TeamPractice *CORSAIRS*

[Hotwire]

Things seemed to get only more crazy as her teammates looked as if they were mammoth-hopping and the animals were stampeding all over again thanks to Kelly. Aideen brought Tracy on her elephant alongside Ariel and Mato and when Tracy gymnasticized her way over to help Mato, Ariel heard Aideen and used her legs to propel herself off Mato's elephant and onto Aideen's. She didn't quite want to leave Mato but he was in good hands since Tracy would heal him in a minute, but it didn't seem so bad as she regained her seating behind Aideen on her elephant. Weeeeell. As much as this session sucks, it doesn't, she thought with a twitch of her mouth into a second-long smirk.

There was even a small feeling of smugness at having pretty much gotten an invitation to just touch Aideen that Kelly would probably envy her for, and Ariel would not let it go to waste. A small grin came on her face as the running elephant made her bump into Aideen's back and Ariel quickly wrapped her arms around her waist from behind. Even now she couldn't help but think: Hehehehehehehe veeeery niiice...lemme push it a little bit more, I'm a tired exhausted woman after killing that monster shark and all.. She let out a tired sigh as she lightly leaned her chin on Aideen's shoulder and moved right up behind her..for safety's sake.. She smells good..is that black raspberry vanilla? I shall make a pie later of that flavor...and eat it greedily, she thought, distracting herself from the matter at hand until another elephant or mammoth blew their horn and brought her back from La La Land.

"I'm glad you can drive an elephant, cause I would not wanna ride with Tarzan over there," she said to her conversationally so that things wouldn't seem so dire even though they were. Ariel was very tired and wanted to keep things at least somewhat light until it was all over. In her own opinion it seemed to work as she saw Aideen was able to get ahead of the whole thing with their elephant and take control of the stampede. It seemed to slow down some, which was good as they were finally weren't that far away from the volcano now.

[HeartString]

Taking Ember by her hand she hopped over onto her Mammoth with a hearty helping ASSist from Ironclad, his hand cupping her bottom as he did his best to aid in her jump. Seeing the wound Aideen bore was not terribly severe Tracy took a moment to heal her friend and ready herself for the next leap of faith. This transfer would be far more difficult as Ariel was concerned about coming back and Mato was hardly conscious enough to help. Tracy feared for a moment that he might fall off since he looked to have lost a lot more blood than she had thought he would have.

Leaving the safety of Ember's mount for the freedom of mid air HeartString went high, keeping her eyes on her target and nailed the landing, as Hotwire made her pass nearly simultaneously underneath. Keeping her seat after that was, on the other hand, a tenuous circumstance at best.

She had acquired a feeling for leaping onto the hair hides of the woolly mammoths and the absence of hair coupled with Mato in his unbalanced state was almost too much for her to control. She dug her heels in at first in subconscious panic and the result was the elephant surging forward with a lurch. She grabbed hold of TrueSpirit and held on for dear life healing him with all of her might. The resulting burst of adrenaline from her own panic giving her the ability to heal him almost in a split second and helping him to generate nearly all the blood back that he had lost.

"Mato!!" she cried out. "I'm slipping!!!" She said in an almost too high pitched voice. As the hide of the elephant being devoid of hair and the lurching of the beast from her own heels coupled with TrueSpirit's weight throwing her off balance had all conspired to leave her falling back and to the side. With her last bit of strength she had made sure to push Mato upright and into a close approximation of his original seat on the Spirit Animal's back. The look in her eyes was fright as she could hear the thunderous trampling of the monstrous feet behind them and knew if she fell she would die underneath them.

[TrueSpirit]

Tracy's gift was one that Mato greatly needed at the moment, and he could only thank the Wise One in the Sky for allowing them to be in such a situation together. His body felt the warmth return to itself and he did not feel as lightheaded anymore. It took Mato a moment to regain his focus on what was conspiring around him and lost no moment in pulling her up. "Hold on Tracy, I will not let you fall," he said and held his seat with his legs while reaching both his hands to grab her. He took her right under her arm and pulled her up with all his strength. It did not take a lot of exertion for Tracy was far from heavy, however it did take effort since it was in the middle of a stampede.

Mato placed her in front of him, keeping an arm around her waist as he reconnected himself with the spirit. His mind calmed and focus as he sought out the mind of the spirit that was kind enough to assist them on this mission as their transportation. Mato's mind connected with the spirit as he recited the Spirit Calling Prayer. Gradually, the elephant under them calmed and Mato gained control of it. "Easy my friend," he whispered shaking off the last of the lightheaded feeling. "Thank you Tracy," he added and smiled down at her. His gaze moved to Ariel and Aideen ahead, but Mason and Kelly were no where in sight.

"Where are the others?" Mato inquired just as he got a glimpse of the volcano that was supposed to be their checkpoint. "We need to get there somehow but in order for that we must leave the stampede, otherwise we risk any guard that may be there to see us." He took control of the elephant and they started going to the side out of the stampede. "Aideen!" he yelled trying to get her attention. "We must leave the stampede!"

[Ironclad]

The smirk that Mason had on his face when he helped Tracy off left as soon as the stampede was all the more in effect. He knew that as soon as they got to the clearing up ahead, there would be guards around the checkpoint and on the in a second if they were caught in a barely controllable situation. Putting in a good deal of strength, Mason kicked the mammoth hard, making it go faster and faster, leading the stampede. Soon it caught up with Kelly's mammoth and Mason shook his head at the guy's antics. Some things would never change no matter what the situation.

"Burns man, grab the next branch and swing yourself up! We're about to get into the clearing," he yelled when their mammoths were side by side. A branch was coming up ahead and Mason's gut told him to go first. He kicked the mammoth harder to surge ahead of Kelly. Grabbing the branch, Mason swung himself off the elephant and on top of the branch. He held on to the branch and just as Kelly passed, Mason used one hand and pulled the guy up without much difficulty since his strength was higher than average. "Alright Burns, we're gonna do some climbing and then-" he was cut off when he felt something try and bite his arm.

A large snake was trying to sink it's teeth through Mason's invulnerable skin. He didn't feel any pain, just the sensation of something being there. He grabbed the top of the snake's jaw and pulled it all the way back, snapping the jaw. He shook his head and pushed the snake into the stampede. "Let's go Burns, this way," Mason said and stood up on the branch to walk across it carefully and then swing onto the other one. "We gotta meet up with the others while the guards are distracted by the stampede. It looks even bigger now, so we'll be good for a bit."

[Calorie]

"EEEEeeeeEEewwww! I hate snakes man, and these are like giant snakes so I really hate them," Kelly said with a shudder as he slowly stood up on the branch and mimicked Mason as he walked over the tree branches and over the heard. Kelly wasn't all that bad at climbing trees. He used to be dead scared of it, practically whimpering when he was only three feet off the ground. Mason made him get over that through cruel and unusual methods, like having Angel fly him on top of a tree and having Ariel sit at the bottom in a bikini eating his favorite flavor ice cream. It was just plain cruel.

Kelly jumped down from the lower branch once they were well passed the herd. "Hey are we waiting for the others? Where are they man?" he asked and peaked through the trees to see the volcano being heavily guarded by a bunch of guards that now seemed totally distracted by this huge and crazy stampede. Their checkpoint was the bunker that was on the slope of the steep Volcano. "Dude now would so be a good time to get there," Kelly pointed out and watched as all the guards ran to towards the stampede, shots going off in the air that only seemed to make things worse then better.

"We gotta go together right? Damn them slow pokes," Kelly said with a pout and stomped his foot for emphasis. He wanted to get some beer and see if he can convince Mason to play his Wii with him for awhile.

[Ember]

Aideen rolled her shoulder slightly, satisfied at the job well done from the Corsair healer, though it was to be expected from someone with her talented caliber in her power. Without Tracy healing her, Aideen would have had a much harder time getting control of the elephant. "Mason's gone after the King of the Jungle to keep him from getting eaten by his minions. We need to meet up with them," she said and looked over her other shoulder when she heard Mato's yell. Good, he's alright. Tracy never fails us.

"We need to get to the outside of this stampede. Keep you're seat, it's about to get very bumpy," Aideen said and reached an arm back behind both of them, trying not to push her arm into Ariel's side as she pierced her nail at the elephant's front flank, her nail lightly putting pressure into the the elephant gray and small haired hide. The elephant blew hard from his trunk and moved to the side from the stampede. She moved her hand back once they were on the outside and to her luck, found a pair of hanging vines. Aideen clamped her legs on the elephant and lift herself up with her thighs and out of Ariel's grasp as she reached for the vines.

She sat back and quickly handed one to Ariel. "Swing down and right into that upcoming clear spot," Aideen commanded and got a good grasp on the vine as they got to the clearing. Just on time since the vine was getting short. "NOW!" she yelled and swung off the elephant and headed right for the clearing. They both landed rather smoothly and Aideen quickly let go of the vine and motioned for Ariel to follow her a bit away from the stampede.

"Let's cross here and get to Mato and Tracy," Aideen said and began walking around the stampede through the thick jungle. Just as they got to a spot that would have been a good place to meet them, something curled around Aideen's ankle and jerked her back hard and on the ground. "Ugh!" she grunted as she was pulled across the ground by a vine. Aideen looked up to the source and her eyes widened. "Oh for God's sake." It was a giant and poisonous Fauna plant. Aideen formed a fire sai and reached to cut the vine on her ankle. She flipped to her feet and threw a large fire ball at the plant. Those things shied away from light and didn't take to fire well. "Come on!" Aideen said and ran with Ariel out of there in hopes that the Fauna was too put off by the light and fire.

[Hotwire]

Ariel shook her head slightly at Kelly's antics and looked behind to see that Mato was alright again. That made her feel better, but since she and Aideen had to get off of the elephant she focused on that. She almost nearly didn't grasp her vine enough after getting such an amazing view of Aideen's ass but was glad she pulled her eyes away to swing down along with her. "Right, and let's get outta here. Ah dios mio I love the rainforest and all but I want out now," she commented while walking into what would've been a good spot to meet up with the others.

When Aideen was tripped and dragged on the ground by a giant fauna plant, Ariel was glad she was spared from having to do something when Aideen burned the shit out of it. "I am I am," she said and started running, mentally cursing Cyclops again for having picked the savage lands to be the practice's setting. On the side, Mato and Tracy were still on his elephant and Ariel realized she was watching one second too long when her arm was grazed by sharp things.

A root in the ground tripped her over and she found the sharp things were the teethlike things of a giant Venus fly trap that was lively and looking to get at her. "Ah shit!" she yelled and zapped it with a small bolt, sending it back to give her enough time to get up and moving again, though she felt like she twisted her ankle. The teethlike things grazed her back as she started running off as it wasn't going to leave her alone. She refrained from using her powers again cause she was tired as it was so..."Aideen, plant, fire..PLEASE!" she called to her teammate as she started limping away to try to build up to a run.

[HeartString]

Sliding down, with a hand from Mato, off the back of his elephant, Tracy looked to assess the rest of their team. "Ok TrueSpirit we're a little split up here. I caught a glimpse of the boys over there and the girls right there on the other side of this clump of jungle." she said pointing at their locations.

She looked at the stampede, flowing like a river of beasts through the jungle and shaking the world around them. The panic in the eyes and hearts of the animals was washing over her and she realized it was what had contributed to her own panic moments before. Even though she more than any other one of her teammates realized this was not real, the approximation of emotion in so many creatures was adding up into something intense.

"The goal is to get there to that bunker and to do it as a team. They've got the numbers and the high ground. All we have going for us is this diversion of the stampede." she thought for a moment and said "We need a signal to let them know we're going. How about your- someone's coming!?!" she said, cut off from suggesting some kind of diversion involving his heron, she spun around. Already knowing who was coming up on them she was relieved and then all at once upset at the sight.

Seeing Hotwire looking a fright and staggering out of the thick vegetation in a daze, she rushed over to grab her. Checking her wounds she soothed her saying "I got you Ariel. Relax, where's Aideen?" she took a moment to heal the girl's wounds, nasty as they were with dirt and some vile looking greenish substance that she could only assume was a poison. "You're Ok now... feeling any better?"

[Ember]

At the sound of Ariel's cry for help, Aideen stopped in her tracks and and in a quick motion she threw a large fireball right at the gigantic Venus Fly trap. "Ariel, go I got this," she said to her tired teammate. Despite how hard Aideen tried to work with a team, in the end she always preferred to be on her own. She rarely worked with anyone when under her Uncle's orders and when she did. it would be with only one other person. Fire Sai formed in her hands when the Venus Fly trap sent out more vines at her.

It was at this point that Aideen's mind was centered, one with her body and environment. It was the same state she was in whenever a mission was presented in front of her. Her whole being working in sync with mind, body and instinct to do a task at hand. It was a state where all luxuries of emotions left her mind, replaced by the battle tactics and lessons that were instilled into her from such an early age. Right then as her fire sai burned and deflected the vines so quickly that it looked like a light show at a rave, the warrior in her came out again in an easy force.

A vine lunged at Aideen's neck, wrapping around it as the poisonous prickly thorns pierced in her neck. She lit herself on fire in a scorching blaze, a new instinct that came to her when she learned her powers. The vines burned into dust and the Venus Fly Trap hissed at her, lunging its other vines not just at her, but past her to where the others were supposed to be near. The poison made Aideen weak and her leg was beginning to spasm slightly. I just have one chance of this. She threw her hands out and long blazing beams of fire erupted in her hands and completely encased the giant plant. The force was so hard that it sent Aideen flying back in the trees.

The plant hissing and shriveling up into dust was the last she saw of it as she flew back through the trees, a little past Tracy and Ariel and landed on her back on the ground. "Plants are not meant to be so alive," she said and sat up, squeezing as much of the poison as she could out of her neck. "We need to go, Mason won't leave without us," Aideen said standing up slowly on her spasming legs and took slow steps forward. "Tracy please make it stop," she asked softly, not liking how she kept ending up in these situations and how much added dependency it put on her teammate. Some things could not be helped.

[TrueSpirit]

Mato had just brought the elephant back into him when Aideen went flying past them. His gray eyes filled with concern at her state. Ariel didn't look good either but Aideen looked beat. There was oozing a green substance spilling around wounds in her neck, her lovely dark eyes were glazed over as the poison took effect on her. Her voice had a raspier edge to it and it was obvious the poison was taking effect. Without hesitation, Mato went over to her and wrapped an arm around her waist so she could take pressure off her legs. "You're courage has no boundaries Aideen," he said softly when he looked past the trees to see a glimpse of a large burning plant of some type. If it was the same thing that attacked Ariel, she did them a great servitude.

Bringing her over to Tracy, Mato kept a strong arm around her slim waist and held her as Tracy healed her. The stampede was still in full swing and was getting bigger and bigger with all the commotion. He wouldn't let go of Aideen until she was relatively steady on her feet the glazed look left her eyes. Mato went forward through the jungle forestry first, not wanting to put the girls in any more harm. He carefully walked past the burning Venus Fly Trap and carefully checked around for any other dangers through the nearby stampede. The jungle was a strange place, but basic tracking skills still applied.

He motioned for the girls to come along and went over to help Ariel who still looked very tired. "Come, I believe I heard Kelly up ahead," Mato said and walked the girls carefully through the jungle to get to Kelly and Mason.

[Ironclad]

"Burns, shut it. We gotta be on the lookout for- never mind," Mason said when he saw the four of them coming through the Jungle. His quick eyes looked each of them over to see if they were alright. His girl looked good, so did Aideen, though she looked like she was trying to get back in her center more to him. Ariel looked tired as hell and Mato looked much better than when he last saw him. His eyes scanned over each of them scrutinizing their physical states and catching any little difference from the last time he saw them. Tracy looks like she didn't have a break, which probably is the case. Ariel's dead on her feet, and Chief looks like he's hanging in there. Fox looks a bit out of balance, but she'll get back on her feet. I'll talk to them after this and get a full report together, he thought and grabbed Kelly's arm to bring him forward.

"Listen up team, we got a way in right now. This stampede ain't stopping and its getting only bigger. Guards are around the checkpoint, but we been watching them. Most of them are trying to control and check out the stampede. There's two guards at the checkpoint and both are shooting at those tiny ankle biting raptors that are charging at them. We spooked this crowd good I'll say that," Mason said and looked to the side at the stampede, hearing the gunshots fired from the guards.

"No more waisting words, we're going around from the side and to the checkpoint. I'll lead, Fox you take the rear. Chief, fly Reyes and you up there and keep a lookout as discreetly as you can. Let me know if we're spotted. Trace, you go behind me and Burns you follow her. I don't wanna hear a sound or a dumb move from any of ya. Let's go," he said and led the group carefully out of the forestry. He went straight to the side of the Volcano and began climbing up the steep volcano carefully. The rocks were jagged and rough, not tough enough for a guy that was no stranger to rock climbing or strenuous activity. Quietly, the group began their final step.

[Calorie]

Kelly got all excited at the prospect of getting this done and over with and for awhile did remember to be quiet. Mainly cause he got to stare at Tracy's ass when they were climbing up the volcano and going around. Man her ass is nice. Mason gets to feel it all he wants and I can't do it cause he'd shoot me again. But man is it nice. I love on the chicks on this team man, they got like the best asses. Tracy got a hot cherry ass, Ariel got that perky bubble ass that's fun to grab and watch when she got those tiny shorts and Aideen got that sexy heart shaped ass. Man all chicks should have asses and racks that nice. I wonder what would happen if I used Sonic, Snake, Mega Knight, and Bowser in Smash Brawl tonight...

The erratic and lustful thoughts of one Kelly Burns were never-ending. Nor was his ability to mindlessly make the side of the volcano that his feet and hands dug into bread so he got an easier hold and could stick his feet in the bread holes to make climbing easier. The guards were still distracted by the stampede and didn't even notice them. Kelly just kept right on following Tracy. Man her ass is nice...

[Hotwire]

Ariel smiled thankfully at Tracy when she healed her gooey green scratches. It was making her feel extremely woozy and was glad that it didn't stick around long although she was still felt extremely tired. "Thanks a heap Trace," she said before watching Aideen fly past them onto the ground. Ariel winced slightly at Aideen getting hurt in her stead and was again thankful when Tracy healed her as well. Stupid evil lively giant Venus Fly Traps.

She walked with Mato as they all met up with Mason and Kelly and got more orders for how they were going to finish the mission. She nodded and looked to Mato with a weak smile as she was goign to go for another heron ride and help keep an eye out on the group climbing up the mountain. She gave Mason a small salute and waited for Mato to bring out his trusty heron. When he got on she climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around him again, a bit more comfortable riding the heron the second time around. After they took off she kept her eyes open for any disturbances that might hinder their sneaky approach to their goal.

[HeartString]

Tracy fell in line as ordered. She had a great deal of maturity when it came to separating her feelings and knew that Mason had to be to the point. She didn't mind him being short with his words, she could follow his orders as one of the team and still had a great relationship with him outside of team activities. Part of that was her ability to read his emotions so it did give her an insight into what he was feeling when he said things.

They made their way up the sloping side of the volcano, large rocks and dimples in the terrain features had obscured them from view, but they were quickly running out of cover. She wanted to ask what next, since the plan was to get there. They had just about come to the end of where they could move freely enough and with enough speed to still take advantage of the stampede and it's distraction.

She didn't want to speak but she was seeing the body language of the team and looking skyward she saw the Heron circling above them. She could feel the anxiety of the team and the excitement and she needed to stretch out and see what was going on with the Cyber-Nazis.

Tapping Mason on his thigh as he crouched down right next to her she held up eight fingers and fanned her hand around in a semi-circle. Then she put her hands together to make a box shape and held up four fingers. Effectively telling Mason the count of their enemy forces and their location, four in the bunker and eight arrayed around the outside of it on the down hill side of the volcano. She stole a look into his eyes and tilted her head ever so slightly at him, a gentle sweet smile starting to form on her face.

[Ember]

Aideen was back in her center, her eyes focused on the guards posted around the bunker and the volcano. There weren't as many as before, since many of them were trying to control the stampede and were shooting the little raptors that tried to bite their ankles and jump at them. Aideen scanned them in the area, her mind analyzing a plan. It would have been much easier to execute any plan with fewer people, but that wasn't the case here. Here she had to be careful of her pace and where she grabbed since Kelly left bread holes wherever his hands and feet went. The feet part wasn't too bad but Aideen had a hard time getting a good grip with her gloves on the hand holes, so she stuck to nearby rocks to push herself up.

Her eyes flew to Tracy making signs on where the guards position were and where each were stationed. Aideen only had a good view of the guards at the base of the volcano, but now with all the positions confirmed, a plan that Mason and her discussed came to mind. She moved her head to catch his eyes and held up her hand, her middle, index and pinky pointing up. Keeping with the signal she touched the tips of her fingers to her eyebrow and then made a downward motion. Aideen blinked her dark chocolate eyes and when she opened them, they were lit in a bright flame. She nodded to him to signal she was ready for his command.

The plan was the Six Shooter Blitz, the plan they only practiced a couple of times since it was relatively new. It was a very quick plan of offense, that involved a sequence of moves from all of them. Though Ariel was worn out, it may still work and Aideen saw it as their best chance to take a quick surprise approach since there was so much chaos anyways. Now to see if it would work and who goes when.