Xaviers!

The wolf crashes into the wall because steel fists hit like... well... steel fists. She shakes herself, the arm falling to the ground as her jaw realigns and knits back together. Then she lunges forward, bones cracking and shaping as her own change occurs. Her front legs grow to arms and she grabs hold of the wall, using raw strength to hurl herself up the wall after her prey and try to make up for not being really built for climbing.

Miriam rushes out the door and makes it a couple steps up from the basement entrance before recoiling from the morning sun cutting her off from stepping out into the street.

"Will!" she shouts, her voice accompanied by a mental command hoping to pierce through Mel's imprint and maybe at least make them hesitate before they manage to get beyond her reach.

Sam, still shaking off the effects of the neural fuzz as she exits, launches a clumsy push at Will's mind that doesn't quite connect.

Samantha McManus wrote:Sam, still shaking off the effects of the neural fuzz as she exits, launches a clumsy push at Will's mind that doesn't quite connect.

Miriam Bell wrote:"Will!" she shouts, her voice accompanied by a mental command hoping to pierce through Mel's imprint and maybe at least make them hesitate before they manage to get beyond her reach.

The two telepaths' attempts at mental commands...fail.

That mental fuzziness? It's present in the store, for sure, but it also seems to be present around Will herself, now as she moved. Just as the 'fuzziness' had come from the box of glowing red balls, it also seemed to be coming from Will herself now...

Tereza Rozanov wrote: Her front legs grow to arms and she grabs hold of the wall, using raw strength to hurl herself up the wall after her prey and try to make up for not being really built for climbing.

Bits of plaster and roof shingles fly off as Tereza scrambles up towards the roof. Collateral damage; looks like ASHLIE would have to cut someone another check.

Tereza was faster than Will on the rooftops, but Will was much more mobile, springing across gaps and squeezing through cracks and narrow passageways Tereza would have to figure out ways to go around or through. The benefit of having flexible anatomy was that there was no passageway too tight for Mel to squeeze through.

Raw speed wasn't going to work here, but wolves are more than just about speed when hunting, yes?

The prey was certainly crafty, she can give it that much respect. She starts to flag a little, giving the impression she's running out of steam. She needs the prey to be confident, needs her to believe she's winning. As she watches the prey, she tries to anticipate and read her. Is the prey going to zig or zag? When will the prey get tired and seek a place to catch her breath? Too many angles to cover. Too many possibilities to adjust for. Too many to do alone that is. She lets out a howl, reaching for Sam with a single, very primal thought, Need pack.

As that thought rushes through her, Sam clutches her head and falls to her knees, her frame warping as red fur begins to sprout, becoming the pack that Tereza's wolf needs.

As Sam shifted, Will continued to run, this time shunting herself down a drainpipe to get back to street level.

The chase was beginning to draw a bit of a crowd, as well.

A red-furred wolf lurches onto its paws and dashes off down the street towards where Will is emerging.

Tereza continues to track Will from the rooftop, letting Sam play herder as she looks for a good opportunity to catch up and pounce.

Will landed in the street, only to come up short as the red-furred wolf came bounding towards her.

"Well, Sammy. I always knew you were a bitch, but this is taking things a bit too literally, don't you think?" she asked, backing away carefully.

Sam snaps at Will, trying to keep her penned in near the wall and drainpipe.

The wolf on top of the building growls down at Willpomene. The ice clinging to her fur shifts, turning spiking and giving off little wisps of cold even in the winter air. A low guttural, single-worded command comes from her, "Surrender."

Will whirled, looking up at Tereza.

"Oh, clever girl. Well done."

She raised her hands up in mock surrender -- and then extended them, grabbing on to a nearby streetlight and trying to pull herself out of range before either wolf could react.

The wolf's eyes narrow on the streetlight and her eyes flare into brilliant white energy as the temperature around the streetlight drops precipitously. "Will catch you," she growls as she leaps to follow.

The lower temperature seemed to be having an effect-- Will was moving more slowly as the chill set in.

"Dammit..." she swore, stretching out to try to grab on to something to pull her out of the range of the pack...

Sam works to harry Will, snapping at her any time she starts to reach towards an object. Not trying to catch her, just to keep her in Tereza's range.

The wolf works off of Sam's harrying, trying to make sure there's nowhere to run from the cold. Everywhere she goes there's more cold.

Miriam, still trapped by the sunlight, is watching anxiously from the safety of the basement stairs.

Nailah, disregarding her cast perhaps a little bit too much, is hurrying past her and towards where Sam and Tereza are trying to keep Willpomene contained and starts calling out what the shapeshifter is going to try and reach for next to give Sam a heads-up on snapping.

"Sewer-grate!"

Indeed, a split-second later, that was precisely where Will dashed, trying to squeeze through into the sewers below to break away from the cold.

The combination of Nailah's advanced warning and Tereza's cold made her reaction just that much slower, however...

Sam tries to catch Will in her jaws and throw her against a wall!

The added split-second of delay was enough for Sam to cut Will off at the pass, sinking her teeth into (cold) flesh and slamming her against the nearby wall!

A few cracks appeared on her face briefly, as the brittle clay was damaged from being smashed against the wall. They formed back again quickly, but not before some red light was able to shine through.

Will tried to gather herself, pushing off to try to limp down the alleyway, though it was clear she was in poor shape.

The wolf lunges after the limping prey. Something about that red light seemed special, something that makes her think she should find the source of that. With that in mind, she goes to slam a fist into Will's back, intent on finding where the red light is coming from.

Will did her best to block the punch, but she was clearly going down for the count, stumbling under the impact of the wolf.

The light had come from the head area.

Sam circles around the two, intent on keeping Will penned in with Tereza.

"Brother can take the punishment," her instincts and memory tell her as she swipes at Will with one clawed hand while the other makes a grab at Will's head, trying to dig in and find the source of the light.

Tereza grabbed Will's head an squeezed.

At first, it was like...well, squeezing a head. Will tried to fight back, to squeeze out, to do anything, but wolves are tough, and Will's in a bad way.

After a few seconds -- and some rather, uh, unpleasant cracking sounds, either from bone or the ice -- the pressure got to be too much. Under that much of stress, Wellpomene couldn't keep up her form, reverting (at least in part) to the base clay. Base clay was squeezable, and Tereza was able to smush it between her fingers.

Or, well, almost. About halfway through a good smashing, Tereza's claws wrapped themselves around a solid core. A glowing, red solid core -- one of the balls from back in the tattoo shop.

And as she grabbed it, she disappeared from Sam and Miriam's mental senses, while Willpomene reappeared, seething hate and frustration.

The wolf briefly has the urge to just crush the orb, but someone might value it. So she just stands there, holding the orb and glowering down at the clay that is Willpomene as the red light from the orb gives a red cast to her white fur.

The disruption of the link is rather abrupt and Sam staggers, momentarily confused.

Willpomene's head slowly reformed, glowering back up at the wolf.

"That's fighting dirty. Allow me to repay the favor."

Without getting up -- possibly without being able to get up -- Willpomene shot her arms out towards Tereza's head, wrapping them around and cutting off her oxygen.

She also started to squeeze.

The wolf struggles against the arms, but she was caught off guard and she's already used up a lot of energy on this chase between shifting and healing injuries. And then there's the pain. Having your head squeezed *hurts*, even if you're a werewolf. Her body is trying to regenerate the damage as it's done, but there's only so much it can do when the damage is continuing. The red orb goes sailing down the alleyway as she starts flailing in pain and anger, lashing out at anything she can get her claws on.

The claws gouge and scrape at Will, clay flying off as she goes, but she doesn't let go, her grip only tightening.

As the ball bounced away, Tereza's mental presence snapped back into focus for the telepaths.

"That's enough!" Miriam shouts and it rings out through the minds of everybody in range. It's focus though, an the mental command carried along with it focuses mainly on Will, her mind reaching out to make Will stop. Mental strands of black fabric shoot out at Melpomene but they're not aiming to restrain, growing rigid and sharp as they pierce through the mental presence of her evil twin with all the self-loathing she can muster.

Mel mentally shrieked. With no telepathic powers of her own, and with the significant physical damage she had suffered, she was practically defenseless.

Her grip loosed on Tereza, just slightly.

The link slamming back into her just as suddenly, Sam lunges toward Will's arm, aiming to either bite through or otherwise pull it off of Tereza.

The gap is enough for Sam's fangs to get around Will's arm. Because of the multiple-front assault, it was more clay than flesh, and Sam was able to fairly easily snap through it, giving Tereza much needed space and oxygen.

The wolf rips the clay off its face, bone crunching and shifting back into place as her head heals. "You'll live," she growls. The temperature around Willpomene drops again with the wolf intent on freezing Willpomene into immobility.

The ice crystallized itself around Willpomene, immobilizing her and freezing a vicious scowl on her face.

The crowd began to try to press in closer to get a better look.

Sam winces and starts to shift back to human, though she doesn't quite seem to make it all the way.

"...too many people. Got to... got to get her out of here, 'Reza..."

"Hurting you," she says with concern, sliding her fingers under the frozen Willpomene to lift her off the pavement. She glances at the people gathering. She's not really in the mindset to deal with them. She sees prey and threats and sometimes both in the same person. "They need you," she says and her connection to Sam closes off completely, "Get Nailah."