Whoops! Time to revive it!

The bounty hunter steps out from behind the withered tree. He's dressed all in black like a ninja, so none of his skin is visible. He's holding something that looks like a gun, but it blends in with the black of his suit and the night, so I can't be sure.

"Her," the bounty hunter points the object at Caljera Scinner. "I'm looking for her."

Nahla~

Everyone's awake now. Allarie's cupping her dart gun in her palm so the hunter can't see it, but we can -- that little chrome tube holds darts with enough poison to knock a man out for a day -- possibly with some brain damage too. But she doesn't shoot yet.

"Why are you here?" she asks.

The hunter obviously can't see her gun -- he laughs from behind his black mask. "'Why are you here?' she asks? I told you, didn't I? Miss Caljera," he says in a slow drawl, "how are you?"

Holly's arms are around Caljera, who's shivering. "Leave her alone!" cries Holly, scowling.

"Oh, yes," smiles the hunter. "I can't harm her. Your friend," he nods to Darius, "wants all the people intact." 

Allarie's finger twitches, and I can hear a miniscule click. She's got her finger on the trigger now.

Lena's grabbed a stick from the fire and is using it as a torch. The eerie glow of the flames isn't helping the suspense.  

I look around and can't see Nadya. Where... is... she? I can feel my face getting pale.  

It's actually kind of a funny story how I managed to poison a boy I had met not even a week before.

You see, I was sitting behind that rock, totally oblivious to the bounty hunter threatening my friends. A little breeze started to pick up, not much, but enough that a few grains of dust blew into my eyes. I tried to rub them out, but there was dust all over my hands, and I managed only to completely blind myself within twenty seconds.

I needed water to flush out the grit. We were supposed to be getting up early anyways, so if I tripped over one pf the others, I could say it was almost sunrise and we were getting up. My hands out before me, I bumbled towards the main campfire.

"Ow!" My shoulder connectd hard with someone else's, and there was a funny little thwap sound. "Nadyaaaahhh..." I heard Darius mumur, and then there was a thud.

Someone shoved me out of the way, and I tripped over whatever had fallen on the ground, landing on my back. Tears rose to my eyes- I had twisted my ankle beneath me, and it hurt! The salt water from my tear ducts washed out the sand, and I blinked twice when I saw Darius lying next to me looking green. I blinked about five more times when I noticed Allarie sitting on top of some random new person's back. The random person, all in black, was faking injured. Very obviously. Well, not obviously to Allarie.

Okay, this is a little confusing but I think this is the gist of it: Allarie tranquilized the bounty hunter and he is out cold. Nadya came back from behind the rock and accidentally trampled Darius. So at this point everyone is here, the bounty hunter, Darius, and Nadya are all a little bit hurt. Nadya twisted her ankle, Darius got the breath knocked out of him, and the bounty hunter got hit by the tranquilizer gun. Nadya probably will recover sooner than Darius, who will definitely recover sooner than the bounty hunter. The bounty hunter might be out for a few hours.

Soo, back to the story:

Nahla~

We're all awake now, the excitement of the scene filling us all with adrenaline even if it's only about five in the morning.  

Allarie bends over the bounty hunter, checking for a pulse. "He's alive," she reports, "but then, that tranquilizer was pretty strong, so he'll be out of our way for a few hours maybe."

Darius coughs and sits up, his face pale. "Well, what should we do about him?"

Holly offers her opinion. "He was going for Caljera. We can't let him hurt her."

Lena tilts her head to one side. "He's obviously a Rhyker. I mean, he said 'your friend' to Darius, and he was going for Caljera, which means he was targeting the same town -- the same people -- as the Rhykers were. He could give us information."

Mel frowns at Lena. "We can't just wait around. A few hours? We could be over the mountains by then."

Lena crosses her arms.  "We can carry him, you know."

Ramae looks quizzical. "Your cargo bike? But do we really want to have a hostile bounty hunter around with us as we head towards the place where he was hunting? Lena, if you said he was targeting Fortis, why would we take him there?"

"We need the information."

"We don't need the threat."

I look over at Holly. "Holly, how much farther to Fortis?" 

Hello! I would love to post on this friend, but... I'm kinda out of the way. I mean, a person hasn't mentioned my character's name since a long time. So... I can't really post. I have no rps, so I would love to but... :(

I'm so confused! What is happening? Where is Mel? Did she die or something?

Nahla~

I grin at Allarie's comment.

"We've got to move," I say. From the sound of it, they're tracking us.

"Wait," counters Allarie. "There's things we need to address first." She takes my laptop from the bike and opens it. "We're fron Citali, we don't know the cities." She passes the computer to Holly. "Where...?"

Holly quickly opens the map and pinpoints all the cities in the letters: Quintorn, Fortis, Citali, Mergon. "Mergon is on the coast. Citali's in the center, of course. Fortis is over the mountains, and Quintorn is in the opposite direction. It's like a triangle -- Fortis, Quintorn, and Mergon are the points, and Citali is on the line between Fortis and Quintorn."

Darius taps a finger thoughtfully on the obsidian. "Marina is in Mergon. It sounds like the Rhykers are based either there or in Quintorn. Fortis is their target."

I frown. "Why isn't Citali their target?"

Allarie's brow furrows. "Citali is being attacked. By Rhykers."

I counter. "It could be they're only attacking Citali to attack us. We're a target, remember? This Rhyker only stopped in Citali because it's in the middle."

"Rhykers are in Citali. They're stealing."

"Rhykers are heading to Fortis. They want to set off this weapon."

Mel straightens up. "Okay, we get it. It's confusing, okay? But they're Rhykers out there. We know where they are now. Let's go!"

Allarie glares at her. "It is, but we need to figure it out! We came out here to save Citali, not attack Rhykers." 

Mel glares back. "Aren't they the same thing?"

"No! I'm head of the Secret Police for Citali, and Citali only. I have no duty to Fortis or Quintorn or Mergon."

"I know I'm just a thief, but we're already out here. So you have a duty to help everyone here. It's not just about your stained glass and your architecture and your library anymore. You're here, and we're going for the Rhykers." Mel looks fiercer than any of us have ever seen her, or anyone. 

"Citali is the center. Citali is the only thing that matters."

"No! Don't you understand? We've been out here, Allarie. Librarian. You don't understand. This is the real world. Citali is a fantasy. You can build your solar panels, you can sit in your library. But something happened fifty years ago, and this is what's out here. This is where your Rhykers are. So you can fight them whenever they touch your precious city, and they'll just laugh and keep out of your reach. Or you can think like a thief, think like a Rhyker, and beat them out here. What you do out here matters to us. Matters to Citali, even if they've never gone out past their stained-glass walls to see it."

Allarie looks surprised. None of us, I think, have expected Mel to talk so much, to care so much. "Okay, Mel. We'll fight Rhykers. We'll go. But there's one thing..."

She turns to Caljera. "They said Caljera's remond. They said they could set it off in Fortis. What do they have? Why is it yours?" Her voice is getting louder and louder, more and more intense. "What do you know?"