Vector

Chase

Rox, at the moment, had two choices. He could either let himself and his friend die in vain out in the hot desert, to a new, dangerous Vector, or he could transform, and try to maintain his Vector form long enough to either run the Vector off or defeat it, at the cost of revealing his secret to yet another person. Of the two, he chose the latter, letting out a brill shout in pain as his body began to change, shifting into its Vector form, his shout mutating into a screech throughout the transformation. He stood there, energy literally flowing right out of him, by the second. Maybe if a miracle came into play, he'd have half a minute. He had one chance to save his and Crime's lives, and he had to use it quick, thus he leaned forward upon his now slanted feet, letting the claws at the end of them dig into the ground ever so gradually just before he shot up at the Vector, leaping onto it whilst letting out a shriek in pain as Vector cords shot out of his back.

Crime stared in awe as her friend turned into a Vector before her very eyes, leaping up and preparing to protect both of them. She didn't really know how to react to something like this, so she just stood there, paralyzed as she watched Rox turn into a Vector, just before leaping at the Vector which was attacking them. Its cords shot down at him, impaling his right shoulder and his stomach with its massive fangs. Suddenly, Rox felt a chill shoot down his spine as he was paralyzed in an instant, beginning his descent not even a second after such. At this moment, thousands of millions of tons of regret fell on him, because at that moment, he knew he had failed. He couldn't protect himself or his ally, though a few tons of regret were lifted off of his back when he reminded himself that he could have run, but he didn't, no, he'd decided to stay behind with his friend, to protect her.

A smile grew upon Rox's face as he fell to the ground, a smile full of nothing but satisfaction, fueled by the fact that over the course of a few months, he'd become a better person. He'd learned to care for others and yearn for their company through the process of being on a team with so many justified, good people, who never backed down in the face of danger, but rather stood even stronger in it. He'd learned to control his arrogance through the process of being strictly ordered and falling down a whole level in the food chain. He'd re-learned the pain of seeing a loved one die when Kana died, and he'd learned the bliss of seeing somebody who he thought to be dead, return, right before his eyes. But most of all, the greatest thing he'd learned, throughout the course of about three months, was to survive, and he had no intentions of letting that go.

Suddenly, he felt a cyclone of adrenaline pump violently through him, fighting against the poison in his body, breaking it down one by one, until finally, the poison was gone, and Rox could move, albeit also being on the edge of passing out. But he knew better than to pass out now, because if he did, that would mean certain death for him and his partner, Crime. Thus, he stayed conscious, using the momentum of his fall to flop onto his back, clenching his fists and slamming his elbows into the ground and flipping backwards into the air, landing in a kneeling position as he looked at the Vector, which was running straight at Crime. Rox looked up at his Vector cords, which continuously wiggled around, eager to feel the feeling of penetrating flesh. Rox knew what he had to do, and so he thought about how he was supposed to control these Vector cords, or if he could even control them at all, for that matter.

If he couldn't, how was he supposed to save Crime? Could he even save Crime in the first place? Or would he watch another ally die due to his inability to protect them? He didn't know, but he kept going for the optimistic view, sending surges throughout his nerves, trying to see if they'd move by his will, but all they did was straighten out for a bit before going back to wiggling. Rox was running out of time as Crime avoided the Vector once more, rolling out of the way, towards Rox. The chase was greatly elongated, but Rox knew that it would come to an end soon, either by him being able to kill, or hold off the Vector and escape with Crime, or by the Vector killing both Crime and Rox before they even had the chance to escape. It was this time, this time that Rox had his last chances to try and shoot a Vector cord at the creature.