Battle for blacktown part 3

Dawson watched the titans battle transfixed. Sure, he had been to a show fight once, but this was something else. This was real. He almost did not notice when Shrapnel left his side and started walking determined towards the edge of the forest.
“Hey, where are you going!?” Dawson almost had to run to keep up with him. Damn those long legs, they had gotten him into so much trouble.
“Something is wrong, there are no birds.” Shrapnel said. “I need to get into town.”
Shrapnel undid the cape of his uniform and let it fall on the forest floor. With it came all of the ribbons and decorations that marked him as a general.
“If you haven’t noticed there is a battle between us and it.” Dawson tried.
“Most of them are focused on Reed’s troops already.”
Shrapnel unsheathed two of his swords, and as soon as he cleared the trees he started running. Dawson hesitated.  Shrapnel had told him to stay put, but also to stay close. In the end he decided to follow the shifter, they were here for a reason and he’d be damned if he only stood at the side-lines.


“Oh! There he is. Look at him go.” the ferret said. “Never knew the librarian could move like that.”
“Yes, very impressive.” The snake did not sound very impressed at all. “But I want to see him use his animal form!”
Fisk on the other hand had his eyes trained on a different person.
“Very odd. Very odd indeed.” Fisk mumbled to himself.
“You know what’s odd?” the hedgehog said. “Fernis, you know, one of the electric shifters assigned to his squad.  She claims he shifted in front of them, and that he turned into a bug. Of course, no one believed her.”
“Curious.” Fisk answered. “Why didn’t you?”
“It’s not possible. A bug has no brain.” the snake said.
“In what way is a brain a prerequisite?”
“Fisk... You need a brain to think, remember?”
“And when you shift to demon form where is your brain then?”
“That’s a completely different thing!” the snake hissed.
“I understand why you did not believe her.” Fisk was already bored with the conversation. The only interesting thing about it had been that Sulphur chose to shift in front of a public, and neither of these people could have any insights on that. He went back to silently studying Inaida clumsily making his way through Sulphur’s wake. He got about ten seconds of silence.
“He is not a bug, is he?”


Shrapnel rushed straight for the gates of Blacktown only slowing to take out the rebels that had the bad luck of getting in his way. His movements were a flurry of blades and he just as often left them in his foes as he pulled them out. Each time he left a sword he pulled a new from one of the six sheaths. As he fought Shrapnel kept unconsciously summoning more swords right under his hand when he reached for an empty sheath.
Every rebel he defeated Shrapnel marked as wounded, but not unconscious in the AR overlay. Yellow flags hovered above animals and humanoids with wounds to grave for a human to survive, but by now Dawson knew those wounds would probably not even leave a scar on a shifter.

At first Dawson had thought the repressor was the best choice to arm himself with. The shifters that Shrapnel all left behind was going to need to be hit with repressor tech sooner or later so they could be collared and taken in. The gun only had so many bullets, the repressor would last for a lot more hits, and did not need to be reloaded. So he pulled out the repressor.
Dawson ran up to the nearest target marked by the yellow flag and swung the repressor. It was clumsy and heavy, clearly designed for someone with ten times his strength. He hit the shifter with the broadside just as they were getting up from being prone. Even if Dawson hadn't pierced them the effect seemed to work as the unsuspecting target got knocked down again and turned into a panther.
Then Dawson realized he had no idea how long the effect of a repressor was supposed to last. Not long enough for the clean-up crew to get here he guessed, as it did not have the added benefit of the hefty dose of sedative that came with the payload bullets.
Dawson decided to sheath the repressor and use the gun anyway, but as he was struggling with the change of weapon the panther lunged at him.
With the supernatural strength of a shifter the weight of the panther would have been negligible, but Dawson’s legs bucked immediately. Luckily this was not something the panther had counted on but instead was put off balance at least as much as Dawson himself. Together they tumbled down into the mud.
There were a few seconds of confused struggle, right as the panther seemed to regain its composure Dawson got a hold on the gun. With the shifter literally on top of him it was impossible to miss. Dawson fired and the cat collapsed unconscious over him.
Dawson heaved the unconscious cat to the side and got back on his feet. Mud covered his clothes and hair, Shrapnel had already increased the distance between them by a few meters.
"Gun. Definitively gun." Dawson mumbled to himself like he needed more convincing.

He finally caught up with Shrapnel just inside the gates of Blacktown. He wasn't as out of breath as he had expected to be, Jodie's training had paid off in more ways than one. Shrapnel shot him a surprised sideways glance. Dawson shrugged.
"You said 'Stay close'."
Shrapnel snorted at him.
Together they made their way through the deserted streets, it seemed like all the residents were out fighting on the field. Dawson had the gun ready, just in case.
"Do you think maybe this was never their real base?" Dawson asked.
"Not likely."
You on an alley came two shifters. One had green hair and a gun, the other orange skin and was being held at gunpoint by the first.
"Hey! Hey!" green hair called. "I caught one of the rebels!"
"Let go of me you coward!" her victim growled.
Shrapnel stopped and regarded them for a second.
“Inaida, gun.” he said.
Dawson handed over the gun. Shrapnel took it and made sure there were still bullets in the magazine before shooting the green haired shifter.
It was hard to tell who was most surprised, Dawson or the hostage.
“Why did you shoot her? She was on our side??” Dawson asked.
"No, she wasn't. She took her friend hostage hoping to get away by blending in with the soldiers." Shrapnel explained. “She was a coat turner, but she was still a rebel. We can’t be seen playing favourites.” Shrapnel marked the green haired shifter's now deer shaped body with the blue "defeated" flag in AR. “Though I presume this count as giving up.” he said and added the "surrendered" tag. Then Shrapnel pointed the gun at the hostage, who hadn't had the composure to try and run. “Life, bird shifter, where did she hold up?”
“I’m not giving you anything!” she said defiantly.
Shrapnel sighed. “Are you giving up or not? As it is you will be taken in by the army, it is just a question of what will happen to you afterwards. The way I see it you have nothing to gain from not telling me in this situation.”
The yellow skinned looked down at the green deer and seemed to mull it over. “Two blocks that way, on the right.”
“Thanks.” Shrapnel pulled the trigger.