Equestria no Kitsune [REDUX]

Immediately, the situation had escalated. The communication chatter was all over the place, scattered like spilled sand, the main channels nearly crashing for a moment from the sheer traffic.

The two-way handset nearly slipped from his hands as he sprinted through the echoing corridors, taking a hurried left, a right as his attention was divided between the communications, the situation at hand, and the hypothetical plan that could deal with it -- but there were just too many unknowns.

The handset crackled, and a voice just barely broke through the static haze, barely audible. "Come in Capt--kshhh--,this is Squadron Two, we've got a fix on the esc--kshhkhhh"

He switched the receiver off, which crackled one last time in futility, the connectivity just too poor to even attempt two-way contact. "Damnit -- what's with all the static? And at a time like this..?"

Meanwhile, Redheart was still there, frozen in fear, doing her best to stay perfectly still, sporting a blank weak smile of despair -- unable to even consider what to do otherwise. The somewhat distant radio static and metallic clank of armour and weapons let her drown out the reality of the situation as time passed slowly, courtesy of the adrenaline and stress -- and the fear that she, a perfectly innocent (in her eyes) citizen, would be branded an accomplice to the screw-ups, varied and numerous in number, that the blasted fox caused along the way. Ryuzaki was still struggling, at a much slower rate given the present situation, only able to pull a fraction of a millimeter of his face out of the stonework as he glanced fruitlessly at the kneeling, distant-minded nurse beside him, trying to convey something to no avail.

At least eight armoured guards had arrived, blocking the way out. Dark, near-black metallic plating shone in the dying light, face-obscuring helmets like one-way mirrors, and silver-coloured, thrumming weapons in hand. Faint, electrically humming rifles, along with what looked like small, bladed batons also gleamed menacingly.

"There's nowhere to run!" came one of the guard's voices above the rapid shifting and high-pitched electric whine of those oddly-shaped rifles charging up. Eight points of laser lights were trained on the two of them, and Redheart's hands went up with a strangled, cringing squeak, her eyes screwed shut. Ryu, still stuck fast, glared at the present opposition, ignoring the blinding lasers periodically drifting across his eyes.

Yet there was an air of hesitance. They weren't firing anything -- no nets or non-lethal rounds; rubber bullets, as Ryu would've expected, weren't being fired. They were just waiting. Was it because of--?

He quickly realised the situation -- they thought Redheart was a hostage, or an accomplice, as technically true that may have been. He wasn't sure what kind of non-lethal methods these guards had, but if they were this hesitant, he thought, then it must be risky enough to have to consider collateral damage. The dry, charged smell of ozone emanated strongly from those weapons, a faint bluish glow surrounding the various exposed chambers along the receiver of each one.

One of the guards had two fingers to their helmet, the metal plates shifting apart to reveal a now exposed light blue crystal set over their ear cavity with a brief crystalline chime, a static-like resonance filling the air.

The guard with the communicator appeared to be in charge -- the same emblem, the angular depiction of a sun surrounding a moon emblazoned on the airship was branded onto one of the plates on the shoulders, possibly denoting a higher rank than the other seven personnel. "Command, please advise; suspect and accomplice have been cornered. Awaiting clearance to apprehend," they reported. Nothing moved during the next five seconds, save for the distant sound of empty resonance and the background murmurs of ponies on the street far behind them, surely curious as to what the guards, particularly one of the special units, were doing there.

The perfect window of distraction had presented itself.

A little bit more dust and bits of brick were pulled from the stonework as Ryu inched his muzzle out a little bit more, with painstaking caution. Enough to speak, surely, but still quite stuck. He glanced up at Redheart, who was still frozen in fear.

"Oi. Redheart-san," he whispered, looking straight ahead as a plan undoubtedly began to form.

The terrified nurse opened an eye and looked down, with just enough courage to breathe a tiny "Y-yes..?", not daring to move a muscle. The points of laser light wobbled very slightly with the guards' aim, guns trained on those two.

Patchy as the communications were, and whoever 'Command' was -- their voice came through, cut into ribbons by static. "G--kshhh--Squadron Two. Make--kssshhhhk--it alive. Ensure the mar--kshhh-- this. Over."

His muffled, urgent whisper came again, the dust spilling upwards once more. "Redheart. Get off of my tail; I'm about to do something."

She dared herself to look down, even for a moment -- she'd been kneeling right on top of the fox's dust-covered tail, which seemed to be pulling itself free, inch-by-inch out from under her. Redheart shuffled to the side at a snail's pace, allowing more room, but--

"Don't move!" All seven laser pointers went to her as the droning resonance of electricity slowly filled the alley, the rifles glowing with faint blue magic. Once again, Redheart was paralyzed with fear, but she'd already done it -- whatever Ryu wanted to do, he was now in the clear, his tail free. The air began to shimmer around the very tip as it slowly rose, but Redheart passed it off as nothing.

The guard with the communicator glanced over -- as best one could with a face-obscuring helmet. "Don't try anything stupid, you two! It won't end well." They turned away again, the luminous comms crystal showing itself once more. "Command, please repeat. Suspect and accomplice are cornered; awaiting clearance to--"

All the noise faded from the world for a moment. A wave of heat blew through the alley, as if a blisteringly hot wind had blasted through and singed the air behind it. No thoughts entered Redheart's head as it all played out, captured as if in slow motion by her stress-addled mind.

Wide-eyed, she saw Ryu's tail wave and lunge forwards, bending like a whip, the air shimmering in a heat haze around the white-hot paintbrush tip. His determined, sunlight-reflecting amber eyes seemed to glimmer with the same heat that threatened to set everything around them ablaze. The pavement where his muzzle was stuck began to crack, bubbles of trapped air beginning to rise, previously trapped in the white stones.

A single bright, yellow spark of light budded, then leapt in a perfect arc from the white fur, just as a water droplet would fall from a leaf. The intense light played around the shadows of the alley, outshining the weakened evening sunset with an odd glow. The air seemed to flow, as if something giving off invisible fumes had suddenly appeared. The single spark appeared to leap at the chance to combust, like a drowning swimmer going beyond the brink for air, with the same desperation.

Redheart came to her senses, and time returned to its normal pace to be greeted by fire.

Flames, bright orange and red in colour, flooded the air which appeared to catch fire just in front of Ryu's outstretched tail, as if an invisible dragon had unleashed its attack. The mass of flames seemed to compress itself as it relentlessly barrelled forwards as a wall, a blast wave of fire and force, carrying a pressure wave of collapsing air and heat caught in its unstoppable path. It was too late to react, not enough time to dive out of the way as the fire shot forwards with great force. The guard never got to finish their conversation, or even react in time as the compressed flames threw them and the other seven guards like ragdolls -- doing more than just clearing a path, as the force was surely enough to outright kill an unarmoured target.

The bright flames flooded the alley with light, forcing Redheart to shield her eyes and recoil from the wave of near-scorching air. She was far away enough to avoid being flung by the explosion, but the heat still singed a hair or two.

No sooner than a split-second later, Ryuzaki raised his fist and punched the paving with immense force, shattering the stones into rubble in a certain radius. With a single pull and a growl of effort, his muzzle was finally freed; dust and debris was flung away as he wrenched himself away from the ground, ripping a hole in the white bricks as he pulled the rest of himself, slightly-less-stuck, out of the stonework.

Eyes still smouldering -- quite literally, if the heat haze had anything to indicate -- Ryu pulled himself to his feet, the dust streaming off of him as he paused for a moment, breathing heavily as he slumped against the wall. "W-whew... This isn't-- usually.."

Redheart sprang to her hooves, looking on at Ryu with wide-eyed shock. "You-- what?! W-was that firebending?!?" The wall of flames the fox had launched left a trail of black scorch marks everywhere on the bricks it'd touched, further contrasted by the pure white stonework. Ryuzaki looked back at her, even more puzzled.

"You have bending here, too?! I thought the fact that you guys have magic was enough!" he exclaimed, the heat haze in his yellow eyes fading. His left arm went limp, a little flame dancing across his hand. "Ugh... that's not the point, though -- that blast took a bit too much out of me... S-something's gone wrong."

Redheart huffed in exasperation. "THAT'S not the point, either! You just attacked the guard!" she yelled, nervously glancing to the right, where the guards had been standing just a moment ago. Black scorch marks were spilled across the otherwise alabaster bricks, and cracks littered the area as if the stonework were as fragile as glass. The distant din of general panic had faded, as if the street was suddenly abandoned.

She took a quick, split-second glance around the corner -- three of the eight guards were lying on the ground, motionless, but the other five were slowly getting up, with armour pieces all over the place, littered with those pieces of black metal.

"Well..? How many are there?" Redheart heard the fox ask. She turned back, unable to believe what he was implying. "You don't seriously plan to fight them some more, do you?" Redheart asked.

A weak nod was the answer she received. "Yeah... but I'm gonna leave one of them alive, so I can ask questions," Ryu breathed, a weak but mischievous smile on his muzzle.