druidquest

HEROIC

Bouncer raised her eyebrows slightly at Kitsune, looking toward the door as she processed the fox girl’s question. “I have to be able to see my destination,” she answered slowly. She could use the upstairs windows to get inside and work her way down, but she would have to deal with all the guards herself. Bouncer had absolutely no problem with that, to be clear, but they had a plan. They were supposed to be a team. They were supposed to do this together. Or whatever.

Bouncer rapped her knuckles lightly against the face of the door, trying to guess how sturdy it was. Judging from the way the knock echoed inside it, it probably wasn’t very strong. That fit with what Bouncer generally expected of doors in bad guy hideouts, but she had kind of thought this place would be more secure than that. Oh well. Maybe Joel had just hyped these guys up too much.

She stepped back, hands on her hips. “I could break this, yeah, but it’ll probably alert everyone inside that we’re here,” Bouncer said, looking over her shoulder at Kitsune. “Which, y’know, I’m fine with, but you should probably get ready.”

Bouncer spun on her heel, one hand swinging out to clap Kitsune lightly on the shoulder before air rushed to fill the space she filled in the next instant and the fox-masked hero was alone. The morning breeze echoed gently through the space, carrying the distant song of windchimes and the muffled chaos of Joel’s distraction. Bouncer’s absence extended for fifteen seconds, thirty, forty-five.

Then the door slammed back through its frame with the voice of a cannonball, Bouncer backflipping away from where the soles of her shoes had impacted against it and landing next to Kitsune. She stood with her arms raised in the air like she was some kind of olympic acrobat awaiting the cheers of the crowd, before pulling her masks away from her face to shoot a shit-eating grin at her partner and then vanishing again as she teleported inside.

HEROIC

whats a post

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Máire’s boots hit dirt just a pace away from rat, her stride closing the distance in an instant as her hand swung out to clap him on the back, spurring him back into motion. “Aye, you’re a right master of the art,” she announced with absolute lack of sincerity, several of the swords fading into dust and returning to her bloodstream. “Now keep moving before the rest of the swarm stress tests that delusion!”

She sprinted down the corridors at Rat’s side, keeping one eye on the drive frames raining debris down upon them. As if the monsters weren’t enough of a problem to get through. Her other eye she kept on the messenger, alerting him to dodge when necessary, or pulling him out of the way herself. Máire’s swords flew ahead in formation like fighter jets, clearing them a path through the increasingly concentrated beasts slavering to get through the wall. The frames had funneled the swarm away from the town’s gates, leaving them to attempt scaling the sheer steel walls surrounding it. Unfortunately, that would have to be their way in, too.

“Templar! Up!!” Máire called to the shapeshifter, grabbing Rat around his midsection as she thrust one of her blades up toward the top of the wall. “Hold tight,” she advised, before the invisible connection between herself and her manifested weaponry sent them hurtling skyward. Out of the corner of her eye, Máire noticed Rat was still clinging tight to one of her swords, swinging it desperately at the creatures around them.

She could’ve smiled at that.

---

Ugh, what a mess they’d made. She was definitely buying new shoes later, budget be damned. Abel could suck hers, quite frankly. Even if coming down here had been all her idea, against his advice. “We’re supposed to be keeping a low profile Dollar,” “the hunt is too risky, Dollar,” “Its not our problem, Dollar,” “leave it to the actual Rogues, Dollar,” “we’re just making trouble for ourselves, Dollar,” “we’re not even getting paid for this, Dollar.”

Nerd.

Dollar stepped over rubble and splattered hydra, careful not to stumble and twist her ankle on any of the slick liquid coating the area. Ick, it was all sticky! She swore, if this stuff stained- Well, anyway. She glanced over to the side for a moment, taking in the image of good ol’ Alex Brickhead jammed half inside an oozing monster neck, then mentally filed the memory away to never bother her again before turning her attention to the real reason she was down here.

To save someone. Because she was a goddamn hero, god damn it.

The Haze pulsed in thick, red veins all across the little battlefield Miss Knight had made for herself, some of them stretching maybe twenty feet away if Dollar cared enough to measure or do math. Oof. That was some real shit this upside girl was doing to herself, huh? Dollar hadn’t seen anyone piss out Haze like this in…

Well. Let’s not dwell on such things. There’s some goddamn hero stuff that needs doing, god damn it!

Dollar swatted the Haze away as some of the tendrils reached out toward her, like lightning jumping to a ground. She drew up next to the Templar girl, placing a hand on her immaculately well-dressed hip and quirking her lip in thought as she gazed down at her latest beneficiary. Did she know this kid? She seemed kind of familiar, though Dollar couldn’t really place it. Oh, well. All these mages kinda bled together after a while.

“Really got yourself in some trouble, huh dumbass?” Dollar asked the unconscious girl with a sigh. She crouched down, her fingers reaching out to brush ever-so-gently over that dorky ass helmet the kid was wearing. “Don’t you know what kind of attention you’ll draw to yourself like this?” Dollar sighed again, a bit more gently this time.

“Y’know, normally I charge for this kind of thing, so I hope you appreciate my special service.” Her hand moved lower, toward the center of the girl’s back where the Haze was thickest. It wrapped itself around her hand, writhing up her arm and whipping out at Dollar’s face, leaving a burning smell in the air and cracking down on the ground around her. Sheesh, what an attitude problem. Kids these days, honestly. Still, she supposed if nothing else, it meant the girl was energetic.

Dollar stretched out her fingers, forming a straight line from her wrist to her nails as the Haze continued to lash around her. Hungry and angry as it ever was. It really did have such an attitude problem. “Try to be more careful, next time, alright?” she asked the girl again, knowing full well it wouldn’t be heard.

She could feel the Haze writhing about the area, grabbing for the hydra, the ground, the air, the idiot meathead wrapped in sushi over on the side. It would calm on its own in time, some weeks or months or years later, if those other mages didn’t show up to beat it into submission first. But Dollar was here now, could feel the Haze now, could hear its petulant tantrum now.

So she slashed her arm out to the side, and cut it all away.

HEROIC

Had Bouncer ever been in a taxi before? She decided she hadn’t, and couldn’t really understand the appeal. Well, no, actually, did Mateo’s car count? He drove her around sometimes when the wolf woman wanted her to do something or she had nothing better to do than tag along on the boys’ errands. Still, this shit kinda blew. Wasn’t it more fun to walk? Or, like, teleport? Not that other people could do that.

She spent the ride with her feet propped up on the driver’s headrest, much to the man’s chagrin. The clinic didn’t look like much when they pulled up, but honestly all these little hole-in-the-wall places kinda bled together. Bouncer’s back was kind of starting to ache from her sitting posture, and she jumped out quickly when the cab rolled to a stop.

Joel’s plan was about as shit as he’d warned. Why the hell did he get the fun part? Bouncer opened her mouth to protest, but Kitsune cut her off before she could say anything. Bouncer glowered at the other woman, but let it go anyway. Whatever. If this really were some kind of secret evil lair, the “discrete” entrance would probably have plenty of fun to be found anyway.

“After you,” Bouncer said, sweeping her arm toward the clinic in a grand, permissive gesture. She stepped aside to let Joel past her, turning to cast her gaze over the building. It looked like she could go through the windows into the upper floor, but the fox woman probably wouldn’t be able to follow her there. No doubt there was an emergency exit or access door around back; that would probably work better. If it was locked, Bouncer could just head inside and open it.

Or maybe Kitsune could, like, break it down. With whatever it was she did. Bouncer wasn’t actually sure if she’d ever found out or not. Whatever.

Bouncer mentioned their likely method of ingress to Kitsune after Joel took off to do his thing. “I can take point,” she began, trying to remember all the “tactical” words she’d heard the boys say before. God, she was so good at strategy. She should be a leader, she’d be good at that maybe. “And you can clean up any stragglers who get past me. We can do a clean sweep while Joel holds the primary force away from me. Us. If he’s right about this place, there’ll likely be heavy resistance, so we should exercise force with full discrimination. Or whatever.”

HEROIC

just realized neither of them told joel who they are

HEROIC

sorry been meanin to get a post up i was jus busy >,> im gonna post 2morrow

HEROIC

i got nuttin to add rn

HEROIC

we can probly jump straight to the clinic here, right? unless kitsune wants to keep prodding them with questions?

HEROIC

i am coughing up a post onto your carpet

HEROIC

Bouncer blinked once. The shouting of the cops had cut out all at once, like a radio that had been flipped off. The wall of the building had begun to crumble and fall away, the ant woman coming down with it, and Bouncer took a step back as the rubble scattered around her ankles.

There was a tug on Bouncer’s arm - one of those goth gay guys from the other day? He released her and she rubbed at the lingering sensation of his hand on her arm as he led her through the streets, only half-hearing what he said. Did he know Kitsune? Probably. The other guy was also dog themed, so maybe they were all buddies or something like that.

They found her brawling with some of those punks. They all moved sluggishly like they were caught in slime, though their movements quickened by the moment. The goth guy stopped her, which made sense to Bouncer. These guys didn’t seem like they’d be much fun to go at it with. Too twitchy and weepy. Wait, “distraction”? Distraction from what? And-

“Who’s ‘they’?” Bouncer spoke up, chasing after the goth guy as he sped off. Somewhere in the back of her mind she felt something tugging at her floundering memories. There was the- the guy, from the burning office. He’d mentioned others. It wasn’t the same people, right?

The goth guy responded by saying a lot of words that didn’t mean anything to anyone, probably. Was Grim the other goth guy? The name sounded vaguely familiar. Wait, this guy had a wife? Did his boyfriend know? What’s the FBI? Bouncer vaguely recalled the wolf woman and her boys mentioning them once or twice.

Joel introduced himself after dumping a whole bunch of sentences into the street. “Whatever,” Bouncer replied when he asked after her name, waving the question away with her hand. She almost jumped when he turned toward her then. “What?” she responded dully before processing his question. “Uhm…”

Bouncer pointed toward the end of the block. “About that far,” she answered, one hand on her hip. “I can’t take anyone with me. I can take stuff I’m holding, I guess, but if I try to bring anyone with me I’ll only take whatever’s directly touching my hands.”

“...I’m not a taxi service.”