover. Open car doors served as a wall, those who were right at the cottage doorway ducked inside. A single man of exceptional bravado pulled out what appeared to be a baton with an orange plastic ball at the end, striding forward like he thought he was a knight of legend.
Daniel was given moments to react while they lined up shot. She chose to duck for cover herself.
A leap! No, more of a dive, the wings slicing out in a deft stroke and buffeting the four people near. Angel drops to her knees and covers her eyes, Keth plants his back to the nearest tree just inches away from an armed man trying to grab him. The one fumbling to load his gun distracted and twitchy as trailing dust and a swirl of leaves makes it harder to see. And the man braced behind a tree tries to line up his shot with a small pistol, only to find the earth shattering impact of a cat jumping so close almost knocked him off his feet.
Flitflitflitflit-
Multiple shots range, tiny explosions and bursts of compressed gas to send these darts hurtling forward. One dart sails past the sphinx’s tail to splash some distance toward the lake, a tiny plop that went unnoticed in all of the drama. Another man stumbles to ready his pistol, finding the gun jammed with the dart only halfway through the barrel, now looking down to investigate it.
A dart strikes true into Daniel’s flank, jabbing between the fur on her thighs. Another dart hits, but bounces off, the lionesses feeling only a tiny flick. A third lands home into her stomach and jabs between the ribs, a hard wince as it was like some deep paper cut. A fourth pierces harshly into the joint between her body and wing, jabbing all too painfully into sensitive flesh.
“GAaaahhh!”
If the others were paper cuts, this was a needle between the fingers. Daniel’s pained shouts causing notable terror to the four literally at her feet, but those far enough way to tell they were beyond the reach of her claws seemed more elated that the darts could hurt her at all.
No time, no time!
She twisted around to swing her rump and tail away from the sidelines, mostly hiding behind a tree and seeing the two friends at her feet. Where was Charley? Couldn’t see him by the car anymore. But she could see guns, lots of them, those long rifles working to get a clear shot.
“That really stings, you know that?!” Daniel shouts in anger through gritted teeth, glaring to those distant operatives. Were these people soldiers? Officers? Mercenaries? For a moment the sphinx wanted to assume opening fire immediately, even with non-lethals, couldn’t be standard practice. But then she realized she wasn’t some ordinary kid right now, and a multi-ton flying lion bursting out of a lake wasn’t a standard scenario either. “Just calm down and explain what’s going on, I’m not some supervillian asking rhetorical questions!”
But the man closest to Daniel had finally cleared a shot and aimed up at the lioness’s neck. A burst of movement! A flit noise, and suddenly adult man and thin woman were on the ground in a fierce wrestling match.
“STOP IT!” Angel shouts with her arms wrapped around the gunman’s wrist, making a clear shot all but impossible. Four men were moving in closer, the insane looking man with a baton rushed in like a madman, and those in the far back were lining up shots from behind cover. She didn’t know exactly what these darts were laced with, but she also knew she was a very big target and words clearly weren’t getting a useful response. She had to make a decision, fast …
Written by Arbon on 03 March 2017