Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Too many things bigger than us wanting to get in our business," Jordan grumbled. The thought that he'd been bound to a legacy was unsettling but not a complete surprise. "Guess they need game pieces or something."

When Rep stepped back, Jordan stepped in toward the cluster of zombies, the group starting to pull together again. He planted his foot and brought Ferros around in a long circular arc; the hammer lit brightly with a searing ball of flame and crashed heavily into the thickest concentration of zombies, leaving a scatter of crushed, seared figures on the ground.

Enemy HP: 19

HP: 40/60
Dmg: 16
Charge: 3/3

"Not real fond of the idea myself," Jordan grumbled. "The other one's pissed at me for it, too." The dreaming other self had been furious enough at the idea of being somehow indebted or linked to another kingdom that he'd allowed himself to lose his temper, had swept the contents of the liquor cabinet in his office to the floor, indulging his rage in the crash and glitter of breaking glass and crystal and the sharp smell of wasted spirits. It was a good thing that his other was unable to reach him to carry out any kind of punishment.

Jordan moved back as Rep leaped, giving the other man plenty of space to bring Tracey scything down into the remaining group of zombies, cutting most of them into briefly flopping segments. A few figures skittered out of range, and Jordan waited for a moment, gauging their path, and then lunged to cut off their escape with a long, precisely judged sweep, Ferros crushing the bones of the last few zombies of the group.

Jordan watched the scattered bodies sharply for a few moments, but saw no fresh movement. "Could get out a grill later, I'm sure someone has one," he said, shrugging one shoulder. "I feel like I ought to feel bad about it, but hell, I really don't." It was a thought he might not have voiced in front of a group, but Rep wouldn't be disgusted.

Enemy HP: splat

HP: 35/60
Dmg: 8
Charge: 1/3

Jordan shrugged and swung Ferros up to rest across his shoulder. "We ought to go to an actual barbecue place sometime," he suggested, and then, more seriously, "I'd rather give them a relatively quick end once there's no return. Same as I'd want for me." He was still uncomfortable with Melvin's insistence that he could bring Rin back, even aside the man's recent forays into morally dubious territory. Death wasn't always permanent, and sometimes people returned miraculously, but the idea of trying to haul someone back from wherever else they'd gone to sat wrong with them. If they came back, they'd come back, and if they didn't ... who was to say that wherever they were wasn't better?

He rolled his shoulders and tipped his head back to crack his neck. They weren't done yet. The watch still showed zombie signatures, and this might have been a small town, but a small town still meant a few hundred bodies to deal with. "Crowd control," he said, and stepped over limp corpses to move to the street and look down it toward the fences. Absentmindedly, he lifted one hand to pet along Ferros's handle. "These guys are great for wholesale slaughter," he said affectionately. "One on one's fun, but taking a whole ******** horde down is its own reward."

"Couple of racks of ribs would be great after a good workout," Jordan nodded, then snorted at the caveat. "I only like the biting. No chewing. Ferros has been happy," he added, his smile softening. "He's not loud about it, but it's always there."

His expression went grim as they spotted the small mob jostling around the kiosk. "If there's anyone in there, they've probably been exposed, haven't they." It wasn't a question. They were here for a cleanup mission. He really, really hoped that there were no civilians trapped in the little structure. He scooped up a chunk of broken sidewalk as Rep opened the gate, and flung the piece of concrete into the knot of zombies. "Yo, uglies, over here!"

Enemy HP: 18

HP: 30/60
Dmg: 1
Charge: 2/3

Jordan hadn't intended the comment to be quite that distracting, but he shot Rep a sideways smirk anyway. "Yeah. Me too." It wasn't just teasing, either; he'd genuinely missed a lot of things about the way they interacted, and not purely physical things, though that was part of it.

The zombies were rushing them now, though. Contemplation of exactly what he'd missed or what he was going to indulge in later could wait for later. The blackened, corrupted things swarmed around them, clawing and trying to bite, and he took hold of Ferros's haft with both hands, set his feet solidly, and twisted, knocking the creatures away. They followed the motion up with a half-turn that brought the hammer diagonally downward, smashing into several of the zombies and knocking them away and down, limp and broken.

Enemy HP: 5

HP: 25/60
Dmg: 10
Charge: 3/3

With the last of the zombies downed, Jordan picked his way across to the kiosk they'd been swarming to see if he could figure out whey they'd been gathered around it. He didn't hear any movement inside, and the source of their interest wasn't immediately obvious. Maybe if he knew more about the zombies and their behavior he'd have been able to tell, he thought. Or maybe there was no logical reason, and they'd simply wandered into a group because they moved in groups. Did they still think, in a twisted and corrupted fashion?

That was a dangerous train of thought to be considering, and he stopped it there, reminding himself uneasily that his curiosity had gotten him into some pretty deep s**t already. He turned back to Rep, returning the smile and heading back toward the gate. "Don't think there's anything in there," he said. "Looks like this zone's clear for now? I'm ready to get out of here and get a shower and something to eat. Our shield's a little under half, you all right?"

Rep didn't seem to want to check the kiosk more thoroughly either, in spite of having mentioned the possibility of someone being stuck inside it. It was just as well. Jordan didn't have an antidote on him, and he suspected Rep didn't either, and he hadn't wanted to have to personally make that decision. He might have to, eventually, but he was just as glad that eventually hadn't turned out to be now. If someone was in there, the cleanup crews would have orders as to what to do about it. Jordan glanced back at the small shuttered building one last time, then turned resolutely away from it as they headed back toward the portal location.

"Good to be able to give you a hand," he answered. "You know I'll always help out when I can." He kept Ferros resting across his shoulder, unwilling to risk desummoning before they were about to step back into the portal. The weapon held his charge still, the sense of him thrumming with excitable heat, and a half-coherent thought slipped up into Jordan's mind. "Ferros says he liked it."