"Dammit," Kaylo muttered, turning his head quickly towards their attacker while Ojuku raised his hands in preparation for another magical blast of energy.
"Oww," Madison whined, sitting back up with no clear injuries while Pip had huddled up closely to her chest in his fox form. "That was rude! What if you hit Pip instead of me?" She growled, rubbing the young familiar's head while he continued to shake in fear.
"The blast wouldn't have killed him," Ojuku confirmed, holding his hand out towards her while the town's people ran away and cleared the area, all of them not wanting to get in the way of a Navy Colonel. "Hand yourselves in and I won't cause you anymore harm." He ordered, waiting patiently for a response from Madison, who carefully picked herself up from the ground before laughing confidently with Pip curled up in her arms.
"I'm never going to hand myself in," she grinned. "I want to explore and adventure with my crew until I find what I'm looking for." She said, placing Pip down atop a comfortable coral chunk before turning back to Ojuku and drawing her sword. "You will never take me away from my family!" She yelled, pointing the tip of her blade out towards him.
"So be it," he sighed, allowing magic to form around his hand as a large orb of orange energy grew out in front of his palm. "You will be detained."
"I doubt it," she smiled, readying her sword and surrounding it with lightning in preparation for his attack. Just before Ojuku fired his shot of magic though, Kaylo noticed the reddish glint within his summoned orb of energy, and instantly the boy began to scramble for a weapon.
"Madison!" He yelled. "It's explosive, don't take it head on!" He called out, just as Ojuku turned towards him with a glare and fired the shot at him instead. Kaylo looked up at the orb that hurtled towards him, and in less than a moment, his entire body was consumed by explosive power and red hot magic flames. A large bang rang out through the entire city, and Kaylo was blasted back through countless walls and buildings that once stood behind him.
"Kaylo!" Madison screamed, rushing through the shattered walls and hunting down the magic blasted boy. After jumping over many piles of rubble, she eventually found him lying silently atop a gentle bed of sea grass, his entire body being bloody and burnt due to the explosive nature of Ojuku's magic. Madison's eyes filled with tears as she reached down and carefully checked him over, her fingers running gently over his scratched and burnt skin while her sadness and regret quickly switched to bloodlust.
"Stand down," Ojuku ordered, stepping up behind Madison and causing her to whip around with a blood-curdling glare in her eyes, but everything stopped the moment she saw Pip being restrained in Ojuku's arms. It was as if her eyes glossed over into a primal state of rage. "You're both coming with me," he said, filling his hand with magic once more as he held it up towards Pip's head. Of course, he would never even think about attacking a child, but Ojuku knew it was the only way he could contain Madison's growing rage.
Just as he expected, she made no attempts to move as soon as Pip's life was threatened. But her glare alone was enough to strike fear into the heart of any onlooker.
"...She's… She's not going with you…" Kaylo muttered, groaning softly as his eyes fluttered open and he looked up at Ojuku with a glare, despite not being able to move at all.
"You're all coming with me, and if you resist I will resort to violence." Ojuku replied, turning back to watch as his Navy soldiers flooded into the area and surrounded the group.
"Zenith won the arm wrestle…" Kaylo muttered with a smile, reaching out to lift a sharp shard of a rock up into his hand, before he threw it with deadly accuracy and a small burst of magic, straight into Ojuku's hand which was holding Pip still.
"You stupid brat!" Ojuku growled, lowering his other hand to rip the shard out, allowing Madison to make her move and transform into her dragon form, not even caring who was there to witness her transformation. The Navy soldiers gasped in fear and horror, turning away to run while Ojuku looked up towards his opponent, his eyes wide with realisation.
"You should never threaten a mother's child," Kaylo said to Ojuku, watching happily as Madison opened her jaws and shook the entire city with her thunderous and angry roars.
Buildings toppled, people collapsed to their feet and fear was struck through every person who stood witness. Pip himself was full of too much fear to react, but as Ojuku raised his shaking hand to attack, he noticed what Kaylo's other statement meant, as a sword was thrust suddenly through his side.
"I suggest you let my son go," Zenith said directly into his ear, before ripping his sword out of Ojuku's side and allowing the Colonel to fall to the ground with immense pain striking through his entire body. Of course, Zenith had made sure to avoid killing him, but he wasn't going to let him off easily for what he had done to Pip.
"You'll pay for this," Ojuku groaned, holding tightly onto his side and allowing Zenith to easily reach down and pull Pip away from him.
"Then so be it," Zenith replied, walking off towards Madison as he held out the fox boy towards her, watching as she quickly transformed back into her human form and embraced the small child in her arms. "You can do whatever you want to me; hit me, burn me, throw me in prison… I don't care about all of that. But the moment you hurt my family or my friends, that's when things get serious." He said, looking back to Ojuku with a cold glare while the Colonel was left lying silently on the ground, thinking over the valiant boy's statement.
"Let's go," Madison said softly, holding her baby close and nodding towards Kaylo. Zenith immediately understood and reached down to pick up the bloody boy, before glancing around at the approaching chaos of Navy soldiers with large machines and weaponry.
"Indeed," he nodded, spotting an empty alleyway nearby and running down it as quickly as possible. Madison looked once more at Ojuku before turning away and running off as well, apologising to Pip as many times as she could.
"Did we get 'em?" Kaylo mumbled, his eyes drooping closed from weakness and blood loss.
"Yeah, you did great," Zenith replied, holding the beaten boy close while they retreated back towards the safety of the Shellshock.