11-04-2018, 10:02 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-06-2018, 02:52 AM by Nika Raskov.)
Nika slid against the wall making herself less of a target, hopefully, before regaining her feet. She didn’t think she was any more injured than she’d been when started out but it was dark and the adrenaline pumping through her veins at the moment could have masked anything. Her suit didn’t look compromised from under the shredded remains of her shirt and jacket. She did however taste blood and her tongue found the cut in her lip from where her cast had been smashed into her face. Her eyes swept left, right and left again from her place under the footbridge. The thing she’d dispatched was still a dark island in the pool. Unmoving.
Where Rune had ended up was anyone’s guess. The most likely answer? As sushi in the stomach of whatever these beasty things were. Runeshi. Pity. Nika hadn't disliked her. That left some quandaries. Find the body...parts? GTF out of Dodge? Yeah, she was about done with this random encounter shit. Lesson learned.
“AMY?”
Or not. Well, wonders never ceased. Nika pulled her dislodged goggles into place and found the other woman. Only one side was working properly. She tapped at the defective lense and her finger found a bisecting gash. Lucky. Too much luck used tonight for her taste. She didn’t even question how the other woman came to be where she was, on the ledge above. Flying, teethy, clawy creatures, oh my!
Of course Nika had been about to head in the complete opposite direction. Away from where the two ambushes had occurred. Because no. Rune alive though meant safety in numbers. Or a gruesome death together. Whatever.
She sloshed as stealthily as was prudent to the end of her cover, the bridge, and cast a cautious gaze about the night. Looks clear. That line brought to mind one of the old movies she watched from her parent’s collection. She snickered to herself. Bioraptors. That’s what she’d call the creatures even if it didn’t exactly fit. These things that had attacked them were humanoid, almost like vampires or something. Bioraptors were...oh who cared.
“Cover me,” she whispered back as loudly as she dared. “I’m coming to you.” There really wasn’t an optimal choice here as far as which position was safer. Rune was certainly exposed where she was but they’d both been attacked down where Nika was too. Damned if you do… If she could get out of the culvert, that would kind of make it easier to leave. Right? As opposed to their one option in the runoff; the ominous open pipe. How about no to that?
The assassin stepped down into the pool where they’d both been taken but this time kept to the cement wall to the left, trying to cut down on at least two angles of attack. The bioraptor floated nearby and was creepy as all get-out. She kept an eye on it too. The cement runoff sloped downward and soon she was up to her chin in water with the pipe she was aiming for still ten feet away. Tip toes then she was swimming. Not a good feeling in the dark. It was deathly silent except for the water’s gentle ebb and flow. She could hear dripping from the pipe as she neared.
Nika switched her gun to her left hand. The cast actually made a perfect-sized clamp around the grip. She didn’t even have to hold on with her non-bound digits. Nice. She cast a glance about the pool before turning her back. Looked clear…Rune still looked alive too. She kicked once for some extra vertical mobility out of the water and reached over her head for a handhold on the big metal pipe. Slime-not-accounted-for denied purchase and her hand slipped, sending the girl back downward and underwater as physics required. On the way back up her face nearly parascoped straight into the fangs of bioraptor. Again.
There was a saying thrown around in racing, ‘your asshole chewed a hole in the seat.’ It was extremely versatile in that it could be a statement, question or exclamation and was wholly applicable in this instance. That damn thing, mouth agape...eyes bugged out and glassy...looking like a cross between Venom and Pennywise the Clown had just scared the shit out of her. Her. Nika the world-class assassin. How embarrassing.
Like Bambi on ice the damn thing starfished its way above her in the current. She felt like a proper idiot. She’d nearly emptied the mag into it’s dead face too after back-flapping her way clear and deeper underwater faster than the speed of light. Ugh. To think that was almost her first kiss. Nika surfaced with a cough and pushed the body away in annoyance. No means no, fucker.
She eyed her target. The grate was in a little bit from the lip of the pipe but she figured she could push off from the bottom of the culvert and gain enough lift. So that’s what she did. Only on the way down she caught sight of a familiar shape; Baby. Yoink. Why hadn’t she ever thought to name her guns? The drones all had names because it had grown tedious remembering their serial numbers. Hmm. Food for thought. Not really her style though.
Nika tucked the gun-child securely away and proceeded with Plan B. Kicking off and well, kicking upward did the trick nicely. Propelled upward enough, she managed an iron grip on the grate. Stronger than she looked, the assassin pulled herself over the lip one-handed, until her feet too found purchase. Then it was simply a matter of climbing using her legs mostly, as was proper. Step, step, a new handhold and repeat. She kept her weapon and casted arm tucked in close to her chest, just in case.
The summit of the pipe was a momentary hangup as she had to scrunch herself toward the top and reach blindly upward to find a handhold. Thankfully there was an outer lip and with the two free fingers on her left hand holding on to the grate-ladder, she was able to get arm and shoulder up and over. Only slight three-limbed awkwardness saw the small assassin just rising from jackknifing clear before the next awful thing happened. Was it the 13th?
Bio-Venom-Pennywise’s bigger, uglier sister’s face peeped from the bushes just before rocketing the both of them rudely into the air with the squeak of wet hightop losing traction. What the hell was in the water here? Somehow one of her light-up shoes turned on. Blink-blink-blink in the night sky.
Since momentum swung her toward her assailant like a pendulum, the little Athari wrapped her legs around the beast’s waist and held on. The thing’s hands and claws were all over her like it was prom. Nika. Was. Pissed. The two killers fought pressed together in the air as their flight path shot toward the open pipe. Beastie ultimately settled her grip between Nika’s upper arm and torso, the other claws tangled in the tattered remains of her jacket and flapping shirt.
Nearly-black eyes murderous, the assassin dug her thumb into the thing’s eye socket. The Harpy screamed a shrill cry and clawed blindly at the assassin’s head, succeeding only in tangling a green wig and beanie in her talons. Nika laughed aloud and pushed her thumb deeper, squelching an eyeball and spurting god-knows-what. I’m going to kill you. Then I’m going to kill your family and all of your friends. After that I’ll kill your dog and your cat; then I’m going to take your goldfish out of the bowl and fling it against the wall…
The clawed hand wrenched free with more tearing of cloth. It closed around Nika’s throat and squeezed. Fangs snapped an inch from her nose and the thing screamed again, nasty iron-breath hot in her nose. She nearly gagged. The assassin’s thumb wasn’t near long enough to push through to brain but that didn’t mean she didn’t try. And leverage the beastie’s head around. She-thing squeezed harder. Nika tightened her neck muscles and grit her teeth. Obstinate. Red framed her vision. Choices were sparse. Kill the beast and chance the fall? The young woman couldn’t turn her head to see where they were. It had been a blink of an eye, really, so they should be over the pool still. Shadows joined in with the red. Well this was unfortunate. Time’s up. Geronimo!
Nika fired three times. Midsection first, even spacing, rising like buttons on a shirt...or poofy things on a creepy clown onesie. Measure it with a ruler, motherfucker. Dead. The thing didn’t loosen its grip on her neck though. White splotches now joined the rest of the lightshow. Damn it. Her newly mended broken wrist went numb.
She’d seen her mom bullseye a partridge once that died instantly and then glided peacefully back to Earth. It had been quite a thing to behold and not something she ever would have believed had she not witnessed it firsthand. That was pretty much the plan. She made herself as compact as possible. Nika didn’t have long to hang on before they crashed rather spectacularly. Nothing peaceful about it.
Bioraptor’s wings folded rudely with a loud and hollow crunch as they snapped upon impacting the pipe’s rim before both forms shot inside like a hole-in-one. Nika heard that distinctly and could all of a sudden breathe again. She tried to flip the carcass over her head and could recall unhooking her legs and balling up, not having any idea what was inside the drain pipe. Then she hydroplaned once...so much for breathing, twice...somehow poured a lot of water up her nose. She impacted something squishy and careened into an explosion of light before...nothing.
Where Rune had ended up was anyone’s guess. The most likely answer? As sushi in the stomach of whatever these beasty things were. Runeshi. Pity. Nika hadn't disliked her. That left some quandaries. Find the body...parts? GTF out of Dodge? Yeah, she was about done with this random encounter shit. Lesson learned.
“AMY?”
Or not. Well, wonders never ceased. Nika pulled her dislodged goggles into place and found the other woman. Only one side was working properly. She tapped at the defective lense and her finger found a bisecting gash. Lucky. Too much luck used tonight for her taste. She didn’t even question how the other woman came to be where she was, on the ledge above. Flying, teethy, clawy creatures, oh my!
Of course Nika had been about to head in the complete opposite direction. Away from where the two ambushes had occurred. Because no. Rune alive though meant safety in numbers. Or a gruesome death together. Whatever.
She sloshed as stealthily as was prudent to the end of her cover, the bridge, and cast a cautious gaze about the night. Looks clear. That line brought to mind one of the old movies she watched from her parent’s collection. She snickered to herself. Bioraptors. That’s what she’d call the creatures even if it didn’t exactly fit. These things that had attacked them were humanoid, almost like vampires or something. Bioraptors were...oh who cared.
“Cover me,” she whispered back as loudly as she dared. “I’m coming to you.” There really wasn’t an optimal choice here as far as which position was safer. Rune was certainly exposed where she was but they’d both been attacked down where Nika was too. Damned if you do… If she could get out of the culvert, that would kind of make it easier to leave. Right? As opposed to their one option in the runoff; the ominous open pipe. How about no to that?
The assassin stepped down into the pool where they’d both been taken but this time kept to the cement wall to the left, trying to cut down on at least two angles of attack. The bioraptor floated nearby and was creepy as all get-out. She kept an eye on it too. The cement runoff sloped downward and soon she was up to her chin in water with the pipe she was aiming for still ten feet away. Tip toes then she was swimming. Not a good feeling in the dark. It was deathly silent except for the water’s gentle ebb and flow. She could hear dripping from the pipe as she neared.
Nika switched her gun to her left hand. The cast actually made a perfect-sized clamp around the grip. She didn’t even have to hold on with her non-bound digits. Nice. She cast a glance about the pool before turning her back. Looked clear…Rune still looked alive too. She kicked once for some extra vertical mobility out of the water and reached over her head for a handhold on the big metal pipe. Slime-not-accounted-for denied purchase and her hand slipped, sending the girl back downward and underwater as physics required. On the way back up her face nearly parascoped straight into the fangs of bioraptor. Again.
There was a saying thrown around in racing, ‘your asshole chewed a hole in the seat.’ It was extremely versatile in that it could be a statement, question or exclamation and was wholly applicable in this instance. That damn thing, mouth agape...eyes bugged out and glassy...looking like a cross between Venom and Pennywise the Clown had just scared the shit out of her. Her. Nika the world-class assassin. How embarrassing.
Like Bambi on ice the damn thing starfished its way above her in the current. She felt like a proper idiot. She’d nearly emptied the mag into it’s dead face too after back-flapping her way clear and deeper underwater faster than the speed of light. Ugh. To think that was almost her first kiss. Nika surfaced with a cough and pushed the body away in annoyance. No means no, fucker.
She eyed her target. The grate was in a little bit from the lip of the pipe but she figured she could push off from the bottom of the culvert and gain enough lift. So that’s what she did. Only on the way down she caught sight of a familiar shape; Baby. Yoink. Why hadn’t she ever thought to name her guns? The drones all had names because it had grown tedious remembering their serial numbers. Hmm. Food for thought. Not really her style though.
Nika tucked the gun-child securely away and proceeded with Plan B. Kicking off and well, kicking upward did the trick nicely. Propelled upward enough, she managed an iron grip on the grate. Stronger than she looked, the assassin pulled herself over the lip one-handed, until her feet too found purchase. Then it was simply a matter of climbing using her legs mostly, as was proper. Step, step, a new handhold and repeat. She kept her weapon and casted arm tucked in close to her chest, just in case.
The summit of the pipe was a momentary hangup as she had to scrunch herself toward the top and reach blindly upward to find a handhold. Thankfully there was an outer lip and with the two free fingers on her left hand holding on to the grate-ladder, she was able to get arm and shoulder up and over. Only slight three-limbed awkwardness saw the small assassin just rising from jackknifing clear before the next awful thing happened. Was it the 13th?
Bio-Venom-Pennywise’s bigger, uglier sister’s face peeped from the bushes just before rocketing the both of them rudely into the air with the squeak of wet hightop losing traction. What the hell was in the water here? Somehow one of her light-up shoes turned on. Blink-blink-blink in the night sky.
Since momentum swung her toward her assailant like a pendulum, the little Athari wrapped her legs around the beast’s waist and held on. The thing’s hands and claws were all over her like it was prom. Nika. Was. Pissed. The two killers fought pressed together in the air as their flight path shot toward the open pipe. Beastie ultimately settled her grip between Nika’s upper arm and torso, the other claws tangled in the tattered remains of her jacket and flapping shirt.
Nearly-black eyes murderous, the assassin dug her thumb into the thing’s eye socket. The Harpy screamed a shrill cry and clawed blindly at the assassin’s head, succeeding only in tangling a green wig and beanie in her talons. Nika laughed aloud and pushed her thumb deeper, squelching an eyeball and spurting god-knows-what. I’m going to kill you. Then I’m going to kill your family and all of your friends. After that I’ll kill your dog and your cat; then I’m going to take your goldfish out of the bowl and fling it against the wall…
The clawed hand wrenched free with more tearing of cloth. It closed around Nika’s throat and squeezed. Fangs snapped an inch from her nose and the thing screamed again, nasty iron-breath hot in her nose. She nearly gagged. The assassin’s thumb wasn’t near long enough to push through to brain but that didn’t mean she didn’t try. And leverage the beastie’s head around. She-thing squeezed harder. Nika tightened her neck muscles and grit her teeth. Obstinate. Red framed her vision. Choices were sparse. Kill the beast and chance the fall? The young woman couldn’t turn her head to see where they were. It had been a blink of an eye, really, so they should be over the pool still. Shadows joined in with the red. Well this was unfortunate. Time’s up. Geronimo!
Nika fired three times. Midsection first, even spacing, rising like buttons on a shirt...or poofy things on a creepy clown onesie. Measure it with a ruler, motherfucker. Dead. The thing didn’t loosen its grip on her neck though. White splotches now joined the rest of the lightshow. Damn it. Her newly mended broken wrist went numb.
She’d seen her mom bullseye a partridge once that died instantly and then glided peacefully back to Earth. It had been quite a thing to behold and not something she ever would have believed had she not witnessed it firsthand. That was pretty much the plan. She made herself as compact as possible. Nika didn’t have long to hang on before they crashed rather spectacularly. Nothing peaceful about it.
Bioraptor’s wings folded rudely with a loud and hollow crunch as they snapped upon impacting the pipe’s rim before both forms shot inside like a hole-in-one. Nika heard that distinctly and could all of a sudden breathe again. She tried to flip the carcass over her head and could recall unhooking her legs and balling up, not having any idea what was inside the drain pipe. Then she hydroplaned once...so much for breathing, twice...somehow poured a lot of water up her nose. She impacted something squishy and careened into an explosion of light before...nothing.