Allison Mead (Excaliblast)
The college student worked her way over debris as she tried to find a route to another vantage point to attack Behemoth. She'd fallen behind virtually everyone heading around this particular side of Behemoth, at least it seemed so to her, and most of her efforts felt focused on getting past debris or having to detour slightly to get around. Even now, as she walked down a debris and dust littered back road to get around a collapsed building, Allison's casual clothing was dirtied and in places already cut or torn...like she had come out of a warzone.
This was ultimately fitting, perhaps, based on what had already been happening to her this far since drinking that strange vial.
Even attempting to vent her thoughts about other things under her breath, at least to try to get her mind off the imminent threat of her own potential demise via Behemoth, had in the end only served to incite all of her frustrations more somewhat. It had also forced her to remember the details of "that day" over once more as well, and further recall what the bitchy MB had done at her college not so long ago at all. Two events that, combined with this, had made her introduction into parahuman life a miniature hell of some sort.
Her professor might have commented about it being a "learning experience" with a touch of empathy for her plight, if she had said what she was thinking now. Of course MB had to make crap up, however, to try to get into her head back there as well. Professor wanted to bang her? Dean had taken in bribes to keep her there? Puh-lease. She had worked her ass off to get as far as she was so far, even with her profuse enjoyment of the party life on the side.
But where did she go from here, really? In fact, where
could she even go? College got shot up and such, MB and co getting off scot free for now due to an Endbringer, had pissed off the Community via Mantis' stupid plan, her identity was blown, and now she was helping in fighting an Endbringer with the usual high fatalities in play. She could see the towering form of a cathedral in the distance, at least, so maybe just become a nun then? Hah.
....It was at this point, however, the frustrated girl caught sight of movement. And then another. Allison picked up her pace to see who or what they were, only to notice they were just a bunch off people headed in the cathedral's direction. But hadn't everyone been evacuated? Frowning, the blade-shooting parahuman jogged her way over to one of the people, a large grown man with a tank top on and a gun holstered on his left hip, tapping them on the shoulder to stop them.
"Why are you all still here? Behemoth hasn't been driven off yet-"The man turned around to face her quickly, giving her a highly annoyed glare before speaking curtly and rudely to her.
"Mind your tongue. Father will save us all, but first we must punish the fools who have dared raise their hand against him once more. These are the same as who slew our dear sister Francine with blades of metal. Join us in our quest, or get out of the way."It was as if she'd asked the dumbest question in the world to the man, who seemed to regail this "Father" with the highest regard despite his tone. Some others seemed to stop as well as he spoke, walking over to seemingly support his words with nods of affirmation. However, Allison's gut seemed to wrench with a sort of familiarity as the man noted how a "dear sister" had tied. One could even say his and the others' behavior was like that of a tightly-knit commu-...oh hell.
"...Did you sister go by another name? Who were the people who slew her?" Allison asked, acting as if she was becoming curious and sympathetic about the matter.
The man didn't soften up, though a glimmer of hatred seemed to come into his eyes at the mention. Even so, he gave a nod to her before speaking with a certain level of solemn gravity. As if this loss has hurt him due to caring so much about it. It wasn't exaggerated, however, but felt more like someone who had lost a loved one in cold blood.
Yet the answer he gave sent a chill directly down the college student's spine.
"The great name she also took was 'Limbo', a name which in our Community did great work in Father's name. And those who slew her were a ragtag bunch of miscreants, horrid criminals by the name of 'Lethal Force'."Oh no.
These people were members of The Community, and from the sounds of it they were going to help Patriarch himself...against the very group Allison had generally kept away from since "that day". Lethal Force.
Mantis, the 'leader' who had sacrificed his team's lives for petty revenge and taunted her own rage at the end. Farce, the only one of the group the college student felt amicable with and had attempted to contact once or twice. She didn't know if anyone else tied to those people was still alive, much less present at this point in time. In fact, she'd been the one to slay Limbo herself in her rage at the time, much to her chagrin at that point.
The man noticed her body tense up as she held her hands in front of her own chest nervously without thinking, his eyes squinting in a curious but cautious fashion as he looked her in the eyes. It didn't take long for an unspoken understanding to seemingly pass between them, the ideas clicking and turning in both of their heads. It wasn't like her unthinking reaction to the information wouldn't have rung alarm bells for a decently-clever individual. The man then quickly reached for his left hip, trying to get the jump on her.
But it was too late for that, perhaps, as Allison popped down her right wrist down and fired as the man was withdrawing his sidearm. A blade punctured deep into his chest cavity, before erupting out of the back of his spine and grazing another man behind him's shoulder. The withdrawn sidearm then fell to the ground, a revolver of sorts, as after a moment the man's body collapsed onto the ground in a bleeding heap in front of her.
As the body hit the ground, time seemed to almost slow before her very eyes. The few who had come over to the man began to shout, crying things like "One of the criminals is here!" and "Kill the bitch!". Allison felt herself reflexively popping down her other wrist, letting out a small spray of blades towards the general area her enemies were in. Those still close began to draw out weapons like guns or bats or knives, and some seemed to run back at the cries for help or vengeance with weapons already out.
The girl felt a bullet graze her right forearm as she tried to bolt for cover, one of her feet catching on the pistol and almost tripping her as the gun was kicked over to a nearby wall. Allison too scrambled over to the wall, nearly leaping the last foot or two to get behind the worn brick for cover. Her adrenaline was kicking in once more, and flashbacks of the cave battle rang inside of her head. In fact, save for the lack of tight spaces and a cave collapse this was literally the cave all over again....albeit she was alone this time.
But how could she even the odds?
Looking to her side as she sat on the dirt-covered and broken pavement behind the wall, she noticed the now dusty and slightly blood-covered revolver on the ground and grabbed it up without a second thought. She jammed jammed the firearm in her right pants pocket in her haste, eyes quickly looking up at the corner off the wall for attackers.
A very non-parahuman response to grab a gun, perhaps, for one who could shoot blades out of her wrists. Though to Allison's adrenaline-addled brain, it was better as a backup idea if anything happened to her arms. Maybe. Or perhaps it was watching too many movies and playing too many video games at parties, all where grabbing the extra gun from an enemy was potentially helpful for the protagonist.
Either way she had little time to actually think about things, as two men came running around the corner with a knife and a bat respectively. The knife-man even had a blade cut on his side, perhaps from her sudden spray she'd made before. The girl unleashed a spray of blades once more with her left wrist, as her right hand was still somewhat stuck in her pocket with the bulky revolver, swinging her wrist about in front of the men as she did so.
THUNK
CHUNK
THUNKThe first man with a bat went down with several blades in his chest and raised arms. Knife-man had an audible chunk torn from his side, before another blade caught his chin and went straight up into his head. Both fell to the ground just as dead, however, as the first man had.
As she freed her right hand from her pistol-laden pocket, Allison scrambled in the grime and blood and dust to get back on her feet with her back pressed against the wall for leverage. Sweat was pouring down her bandanna-shielded forehead, her heart nearly beating into her ears like a loudspeaker as she did her best to take some kind of 'ready' stance. She could hear the voices of her attackers as they called out to "move in" on "that frightened criminal", while maybe about two or three voices cried out that they would "go help father" in the meantime or "were injured by that #$%&".
She was sure it wasn't going to be pretty for herself, either way, if she stayed behind this wall. This wasn't a cave with a wall to her back, at least, but it also meant she could be surrounded.
While the panic wanted to set in harder at the thought of being surrounded and gunned down, the metal-shooting parahuman instead began to try to control her breathing. Bit by bit, bit by bit...and then she moved.
Darting around the corner, Allison kept her eyes forward as she let loose another spray-and-pray of blades. This time her target location was another wall, this one more destroyed and partially-standing in nature. In the process she did her best to aim at her assailants, though with a few bullets pinging around her it didn't feel like the best aim she could manage. She felt another bullet lightly graze the outer part of her left thigh now, but was able to see at least one or guy go down...and one of the others' guns get impaled by a blade at that.
Allison dove behind the new wall and took a knee behind the admittedly shorter and smaller amount of cover, not hesitating as she heard a bullet ping off of the asphalt close to where she had been a second ago. Though the college student had enough stamina to make this possible, she also didn't want to drag this out...in part because she heard the remaining goons moving into cover themselves. She had to finish this, before things got even worse on her end and on the other end.
As much as part of her hated Mantis, Farce could be where the goons were headed as well. At least, based on what that one man had said before she impaled his heart on a metal stick. Frankly, there was part of her that wanted to run for it and leave the Lethal Force people to their fate for following Mantis...but damn it. She didn't want to leave anyone to die by the contrivances of the "Mad Mantis". Likewise The Community has pissed on her college, and nearly murdered her on top of probably having killed some innocents. So just in general she had had it up to "here" with all of the
"absolute bullshit", as it were.
Gritting her teeth, the college student tried to listen in carefully as the remaining two goons' shoes or boots crunched on the ground. Or at least, one of the goon seemed to be making that noise. Broken concrete and asphalt, debris, enough little stuff here made noise when you walked on it at the moment. She'd been drudging around enough in this junk to figure out that much at the
very least.
And then it happened. One goon sprung around in front of her, gun drawn on her, and the parahuman let loose another stream of fire from one of her wrists at the man reflexively. But....at the same time the other goon came out from behind her, firing quickly at her back as he tried to take advantage of the moment. The bullet, flying a bit odd from the hasty aim, dug into Allison's right side like a burning-hot spear before it erupted out of the front.
As the first goon dropped deader than a thanksgiving turkey, Allison was knocked down on her side by the shot. Her left wrist, which was still spraying some blades, flung around as she fell, inadvertently sending a blade into the face of the second goon and causing it to be stuck in his skull. The body of that goon seemed to stand for a moment, before collapsing in a heap on the ground as well.
"Dammit...shit....fucking pieces of...," Allison muttered out, reeling a bit from the pain of being shot before her adrenaline began to numb the sensation (at least temporarily) to where she could ignore it better, bite her lip, and force herself into a sitting position.
The college girl checked the wound for a second, watching the blood spill out very briefly before slamming her hands on it to put pressure. That much of first aid she knew about, and that she couldn't leave this uncovered either.
Though her right side felt somewhat heavier, and her body a bit shakier from the injury and sudden rush of battle, Allison forced herself to stand up and walk back over to the first man she'd killed. She tore off some of his tank top, and part of another dead man's shirt, before using the former to tie the latter onto her right side wound tightly. She then took the dead first man's belt, with the holster, and put it on herself to help keep the pressure on her wound.
She also withdrew the revolver in her right pocket, putting it back in its holster before she began to walk off in the direction any other goons had been. If she followed that route, then maybe (just maybe) she'd find Lethal Force there.
...The funny thing was, the sinking feeling that was now forming in her gut seemed to agree with her as well...
Xaltwind,
Ryik,
Renose,
Joshua Tamashii,
Azure Bubbles,
Shazamrock,
Savo,
Tortoise,
AtomicNut,
Sigma