New pets! (open)

4 am, an alarm sounded noisily downtown at a pet shop, it wouldn't be the first time someone had broken into a store in the middle of the night, it wouldn't be the last either. But this however is very different, no ONE had broken in. A curious snake like creature slithered among cages ripping them open and eating the contents. He fed on everything he came across and eventually collapsed in a snake tank.

That's where he was laying enjoying his rest when the police arrived and cleared the place waiting for the owner. They went over the damage and secured the building again. Bjorn was left locked inside for now, it wouldn't be long and he'd go off back home to his little cave.

Annie walked along the streets of downtown Jump, looking at the five 10-dollar bills she held in her hand. It was still weird, having her own bank account. A little confusing too, but at least Kasha understood how they worked and helped her figure it out. Now the question; what was she supposed to do with a hundred thousand dollars? She had no idea what to do with that kind of money. Kasha mentioned something about investing in gold, but he didn't know quite how to do that. She'd have to get some adult help later. For now, though, Annie was deciding what to do with the money she had right now. She stuffed the money in her front pocket down with Kasha, who had his little kitten head poked out to look around, and looked for something or some store she might be able to make use of it.

Then they eyed the pet shop, and after a moment of thought it only made sense to check it out. Kasha always worked so hard to take care of Annie, and she figured he aught to be rewarded. She was already thinking about what to get; maybe some kind of furry-ball-on-a-string type toy for him to play with as a kitten. Or maybe a scratching post; no he wouldn't use that... Chew bone? Squeaky toy? All of the above? Annie guessed they'd just have to go in and see what there was.

The two of them entered the store, and began to look around at it. It seemed like all the animals had been cleared out for some reason, except for a single snake. Annie noticed it, started to look for a toy or three for Kasha, and then paused. Something about that snake didn't feel like a snake, and whatever it was, Kasha felt it too. The two of them both looked over at the glass container that held it, and Annie found herself walking over to investigate. What was that? She came to the edge of the glass and stared at what she could see.

Bjorn felt himself being looked at his tail twitched curiously he turned toward them looking through the glass as his spines rose from between his scales. Three sharp bladed spines rose and he drug himself out of the log. He looked at Annie and slammed a talon into the glass it shattered like it was made of water. He sniffed the air looking at her. His gums opening just above his teeth taking in their scents.

The beast grinned with what little lips he had. His fangs bared constantly and his talons stabbing into the floor. "You want fight? I want fight." He stared up at the girl making no move to attack her. His black eyes glanced over to take in the sight of the man looking in the window. He sniffed again and a thin prehensile tongue slid along his fangs as he looked at her.

Annie blinked, watching curiously as the tail twitched before the strange lizard made it's way out of it's hiding spot. Annie blinked, seeing as the thing got up that this was no snake. She yelped and backed away the instant before Bjorn smashed through the glass, having sensed what he was going to do just moments ahead of time. Her hands went to Kasha, clutching the kitten in reaction to the sudden start. Kasha instinctively put up a force field around Annie to keep her protected. Annie stepped back further as the creature came out; afraid of whatever that thing was or that it might attack her. "N-no thank you.." she responded to it as she clutched Kasha tightly. At least it had asked her if she wanted to fight...

Then they sensed something else; the mind of a person that they hadn't seen in a long time, yet one that they wouldn't soon forget. While Kasha watched Bjorn, Annie turned her head to look out the window; only to find that her fears were confirmed. It was him; the crazed lunatic who had helped cause so much fear on the second scariest night of Annie's life. Of course, it hadn't been entirely his fault, but she still attributed the fear to him. Annie suddenly became very visibly worried and afraid at the sight of Zack, causing her to quickly move back from him and, consequentially, Bjorn as well. Her grip on Kasha tightened a little, and while Kasha looked back and forth between the lizard and the maniac, Annie kept her eyes fixed on the latter.

Bjorn having glanced over noticed the pistol being raised he'd seen enough of them on the street and leapt after Annie realizing that the man aimed to not hit her. He ducked into cover beneath a shop rack and punched his claws through the metal tearing it open. The creature slid inside the metal frame, it wouldn't stop the bullets but it would hide him effectively.

Bjorn slipped back out the hole after a few seconds and moved behind on the other side of the rack. Now he wagered his opponent would think he was inside. The beast slithered along the back side getting closer to the man trying to listen and smell him. A surprise attack was the best way to do this. Bjorn's mind was thinking fondly of titan's tower and his home there about the pink haired man who helped him. His mind was simple, he wanted to fight but unless attacked he never would.

Kasha was very glad that he had put up a shield for Annie, yet it wasn't going to change how she reacted to the gun being fired in her general direction. Annie saw the gun and went wide eyed. That was enough to get her panicked; but firing it off was just too much for her. She screamed in terror, turning and running for the back of the store as fast as her legs could carry. She'd already had enough trauma associated with madmen and guns to last her a lifetime; and right now all she wanted was to get well away from Zack and never see the man again. Already close to tears, Annie ran far to the back and dashed into the first relatively safe place she could find; the store's one restroom. She hastily slammed the door behind her as she entered, locking it tight.

As for Bjorn, Annie had all but forgotten about him. Kasha, however, had been interested by the creature. His number one concern, as always, was on Annie; but what part of his mind wasn't focused on her was focused on the fight between Bjorn and Zack. Strangely enough, Kasha did not perceive the snake like creature to be a threat as long as neither he nor Annie attacked it. In addition, it was intelligent, which made Kasha want to go talk to it sometime; though now was clearly not the time to do so. He stayed put in little Annie's overall pocket, concerned for Annie's well-being and waiting for this fight to be over.

Bjorn heard the gun fire but no better than a human would have don't. He dropped on his stomach curling up to avoid being shot in the random fire. He covered his lateral lines with the talons and hissed in displeasure. It only took a moment and he peeked around the end of the rack where Zack had been.

Bjorn kept moving shifting around to look out the window. The man wasn't outside... that meant he was inside. The insect pulled himself up on the rack and tried moving quietly his talons making a soft click on the metal though. When he realized they made noise he leapt up and over it in one fluid motion.

His eyes found Zack and his tail swung around slamming into the display with a massive amount of force throwing himself like a cannon ball at Zack's face. He'd tucked himself up attempting to knock the human from his feet as he did to the police long ago. [he's using 1000 pounds of force to propel himself and is 50 pounds]

More gunshots...  Why did it have to be rapid-fire gunshots?  Annie backed from the door, utterly terrified now and fearing for her life, she started crying and holding her arms around her torso.  This is not how she wanted this day to go...  Kasha got fed up with it pretty quickly and advised Annie on what to do.  Within moments, once she could compose herself, Annie turned on her shadow cloak spell.  Though it wasn't good for hiding here, it provided a two way sound barrier that blocked the noise of the gunfire; which helped her to keep calm a little.  

Per Kasha's advice, she then proceeded to rapidly empty out the cabinet underneath the bathroom sink, and throw it's contents into the covered trash bin.  It took about a minute, and as soon as she was able to Annie ducked under and crawled into the cabinet, closing the door behind her.  Though it wasn't much, this was all Kasha knew of that Annie could do to hide herself in the confined space.  Annie tried to keep calm, huddling close with her kitten protector as she kept the shadow cloak up and Kasha kept the force field up around her and inside the cabinet.  Even so, Annie was quite scared right now and could only hope that no-one would find/bother them.

Bjorn wasn't able to see in flight due to the speed but felt the impact. He'd impacted Zack's arm and ended up deflected off the side and hit a wall. He was stunned and hissed softly moving over to climb up onto a mound he shook his head.

Zack would feel the creature pull itself up on his chest and just pause there obviously stunned from the impacts. He'd left a sizable dent in the wall from his armored back. "Fight?" was all the little creature could muster in it's current state.

Annie stayed huddled in the cabinet, trying to calm down slow her breathing. She huddled with Kasha, feeling a little more secure now that they were out of harms way. For the most part anyway. Actually, where she was right now was really helping. She was in a dark, quiet place, huddling Kasha, with a force field around her keeping her protected; this actually felt really secure and safe and peaceful. The only thing that could bother her was feeling the minds of the two outside; but compared to where she was just moments before, this was a lot better. She took what time she had just to calm down and relax, closing her eyes as she snuggled with Kasha and held him close to her chest.