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 Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 1:53 pm
"s**t."
There was a crash, a loud bang and then the sound of pounding footsteps. Remus came skidding ungracefully out of an alleyway between two office buildings, a trickle of blood sliding down from his temple and running over his cheek. He seemed not to notice it, however, too intent on putting distance between himself and the massive creature now forcing its way out after him.
A long, hairy leg hit the ground, and the grotesque, enormous body of a bug like youma came skittering forward, lumbering towards Remus with the apparent sole intent of crushing him beneath it's feet. Or maybe snapping a limb off with the pincers he could hear clicking madly somewhere above him.
"s**t," said Remus, darting around a lamp post; and then a second later: "s**t!" when one of the youma's legs collided with his ankle and sent him flying. He hit the ground, rolled the way he would have in volleyball, and scrambled to his feet again, panting heavily.
"Couldn't it be anything other than a GIANT SPIDER?!" Remus half yelled in exasperation, now swerving around a parked car. "s**t."
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 2:20 pm
The auras of a youma and senshi was what first drew Sessrumnir’s attention towards the location, but it was the yelling curses that made him pick up the pace to see what he could do to help. It was never fun going up against a youma on your own, and he had plenty of experience with doing just that.
Of course, it figured that the youma would be much too big for him to be able to use his magic effectively, and after a few tries of trying to catch the creature inside his stormglass, he gave up and jumped down from the ledge of the building to land on the much more durable youma than he’d expected.
“s**t,” he joined in the cursing when the youma shrieked in anger and promptly twisted its body and legs to try and get the knight off its back. It worked, and Sessrumnir found himself toppling to the floor of the alley, with the spider above him.
But at least it seemed to be temporarily distracted from chasing after the senshi, and would perhaps turn its attention to him.
“Get out of here!” he shouted in the direction he’d heard the senshi go as he focused on avoiding all the dangerous parts of the spider, from being bitten to stomped on. With his luck it would end up having a stinger like Shelob.
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 2:36 pm
He felt a sudden, sweeping surge of a power signature much stronger than his own, and it was not coming from the youma. An Order aura had flared into being somewhere near him - there was a blur of color as Remus twisted around and saw someone drop down onto the youma's back.
The youma, as it turned out, was not pleased. It gave a shriek of fury and bucked wildly, which meant that whoever was on top of it went flying, and Remus caught a glimpse of green and gold before they fell out of sight into the alleyway.
"s**t."
It was one thing that he was entangled with the damn thing, but now someone else had been dragged in as well. Remus did a sharp turn and veered back towards the spider, completely disregarding the yell to get out of there.
"Walk the Moon!" he shouted, raising his hand, and there was a glittering pile of silvery dust in his palm. Remus blew hard on it and it fluttered out, scattering across the beast and making it lurch where it was, half swaying. The regolith would act as a paralyzing agent, but for something this big it would likely only make it a little sluggish for a few seconds at best.
"Oh, no you don't," Remus grunted, and he grabbed the nearest thing he could find - a piece of scrap metal that was lying next to a dumpster in the alley - and rammed it hard into the spider's side as hard as he could. "Get the hell outta here, ya giant b*****d."
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 2:50 pm
With so many legs, Sessrumnir was fairly certain that even if he found a way to get it in a vulnerable position, it would simply manage to get out again. He tried scrambling out of the way of its pincers when he heard an attack being called, and dust falling onto the creature. Sessrumnir staggered out of the way, although it was a little difficult to do so in such a tight alleyway. The youma was blocking his view of the senshi, but by the sound of the other’s voice, he didn’t seem too injured. At least there was enough fire for him to ignore him and attack anyway.
The youma certainly didn’t appreciate being stabbed in the side, and let out another shriek. Its movements had been slowed, but it already seemed to be planning out its next attack. The spider’s main focus still seemed to be trained on the senshi, going for what would probably be considered an easier target than the knight that joined in.
Now that the senshi was close, and now that the magic seemed to be fading, the spider took a vicious snap at the young man in grey and black, its long, hairy legs blocking the knight from being able to immediately help or hinder it.
While there were several things Sessrumnir could do, he was cautious about using magic that would end up hurting the senshi. His storm glass was called from subspace, and with a strong swing, brought the large metal and glass vial filled with liquid down on the spider’s back.
The most that seemed to do was make it even angrier, although it did stumble a bit from the sudden hit.
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 3:01 pm
He couldn't see the other, but at least he could sort of hear them - and by the way the spider was reacting, it was still being attacked by that side. Remus had exhausted his supply of magic for the time being, by the metal had at least come in handy to jab it painfully into its side.
Score, thought Remus triumphantly as it shrieked, and then a second later, he let out a yell of his own as its pincers came snapping out of the dark toward him. He managed to dodge the majority of it's attack, but the sharp pincers grazed his upper arm, tearing a line through his sleeve, the capelet flapping up uselessly.
"Ow ow ow - shitty b*****d - "
Ignoring the pain in his arm and his head, Remus heard a clunk as something hit the youma on its back. It stumbled, and Remus took a chance, gritting his teeth and grabbing another piece of scrap and hoisting it up to take careful aim.
"I'm aiming for this side if you wanna aim for that side!" he shouted, his voice half hoarse in the racket the spider was making. "Maybe if we hit it at the same time it'll go down."
He swung the metal and with a lunge, drove it into the youma's side, above the one that was still sticking out.
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 3:48 pm
Sessrumnir huffed, trying to catch his breath from the exertion he’d used on attacking the spider. His stormglass had broken upon impact, rendering it nearly useless. His magic had already been pretty useless in this situation, anyway. He blamed the long range magic on his past life, who had been fairly useless in hand to hand combat.
“Okay! Watch out for the legs,” he called back up on hearing the senshi call to him. The spider was already flailing, trying to escape while also being attacked. Debris was being thrown around, and legs were flying every which way, which was bad enough, but there were also the pincers to keep an eye out for.
He felt his cloak tear as a leg knocked him backwards, but he didn’t have time to assess any damage he might have taken, prepared instead to try the combined attack that the senshi suggested. If all else failed, he would just call his wolf to finish the job, but only as a last resort. With how close together everything was, it would be dangerous for himself and the senshi.
Grabbing a discarded pipe from the floor of the alley, Sessrumnir waited for the sound of the other preparing to strike, and followed suit, trying to hit the youma on the opposite side as the senshi at the same time.
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 4:26 pm
Watch out for the legs came just at the right time, because Remus skirted back just as one of the spider's flailing limbs came crashing down where he'd been standing not a second earlier. He scrambled back up, heaving for breath, and swiped his hair out of his eyes, smearing the blood on his temple in the process.
"All right, b*****d," Remus muttered, taking careful aim.
As he slammed his piece of metal into the creature, he felt the impact from the other side a half second later. Gritting his teeth against the flailing of the youma, Remus dug in his feet, which skidded back a few inches, and held on, determined not to let go, driving the metal as deep as it would go.
There was a shrieking, violent sound from the spider, and then -
- it exploded in a shower of black dust, the sound echoing down the newly empty street. Remus, who had been leaning forward in an effort to push the metal in, now found nothing resisting him and fell forward, hastily dropping the metal with a clatter. He collapsed onto his hands and knees, breathing rapidly.
A low, shaking laugh escaped him, Remus shaking his head.
"Well, that was a fun little dance," he murmured, and closed his eyes briefly. "Holy crap."
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 5:48 pm
The youma burst into dust, and Sessrumnir let out a relieved breath. It was a good thing that the senshi actually didn’t leave when he advised him to, since he highly doubted he would have been able to handle the spider on his own. It was only luck that he just happened to decide to help someone who was just as stubborn as he was, it seemed.
His cloak had been torn in the process of fighting, leaving large clumps of it hanging freely from where it was tied around his shoulders. It didn’t take long for him to unhook the cord that was keeping the corners in place, and laid the torn fabric over his arm as he made his way to where the senshi had been.
“You okay?” he asked, the darkness of the alley obscuring the young man’s identity for only a short while longer, before Sessrumnir finally realized he knew him. “Remus,” he said, the surprise was clear in his voice, followed by a frown as he looked him over in concern.
“You’re bleeding,” he stated as well, moving closer to kneel down in front of him to get a closer look. By comparison, Sessrumnir had obviously come into the fight late. He was out of breath, but not nearly as battered as Remus looked.
How long had he been trying to fight this youma before he’d come to help? And if he didn’t think he had enough power to beat the creature on his own, he could only imagine what might have happened to Remus had he not come by when he did. Then again, he might just be underestimating the young senshi, which he definitely didn’t want to do.
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 6:50 pm
Remus was still breathing heavily, on his hands and knees on the sidewalk. He leaned back onto his legs with his eyes closed, taking a deep breath and trying not to think about the fact that he probably looked as though he'd been through a tornado.
"I'm good," he said, eyes still closed, and let out a laugh. "Well, mostly. Thanks, by the way, you really - "
The sound of his own name made Remus's gaze snap open again and he lowered his head, blinking. "Hey," he said, a smile spreading across his face. "Sessrumnir, right? I remember you, you're that guy from the whole..." He flapped a hand. "...invasion party. Thing."
The knight did not look much better than him, though without the blood. Remus lifted a gloved hand and wiped at his temple again, wincing a little. "Yeah, I got a nice hit to the head before you came along," he said, somewhat ruefully. "Thanks for that, you really helped my a** out."
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 7:07 pm
Sessrumnir stared for a long moment, and then remembered that Remus didn’t actually know him as Sessrumnir. He glanced away from him, hoping to hide the guilt from his eyes.
It didn’t take long for him to look back at Remus, taking the torn part of his cape and ripping it apart so he could use the fabric to try and mop the other up some.
“Yeah, the invasion party,” he agreed, reaching out to use his hand to try and find out where the cut was along Remus’s temple, using his other hand to soak up some of the blood. “Hold still,” he told him, knowing it was going to be painful to have someone messing with wounds, but it would be good to know if a couple butterfly bandaids would be good enough, or if Remus should go to the hospital to get staples or stitches.
“Don’t mention it. You were doing fine. I don’t think that one would have gone down easily no matter who was fighting it,” he told him, not wanting Remus to think that he thought he was incapable of taking care of himself. Even as he was probably causing him more pain by moving his black hair out of the way so he could check his head wound.
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 7:22 pm
If he noticed the curiously long stare Sessrumnir was giving him, Remus didn't mention it, instead relaxing back so that he was kneeling on the ground. He was still rubbing at his temple, though now it was an idle gesture, as though he'd forgotten he was still doing it.
"Sorry about your cape," he said with a grimace, only now dropping his fingers away as the knight peered closer. Remus flinched instinctively at the prodding, but stayed obediently still, his black hair shifting under Sessrumnir's fingers to reveal the shades of purple and blue hidden beneath.
A snort escaped, inelegant, but Remus couldn't help it. "No, I was doing pretty terribly, actually. I think I may have bitten off a little more than I could chew, really, but there was kind of no avoiding it unless I just booked it away. Which was what I was trying to do before I was saved by a knight in shining armor," Remus couldn't help deadpanning, grinning sideways at Sessrumnir.
"It's been a while since the invasion, what've you been up to?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 7:44 pm
He dabbed as gently as he could at the wound on Remus’s temple, wanting to clear it of blood enough to see how bad it was.
“You’re lucky. Head wounds tend to bleed more than wounds elsewhere. It just seems like it’s worse than it really is,” he tried to reassure Remus, although he wasn’t even convinced that Remus was all that concerned to begin with. “Your arm is bleeding, too…” he pointed out, glancing over to where the youma managed to get its pincers into Remus’s arm.
“Don’t be sorry. It’ll fix itself next time I power up. Same with your… outfit,” he said, not entirely sure what he’d call the short shoulder cape thing, but figured Remus knew what he was talking about. “And if my armor is shining, that must mean I’m not doing much, right?” he casually pointed out, moving on to inspecting Remus’s arm once he was done making sure his head would be okay for now. “You’re going to want to wash that and put some butterfly bandages on. You should probably go to the hospital, just to be sure,” he advised out of habit.
“I’ve been working at my day job, of course. Nothing exciting. Just keeping an eye out for anything that might come as retribution for what we did to their General Queens. s**t, that thing really got you,” he mumbled the last part to himself, before continuing. “Give me your sash so I can wrap your arm.”
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 7:58 pm
"It feels like I conked myself pretty good, but it's not as bad as the time when I got a concussion playing sports in school," said Remus with a laugh. "That hurt like hell, this is just sort of annoying, since it's in a bad place, I think I got blood in my eye."
He reached up a hand and rubbed at it, then realized a little belatedly what Sessrumnir had said.
"Oh," said Remus, blinking down at his arm. "Would you look at that, I am. those damn pincers caught me just as you got here. I wasn't paying attention, but now that you mention it, it does kinda sting a lot."
The knight was being awfully attentive, which Remus found amusing. He wasn't particularly bothered, staying as still and relaxed as he had been when Ilian had been curious about his hair, letting Sessrumnir go about his business making sure he wasn't dying.
"No hospital," said Remus automatically, ash e lowered his arm once it was done being checked out. "But I'll clean it up and make myself all pretty again. Or something."
The request for his sash made him pause, the memory of Michael asking him the exact same thing flickering through his mind. But using his sash was an obvious choice, and besides, the last time he'd met Michael, it had not exactly gone well. No doubt the next time they met - if there would be - Michael would be less than thrilled about Remus getting into trouble. Again.
"Here," said Remus, tugging it from around his waist. "And man, I hope we're not gonna get in some s**t for that, but I doubt they'll take it lying down."
He was quiet for a moment, and then said, "You hear anything bad?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 9:07 pm
”That explains a lot,” Sessrumnir half joked when Remus told him about the concussion he got. He looked up at him with a frown and clarified with, “I’m kidding.” Not that concussions were anything to joke about, anyway.
He did his best not to roll his eyes when the senshi seemed to just realize that the spider seemed to have snapped at his arm. How could you forget something like that? Instead, he just shook his head and took the sash when it was offered to him, working on getting it tied around the wound.
“I haven’t heard anything yet, but I can’t imagine they’re very happy about it. It usually gets like this before something big happens. It gets quiet, as if they’ve suddenly stopped coming to the city. Be careful when you’re out here by yourself. There was an incident not too long ago, before the attack on their space, when some knights and senshi took Negaverse officers captive. I’m not sure what they did to them since I wasn’t involved, and only heard about it after the officers had been rescued, but that, on top of the attack to their space, will probably mean hell for us.”
Sessrumnir remembered how Remus had said he didn’t exactly get a lot of guidance, and while that annoyed him, he knew it wasn’t always the cat’s fault, despite him thinking they should be the ones responsible for telling senshi what’s up. Not that he ever got guidance. He figured everything out on his own, but he also had his military background as a crutch.
“There,” he said as he finished wrapping the sash around Remus’s arm. “Make sure you clean that very well. I don’t know what kind of bacteria youma carry, but I don’t want you losing your arm just because you refuse to go to the hospital.” He leaned back on his heels, and then stood from where he’d been kneeling in front of Remus, holding out his right hand to offer to help him up, his scars from the youma and general’s attack easy to see in the dim, contrasting light of the alley.
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 9:23 pm
"Hey now, I still turned out pretty good for a guy with a bump on his head," Remus said, extending his arm automatically towards Sessrumnir as the other began to wrap the sash around his arm. "It could have been worse. I could have lost my head."
He lapsed into silence, frowning slightly at the rest of what the knight was saying. The invasion into the Negaverse hadn't exactly been a success, but it hadn't exactly been a failure, either. They'd taken down a great deal many agents before hightailing it out of there, and it wasn't a thing likely to be forgotten anytime soon.
"The calm before the storm, isn't it," Remus murmured, exhaling a breath. "Jeez. It's like everyone's on edge just waiting for something terrible to happen. I don't want to spend my life looking over my shoulder, but I guess there's not a whole lotta choice when it comes to the Negaverse."
He ran his hand through his hair, still frowning faintly. "Just gotta be prepared, like a good boy scout even though I was never in scouts."
There was a second when he debated rolling his eyes, but Remus said, with a grin on his face, "Don't worry, I plan on showering thoroughly the moment I get home. I'd rather not look like I just spent the night going through a blender."
Sessrumnir had offered him his hand to help him up, and Remus reached out without conscious thought to take it, pulling himself up and wincing a little, but standing easily on his own. His eyes strayed briefly to the knight's arm, a casual glance -
- and something clicked, quite firmly, into place.
Ah, thought Remus. Oh.
s**t.
It hadn't showed on his face, schooled calm and relaxed as he slid his hands into his pockets. Remus smiled up at Sessrumnir and said lightly, "Other than being careful when patrolling on my own, got any more advice or me? You're a knight, right? You've been around a while, and I'm still new at all this s**t."
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