taxonomites | [accidental visual | location: all over taxon

Just like last week, Ashley's tablet starts recording while she's in the throws of a nightmare. It's far closer to morning this time, and unlike the last, she's fallen asleep with the light on. Her thrashing can clearly be seen as the tablet is up on a ledge with a clear shot at her.

In her mind, Ashley can still feel the tank of water around her, the feel of the medication as it flowed through her veins, the last of her resistance being pushed out. Her mind is being forced back, her will bent into a corner of her brain, and from the looks of her thrashing, whatever nightmare she's having is far worse than the last.

The tablet records for a few minutes before Ashley suddenly sits bolt upright in bed, her eyes snapping open. Those who have actually seen her and pay attention to these sorts of things will notice that her eyes aren't blue this morning. They're red, a deep, blood red. Source Blood red. Ashley pulls herself together and leaps from the loft, landing catlike on the floor below. Eventually, the tablet feed will time out and that is all it catches of Ashley for the next week or so.

The blonde girl is on a mission and no one is safe.

[ ooc: ashley's cabal glitch is go now! she can be found anywhere in taxon, absolutely anywhere (all week, in fact), and anyone is free to tag in, even if we haven't planned anything out! i am willing to have her be seriously injured multiple times (in fact this will be necessary to helping / stopping her), so don't hold back! (seriously, this is your chance to do all those crazy funky power things you never get to do because it's all crazy godmode stuff. go nuts. not even kidding.) if you have questions, feel free to ask me! ]

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Buffy happens to catch a glimpse of the red-eyed catgirl action -- this isn't good.

Time for some good ol' schoolyard calling-out.

She steps outside, stretching a bit, before heading out into the streets. She'd run the entire place if she had to, to find the craziness before the craziness found someone a little less capable of handling it.

Along the way, Buffy starts the shouting.

"Ashley! Heeeeey, Miss Crazypants! Come on out and play!"

Yelling out does the trick, Ashley turning as soon as her hearing catches it. A soft hiss is spared before she's off and rushing towards the sound. Buffy. Someone she'd asked to take her down if she had to be, someone who was capable of it as well.

Once Ashley rounded a street corner and spotted Buffy, she came to a stop. A predatory smirk crossed her lips and she clawed the air between them. This would be fun. A moment later, she started running, picking up momentum as she went, aiming straight for Buffy. At least this time, the Slayer knew her style of fighting a bit better than last time.

Buffy quickly triggers her bracelet, doing a fast broadcast the moment she sees Ashley rounding the corner.

"Heeey guys, Ashley seems to have lost her mind here."

Backing up, backing up. Making sure she's not going to end up with her back up against a wall.

"And she's got her claws out. I'm pretty sure I can keep her busy for awhile, but I'm not really feeling the urge to die again. So, you know, c'mon and give a girl a hand, 'k?"

The broadcast stays open, and Buffy's in a fighting stance, waiting for the on-rush of claws.

Ashley's first response is to target the tablet. She teleports right up to Buffy, aiming a hand straight at what is causing the broadcast - Ashley herself knows what those words were for and thus Cabal Ashley does as well. Her other hand moves into position to block whatever Buffy throws at her in response.

Buffy shouts in surprise as the woman reappears in front of her and her tablet practically disintegrates from Ashley's blow.

"Teleporting! That's cheating!" One leg sweep, coming up, as Buffy wants her off her feet as soon as possible.

Ashley leaps back, avoiding the kick and flexing her talons between them before she aims a kick of her own at Buffy's knee. She doesn't respond at all to the yelling.

It lands, and Buffy grunts in pain. It'll take a minute or two for that not to hurt.

"C'mon, Ashley, I know you're in there"

The main issue will be staying away from those claws.

She launches herself directly at Ashley, fist swinging to sock her straight in the jaw.

Both of those hit, Ashley's head snapping back as Buffy tackles her to the ground. She doesn't even acknowledge the pain of hitting the ground as she quickly teleports out of Buffy's grip. She doesn't attack immediately, flexing her talons for a few seconds to give Buffy a chance to get up. Once she's up, Ashley aims a kick at her shin.

Buffy jumps over that without too much work, and then lunges forward with the stake, attempting to drive it into her chest. No words necessary, focusing on causing as much damage as possible.

Ashley manages to block Buffy's arm, but not before the other girl drives the stake through her chest. It really does nothing other than hurt. A lot. Pisses the Cabal side off and brings sane Ashley to the surface for a moment. Her eyes change color as she staggers backward, staring down at her chest as though she's never seen anything quite like it, but a moment later the color is back to Source Blood red.

Buffy's got a chance to do some major damage as Ashley examines the wound. Painful, but not lethal.

Buffy's eyes narrow as she focuses on trying to get this done before Bad Ashley comes back for more.

Time to aim for the soft parts, then.

With all of her strength, she strikes out with her palm directly into Ashley's throat. It might not take her out completely, but even the worst bad guy (usually) needed to breath.

Ashley takes the hit to her throat, stumbling back and lashing out with her talons in retaliation. Time to keep the other girl at bay with her claws if she has to.

The stake, however, is still embedded firmly in her chest.

The claws are unexpected, oddly enough, and rake across Buffy's chest, opening long slashes that immediately bloom red across her shirt.

A pained noise escapes and there's an instinctive response to try and protect her midsection. One arm curled against her stomach, Buffy lashes out and hits the end of the stake with a fist, driving it further in.

Okay, yeah, that hurts. The stake slides further in and now Ashley's focus is on that and less on whoever she's fighting. This is stupid. These people shouldn't be able to fight like this. They shouldn't be this much of a threat.

And Ashley should be able to get this stupid stake out of her chest, but with her internal war going on, she's not sure she wants to. So she pauses again. One last change to get another hit in before she's gone.

This has got to be fast, because it's not going to take much time for Ashley to get that out and then disappear.

"Sorry, Ashley," she breathes, before pulling a long thin knife out from the sheathe tucked into her waistband.

Should have started with that, she's thinking, before driving the knife straight through into Ashley's throat with all of her strength.

The two weapons sticking out of her do more damage than expected. Ashley recoils, red eyes turning blue as she moves to place a hand against Buffy's shoulder and shove her away, hard enough to send her flying to the ground. Her vision is spotty now and she reaches to pull out the knife and stake, letting them drop to the ground before the Cabal side takes over again.

In a bout of self-preservation, tinged with sane Ashley's desire to keep her friend safe, she teleports, this time far away for good. The knife wasn't enough to kill her, but it disrupted their control over her and that was what she wanted. Later on, she'd have to thank Buffy for her attempts.

Buffy just lay there for a minute, breathing heavily and wincing against the twist of pain each breath caused.

"Ow." She didn't know if that had been enough, suspected that it hadn't, since Ashley managed to teleport away.

She'd have to apologize for that, later. If later came.

[accidental visual | location: all over taxon | dated to morning]

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