He had just left his 'home' for the week, a tree-shaded section of riverbank often used by the homeless. He knew the authorities were moving in on him. He would have to move on soon.

As he wandered the darkened streets he heard several sets of feet beating the ground quickly. A moment later six people ran into sight. They were running wildly; glancing over their shoulders in obvious fear. One of them had what looked like ostritch legs. That was enough for Max.

"Over there!" he yelled, pointing towards an alley. He knew it was a dead end, but it would force the inevitable mob to approach from only one direction. He hurried after them.

The Wyld, as they obviously must be, were reluctant to follow his advice. But one of them urged them to do so and they followed her lead. Soon they were all around the corner and halfway down the even darker alley.

"It's a dead end!" one of the Wyld yelled, looking angrily at Max.

"He knows what he's doing." their leader said.

"Just get behind me." Max grunted, putting himself between the Wyld and the mob he could already hear approaching.

There were disgruntled mutters behind him but he ignored it. He didn't care if they liked him, only if they survived. He knew that wasn't going to be an easy task as it was.

Soon the mob came into view. They didn't have torches and pitchforks, but they were obviously related to that old cliché. Several did have electric lanterns and a few were carrying makeshift clubs. Seeing their quarry cornered, they grinned at each other and approached in a leisurely manner. Savoring the kill Max thought with disgust.

"Leave these kids alone!" Max growled, balling his fists.

They laughed. One of them stepped forward, "What, you a Wyld lover? Protecting the freaks?"

"They're not freaks. Please leave." Max replied. He knew where this encounter was going but he didn't want to go there.

Their leader shrugged, "Hey, even if you believe that they're still criminals. Right guys?!" They all laughed along with that.

Max glanced back at the Wyld and, sure enough, they all had collars around their necks. "Escaping slavery isn't a crime." Max replied.

"Stop protecting these freaks and get out of our way. Or would you rather end up like them?!" the leader growled, obviously getting impatient with the conversation.

"I'm not moving and you're not hurting these kids. I'm warning you; don't push me." Max said grimly.

"Ooh, big scary man here, boys!" the leader laughed. The others joined in and they took a step forward.

Max sighed and thrust his arms straight out and down, opening his hands and holding them palm down. A blue glow grew at the palm and slowly spread to engulf his entire hand. It even glowed through his wrist, as if it were transparent, making his arm glow almost up to his elbow. The angry mob stopped in shock.

"He's Wyld!" one of the men breathed.

"He's not just Wyld. That's Gun!" another yelled. They glanced at each other uneasily and then back at Max as the twentieth, and last, balls of energy flowed into place.

"Yeah, I heard they were callin' me that." Max agreed with a smile.

"Get him!" the leader screamed. As a group they surged forward, though the leader lagged behind.

Max closed his hands into fists and pointed at the approaching mob. Without any sound two balls of energy shot out of his hands and struck the nearest men, and another two followed to strike two more. So quickly were they fired that all four seemed to be thrown back at the same time. They crashed into their fellows, bringing the entire group to a halt in a clumsy heap.

"This is your last warning. Leave!" Max growled.

When they stood again four of them fled. Max grinned at that, but the others all came at him, forcing him to concentrate on shooting.

In moments it was over. All of them were on the ground; groaning or unconscious. And Max was out of bullets.

Max started to turn to see how the kids were when an impact spun him around and to the ground. A sharp pain in his shoulder told him he'd been shot, again. He hated getting shot.

One of the Wyld girls ran over to help him. He smiled to try and reassure her, but was soon grimacing in pain as something broke nearby and splashed flaming liquid on them both.

Wincing at the sound of the girl screaming in his ear he straightened his good arm and started reloading. Only as soon as the blue glow appeared on his hand it turned red as the flames were sucked into it. Almost instantly the fire was out, much to his relief. He hated being on fire even more than being shot.

The ostritch legged guy and another Wyld ran over to help the girl while Max struggled to stand. More gunshots rang out but as Max braced for the pain there was none. He looked over towards the mouth of the alley and saw the men were still shooting, but the bullets were bouncing off of some kind of blue energy shield.

Looking back at the Wyld he noticed two of them huddled over a third who was curled up in the fetal position. None of them were paying attention to the fight, but he had to assume one of them was responsible. He certainly didn't have that power!

Grinning, he turned on the men. Without thinking about it he had reloaded his good arm fully with red bullets. He saw a duffel bag sitting on the ground with boxes of bullets and guns in it. Taking careful aim, he fired his first shot at the bag. It was instantly engulfed in flame, causing the men to jump away from it in surprise.

"You're really pissing me off, now!" Max growled, wincing at the pain in his shoulder. He took aim again, at the leader this time. He tried to run, but Max gunned him down just the same. The red bullet knocked the man down and had him burning brightly in no time. Meanwhile, bullets were flying in all directions from the bag as the heat caused the gunpowder to go off.

With a feral grin Max kept firing, even after the group turned and ran. Only once they were completely out of sight did he relax, once again out of bullets. A pile of ash was all that was left of their leader, and four other burning forms would soon be in the same shape. A couple of others were hit by stray bullets. The rest got away mostly unharmed.

Max turned to the Wyld kids, glad to see that one of them was a healer and had already healed the girl's burns. One of them came to him and healed his shoulder and burns.

"Thanks for your help. We were sure they were going to kill us." their leader said.

Max nodded, "Yeah, they would have. But it's not safe out here for you. We should get out of sight before the cops get here."

"Won't they help us?" one boy asked naively.

Max laughed, "Right, kid! Forget about these?" He tapped the metal collar on the boy's neck. He flinched at the sound and nodded weakly.

"Where will we go?" their leader asked forlornly.