To set the stage.

Cattaras and Becky Joy were recently taken in an ambush by the slavers of Catalina Isle. Regrouping from her failed efforts to save them, Lalucia met up with Summer, Wildfall and Todd Blackpaws and vowed to rescue the two.

 
Heavy violence and cursing, sexual humor of a crude nature

Colan El DeSoDa, the air rapist from earlier, was brought into the main area of the cave by what passed for guards. His half frozen body was thrown into the middle of the others, where he lay, barely moving and shivering. His skin had a pale light blue touch to it. Ice cycles had actually formed on his thick, unkempt beard and greasy, disgusting hair.

Slick glanced over at his fallen comrade and smirked. "Let me guess, she's frigid?"

"N-nn-not.. funny," Colon complained, barely moving. "I'm.. d-d-d-d-yin here.. lil.. lil he-h-h'lp?"

"Why didn't you just take the witch while she was still unconscious?!" Another asked between fits of laughter.

"T-tried," Colon said, grabbing a nearby spare coat to wrap himself up in. "S-s-she froze me in her sleep."

"Hope you didn't leave anything important behind." Slick commented, to expected reaction.

Meanwhile, Cattaras stirred, his mind trying to fight the lingering effects of the drug to regain consciousness. He rose slowly and began to pace, shaking it out as he moved faster and faster- almost blurring- then rushing the wall and WHAM- punching it!

"OW!" He growled, now fully alert. he went over to the door of his cell, his cage if you will, and looked out. "Hey! Becky! You awake?" He spoke as loudly as he dared without raising attention. It wasn't doing much good. Becky didn't respond. Cattras's mind was blurry, but he couldn't image they'd be kept too far apart. He just needed some way of getting her to respond. He growled, racking his brain for something to get her attention OTHER than what he knew would work- and failing miserably. So he closed his eyes and took a deep breath- almost a sigh- then looked up and down the corridor as best he could.

"If Daisuke hears of this, I'll never hear the end of it," he muttered before starting to mewl. It was the sad, lonely mewl that made one think of sick, lonely hungry baby kittens. It took a few minutes but before he knew it, he heard a loud whispering of "Heeere, kitty, kitty kitty! It's okay, Becky no hurt ya..."

Cattaras smiled. "Good, you're awake. Are you okay?"

"Shh, I'm lookin for the cute lil kitty, he sounds so cute, and harmless and.. " Becky's voice paused. "Do you got the helpless baby kitty?"

"Uh..." Catt thought quickly. "Y-yeah.. yeah I do." He muttered to himself. "Way deep inside where nobody knows but me, sure."

"Huh?! Nevermind," Becky said. "Do we gotta escape? And we're gonna beat up those mean slaves if we gotta.. and we're gonna be heroes and get everyone free?"

He chuckled. Always the same with Becky. "Sure little one, but we gotta break free first. Can you do anything with your lock? The chain they have me on means I can only barely reach the door."

"No way! I got a cuff on my hands!" Becky said. "And it's two cuffs, and they're chained together, and dirty, And hot and they hurt, and they're makin' me bleed a lil.. but they're sooo cute! Oh, but I had a bad dream."

"They have you shackled?" Cattaras growled, picturing it. "Can you freeze the locks?"

"I said it's hot," Becky said. Cattaras could imagine her pouting. "In the bad dream, a giant smelly bear tried to do evil cuddles on me, but then he went away cause I made it cold. And now my clothes are messed up, so I musta tossed and turned in my sleep. Can you come over and help me get free?!"

'Evil cuddles'? Messed clothing? Cattaras' thoughts turned even darker as his growl grew and he began to yank at his chain. If someone HAD tried to...

"Soo.. I mean," Becky whispered, whining a bit. "I can't get free. I can't freeze the cuffs. I think it's some sorta hot magic. Maybe it has thermal kinetic based energies interlaced into Ireacan dilithian steel in order to induct a paralysis on or negation of my ability to summon forth cold energy." Cattaras blinked as Becky paused and then continued in a more excited tone. "Or maybe it's full of hot cocoa!"

Cattaras roared and put all his strength into it- then stumbled back as there was suddenly nothing to pull against! He then cursed himself as all his violence had done was get him freedom of movement around his still locked cell- and he could hear running feet!

"Maybe I should bite it and drink the hot cocoa inside!" Becky whispered loudly.

Catt chuckled at the thought, especially given his earlier darker thoughts about her well being, but before he could say anything he heard her exclaim. "OW!" Besides which, he had company- he moved the chain to make it look like it was still connected to the floor and growled as one of the grubbier slavers- his 'guard' as it were- growled back. "Whatcha makin so much noise fer? Cut it out!"

Cattaras suddenly had an idea to his liking! "Make me. Or are you too scared to take on someone who's chained to the floor?"

"What was that, furcock?!" an angry voice replied.

Crap, another voice! Oh well, he was already into trouble enough. "I was telling fatso here, numb nuts, that he doesn't have the balls to beat up a chained man."

"We gonna take that from him, numbnuts?" The first voice asked.

"Hell no, fatso! How'd he know our names?!"

His smile broadened, showing fangs. "Tough talk from the guys still outside. You got anything to back it up with, punks?" He tensed for action- showing off his muscles.

"Alright, we were gonna make you wait, but if you wanna be beat up that bad..."

He didn't get past that as he opened the cell door and Cattaras let fly with his chain, catching fatso full in the face and driving him back! He followed chain with body- driving both men back into the hallway as he began to maul them. These two weren't as well prepared as the others had been so Cattaras was quickly able to beat them down- his last move wrapping the chain around numbnuts' neck until he heard a satisfying gurgle.

He stooped, searching the guards' pockets until he found the keys then racing to unlock Becky's cell. Becky forced herself up to the door, whimpering about no hot chocolate. Upon noticing the several bruises on her body and the disheveled nature of her clothing, Cattaras had to hold back an urge to kill.. well kill again... em.. Without knowing who needed to be killed, is what I meant.. I think. "Promise you, Little one. A gallon of it once we're outta here."

"Huh? Hot cocoa or their blood?" Becky giggled, holding her hands in front of her. "Please, can I be set free, and go with you? And we're gonna fight evil bad guys and get away?"

Cattaras heard the key click in the lock and grinned, almost purring. "Sure thing, little one. A gallon of cocoa, an ocean of slaver blood. All for you." He swung the door open and started to get the shackles unlocked.

Becky clapped, then did a double take. "Well, s'long as you're sure they're really evil and not just nice evil like us, okay."

"Believe me hon, these guys are bad news. Even your old pal Dash would think so. A slow, painful violent death is too good for them."

"Yeah," Becky said, looking down. She sounded sad. "But I don't like torturing people. I don't gotta do that, do I?"

Cattaras nodded. "Only thing you gotta do is keep the rest of them off my back while I gut them, okay?"

"Sure! And here they come!" Becky rushed off, throwing her most powerful snow attacks at the first set of slavers to come down the hallway.

The big tiger chuckled and shook his head as she rushed off, then wrapped the chain that had been his prison around his fist before rushing forward, using his momentum to drive the steel clad fist into the nearest attacker, who went down permanently. A quick glance showed Becky was using her ice magics with much more deadly focus than usual as well. In the back of his mind, Cattaras was watching for a guy with frostbite in an inconvenient place. That asshole would die slowly!

It was odd. Becky wasn't talking, or giggling, or making much noise at all, other than reacting to the few hits that got by her frosty defenses, or when she let loose an especially powerful spell. Cattaras didn't give it a second thought. Not now; later he could deal with any emotional damage from all this- right now they had to do what they were doing and, in this matter, a little girl was the last thing he wanted to be fighting beside.

Becky suddenly turned and grabbed Cattaras. "This way!" Cattaras dropped the body he was working over as she dragged him off trying to get her her promised 'ocean of slaver blood.' That quickly became a distant concern as he realized Becky was leading him to another section of imprisoned slaves.

"Gotta help them, and him and her and him!" Becky said, pointing to the single cell where they were all gathered behind armed guards. "But not them baddies."

Cattaras grinned at the guards, swinging his chain menacingly. "You heard the lady. Prepare for your beatings."

Becky and Cattaras overwhelmed the shocked guards easily. Problem is, the others were moving in from behind. Or.. not, actually. The slavers who rushed in began to trip over themselves, each other and the ground. Cattaras' ears flicked as he began to hear... music?

"Hey, the caverock's on our side!" Becky said, bouncing up and down. "It's eatin' their legs!"

Four small figures ran into the room and arrayed themselves behind and to the side of Becky and Cattaras. Lalucia and her kobold friends had finally arrived. Todd Blackpaws quickly joined them. Refusing to waste even a moment with greetings, three spears were thrown into the bodies of three slavers. Several debilitating spells were unleashed amidst the slaver ranks.

Becky froze, and tugged Cattaras's arm. "What's goin on now?!"

Well.. the others might have been all business but Todd? He waved and smiled. "Heya cutie!" He then took a swing at a slaver who was getting too close with his guitar.

Cattaras smirked. "Who you talkint to, brushtail?"

Todd laughed. "Well you are pretty, kitty, but you're not my type."

Lalucia spared them a single disdainful glance. "Fight first, flirt later!" Returning her concentration to the task at hand, the limbs of her enemies that were touching the ground and walls were surrounded by hard stone, though it was clear they would recover long before they were all captured. The three kobolds formed a wall of steel-tipped death in front of their trainer and friend.

Meanwhile, Becky focused on quickly freezing the iron cells keeping the prisoners away from freedom. With a gentle touch, Becky caused the now frozen iron bars to crumble to dust. Very cold dust.

"All right- last stop everybody OUT!" Cattaras roared as the other furs rushed out of the cell- well most of them, some had been in so long they'd gotten out of shape. Probably weeks. Most of the rest found a slaver to attack- some of the females being disturbingly thorough about it. Of course, this meant the others had to guard them to some large degree.

Lalucia stared in shocked horror as several slavers that were captured and out of the fight were bludgeoned to death by the vengeful prisoners. Knowing that trying to stop them would almost certainly fail and cause even worse problems, she refocused her will upon distracting the slavers with her spells so the former prisoners, and her own team, could survive.

"Every-1's, we gotta get out!" Becky yelled, whipping up an ice wall to stop reinforcements. "There's a lil girl, we gotta get her outta here!"

"You mean the vixen?" Todd smiled, the two groups now joined. "You want to pry her off that guy's throat?" He winced at his now triumphant 'sister.' "Okay, now we can go."

"I'll kill you all!" Xuin yelled, pushing his way past his own men, still imprisoned in the rocks, with lethal force. He had a set of six hulking brutes behind him.

"You can try, asshole." Cattaras roared and charged the leader.

Lalucia, her mana running rather low, switched most of her efforts towards lobbing sling bullets at Xuin's minions, only occasionally releasing a weak solar flare or thunderclap near the enemy's vital sensory organs.

Recognizing Lalucia as an ally, Becky rushed over to her. "We should work together, little girl. Maybe we can stop 'em cold. And rock!"

Lalucia glanced at her briefly before nodding and raised stone spines force Becky to reinforce and control. Becky looked puzzled for a split second then started freezing the rock, causing a thick frost to cut off Xuin and his reinforcements. Cattaras roared as the barrier cut off his attack, turning to glare at the newcomer. "Why are you stopping me from ripping his throat out?"

Lalucia shot a glance at him before pointing at the former prisoners. "Noncombatants are liabilities. They must leave, first." Lalucia's attention shifted to Becky. "Will you accept a battle-bond mindlink? We won't be able to use combined spells without it."

"They were only non-combatant when they were locked up," Cattaras growled. And a few of the 'non combatants' agreed.

Becky nodded. "You talk like a big person but you look like a kid. Okay, that sounds pretty silly. I mean fun... I MEAN.. useful in combat situations!"

Lalucia glared at Cattaras before directing his attention to several malnourished individuals, barely capable of noting what was happening, as well as several kids. Again her focus shifted towards Becky. "Okay. I will need to hold your hand for a few moments. Please don't fight the mental connection; there won't be a lot of strength behind it."

Cattaras growled but kept his words low. "I swear if she hurts her..."

Todd smiled and slapped him on the back. "Relax, big guy. I trust her. Come on, let's get the others outta here."

"Okay, I will do that!" Becky smiled and took her hand. Lalucia smiled, removed her hand from Becky's so she could take off her glove, and then grabbed hold once more. "I won't hurt her, Cattaras, don't worry!" confused Becky called out.

With her other hand Lalucia formed a few quick handsigns directing the kobolds to help with the evacuation and to lead the way, as they knew where the exit Summer and Wildfall were defending was.

Alright Becky, we're talking telepathically now. This will allow us to create a combined spell before they break down the wall we made, Lalucia directed.

Just tell me what to do and we'll do it! Also, do you like fingerpainting?!

Alright. I'm going to give you the spell idea I have that should allow us to kill our targets before they can hurt us, Lalucia responded, deliberately ignoring the off-tangent question.

Cause I do. And okay. That's 'tactically sound,' like Shelly likes to say!

Right. Let's get to work; they're going to break through soon, and I want as many prepared beforehand, Lalucia confirmed. Earth and stone lifted out of the ground and formed a dense stone lance. With a quick exertion of will the creation was bounced into the air. With a bounce and twirl Becky coated the lance with ice and slowly lowered it to the ground with a great grin on her face. She was working with the old kid and they were making the best presents for the evil men ever! Or worst, Becky wasn't sure which.

Mildly disturbed by the emotions and thoughts projected through the link, Lalucia started on the second weapon. She knew that they needed to get as many done before combat resumed to minimize friendly casualties. Becky contributed her part, occasionally giggling at the effects of the weapon creation and sometimes dancing slightly in tune with her own icy magic.

A worried glance at the steadily weakening obstruction convinced Lalucia they wouldn't have time to finish another weapon, and they would have to be satisfied with the four produced.

Cattaras moved up to stand with them, looking a bit more beat up than he had. To the questioning glance he chuckled. "Some of them had to be convinced to leave- even half starved. They wanted to fight."

"Don't care, gettin' tired," Becky said nearly collapsing.

"Don't worry, Todd's down there with 'em. He just wanted me to come find out when you two lovelies were gonna get it in gear?"

"Really really soon," Becky answered wearily. She righted herself, lacking even the energy to fool around. She turned to her new mind link friend. Should we whip them up a rocky road blizzard before we go?

Er, maybe? Lalucia shook her head slightly. Anyway, you know what to do. Let's take them down.

With careful manipulations of their domain abilities, the barrier was imperceptibly weakened at several key points. Lalucia and Becky focused their will to launch the spears through the weak points of the barrier at high speeds to impale several slavers that had previously thought themselves safe. Then, Becky whipped up an ice storm on the slavers, while Lalucia propelled several rocks into the enemy's shocked ranks. The ice storm's secondary wind effects whipped the falling rocks into an unpredictable and lethal cyclone.

Almost completely exhausted after the heavy magical workout, Lalucia collapsed to the ground and barely managed to cry out loud enough to catch Cattaras's attention. Becky didn't look much better, but she waved off Cattaras's attempts to help, insisting she'd be fine. So instead, Cattaras took Lalucia while Red and Darson returned to help the Becky down the caves.

"So this is how you pick chicks up, kitty?" Todd smirked as the others came down the tunnel.

"It is when they collapse, brushtail." Cattaras growled.

Becky uncharacteristically swatted Todd's tail lightly. "Behave."

Todd still smirked. "I am behaving."

To which Cattaras smirked. "Badly?" He seemed to be enjoying the back and forth.

Lalucia snapped her tongue out to catch some of Cattaras's loose blood for a quick energy boost. "They're still coming, can we start running away now?" Lalucia weakly pleaded.

Becky threw some of her last energy into frosting up the cave behind them as they moved. It wouldn't stop them cold (haha), but it would slow them down.

This only got Todd smirking broader. "Much as it's against your usual nature big guy Lalucia has a point. And it looks like she likes you."

"Fine, fine. Lead the way." Cattaras growled and shifted Lalucia to a more comfortable position for her, still dragging that chain behind him.

Lalucia uneasily settled into Cattaras's arms, her face flushing slightly from the embarrassment of being rendered helpless AGAIN, escaping only because of the assistance of a tentative ally, and being mocked by a more firm one. Things had been a lot simpler before she left the kobold villages.

Miraculously, they did not encounter any opposition on their route to the escape tunnel, which was still being dutifully guarded by Wildfall and Summer on this end. The seven darted through the tunnel to join with the rest of the escapees and rescuers, stopping only to collapse the tunnel to slow pursuit.

They would need to figure out where to take everyone soon, but for now, they had struck a mighty blow against the slavers.

An impressive escape there! They've got a long way to go til safely, though. Especially with the wounded and battle weary to tend to. Our team is on the run. Meanwhile (kind of), Fumblies is about to get word on the initial kidnapping. Those two stories (and Sassy's story) make up most of the rest of roleplaying.