Blaze followed Kale the entire way, breathing a little faster than he was. But her expression was calm. She nodded to Kale as she pulled a knife out of her boot. She waited for Kale's signal to go.

--

When the alarm went off, it was only a matter of moments before Yue was running down the hall, trying to figure out what was going on.

Kale nodded and then took off, sprinting to the right. He jumped as a bullet hit the ground where his feet had been a moment before. He cussed silently and ran on, quickly hiding behind the next building before inching his way closer again.

--

Wolfe was in the main conference room. He didn't bother looking up from his map as Yue entered. Frei turned to look at her. "Kale has run into trouble." she explained calmly in complete contrast to the chaos around her.

Blaze sprinted off in the shadows, trying to get into a good position to corner their assailant.

--

Since Frei had the most level head, Yue walked over to her to get more details.

The assailant's focus seemed to remain on Kale, continuing to take shots at him as Kale tried to approach. But when Blaze started getting too close, he took off. Kale continued along the side, keeping him from slipping away as they continued to track him.

--

Frei pointed to a small neon green dot on the digital map. "He's here." he explained, "Normally he'd do his best to slip away but he seems to be taking up an attack. He has Blaze with him so they must feel they can deal with whatever the situation is." She paused, "We're sending backup but I don't think it'll get there in time to help." she shrugged.

Blaze continued putting pressure on the assailant, trying to force him into making a rash decision. She was actually very good at this.

--

Yue looked at the map for a moment before nodding a little. "They can catch him," she said confidently.

Kale matched Blaze until the man got a bit too close to his side. Kale shot, a bullet just grazing the man's inner thigh as the man managed to dodge. Kale shot again as dodging had put him off balance.

--

Frei started to nod and then suddenly grew rather pale. "Rui..." she whispered and somehow over the chaos, Wolfe heard her. He was at her side in a moment, looking down at the map she was staring at. Then he began to cuss and quickly began shouting orders into a headpiece.

"They're headed right for a trap." Frei stated quietly to Yue pointing to a cluster of lights appearing on the map. "That must have been the goal all along."

Blaze ran ahead, staying clear of Kale's shots, trying to cut the assailant off.

--

Yue said nothing. All they could do now was put their faith in Blaze and Kale's abilities.

Finally Blaze managed to cut him off, he turned on Kale but was just rounding the corner and managed to skim his shoulder with a bullet. Kale returned fire and the man fell with a bullet in his kneecap.

--

"They've stopped moving." Frei whispered.

Blaze immediately moved to disarm the man.

The man fought against Blaze but his injured knee was too much and he fell. Meanwhile, Kale jogged up to them and looked the man over. The sleeve had been pulled up on his left arm during the short fight with Blaze and now revealed a very familiar dragon tattoo. Once Kale had glanced him over he pulled a bottle out of his pocket and sprayed foam onto his cut on his arm to stop the bleeding.

--

"Get out of there..." Frei whispered to the map as the other lights approached Kale. "How soon til backup arrives?" she asked Wolfe. "They'll be there in two minutes."

"Not good enough." Frei retorted, expressing a surprising tone of command, "I should have gone myself."

Wolfe gave her a rather sharp look and Frei held it for a moment before caving and looking back at the map.

Blaze cussed a little as she saw the dragon tattoo. She grabbed the man by the collar and raised his head up to get a good look at his face. After a moment she ripped some hair off his head and then dropped him. "This isn't right," she whispered as she shoved the hair in her pocket. "We should leave."

---

Yue waited patiently.

Kale nodded, "Should we take him with us?" he asked, staring at the man. Suddenly there was a rain of gunfire from ahead of them and Kale cursed, diving and rolling to the right. Within moments the man Blaze had disarmed was dead.

--

Frei's face showed no sign of distress but she slowly tapped her fingers against the glass.

Blaze dove out of the way to avoid the gunfire before beginning to flee.

Kale was right behind her, following in her trail and either on purpose or inadvertently, covering her back. They ran for quite a ways before they heard a Juttle over top of them, Blaze would recognize it as one of Wolfe's. The number of gunshots aimed at them slowed and finally stopped all together as the Juttle fired back at the gunmen.

Blaze did recognize the Juttle and quickly moved to get into a good position for the Juttle to defend and pick them up.

Kale was slower as he followed Blaze to the better position. He looked her over for a moment, tired eyes looking to see if she'd been hit.

Blaze's leg had been grazed, but nothing vital. She was going to be fine. As Kale got farther behind, she slowed a little to turn around.

Relief filled Kale's eyes as he confirmed she was fine. "S..." he coughed, "Sorry... I can't..." he coughed again, stumbling forward as some blood dripped from his mouth.

Blaze immediately turned around and ran back to Kale. Without a word she bent over and grabbed Kale's legs, slinging him over her shoulder. "Stay conscious," she told him through her pants as she continued jogging toward the Juttle.

Kale cried out a bit has Blaze threw him over her shoulders, "I suppose..." Kale whispered as he continued to cough, "I... should say... something... sappy..." he stifled a groan, "now..."

"Shut up," Blaze instructed as she tried to pick up the pace. "Think of... sugar... or something."

Kale chuckled but it quickly turned into coughing as he struggled to breathe. As soon as Blaze reached the Juttle, Kale was taken from her and the Juttle took off as soon as the outer door was closed. It was now apparent Kale had been shot at least once in the back. He was losing consciousness fast.

Blaze let the medics take Kale, but she shoved her way to his side. She was panting badly and looked like she might actually loose consciousness herself, but she didn't seem to notice.

When she saw him loosing consciousness she reached out and slapped him hard on the face to bring him back.

Kale's eyes flicked open for a moment at the slap, glossy eyes fixing on Blaze. The medics were swarming, trying to stabilize his breathing with tubes as they turned him on his side to get a good look at his back. "One... tw-no three bullets." a doctor called out as they cut away the back of his shirt to reveal his bulletproof jacket underneath. The bullets had had enough power to puncture the vest but they hadn't come out the other side. He'd already be dead if they had. Quickly they removed his jacket, got him into the operating room on the medical Juttle. Kale was still in and out of consciousness as they brought him inside.

Blaze didn't let anyone tell her no as she went with them. She held Kale's head in her hands, trying to keep eye contact with him. When the doctor said there were three bullets in his back, a tear rolled down Blaze's face. But she wiped it away quickly before leaning forward and kissing Kale's forehead lightly.

Kale seemed to realize she was there at least partially. By the time they got situated in the operation room, Kale's heart had stopped twice already. Each time they restarted it and proceeded to get him stable enough to remove the bullets. Quickly they drugged him and turned him over. One nurse suggested Blaze leave or at least not look as they started to operate on his back. The sooner they got the bullets out the better.

Blaze quickly complied and gave the doctor's space. But she didn't leave, and she didn't look away. The operation didn't seem to bother her. But leaving him now seemed to be too much for her. So she squatted quietly in the corner, twisting Kale's hat in her hands.

No one bothered Blaze as the operation continued. Time passed slowly as an hour slipped away before the head doctor went over to Blaze. Kale was wrapped in bandages but the operation was over. They were now landing since the fear of jostling him during surgery was over.

"We've removed the bullets." he told her gently, "But I don't want to give you false hopes. He's still critical... but stable at the moment. His vitals are stabilized. We'll do our best but he still might not make it. Do you understand?"

Blaze nodded slowly and solemnly. She was tired, but she had stayed there the entire time. The injury on her leg was taken care of; she had accepted the supplies from one of the nurses after the first hour or so and taken care of her leg herself. "... Thank you, doctor," she told him quietly. "for doing your best."

The doctor nodded and left as the Juttle landed and was swarmed by neon haired people. The doctor took them aside as Kale was transported out of the Juttle and into a more stable setting in the main hovercraft. The nurses allowed Blaze to stay by his side as the moved him carefully.

So Blaze didn't let Kale out of her sight. She had a slight limp because she didn't have her injury treated right away. But it didn't seem to bother her as she kept up with everyone else.

About twenty minutes after Kale had been settled into a room and hooked up to everything there was a knock on the door. No nurses had stayed, telling Blaze to push the alert button is there were any changes with Kale. For know, he needed to rest.

Blaze glanced at all the screens quickly to make sure Kale was okay before heading over to the door.

Wolfe stood in the doorway eyes bit regretful, "I wish I could wait until the morning to ask you." he sighed, "But we need to know what happened."

Blaze nodded, leaving the door open as she walked back to her seat next to Kale that had a clear view of all the monitors hooked up to him.

Wolfe walked in and looked down at Kale. His eyes were hard to read as he focused back on Blaze.

Blaze cooperated fully, giving Wolfe a detailed account of what had happened. She remembered and relayed all the important, helpful details like she had been trained to do so.

In the middle of her explanation, Yue randomly invited herself in. She gave Blaze a bag with various items inside. She pulled out a protein bar and started munching on it as she continued her explanation. Yue grabbed a seat and listened quietly as Blaze finished. She carefully pulled out the hair she had taken from their assailant and gave it to Yue. "I can describe the assailant for an artist if you think his face would help," she explained. Yue was quiet as she mused over the hair.

"That complicates things." Wolfe mused, "We don't know if the man was from Yin Long or the Okorie family." He paused, "Regardless, we won't be leaving tomorrow. We'll stay and figure this out."

"... No," Yue replied quietly. "This is all we need," she explained as she closed her fist around the hair. "Nic is undoubtedly on his way to James' place right now. And we need him to figure out who this man was as soon as possible."

Wolfe watched Yue for a moment, "We cannot all risk going back to James'." He glanced at Kale. "They're targeting us now." he stared back at Yue, "Perhaps just you... and maybe Frei can travel back with the hair. The majority of us must stay here... just in case this has to do with a lab. We need to know for sure."