The Darkblades were a seamless pair, moving in concert and dispatching the Shellians and shockbots easily. They were matchless, Shuriken drawing - and evading - enemy fire, and Sai literally ripping them to shreds as they were distracted by his sister.
And so it was that Sai, not even really looking, ran directly into a rabbit.
Startled, he stopped; after all, their allies were rabbits. In the second that he paused, the rabbit coolly drew a heavy blaster and proceeded to fire it point-blank at the hapless ferret. As he did so, Shuri slammed full force into the mercenary's back, knocking him forward, and the shot merely clipped the side of Sai's neck.
Sai reacted instantly to weapon, threat, and pain. His attack did not miss.
Leaving the lifeless mercenary behind, the pair moved on. "Did you see that?" Sai complained to his elder sister, gingerly examining his "injury".
"Yep," Shuri said. "Why'd you stop?"
"How was I to kow that he wasn't on our side?"
"True," Shuri admitted. "But there's a trick to it. The guys on our side wear badges."

Tiger blinked, tracking Basta as the enraged maroon rabbit chased a frightened Shellian in ever-tightening circles. A vaguely confused shockbot, unable to focus on Basta, was making bizarre shots that were hitting absolutely nothing. Tiger elimiated the befuddled bot, and turned his sights back to the outskirts of the fight.

Copper blocked the Bloodflame's blow, twisted, and heaved, dumping the startled mercenary inelegantly onto Claw's waiting weaponry. With a grimace of distaste, her friend dropped the limp rabbit and glared at her.
"Will you stop doing that?"
"Doing what?" she asked innocently, parrying another stray blade. Claw growled with exasperation as she sent another Shellian wheeling his way.
"That!"
She grinned. "Why?"
"I have my own victims to deal with, thank you very much!"
"Ah. Makes sense, he does."
She dropped another Shellian, and glanced up to find herself and Claw ringed by encroaching shockbots.
"Ooooh ..."
"Now what do we do?"
"Think we should make a run for it?"
Claw looked past the shockbots and noticed an Imbara chasing some poor rabbit towards them.
"We'd be going out of the frying pan, into the fire, if we go that way."
"No good news this way, either. Just a blank wall."
"Have to destroy them, then."
"Looks that way."
A shot exploded into the chest of the shockbot closest to the Imbara, courtesy of Tiger. The machinery fell, showering sparks and smoke.
As it hit the ground, the third member of their group came flying over it into the circle, hit the ground rolling, and came up facing the way he had come. The Imbara that had been chasing him loomed up behind the shockbots, momentarily distracted by Tiger's sniping.
"What'd I miss," Shinyso said as he surveyed the undecided shockbots.
"Nothing much," Copper said. "The two of us were just about to be pulverized. Now that you're here, you can join us."
"Thanks, but I'd rather not," he said, sending a serrated disc spinning through the nearest shockbot's neck joint. He produced another disc from somewhere as the robot's head fell off. It would have been funny had there not been ten other shockbots who were still in possession of their heads, all aiming at the trio.
"Nice," Copper said approvingly. "Now we can get pulverized."
"Y'think?" Claw asked, surveying the situation. "Nice going, ace."
"I try," Shinyso said with a shrug. "Now what?"
"Uh ..."
"I'll give you a chance," a Bloodflame entered the circle. "Rather than dying here, join the Bloodflames and you'll probably survive."
"What, is old Kallion on a recruiting spree? Or did Rambarath finally get rid of him?" Copper's blade flashed as she lowered it.
"You knew Kallion?" The Bloodflame sounded surprised.
"Yeah. I take it from the past tense that he's not the leader any more."
"Naw, Jheran took him down years ago. Without Tephro's help, despite what they say."
"Ah, Charne's still around?"
"Yeah, and as wild as ever. So, will you take my offer?"
"Sure," Copper said, stepping back; sunlight flashed on metal again. A moment later, the Bloodflame became just another of Tiger's victims.
"... over my dead body," Copper finished. Shinyso grimaced.
"Darnit, I was hoping to see my old friend Tephro again," he said dryly. Copper shook her head and peered inquisitively at the fallen Bloodflame.
"I think," she mused, "that if she'd known who we were, she'd've just shot us on sight."
"I'm counting on Tephro to do that," Shinyso said. "He and I go back a long way. I think."
"Whaddaya mean, you think? Either you do or you don - whoa."
The half-forgotten Imbara loomed over them, a definite threat. Claw, Copper, even the shockbots backpedalled as the behemoth advanced slowly on them.
Shinyso stood his ground, dwarfed against the huge Imbara, sword drawn. The Imbara focused on him immediately, and moved fast.
"Hey, it's no worse than that Katarvin Captain," Shinyso called back ot hem as he nimbly dodged the quick swipe. Copper grinned.
"I think we can leave him to it. Let's escape while we can, shall we?"

YaY, more fighting. Defal, you get beaten up a bit in the next chappie. Sorry.