Wyrm (A Worm Quest)

Amnion 2.4


[x] Direct attack. Draw fire first. These people are going to get somebody killed, even if they are Gang members. You might want to do something. Use whatever intimidation tactic you can and brute strength to try and force them to disperse. It doesn't look like Emma and Shadow Stalker are going to do anything soon and you're still worried about them. You can probably survive getting shot and you regenerate. They don't.



The shots were almost deafening. I could smell blood in the air even from up on the rooftop, but they were just waiting. I couldn't tell much through the masks but with that kind of tension going through their bodies, I didn't really have to. I couldn't see all of the people down there, but cover or no cover, I smelled blood and this would only get worse. I'd stood back before… I'd thought I'd just carry on but… no. Emma and Shadow Stalker would get hurt if they went down there. They were sitting on the ledge, I could see Shadow stalker in position, ready to jump.

People had gotten cut or slashed already, but the guns wouldn't hurt me. Even if they shot me, It wouldn't matter. They couldn't make it stick.
I had no idea when I stepped forward. Crouched down. Emma was staring at me, eyes widening. I tensed...

And flung myself off the roof. Just like jumping to another rooftop. Adjusting my position, bending my legs just before impact. And this time my legs took it with not even a twinge. Or maybe I was just too distracted. I had better things to do.

The guns had gone silent and I straightened up.

I could see the whites of Stormtiger's eyes and the scars on his chest. Floating half hidden behind a car. I could see those eyes narrowing, everyone had stopped shooting for now. Almost everyone. I only heard one explosion. One impact on my hip, stinging, but barely worth mentioning. Think later. Stormtiger made a gesture. I turned my head. Mush's face on the other side was invisible apart from half-hidden eyes, he was providing his own cover and cover for his goons.

This was it. I couldn't be weak now, and I wouldn't. I raised my voice, but I wasn't angry. Not really, annoyed, yes, but somehow this didn't rate actual anger yet. Worry about Emma, yes, but I wasn't livid, not even close. I just needed their attention.

"You're really loud, you know that? You'd think it's not that hard. Just don't attack anyone and don't drag anyone else into this. Easy, right?" I didn't even bother to ask them not to fight amongst each other. Instead I looked around. This was definitely a residential area, run down or not. Still not angry enough. "But I guess you didn't know, so how about you all go home and I won't have to come over there." I never said I was good at banter.

… I don't think they expected that.

I got a full few seconds of silence before Stormtiger laughed. "That's gotta be the best thing I've heard all year. You won't have to come over here?" he was hovering higher now, I thought I felt something on my skin, but I couldn't be sure. "I'll give you five seconds just for that. How about you run right back to your parents and we don't shoot you?"

And suddenly I minded a whole lot less.

I didn't even mind the pain I was going to bring down on myself.

"If you think it'll help, why don't you? Go on. You're not scared of a little girl are you?"

Yep, that did it. Something hit me. A little pinprick on my shoulder... I shot around. Sound exploded all around me, muzzles flashing, more pinpricks hitting me over and over until a sharp pain tore through my arm. My stomach, my leg. Tore through my neck and made my head lurch forward, stars in front of my eyes. Burning. It hurt. It hurt so much more than any of the things they'd tried before. I had no idea whether it worked, how well it worked, but I was curling on on myself. I felt hot.

Blood thundering in my veins, burning through my body. Those tears joined by another, their siblings burning into me. Even while my eyes cleared. I had no idea when my expression became nothing but a snarl. When my stance changed to put my feet further apart and my hands locked themselves into position as claws. I couldn't hear. More tears burned themselves into me, more injuries heaped on top, but I didn't care.

The pain didn't stop me. The first burns were already getting smaller. My shoulder blade exploded in pain. Something slammed into my nose and I tasted blood.

From my crouch leaping at Stormtiger was pathetically easy. His eyes going even wider only made me want it more. Even the streetlights and cars were just convenient points to launch myself off of and maybe sandbag a bit. I knew what my target was. The noise was already getting less, the burning got less and more, but I didn't care. He was rising up, but with the car he'd been hiding behind, that wouldn't be enough. Too slow. My costume was exploding around me, Stormtiger slashed toward me again and again, but whatever he was doing just added to the burn.

I pushed myself off and my hand closed around his ankle. Flesh crunching under my grip.

Something exploded against my back even while I was pulling myself up, but that didn't matter. It was nothing against those tears and frankly, his attacks had only gotten weaker. So I grabbed on to his belt. The air was whipping around me.

The explosions under me made it hard to tell what he was saying. They were tears in my feet now, coming from under me, but my instinct at least wasn't worried. He might be trying to shake me off, but as soon as I got an arm around his chest, that wasn't working anymore. He just felt squishy and I pressed. Let go with my other hand and put that around his neck. He was struggling against me, sure, but I was still stronger than him. If I'd wanted to kill him, I could have caved his chest in then and there, but burning, hurt as I was, I wasn't that far gone.

I pulled myself up and crashed my forehead against his mask, not even with full force. We tumbled.

I used that arm around his neck and put the other one there too as soon as I'd punched him in the gut to make sure. I pulled. There were no more shots from down there. Not even when we started tumbling down or when I had to angle myself to fall under him.

Staring right at a thug with something that very definitely wasn't just a handgun. Even someone who knows nothing about guns can recognize an AK-47.

As soon as I'd rolled out from under Stormtiger trying to get rid of his stomach contents, I grabbed onto that. Took it in both hands and bent the barrel over my knee. Grabbed the guy holding it and pushed him under the car. They were backing away from me pretty quickly now, even after I'd tossed the think up on a rooftop, but I wasn't done yet.

One of them was sort of trapped against the Car by Stormtiger, me and his friend, taking his pistol was easy enough. As was pulling him next to his friend, head first. I had to lunge over to get the second AK. That one I didn't throw. Just twirled it around my hand.

My "Drop your guns, kick them over here and I won't have to hurt you." Sounded way more sinister than intended. Even if they were Nazis, I had no means of keeping them down short of doing stuff I wasn't sure I was comfortable with anyway. The thundering in my ears and the burning had stopped by now and I was still kind of upset, but Emma was more important.

Only somewhat mitigated by the fact that they did exactly what I told them to and three of them straight up ran. Not that it would have done them much good, they were a lot slower than me, but I had something much more urgent left to do. Such as grabbing and tossing those pistols as fast as I could and then dealing with the Merchants.

At least it seemed like letting them empty their magazines on me had given Emma and Shadow Stalker a pretty good advantage. I still winced slightly when more shots fell, but Mush was protecting his friends and slowing the battle down instead of being aggressive. Maybe because Emma was amorphous and Shadow Stalker was intangible, but I couldn't imagine his abilities doing much good here. And it seems like a lot of his friends had flat out run out of ammunition in a combination of shooting me and shooting at the Empire.

So hungry.

Unfortunately, that still wasn't all of them. Emma was hiding behind an empty dumpster to escape another AK and thinking about it, that was probably what had torn through my defenses as well. I could see copper jacketed bullets on the ground even as I was pushing my body to run faster. I really hoped she was okay. She didn't look it.

I bent the barrel of the gun in my hand and dropped it just before I got to them. Then the six Merchants left standing suddenly had other problems. Mush was already injured, the weird, pink, veiny flesh holding the trash together was bleeding and I as foul and weirdly appetizing as he smelled, his goons were the bigger threat right now.

Fortunately, they were also focusing on me.

Another searing hot streak pieced my shoulder, pain exploding outward. A second one plunged into my chest and stopped short, then I had my hand wrapped around the barrel. My heart beating louder again. Burning. Blood that wasn't quite the right colour pouring out, while I forced the steel to bend under my hand. I didn't feel nearly as guilty as I maybe should when I tore the weapon for his hands and clubbed him with it less than a second later. Not on the head but I'd broken his shoulder anyway. Pushed the gun into his stomach before Shadow Stalker could get to him and rolled out of the way of Mush's punch.

The heat was already fading again, while more bullets hit my skin.

I grabbed the machine pistol from another merchant's hands and she fell back, trying to save her second weapon. A baseball bat crashed into me from the side, but even if the spiked someone had welded onto the thing, that was nothing against the assault rifle. It stung, but I could deal. And I could close my eyes against the flashed of blinding light to…

Mush's fist knocked me aside. Which didn't actually hurt but pushed me away from my targets. Gave them time while I got to my feet but had also given Emma an opening to wrap herself around the neck of one of the gangsters and solve that problem. I stepped to the side and then made sure said gangster's friend was too distracted to try and shoot her in retaliation. That gun went up on a roof too.

Meanwhile, Shadow Stalker had found a way to distract Mush and I don't know what she did but he was reeling. I could see her put another bolt onto her crossbow and phase it into her weird shadow state, while I confiscated another pistol and used left the owner to Emma.

I wasn't even surprised to see one of them running away at top speed. The last gun was easy after that, but I barely managed to get out of the way of another of Mush's attacks.

How did I get so fucking hungry?

Shoving the twisted end of the AK's barrel into my mouth under the scarf barely helped. It did get everyone staring at me again, but against the hole in my stomach, that one bite of steel barely mattered. I scarfed it down anyway.
"Fucker!" I saw Mush twitch and recoil from another one of shadow Stalker's bolts, but this one hadn't been nearly as effective and she knew it. I changed my grip on the barrel and bit into the magazine. Wonderful, spicy, leaden, coppery taste exploding in my mouth. There was so much. So much stuff in there. I could taste the explosive, feel it dissolve in my mouth and taste something spicy, without a hint of pain. I couldn't resist another bite. And Another. Even if it wasn't the most filling, I'd finished the magazine in seconds, before I dropped that gun too, moved to one side, crouched and went after Mush.

Maybe he was just distracted, but tackling his back and tearing pieces of Garbage away from him was disturbingly easy. I could see his veins tear, his flesh retreat as I ripped more and more of it away. Vaguely feeling the material crushing in around me, trying to restrict my movements. It was like trying to swim through syrup or even molasses, but even so, I was in. My lungs weren't calling for air and I was still moving, Closing my hands around one of the bigger veins, before he could fully expel me through another end. I squeezed.

Even if I had to admit I wasn't anywhere close to as angry as I had been fighting Stormtiger, I was covered in Garbage and I was annoyed enough to keep going. Without any idea what was going on outside, until something else ripped through me. I almost screamed. This was so much worse than the rifle.

My blood felt like it might boil off. I pulled, blood running down my hand, garbage dropping all around me, while I held a half crushed arm, trying to shut out the burn, one fist cocked in front of Mush's face.

Shaking. Staring into those huge, watery eyes. He had to be the ugliest man I'd ever seen and everything smelled sick. I had no idea whether it was whatever he liked to coat himself in or just the man himself, but we dropped to the ground. He was pulling himself together and cringing. I could see a crossbow bolt sticking out of his side.

I could see another one sticking out of mine, right where I could feel myself burn.

At least that was starting to fade too.

The tip of it dropped to the ground. The other end did too, while I let go of mush and stared Shadow Stalker down instead.

Even if she hadn't meant it or if she hadn't been aiming for me, I had to force myself not to try and rip her arm off. She was solid right now. I might have succeeded and if I didn't, I would just look ridiculous. She looked frozen in place.

My costume was hanging from me in rags. I was so glad I hadn't brought anything I couldn't afford to lose.

There, in one corner of my vision, Emma was making sure Stormtiger and at least some of his friends trying to help didn't get away.

I turned to help with that. We had a lot to talk about.

And I was still starving. Starving enough to make it hard to think even without the pain. My blood was pounding in my ears. I could have bitten into the street in front of me, but I needed to wait just another minute…


[ ] Secure Stormtiger, secure leftover Nazis, eat every gun in sight and however much destroyed car necessary to feel vaguely human again. Then You needed to talk to Emma and possibly punch Shadow Stalker in the face if you couldn't get yourself under control before then.
She didn't look too good. You didn't feel too good and you seriously needed to talk about training and biting off more than you could chew. And Maybe, hopefully, get into emotional support, while Shadow Stalker was distracted. Focus on how what you just did was anything but ideal and really… you needed to go, sit down, drink tea and talk somewhere. Focus on better solutions.
It should not be this hard to get your friend back.
[ ] Secure Stormtiger, secure leftover Nazis, eat every gun in sight and however much destroyed car necessary to feel vaguely human again. Then You needed to talk to Emma and possibly punch Shadow Stalker in the face if you couldn't get yourself under control before then.
Emma didn't look too good but you still seriously needed to talk, but you needed to lay into Shadow stalker for this, even if it was an accident. And then try to figure out some kind of alternative. Maybe the shock would make them more receptive.
[ ] Secure Stormtiger, secure leftover Nazis, eat every gun in sight and however much destroyed car necessary to feel vaguely human again. Then You needed to talk to Emma and possibly punch Shadow Stalker in the face if you couldn't get yourself under control before then.
But most of all, you needed to go home. Or to Kurt and Lacey's. You were tired, hungry and dressed in torn bloody rags.
[ ] write in.



Hunger: 0/100
Humanity: 65/100
Concentrating on vote options is hard, I hope the fight isn't too confusing. There was something else I wanted to say but I can't remember right now.