The horse he rode in on.... [Open]

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A flash dashes across the night sky above Jump city. It streaks off toward the outskirts of the town, looking like a small meteorite falling to earth. It glows orange as it descends towards the woods...

Inside this flash was a strange, alien ship that could be classified as a fighter-plane. A wolf-like figure was working frantically inside to steer the fighter at an angle towards the forest. This creature's name, was Kaedan Shadowblade. "Ah blast it..." Kaedan muttered to himself as his ship started nearing the ground. Quickly he popped the emergency release and the hatch to the fighter ripped off and flew backwards. Kaedan was now pressed up against the seat, the fighter was just seconds from crashing into the ground. In a desperate move, Kaedan leaps out the left side of the fighter, tucking his head near his chest and rolling to break his fall. He landed hard, rolling over and over again and feeling pain all throughout his body as he hit the ground.

The fighter was not as lucky, it smashed into the ground, gouging a deep gash into the forest floor and leaving a trail of smoke and debris in its wake. Flames engulfed the hunk of metal that was left of the fighter-plane.

Kaedan slowly got up to his feet, wincing at the pain he felt in his body. His left leg hurt whenever he took a step on it and his left arm hurt whenever he moved it. The rest of him was just bruised, but he was pretty sure that his ankle was sprained. He wasn't sure about his arm though. Kaedan needed to find a place to hide now, he was in unknown territory. Limping from the scene of the crash, Kaedan tried to stealthily sneak away, leaving drag tracks from his left leg in the leaves behind him.

[Bry]

It was hardly the right time for a meteor shower. Raven was fairly certain of this, as she'd been following the signs carefully. The next shower should take place in two weeks.

So then why was there a very bright star falling to earth just outside Jump City now?

The alarms hadn't gone off yet, so Raven guessed it wasn't a blatant threat, but she still had some red flags of her own to deal with. Rising from where she'd been settled on the roof, Raven grabbed her communicator and stared off into the distance.

"A star just fell to earth," she said in a monotone to the communicator, setting it to relay to her core team and Ranks 3, 4, and 5. "A very strange star. I'm checking it out. No current need for back-up."

And then she shut the T-Comm. and disappeared into the sky like the bird she was named after. Raven arrived on the scene a mere five minutes later, hovering lightly in the air and watching the flames still picking at the destroyed fighter, a frown forming on her face. She reached for her communicator again.

"Correction. Not a star, a ship. Average size, and it's burning. I'm checking it out."

She didn't get to though. Instead, the ship's former occupant caught her attention, rustling slightly in the leaves beneath her. Raven observed him a moment, then landed in front of him a ways, aiming to look nonthreatening and keeping a bit of a distance in case this new development decided to attack.

"Rough landing?" she asked dryly into the night. Then, noting his limp and taking a slightly less abrasive tone, she asked, "Are you okay?"

[Deleted]

Kaedan startled at the sight of the strange creature appearing before him. He quickly reached and drew his blades over his shoulders and cringed slightly as his left arm screamed with pain. His leg hurt too as he took a defensive stance. It took him a few seconds to register that the creature had just spoken to him, in what seemed like a rough version of his own language.

"Fine. Just bruised, but ready to fight if you have come to." Kaedan said, brandishing his blades, his eye twitched at the pain in his leg and arm. He wished it would stop and that he could relax, but he was on a strange planet, being confronted by a strange native. He didn't know what to expect from this creature.

[Bry]

The moment the injured creature pulled the swords from behind him was the moment Raven sank back into a defensive stance. Her fists came up, hovering in front of her face and glowing slightly, but she did not attack. While her head didn't move, her eyes flicked down and then back up, evaluating just how much of a threat this alien may prove to be. He was over six feet tall, from what she could tell in the dark, possibly more, and he had two blades in his hands.

Paws?

It didn't matter. He was armed. He was injured, but she knew enough that injured didn't necessarily mean incompetent. She kept her fists raised, just in case.

"I did not come to fight," she informed him, watching closely. "Only to investigate. If you'd put the swords down, though, I'd really prefer to talk."

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Shadowblade looked at the creature warily. "You come to investigate...alone?" He asked between gritted teeth as another wave of pain wracked his leg and arm.

He needed to get to a place that he could lie low and rest. He wasn't sure of this strange being's intentions. It hadn't launched a sneak attack on him, but still, Shadowblade didn't know what abilities this creature possessed. He sighed and flipped his blades back into the sheathes on his back, grimacing in pain at the motion.

"There, we can talk, but any trickery and I will defend myself." Kaedan said in a serious and flat tone.

He pushed his hood back with his right paw to get a better look at the strange creature who was also hooded. Kaedan noted that the, he assumed it was female, had some sort of otherwordly power given that her hands had glowed slightly. Maybe this strange power was common on this planet for all he knew.

[Bry]

"As I'd expect," Raven replied to the alien's declaration that he would defend himself, should she attempt to trick him. She had no intentions to, though, unless he proved to her that attack was necessary. As there were no civilians in danger in the immediate area, and he'd put the weapons away, Raven did not foresee a fight. She lowered her hands back to her sides, releasing the glowing energy that had laced them and standing straight upright once more.

Then he pushed back his hood and her guess at 'paws' was shown correct. He indeed greatly resembled a wolf, from his furry face to his humanized paws, and Raven blinked once in surprise. She was reminded at once of Ghostdance, another lupine Titan they'd recruited, except that Ghostdance hadn't arrived in a broken down spaceship. And GD was blue.

"Yes, I'm investigating," Raven said, then clarified, "But I am not alone. My team will be here in a moment, should I call upon them." Her words were meant as both a reassurance to her, and a warning to him, that she'd only hold off attack so long as he too played nice. "Now, I'm curious." She glanced past him towards the still-flaming ship. "What exactly happened...?"

[Deleted]

Shadowblade grew a bit more alert, and looked around for any more creatures like the one before him as soon as she mentioned she had a team. He wanted to be sure they weren't sneaking up behind him. The small movements were painful, but tolerable to some extent. He then realized that the creature had asked him a question.

"Crash landing, severed fuel-line." Kaedan replied in the same tone of voice he had used before. "Cause of severed fuel line, a longsword, D-class, standard issue to..." He stopped himself. "Not important."

He gripped his left arm with his right, trying to feel out the exact point of pain in his arm. He let out a sharp gasp of pain as he pressed on a very sensitive part near his elbow, he hoped that nothing was torn or broken. He still kept Raven in the corner of his eye as he looked down at his arm.

[Bry]

Raven cocked her head to the side ever so slightly; this news was curious. A severed fuel line wasn't anything totally out of the ordinary, but severed by a long sword? And the way this stranger trailed off and ended in a tone that clearly tried to derail from what he'd been about to say? Raven was even more intrigued now than she had been.

"It is important," she told him. "Considering that it brought you to a rather rude landing outside my city. Where were you heading?"

She watched him intently, taking note of the way he examined his arm, frowning at the slight pain she could feel from him. That must be the brunt of his injuries, she decided. That and his leg, if his limp had anything to say. Her first inclination was to step forward, ask permission to have a look, to heal him. But she hesitated, if only because this creature was a stranger and could easily change his alignment to that of 'enemy.' For the time being, though she frowned at his pained gasp, Raven held her ground quietly.

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Shadowblade looked back up at Raven. "I didn't really 'land'." He said, in a serious tone.

"It wasn't my choice really. A...'friend' of mine had switched on the autopilot for this planet....It is a very long story, too long to tell..." Kaedan's training was trying to find ways to satisfy the strange creature's questions while also not giving away too much information. He couldn't help it, it was ingrained into him.

Again, keeping Raven in the corner of his eye, he glanced back at the burning wreckage of his....well whatever was left of his ship. "The Fousa should probably be put out before it spreads to other areas." He moved toward the wreckage, limping.

[Bry]

She wasn't entirely sure how this wolf creature planned to do that, unless he had some sort of aquatic powers she was not aware of. Her head still to the side curiously, Raven let him walk away from her, pulling her communicator back out for an update.... And possibly a fire truck.

She sent their coordinates to the nearest fire station, adding a quick note that it was less than urgent, and then she followed after him, floating just above the ground for ease.

"If you're not in any immediate need to be elsewhere, I have all the time in the world," Raven said as she trailed behind him. Her immediate concern was more of a 'friend or foe' decision, though she was leaning towards the former, based on his cooperation and lack of aggression.

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"I don't believe that we should talk while a fousa is raging here in a woodland area." Shadowblade replied, trying to avoid the subject of his past. He wondered why he didn't want to talk about it, he never had trouble before talking things, but now, he just felt uncomfortable.

Kaedan moved over to the wreckage and started throwing dirt onto some of the fire, with his good arm, to stop the spread. "Perhaps after this doesn't present a threat we can speak more?" He suggested, stopping for a moment as his body screamed in protest at the movements that were done to shovel dirt onto the fire.

Originally he was going to leave the fire to burn, but given that he had been discovered and that the crash had been linked to him, he felt obligated to put it out. If he didn't then he may be seen as an aggressor to what could be potential allies.

[Bry]

Raven contemplated his answer and after a second deemed it agreeable. If he cared about the surrounding wildlife, he wasn't likely to attack the population. He was gaining points. Watching him struggle to put out the fire, Raven stepped forward.

"Move aside," she suggested, not unkindly, and threw her hands out in front of her. A crackling black dome began to form from its top, moving swiftly to the ground, and covered the entire aircraft and its flames. Her eyes aglow, Raven brought the dome down upon the fire, creating a sort of vacuum and eliminating the oxygen fueling the fire. Once she was satisfied with its dwindling size, and quite sure that it wouldn't burn the city down before the fire department could arrive, her eyes lost their eerie glow and she let the dome break apart. She looked back to the stranger.

"So you were saying?"

[Deleted]

Kaedan was a bit wary at the display that had taken place before him. He guessed that in his condition, he had made the right call not to attack this being. If he would've attacked, it might be he who had suffocated under an orb of darkness instead of the fire.

He grimaced as another wave of pain overtook him and he cursed quietly to himself in his own language. He then thought how best to reply to the being and decided to just stick with the basics, just as he was trained to do.

"I was framed......for a crime I did not commit on my homeworld." Kaedan replied. "My... 'friends' helped me escape and my fighter."
Kaedan glanced at the wreckage and shook his head. "Was damaged during the escape.... my comrades held the others off and I would have joined them but......." Kaedan began to get a far off look in his eyes, not only remembering the events that had happened just days before, but all the times he had spent with his comrades.

"They told me to leave.... that they were repaying the debt they had owed me...." Kaedan shook his head to clear the thoughts.

"Well, the damage to my ship severed the fuel line and..... here I 'landed' " He replied. "Not such a long story now that its all said aloud." He hoped that the being wouldn't ask for more information, but he guessed that she probably would.

[Bry]

It was easy to claim you were framed. Raven had seen a few similar situations before, and she was hesitant to accept it as an answer, but this creature had the information to back up his claim. A story, albeit one without many details. He was still being vague.

But he was also being genuine.

Being an empath, Raven could feel the emotions this creature was emitting, just like she could any other living being, which reassured her a bit that he wasn't so different after all. Those emotions, coupled with the story he told, convinced her that he wasn't spinning a lie together. Or, if he was, it was close enough to the truth to match his feelings.

In response to this, the Azarathian blinked once and continued watching the wolf. Once he finished speaking, she waited, let him have a moment of silence to himself, then asked quietly, "And your homeland? Where are you from exactly?"

Stepping forward and offering her hand in what she hoped was a very non-aggressive move, she added, "I'm Raven, by the way."

[Deleted]

Kaedan jumped back slightly at the sudden movement, immediately on the defensive, he held his paws up in front of him protectively. Then he relaxed, he remembered again what power this 'Raven' commanded. His stance relaxed and he stared at the hand for a moment and then clasped Raven's forearm.

He didn't know that Raven knew about one of his homeland greetings. "My name is Kaedan Shadowblade." Kaedan replied, unclasping Raven's forearm. "My home is a planet called Tyrios. Atmosphere conditions are much the same, but the sky looks different." He didn't offer any more information.

Though he was grateful that Raven hadn't tried to kill him yet, he was still very wary. Just because she hadn't tried to kill him yet, it didn't mean that she didn't have plans for him in the nearby future, but a nagging feeling in the back of his mind told him that this being wasn't hostile and didn't have any malevolent intent. He decided to remain wary and ready at all times.

To break the sudden silence he had just created he replied with his own question. "Does all of your species have such powers? I've never read a report that suggested such." He asked, genuinely curious.