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medigel rolled 2 10-sided dice:
9, 5
Total: 14 (2-20)
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 Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 1:48 pm
Jack only paused in his assault when the oily blood was making his hands nearly incapable of holding his weapon properly. His target was no longer moving and now had fresh bruises where his previous slices hadn't broken through his Fear, and his hair was stained. Breathing audibly, he tried to make for one of the boil's daggers, but the weapons had dissipated once their owner had lost consciousness. Fine. There was still Chel's other runic dagger he hadn't bothered with still stuck in his shoulder.
Yanking it out, he turned the student's head up and, squinting just to be sure, he let the tip hover over his eye before plunging it in--not deep enough to kill, no, that would have been too easy, but now Jack could have, literally and metaphorically, an eye for an eye.
With that done, he pushed himself off and broke into a run to catch up to Chel, nearly stumbling as he grabbed the second dagger he had discarded earlier on the way over.
The net flew low and entangled the clone's legs, and it fell to the ground with a squeaky yelp. Chel received a kick while she was down for her efforts, though it lacked the oomph that previous attacks had, and the horseman folded its wings as it followed after her, short sword plunging down towards her chest. Jack's connected with it halfway down the swing and pushed it away, though he was still panting; he wasn't able to move away from the second quick swing that cut at his sword arm and nearly made him drop his weapon. Wielding it with one arm was never a good idea anyway, but at least the horseman was pushed back for a moment as it re-assessed the situation.
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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 10:54 pm
Chel yelped a pathetic noise as she was kicked, thrown aside like a ragdoll. Her shield was waning, but the sound of the kid hitting the ground wasn't hurting it.
Fumbling at her waist for bandages was added to her list of technical mistakes from being rusty regarding missions. As many shadows as she killed in the tunnel, as many hunters as she took down in the sparring ring, nothing really prepared her for the rust of battle decisions made by a clouded head.
She heard the footsteps and the bandages were dropped. A sword came down-
and a sword blocked it. Always with his dramatic entrances.
Chel had no will to fight whatsoever, but two hunters standing would look more intimidating that one. She was shaking as she pushed herself off her forearm, but she stood nonetheless, taking the dagger from Jack in her left hand and holding her shoulder with her right. "C'mon a*****e," she said tiredly. "Y'can't take two of us."
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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:20 pm
With a tap of his sword and a green light that appeared like vines entwining about her body, Jack loosed the charge and let Owain repair her shield. The tunnel vision had widened slightly--enough to note that Chel's bad shoulder had taken some sort of hit. He weighed the pros and cons of making her continue on the offensive and wiped some of the reaper's blood on his pants now that she had taken the dagger, watching the horseman carefully.
It was tense but hesitating. Looking past them to where the student was lying still, then back at the pair with narrow, slitted eyes, it lifted its weapon as if to continue battle. Jack stepped in front of Chel, more than happy to continue fighting; the student had been like a wet blanket in the end, barely able to sate him. "Take defense," he instructed Chel--
Instead of rushing them, however, Fear energy again condensed around the edge of the blade, and when it was swung an arc of energy flew at them. The horseman then took flight, pushing off building walls on its way up to hasten its retreat to the sky. Eyes widening, Jack turned the blade to try and block out most of the wave, but the force still knocked him back. The horseman vanished by the time they recovered.
With two still bodies on the ground--one unconscious and one not bothering to fight against the restraints, only moving to prop its head up from the floor as that was uncomfortable--it wasn't a half bad victory.
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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:31 pm
The dagger immediately fell to the ground with the as the horseman departed, and Chel followed shortly after. Owain's vines were greeted like old friends, but they only sewed together open wounds. It didn't take the weariness from her bones or clean the reddish substances that crusted her skin.
"Woo," Chel said tiredly, putting a fist in the air. "And don't come back! Haa." She sat there for a few moments, letting Jack deal with the damage while she pulled out her bandages, ripped off her shirt and finished the job that Owain had started.
Feeling somewhat better as she hissed through the runic healing, she piped up, "You okay?" Her eyes cast a glance to the reaper. Even for Jack, that didn't look ... normal. Then there was the business with the clone; she never knew what would set Jack off or wouldn't. "Need me to kiss any booboos?" she added with a snort as she continued to wrap the greyish gauze around her chest.
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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:59 pm
Jack didn't answer. What he registered was that she was already taking care of her bandages, so he didn't need to interfere with them or offer his own. Therefore, he moved on down the list and briskly jogged to the clone.
It might have chipped a tooth landing on the stones like that had it been a civilian. But there was no sign of bruising, no scraped knees, not even a flush from slamming its face down on the ground. Crouching by it, Jack grasped its shoulder and turned it over.
It was like looking into a distortion portal back in the past, or like an extended nightmare he just couldn't wake up from. The clone eyed him with quiet defiance, arms limp at its sides, and mirrored the frown he wore when it appeared. It was so uncanny that he acted on his kneejerk reaction and pushed it away in disgust; the clone continued not to fight back, only braced itself against the ground to avoid hitting his face against it again.
"Well, that was easy," he murmured as he stood back up. Grabbing it by its bundled legs, Jack hoisted the clone up over his shoulder (guessing correctly that it continued to passively allow its own capture) and returned to Chel. "How's the shoulder?"
Even when speaking to her directly, his gaze didn't seem quite all there.
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Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 12:02 am
"Jack," Chel snapped harshly in reaction to him shoving the kid. Having stood up and thrown her shirt over her own shoulder, she moved closer to the twosome.
"Lemme see him," she insisted, "C'mon, set him down for a sec."
Both seemed to ignore the reaper elephant in the room.
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Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 12:07 am
Expression growing cold, he assumed her attitude meant she was perfectly fine, ignored the request, and moved past Chel. The reaper was still where Jack had left him, the dagger in its eye sagging slightly to the side. "Grab that one," he ordered. "Might as well take it back to base with us."
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Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 12:12 am
"Jack Hawthorn don't you ignore me," she hissed with every inch of southern pride she had in her. She looped around where Jack was walking, blocking his path.
She had a battle with his eyes for a moment, neither side particularly understanding or acknowledging the other. "Give me the kid an' you get the reaper. Kid's lighter." Jack wanted logic, she could do logic. More or less she wanted to separate the kid from Jack; maybe it was idiotic to think the clone was somehow human, but Chel didn't like seeing little kids harmed regardless of their ******** up origins.
"At least," she insisted, desperation creeping into her voice, "take off the net. Yer gonna look like a crazy ******** walkin' around town with a kid in a net and a dead guy." Her arm went to her shoulder again and in her eyes was a pathetic kind of pleading.
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Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 12:24 am
He stared at her, and for a long moment Chel might have been confronted with someone who didn't give two shits what their appearances were, much less the logic of her interference. And then, with an assumed shrug, he unslung the clone and dropped it like a deadweight near the reaper. The crack was still the same as it might have been for a human, but there was no blood, no sign of damage beyond the clone's wince when its head hit the ground. Recovering quickly, it began to awkwardly push itself away from the original.
"Fine."
He set his sights on the reaper and, annoyed that even when unconscious it was still a burden, got to work cleaning it up. The dagger was pulled out along with some of its eye, which he scraped against the pavement to clean. He wasn't sure how long it would be out and whether being out of Halloween affected its recovery, but it was clear he didn't particularly care beyond cursory efforts to get the student ready for transport.
"You have your pendant?" he asked without looking up. "Just warp out and deliver it straight to the Life labs."
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Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 12:31 am
Chel let out a soft noise as the kid hit the ground, immediately ignoring anything Jack said and reaching for the kid. She didn't take off the net at first, only gently helping the kid stand up, and kindly guiding it a few steps away from Jack. It was harmless to let it wander a little after all; there was no way it could outrun them now, and it had nowhere to go anyways (did it?).
"Hey little dude. Can you talk?" she asked it in a voice reserved for children. "S'okay if you don't wanna." Her expression was oddly docile; Chel really did love kids.
Unlike Jack, Chel hadn't been cooped up with a clone for weeks, and Chel had no experience with one. It really didn't look like Jack unless you knew it was him, and even then you had to squint a bit.
She watched Jack out of her peripheral and watched. Only watched. Then finally she covered the clone's ears and said, "We should probably either off him for good or leave him. He's no good for weaponization, yeah?" At least she was trying to bridge the gap between them.
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Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 1:09 am
"Yes." Even though the appearance wasn't quite the same, it was easy to hear Jack in that pre-pubescent voice.
It watched unmoving as Jack fluidly switched tactics from cleaning to killing as though that had always been the plan. One minute he was applying pressure to one of the open wounds, the next he was standing over the body, summoning the sword, and driving it straight through the reaper's ribcage as simply as you pleased. The clone's eyes went wide as the student broke down into Fear particles, oozing into the cobblestoned road until not even the blood remained save for what stained the Lifer's clothes and hands.
No satisfaction in the end, Jack thought distantly. He was disappointed, but at least he could strike off Zeke's name from the list; that was an accomplishment.
He looked to Chel but was drawn towards his clone, noticing the unsettlingly stoic look on the its face. Was it mimicking him? The expression looked so strange on the face that young--funny how it could copy years of jaded history in mere seconds--but he wasn't falling for its appearance like Chel was: it wasn't him, and it wasn't a child.
"Your ambush wasn't well-planned," he condescended. "Nor did you bother escaping. Why?"
"That wasn't mine," the clone stated in the same brusque tones. "They weren't mine." It slanted its weight onto one leg as Jack did, eyes drinking in every micro-action. "You both followed me for hours. I assumed trying to run wouldn't work, so I didn't."
"What do you mean they weren't yours?"
"They weren't mine."
Jack sighed sharply through his nose and pushed his bangs back. Of course this had to be the literal one. "So, there's still an unaccounted for handler. ******** great."
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Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 8:14 pm
Chel covered a smile with her hand, having to laugh at Jack growing petulant with ... well himself. She said nothing regarding the reaper; they could talk about that later, in a safer environment.
"F'I take this net off, you gonna make me chase you down?" she asked the clone of Jack, booping him on the nose like she so often did with the real Jack. "I'll carry you an' everythin', you just gotta promise not to run yo."
She raised an eyebrow at the clone's strange response to Jack's question, but said nothing at the moment. More things that could be asked with time. Jack seemed impatient to take flight, but Chel required more assurance in a job being finished. But she did give a curious look to Jack, begging him to answer the question instead. What wasn't his? What was unaccounted for? What handler? Chel had to be caught up.
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Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 9:13 pm
"Is there a point to running?" the child asked with a lilt of curiosity, unaffected by her gesture. "Would you chase me? What are you doing here?"
"Stealing your ******** a**."
"It's ******** stolen," it answered with the same snarling quality, abrupt from the nonchalance it had shown up until then. "So what now?"
"Now you tell us where we can find your partner." He passed Chel a quick glance (pay attention, stop fawning) and then continued, "You're not here alone, we know that. The readings have shown some Fear signals. Who's with you?"
"What would you do if I told you?"
"What do you think?"
The clone's face wrinkled. "Answering a question with a question is cheating. What would you do if I told you?"
"Kill or capture it, obviously," Jack replied with a verbal eyeroll.
Its face smoothed out. "If you do, can I watch?" it asked. "I want to watch you do that again."
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Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 10:14 pm
Chel got the remainder of the net off the clone and pinched his cheek. She caught the look from Jack, but when had Chel ever listened to something like that?
She then stretched upwards, pulling the kid onto her hip with a swinging motion. "C'mon champ. Lay off the bitchfightin'." It hurt to put pressure on her cuts, but it was alleviating by the bandages anyways. "We gotta take you with if you gonna hound 'em."
Having her bounty, Chel began to walk, not even bothering to pick up her daggers as she was too busy brushing the tiny Jack's hair out of his face. "Why you wanna watch? S'kinda freaky dude."
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Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 11:06 pm
"Because I want to," it replied simply.
Irritated by more things he could put to words, Jack plucked her daggers off the ground--leaving a mess was unacceptable, let alone signs that they had been there--and quickly caught up to them with a few brisk strides. "Is it freaky?" the clone asked as they were joined, switching its gaze from Chel to Jack. "What are the signs of something being abnormal? Is death natural? Does it hurt?"
he muttered under his breath. "I'm cutting its tongue out when we get back."
The child stuck it out, not as a gesture of immaturity but to check out its own tongue now that it had been mentioned. It bit down on it, enough to cause indentations but nothing to cut. Curious, not self-harming.
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