Gavin and Courtney are now in the small city of Fallis, walking around the city as they go on a date, hands intertwined as they have some fun, looking at different things. The couple then stops by a TV shop, where there's news of a forest fire somewhere, it seems to be where they were just a few hours ago,
"Damn, the the military must've went crazy when you escaped huh", Gavin says jokingly, as he realizes he messed up, as the sight of the destruction makes Courtney seem to fall into a bad mood again,
"Y-yeah.. must've...", she says softly as she looks at the devastating forest fire on TV, reminding her of her own past.
The news continues to explain, as it also seems the military lost over 150 soldiers during the same time, seemingly due to an execution for failing a task,
"D-damn, whoever's leading these guys are insane...", Gavin says as they watch the news.
As they continue watching, Gavin starts to have another trauma attack as the fire on the screen triggers him, causing him to panic and look away, panting and sweating heavily as he does. Courtney also seems to be having a panic attack as well, as she stands there, thinking about the lava projectile, whoever fired it and everything that happened back there.
Gavin notices his trembling girlfriend, as he quickly holds her hand, snapping her out of her little nightmare as he smiles at her,
"Hey, just relax, okay? We're gonna be okay", Gavin says to Courtney in a soft, reassuring tone, calming down Courtney a bit as she takes a deep breath and sighs,
"Yeah, you're right... What are we even worrying about, it'll be a while before they get here, and by that time we'll probably be out already", she replies, also trying to reassure and calm herself down, while also distract herself from her thoughts,
"Now let's go! Otherwise we won't have enough time left", she says in a cheerful tone as she runs ahead into the busy part of town, before turning back to Gavin with a smile, as Gavin looks at her go, smiling happily that she's okay again for now.
The couple walked around town, looking through the windows of various shops, stalls and other stores, trying out different things as they explored the town.
The couple soon stop by a little cafe, as they enter, Gavin gets a black coffee and a donut for himself, as Courtney also gets herself a milk tea and a burger. The two sit down on a cozy little table across from each other as they enjoy their little snack, as the cold, peaceful cafe around them continues their work, with more customers coming in by the minute as the couple sits there. Courtney sits there as she sips on her milk tea, while Gavin stares across her, staring at her dreamily as he rests his head on his hand, Courtney realizes this as she smiles,
"Hey, you dork... What're you doing?", she calls him out, as the daydreaming Gavin snaps back into reality and looks away, chuckling in embarrassment,
"Ahh... y-y'know, just, app... reciating your face? I mean, you, yeah", he stutters awkwardly in reply, as Courtney just enjoys the sight of her cute little boyfriend, laughing and enjoying his shyness.
She gets up and pats Gavin on the head, causing him to jump a bit in shock as he sits there, blushing in embarrassment as he can't do anything to stop her,
"C-Courtney, babe... Stop doing that...", he whispers to her, looking around praying that no one can see them, as Courtney can only laugh,
"You're so adorable, babe...", she says as he sits back down, picking up her burger to take a bite as she continues to sip on her milk tea. Gavin also goes ahead and sips some of his coffee, looking at Courtney and away continuously as he takes a bite from his donut as well.
Soon, the couple eventually finishes up, as the two leave, taking a deep breath of the fresh air outside,
"sighs Damn, it feels nice taking a breath without someone on our tail every once in a while", Courtney says as she looks around, wondering what to do and where to go next,
"Yeah, and not committing theft and robbery all the time too", Gavin replies with a chuckle as he chuckles, wondering what Courtney's thinking.
Soon, Courtney gets an idea as she smirks a bit, she takes Gavin's hand and takes him somewhere,
"Woah, Courtney, what are you doing! Where are we going?", he asks her in confusion, wondering why they're suddenly going so fast. Courtney only chuckles and smiles,
"Hehe, you'll see...", she says mischievously, as they continue to run.
Eventually, they arrive at a secluded little spot in town, as she drags Gavin into an alleyway, before pinning him to the wall,
"Ah, C-Courtney! What're you doing?", he says, blushing profusely in embarrassment due to the sudden act, as Courtney hazes into his eyes with a smirk,
"Sorry... I wanted to do this, but it takes too much time to go and get a room", she says playfully as she leans in closer to Gavin's face.
The couple closes their eyes, their distance closing in, as the intimate moment plays. The two have a gentle, passionate kiss in the alleyway, with no one around to worry about. Gavin's hands stay on Courtney's hips as they move on to making out, their tongues wrestle as they share their saliva in passion, teeth clash as they bite each other's lips and tongues gently.
Suddenly, Courtney pulls away, still smiling deviously with her red face, breath still hot from the kiss, when she suddenly kneels down,
"W-woah, Courtney... We're outside, we can't do that here...", Gavin whispers to her as he panics a bit, looking around cautiously, as Courtney laughs a bit, too in heat to care.
"Hehe... Oh, Gavin, you're so cute, that turns me on...", she says with a dangerous look as she bites her lip, before grabbing the waist of his pants and slowly unzipping his zipper.
Gavin starts to panic even more as the scene plays, while Courtney only gets more and more excited, when suddenly, screams are heard from afar, causing the couple to quickly stop and get up,
"Tsk, the moment just had to be ruined...", Courtney says in frustration, as the couple walks out of the alley, looking around to see what's going on,
"phew I'm so glad that's over", Gavin thinks to himself as he lets out a sigh of relief.
The couple sneak around town, looking around to find out what's happening, as they soon arrive at the center of town and realize what's going on.
Huge armored cars, jeeps, armed men, and helicopters flying above are seen as the couple realize,
"Oh shit, They're here!", the couple says at the same time quietly, as they watch the soldiers and civilians stand in the middle of town, while they stay hidden behind a building.
A man then walks through the crowd of citizens, seeming to be the mayor of the town,
"Greetings, welcome to the city of Fallis, I'm the mayor here, how may we be of service...", the mayor welcomes the military nervously, praying nothing goes, as the general also walks through the crowd of soldiers, before standing in front of the mayor, towering over him intimidatingly,
"Hello, Mayor, I'm Lance, General Lance", he greets the mayor as he looks around at the crowd of people on the opposite side, scared and wondering what's going on, causing him to smile a bit, before looking back at the mayor who struggles to speak, "It seems we traced an extremely dangerous criminal to your city, and we ask if we could go ahead and... check it out?", he says with a false smile as he pretends to be nice.
The mayor stands there nervously and scared, but keeping his stoicism. He struggles with his words, gulping nervously as he does,
"Y-yes, of course, general", the mayor replies with a seemingly calm smile, "Anything to help you catch this criminal... Just, please do not harm my people", he says with a pleading look, as the general's smile slowly fades away, turning into a face of disgust as he sees the smile.
He then walks right past him, as he stares at the crowd,
"Citizens of Fallis, I promise you all no harm, as long as you all stay within the observation of my men here", he says to the crowd of innocent people, as he shows off his enormous army of soldiers, "They will protect you, and will do so if the criminal manages to reach you all", he continues, bringing a sense of safety the the crowd, calming them down a bit, yet also intimidating them.
"Now then, for the rest of you, come with me, we shall begin searching the city for this criminal, and for you soldiers guarding these citizens, check them as well in case they're already here", he commands his soldiers as they start their move.
Courtney and Gavin quickly move as well as they look at the army of soldiers heading in all directions to find them, the couple quickly run through different streets and alleys to find a place to hide, as soldiers are already breaking into buildings and houses, ravaging them just to find them, families and people that stayed in their homes are terrorized as the soldiers ravage through their house.
The couple soon find themselves in a secluded little warehouse near a river, as they hide, the sounds of screaming and open fire can be heard from afar. The couple calms down as they think of what to do with the time they have,
"Damn, what the hell! How'd they get here so fast", Gavin complains as he has a small tantrum, while Courtney sits down and begins to panic again, as her previous thoughts come back. Gavin stops his tantrum as he notices this, as he quickly goes to Courtney and hugs her tightly, trying to calm her down,
"Shh, Courtney, just relax, we'll be okay...", he says to her in a soft tone, trying to calm her down, as the sounds of panic, screams and more gunfire can be heard closing in on them even more, as Courtney's heart beats faster and faster, as her breathing does the same as well. Gavin is now panicking as well, thinking about a way to escape while also comforting his girlfriend,
"Okay, so, we can't just fly out of here, it'll be too flashy and obvious... Getting out right now would be too risky, but might be the only way to get out... And waiting things out is extremely risky, since we might get caught, and even if we fight back, it'll signal the others", Gavin thinks to himself as he tries to plan a way to escape, as the sounds of the soldiers ravaging the city can be heard getting closer and closer,
"Ahh, fuck it", he says, as he takes Courtney's by the arm, snapping her out of her thoughts once again,
"Courtney, listen... We need to focus on getting out right now, okay? We can talk about what you're feeling later, alright, babe?", Gavin says to her, staring into her eyes as he looks at her with a serious face. Courtney stands there, stuck still thinking and attacked by her memories, but eventually, she finally shakes it all off, as she takes a deep breath and sighs,
"Alright... I got it, now, let's go!", she says as the couple then get out of there and start running, as the soldiers can already be seen from a distance.
"So, what's the plan?", Courtney asks Gavin as they run,
"Well, we can't fly, since we'll be easily seen out in the open like this, and there isn't a crowd to be used as obstacles or for hiding... So our best chances right now is to just keep running, and to only fly when we're far enough and can't be seen", Gavin explains his plan to Courtney as they run, as she then nods, understanding the plan,
"Alright, got it!", she says as they continue running as fast as they can, quickly heading to the opposite side of the city as the military seems to be catching up pretty quickly.
Meanwhile, the general is walking through the seemingly empty streets through the city, manipulating his aura to instead be used as some sort of observation tool, as he looks around every building, street, and inch of the city just by using his aura alone. As he searches the city, he has continuous thoughts of anger and sadism as he thinks about Courtney, and how they would finally capture her and torture her in all ways, he then smiles in a sadistic way as he thinks of that. Suddenly a soldier runs to him, causing him to be agitated and almost attack the man, as the soldier screamed in fear, the general stop right before he can actually attack,
"What!?", he yells angrily at the soldier for disturbing him,
"G-general! We've spotted a suspicious pair of people near the river, they seem to be running to the other side! Some of the other soldiers already seem to be chasing after-", the soldier explains, but before he could finish, the general is already moving, jumping from building to building.
The general's mind is once again filled with angry, sadistic thoughts at Courtney,
"Magni... Finally, you're mine!", he thinks to himself as he smiles, excited to finally capture her and arrest her.
As for the couple, they're currently now on the bridge, still running as fast as they can,
"C'mon, Gavin!", Courtney says to Gavin, who seems to be getting exhausted,
"I know... I'm trying", he replies with a strained, tired voice, trying his best to keep going.
Suddenly, gunfire passes by them, as they both look back and realize there are now soldiers chasing after them, they've been found! Courtney is now panicking, as she gets scared and quickly thinks of what to do, she decides to stop and run back to Gavin, as she picks him up and they continue running.
"Baby, switch into your phoenix form, quick!", Gavin yells to Courtney while she holds him in her arms as they run, but Courtney seems to be unable to listen to him, she can't think, she's only lost in her thoughts as she continues mindlessly running.
Suddenly, time stops for Courtney when she feels something, a severe pain in her thigh, as she realizes she got shot. The couple falls down as Courtney collapses, Gavin quickly goes over to Courtney to check on her,
"Courtney!", he calls for her as he runs to her, but he quickly gets down as more gunfire is headed his way.
He crawls over to Courtney, as she lays on the floor, struggling in pain,
"Courtney...", Gavin says in a soft tone, scared and worried for Courtney, as he quickly drags her to the side, behind a parked car.
Gavin quickly checks on her gun wound as they sit there,
"G-Gavin...", Courtney says in a strained voice to Gavin,
"Yes, Courtney? What's up?", he replies worriedly as he continues checking on the wound,
"Y-you go... I can deal with this...", she says to Gavin, as Gavin's face switches to a scared, worried look, Courtney then quickly uses her Phoenix powers, as she uses her flames to quickly heal her wound,
"W-what? Why the hell would I do that!", Gavin complains to Courtney as she sits up,
"Gavin, I can defend myself, you can't, now go", she says to him as she gets up, quickly transforming her arms into her Phoenix wings,
"Courtney!", Gavin yells to her as she runs off to fight the soldiers,
"Just go!", she quickly yells back to him, as she then flies over to the soldiers that caught up to them, swatting them away and blasting flames at them to keep them away.
Gavin now stands there in a dilemma, as he thinks, whether to listen to Courtney and run, or to stay by her side and help, as an army of soldiers now march towards them...