Amnion 2.5
[x] 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 ourself 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.
Looking at Shadow stalker for even as much as one more minute would probably have made me hurt her. I couldn't help look at that crossbow and at the hunting broadhead tip on the ground. But I wouldn't. I wasn't quite far gone enough to just punch her right then and there, besides, Emma was surrounded by Nazis and Stormtiger must have at least somewhat recovered by now. And as much as I wanted to, taking the crossbow away right now would allow the Merchants to run for it.
I should probably be more upset that I might have given him a concussion.
As it was, I just sprinted across the street. Pushing my legs as fast as they would go and vaulting over the wreck of a car the fight had left behind. There was something satisfying about the way the Nazis flinched back. Emma was standing with her arms ending in simple blades, pointing them at the Nazis, but I had to run a bit further to get to the other side of Stormtiger's attempt to get away. Flanked by two of his minions and probably only kept upright by their arms around his shoulders. His foot stood out at an odd angle and he didn't even try to put any weight on it.
Coming to a stop, I crossed my arms in front of my chest. "I would rather not have to make you stay in place." Not that it would take much effort, which was surreal in its own right. Without their weapons, Stormtiger was the only one who could even hurt me and even then, it wasn't particularly dangerous. "So how about you just sit down, wait for the police and I won't have to do anything."
My voice was raised just enough to be heard. Not even angry, but even so I would carry out the threat if need be. I would say I did a disturbingly good job acting like I didn't care one way or the other, but I don't think it counts if it isn't an act. I was just so hungry. Hungry, exhausted, and trying to keep myself from considering the road as a food source. I doubted I'd be able to sleep before that got resolved. Or if I did, I didn't think I would sleep well. So I looked up to the group Emma was trying to take care of. Tying them up with their own Jackets.
The Nazis in front of me didn't look happy, but a step forward made them comply. Hateful glares and all.
Copying Emma's technique didn't take much effort and with the chains included in Stormtiger's Costume, I even found a good solution for that.
"The fuck? Let me go you crazy-" He didn't get any further, mostly because I had thrown him over my shoulder and he didn't have enough air. Digging my shoulder into the bruise I'd made on his stomach might have had something to do with that too. Just tying his wrists to his neck wouldn't keep him from lifting off. Tying him to that wreck of a car too would, although I had to fiddle with the chain links and break a few before I figured out how to bend them back together and have the result be reasonably strong.
By the time I was done, Emma had been finished a while back, but she was still in her silver form and I could see it shivering slightly. I picked up the bent AK-47 I'd dropped ages ago and brushed a few bullets out of my sleeves. I could be wrong but I was pretty sure Emma was staring at it.
I paused and for a moment I had absolutely no idea what to say. Everything was coming back to me. Emma pushing me back, making fun of me at school. Her and Sophia calling me too weak to be worth anything. I couldn't see her face. Couldn't read anything at all, but…. "Are you okay?"
Did the plan work?
"You have a phone right? Did you call it in?"
Emma didn't respond. She just kept shaking on the spot and I was starting to get a bad feeling about this. Her shape was almost her usual again, looking over at Shadow Stalker, but She was still some distance away and had apparently taken longer tying people up. I didn't really want to think about why, but I could see her stomping around and gesturing with her crossbow.
My ex best friend shivered. When the silver retreated, one of her legs gave out under her and I stopped, the barrel of the gun halfway to my face. I had a pretty good idea what happened, but she was just staring at me defiantly. I'd been right. I could get hit, but it took so much more of a toll on Emma and if I wasn't mistaken, she'd taken a rifle round too. She looked exhausted, and I could suddenly understand Mr. Barnes' position on the issue even better. Emma was breathing heavily.
I just had no idea whether she would listen. "You got shot, didn't you?"
I wasn't even surprised to see her shrug. "You got shot too and we're both alive anyway." Tossing her hair with that hood on didn't look nearly as good as it otherwise would have. She couldn't hide the shaking in her voice.
"Sure, but I'm fine." and anything but those rifles barely did anything anyway. I looked over my arm and everyone could see the unmarked skin under the blood and torn clothing.
Of course she didn't say anything. There was still one thing left to do anyway and in this state, I doubted I'd be facing much resistance. Seeing as I had no idea what to do about this problem… "We'll talk later, do you mind if I borrow your phone and call this in?"
She took two tries to pull out the phone. I was almost certain she was gritting her teeth behind that mack. Emma's eyes were half closed and the was a faint smell of blood coming from her but I had no idea what she'd done or what happened if you shot her with something more destructive than just a pistol. Only that it had to have something to do with her leg. But even so, she was staring back at me defiantly, so I just took it, flipped it open and dialed 911 and breathed.
"Hello? I'm reporting a cape fight. I'm near the intersection between. Edgewood and Elizabeth street. There has been a cape fight between Mush and Stormtiger with a few unpowered gang members involved as well. We have them secured and ready for pickup. We're going to need more than one Ambulance I think, but no one's critically injured. Yes, I can hold."
Emma had immediately retaken her silver form, probably to keep the injuries from getting to her. We needed to have a talk about how that worked. I almost missed the next question.
"Yes, I'm a Parahuman." I paused, the PRT dispatcher was in an entirely different mood. Less tired, but much more tense. "I'm calling with Mercurial and Shadow Stalker, no I'm neither, I don't have a cape name right now." Could I stay? Yeah, we were definitely going to stay and be it just because I had a conversation to make with Shadow Stalker and there was no way I would give these two a chance to get away. Even if I could still hear shots from elsewhere. I just hoped they'd make it before the empire could send reinforcements or that they were somehow too distracted to try. They were apparently sending just the PRT, the police were too busy. What did we just run into?
"We'll stay. Yes Ma'am, we'll be fine, we'll retreat if the Empire tries to recover him, that's fine." Even if I could, I wasn't going to deal with Hookwolf right now. "Do you know what's going on?" Stormtiger was trying to smile at me and I was almost tempted to go back on my word right then and there.
…
Emma's featureless face was still pointed at me. I nodded toward Shadow Stalker, because as angry as I was, she should probably hear this. So I jogged over instead of giving it everything I had, looking into angry brown eyes, but I wasn't about to give in. Or bend really, not anymore.
"What?"
"The Empire is fighting with the Merchants a few streets away, they've got all of the other Merchant capes tied up or are driving them off, I'm not sure. PRT is trying to pull them apart, but I don't think they're having much luck. Both sides got hurt, so the Empire is probably not coming to help their friend over there. Apparently, Lung found out about their push against the Merchants, so most of the Protectorate is tied up trying to take care of that. We'll get more company whenever they've got someone free." I ended the call and snapped the phone shut.
"So.
"I think we need to talk about a few things."
I took another bite of the rifle. And the next. It was barely anything against the hole in my stomach, but it at least told my body I was doing something. Not to mention that I could see Shadow stalker flinch a little with each bite. Staring at the toothmarks on the metal. The few conscious Merchants looked even more horrified. They were all tied up though. Minus maybe Mush, but I could keep him in check.
"Looks like you did lots of talking just fine. You think I'll just stick around for those useless bags of hot air to get here?"
I stepped on the broadhead still lying on the ground. "Yes. But that's not what I wanted to talk about." I bit into the magazine, wonderful gunpowder flavour exploding onto my tongue. If I weren't as pissed off, I might have thought twice because of how angry she looked, but I still had one very big problem. I stepped forward.
"You." I closed the distance between us, put a hand on her crossbow and pulled, before she could have a reaction.
"Fucking.
"Shot me."
The metal would have been so easy to bend between my fingers, but I didn't. I stepped back and sideways out of reach the moment she lurched forward and took another bite out of my rifle. Made sure she could hear the crunch before I swallowed.
"So fucking what? Give that back! It's not like you're even hurt! You got shot a hundred time over but when I do it you suddenly care? I wasn't even aiming for you." She only had eyes for her crossbow, reached for it again, but there was no way I was going to give it back so easily. Not after what she'd said.
I wished the scarf weren't hiding the satisfaction on my face when I bit into the rifle again. Nice and irony. Not everything my body needed, but I did it again, just to see her twitch a little more. "So you fucking shot me and you don't even care if your allies get hurt. Just because I heal doesn't mean it doesn't hurt or that there wasn't any chance it could have been a whole lot worse and you don't even care? You're just going to shoot if you've got no fucking idea what might happen?" That bolt hadn't felt anything like a rifle round. Those didn't pierce as far, that pain was different, but this. I'd almost lost myself for a moment.
"If you care so much, don't put yourself between me and my target, newbie. Really simple rules right there. You can take all of that, but you care so much if it's just one bolt? What do you want? Me to go on my knee because the Brute didn't know where not to go?"
"If you were doing a good job, I probably wouldn't have had to, but you knew I was in there and you could see me, couldn't you?" I bit into the magazine again. Ground the ammo down with my teeth and let the amazing, delicious copper flow over my tongue. I had to keep my hand from squeezing the crossbow.
"A leg maybe. Why do you even care? You're fine! Just give me my fucking crossbow." I took another bite and dodged out of the way again. If she hadn't said anything, I probably would have given it back just like that, but it was starting to get pretty clear that I didn't trust her with the thing.
"I care because you don't seem to give a fuck if your comrades get hurt and if you can't keep yourself from getting your own side hurt, maybe you shouldn't be having it in the first place." I had less than half a rifle left now, but taking another bite with gusto was still just as satisfying as before. "I care because there was a good fucking chance that I couldn't have shrugged that off and I care because I was trying to fucking help you and you shot me. If they shoot me you know, I get it. I don't care, I'm not angry, but if my own fucking side shoots me and doesn't even have the decency to apologize afterward and admit it's a mistake, then we've got a problem."
Whether or not I was being reasonable didn't really matter. Right then, I didn't care if I was being selfish. There was one thing I could do to hopefully put a break on this mess at least for a little bit and that thing was right in my hand.
"Yeahyeah, I'm so sorry, won't do it again, big baby, now give that back!"
I tucked the leftover gun into one of the holes in my hoodie and changed my grip on the crossbow. In any other circumstance, I probably would have hesitated because she was crying. Right now, with her fishing for it again, Emma hurt in a corner and her new best friend obviously not entirely serious about it, I didn't think so.
"You know, I don't think you are."
Yeah, I was maybe going a bit far, but I was hungry and I was pissed off. I started lifting it to my mouth and…
"No!"
"You fucking bitch, that's mine. You can't!"
And if I did it, she and Emma wouldn't be going on patrol for a while. If she hadn't insulted me, I probably wouldn't have.
As it was, I bit into it anyway. Snapped the string in my mouth and Ignored the desperate howl of rage from Shadow Stalker, just making a jump to the side to avoid her lunging for me. Not that it would have done much good, but I didn't want to lose any more clothing. Dodging against and again, to the background of somewhat faraway snickering from Stormtiger of all things.
It was delicious. Strong carbon a good stock and a wonderful string. And I had to devour it all within less than five minutes.
I just still couldn't help but feel a bit of regret, seeing Shadow Stalker crying in front of me. My instinct pushing me not to give in. That no attempt to push me down would be tolerated, but at the same time, she was crying. She had made Emma into this or at least encouraged it, but she was crying, crying and snarling, but still.
At least none of our captives had escaped.
At least I still had time to sigh and sit down next to her, pull out the gun and start chewing again. I was exhausted, starving and at the very least plenty annoyed, but apparently, my second personality had confidence to spare anyway. "Listen. I think you need to take a break, you can buy a new crossbow, I don't care. I know you're taking money from criminals anyway." At least drug money, which I was plenty hesitant to do myself. "But you need to think about what you're doing before you run into someone who's less nice than me. Or who's just prepared enough to kill you or you end up with the PRT on your head because you got someone else killed."
Emma was there in my periphery, but I had no idea what she was thinking.
"You're not as tough as like I am. You need a better strategy." I needed a better strategy too. Or some way to just not get involved. I wasn't even sure I was talking to Emma or Shadow Stalker. "What do you think would have happened if I hadn't jumped in? I'm not even saying don't or you're not tough, and maybe not Mush over there, but the Empire's probably tougher." And they had numbers.
"I know that, idiot."
I could already hear sirens in the distance. So tired. Apparently, exhaustion meant my filter was one of the first things to go. "So don't start a fight if you're not sure you're going to win? Both of you." I had no idea whether it would sink in. Or how many times I would have to repeat myself. I started walking over to the shot up car and started helping myself to some destroyed upholstery. Maybe I had told Shadow Stalker not to start a fight with me, not to be more careful in general but going back wouldn't fix that. Her powers really did make her invulnerable, but I hoped the shock had done something at least. I'd have to talk to Emma later.
Right now, there were White a purple PRT vans driving up, lead by Miss Militia on a Motorcycle.
Miss Militia.
Dad.
Fuck.
[ ] Explain the situation, tell her you are going to come in for some power testing and associate status later, apologize for injuries, try to deal with the sudden attack of fear and anger as quietly as you can.
[ ] Explain the situation, but try to downplay your abilities and play up Shadow Stalker and Emma's roles. The Gang members wouldn't talk, right? Maybe you could downplay your regeneration?
- add that you would come in for power testing and associate status
- say no such thing, even if you would be getting enough money to either buy food or buy some food and maybe keep services up to your house.
[ ] Let Emma and Shadow Stalker talk, or at least try to let them talk.
[ ] write in.
Hunger: 50/100
Humanity: 65/100
Repeating here: Any write in that doesn't reach first place in the vote may still be used as inspiration, if it doesn't conflict with the vote option.
Any write in that is too out of character will be ignored/vetoed by me.
Any option will also result in food getting filled back up to full.
I may have gotten carried away again. Any and all critque, especially dialogue related is welcome.
