savetheearth | Closed

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Who:Kenji and Tadashi
Where: A park near the shopping district
When: July 18, evening
What: The plan was just for an ordinary night out, but something has other ideas.

The sun was just beginning to set when Kenji got off the bus. He was meeting Tadashi for an evening of their usual troublemaking, but a quick glance at his watch informed him that he was a little early. It would be at least fifteen to twenty minutes before his friend was off work. Being more or less allergic to work--even if it was someone else doing the actual working--he opted to do his waiting in a small park across the street.

Well, perhaps calling it a park was giving the place too much credit; it was more like a vacant lot with delusions of grandeur. There was some grass, a few trees and some shrubs, a small fountain, and a park bench--the latter of which commanded an excellent view of Tadashi's current place of business. Plopping down on the bench, he settled in to wait for his friend to emerge.

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Well, the wait hadn't been nearly as long as he'd expected. Catching a glimpse of a figure skulking around the scene of their former crime, Kenji suspected Tadashi of planning an ambush. Standing up, he casually strolled toward the alley, calling out once he was in voice range. "Yo, Tadashi! A little late for water balloons, ain't it? So don't even think about it, dude."

As Kenji approached, the figure seems to pause, half turning to look at Kenji, and then ducks back behind one of the crates. The movements are just a little too fluid, a little too off to be something normal.

Ooookay, that was far from the response he had expected. If the half glimpsed figure had really been Tadashi, he'd have most likely tried to bullshit Kenji into dropping his guard before lobbing a water balloon at him--not duck behind a crate. Whoever it was didn't exactly move like Tadashi, or anything human, for that matter.

He suddenly became aware of how unnaturally quiet the night was...and how deserted the area he was in. And hadn't he heard something on the network a couple of days ago about the grues getting restless again?

"Shit."

Keeping a wary eye on the area where the...whatever it was...had disappeared, he began backing out of the alley. The entrance to the building wasn't too far away; if he could just get there...

Almost as if in answer, something chirps, dropping into an angry chitter from the shadows. It moves fast, racing behind one of the crates. One of its clawed hands reached up and wrapped around the rung of the ladder.

It yanks hard, swinging the long, makeshift weapon with blinding speed and whistling force at Kenji.

The angry chittering was enough for Kenji. He remembered that sound--and nothing good ever came of it. Turning, he abandoned any attempt at dignity and began to run for the building entrance, so he didn't see the vermedi reach up to grasp the ladder, nor did he see it swing said ladder at him. He did hear the faint whistling of something cutting through the air, but barely had time to register it, much less question its source, before something hard--maybe a freight train--struck him, the force of the impact lifting him off his feet and sending him flying.

A few seconds later, gravity reasserted itself, and he hit the pavement, rolling a few more feet before finally coming to a stop. Vaguely wondering what happened, he struggled to right himself, to climb to his feet, and Christ, everything hurt. Vision blurred, he shook his head in an attempt to clear it. Bad idea. Grey fog seemed to cloud his sight and it took all his will to keep from passing out.

Unable to stand for the moment, he peered through the grey fog and tracers marring his vision, trying to spot whatever had hit him. Digging in with his heels, he tried to scoot backwards across the pavement, hitching in a hoarse gasp as the movement sent a shockwave of pain through his ankle. Had that son of a bitch broken his leg?

As Kenji struggled to clear his mind and vision, the HM lunged forward. Darting quickly, Kenji's vision was a blur of strange, matted fur hurdling towards him. It veers just slightly to the left, needlelike claws extended to rake along his side.

Recognizing its prey as stunned and weakened, the chitter almost sounds delighted as it settles in to play with its new toy.

Although indeed stunned, weakened, and weaponless, Kenji was still far from helpless. As always, the thread of light flickered and hummed at the back of his mind; that bitch was always there, hanging around like an obsessive girlfriend, just waiting for his call.

So, he called.

Reaching out like an eager lover, he grasped the thread, pulled it to him, letting it fill him. As always, it felt good--almost too good--and somehow he managed to grin at the HM as it closed on him. Almost every part of him hurt like a bitch, and his focus was shit, but even if he couldn't blow the bastard's head off, he was confident he could put a hole in it somewhere. Enough to discourage it, at least.

C'mon then, you son of a bitch. Let's dance.

Then things went horribly wrong.

Bright light flared out from him, the power building to a crescendo...but instead of the usual sick pop of displaced air and the spray of hot blood accompanying the sudden disappearance of the HM's head, two shallow pits appeared on either side of where he crouched on the pavement. White-hot pain shot up the length of his right arm, forcing a startled cry from his throat. Glancing down, his eyes widened in horror as his arm split into three sections and then slowly began to reform itself.

Again, he was knocked onto his back as the HM bowled into him. Hissing through clenched teeth as needle-like claws raked across his already abused ribs, he flailed wildly, trying to shove the thing away. Something red and gold flashed at the corner of his vision when he moved his arm, but he had no time or wits to even wonder what it was. Had he hit the thing? He couldn't tell; he couldn't feel much of anything in his right arm anymore, but the vermedi had backed off for a moment, seeming to reconsider its course of action. Using its hesitation to his advantage, Kenji once again tried to get his good leg under him and climb unsteadily to his feet.

As Kenji staggered to his feet, the thing was thrown like a ragdoll halfway across the deserted roadway. The unnaturally heavy force from the punch clipped its shoulder and sent it into something of a mad spin, like an unbalanced coin. It shrieks in shock and anger, crouching low, and the claws of its left arm drag the ground as something dislocated made the arm useless.

It watches, eyes hidden by hair, deciding if this creature was worth a second try at.

It lunges forward again, crossing onto the sidewalk when there's an resounding metallic CLANG followed by a heavy rushing sound...

From Kenji's point of view, the charging creature gets knocked clear off its feet again by a heavy stream of fire hydrant water. A moment later, there's a brown flash as it seems to decide it had had more than enough for the evening, and races off to the far alley instead.

"Everyone okay in there?" Tadashi's voice is unmistakable even before Kenji can see him peaking very, very cautiously around the corner, a heavy wrench in hand.

Weaving unsteadily on his feet--or foot, rather--Kenji glared dully at the creature. From the way it was acting, he must have gotten in a lucky shot. He seriously doubted that he could manage another. Oddly, he found he didn't much care one way or the other.

As he waited for the HM to make its next move, the sudden loud clanging followed by the rush of water startled him, causing him to wonder what the hell else was trying to kill him now. As he spun about to face this new threat...his battered ankle gave him a pointed reminder that it wasn't putting up with that shit right now, and after teetering comically for a moment, he crashed down onto the ground once more.

"SON OF A GODDAMNED FLEA-RIDDEN MONGREL BITCH!"

For several minutes, he couldn't see much of anything through the red haze of pain, so he didn't see the water hit the HM, or the creature's subsequent fleeing from the scene, and his ankle's angry bitching kept him from wondering why it didn't just come on and finish the job.

Hearing a voice nearby, he glanced up, blinking owlishly at the two or three Tadashi's peering around the corner at him. After pondering the question for a moment, he rasped, "Still alive, anyway. Been better, though."

Tadashi had locked the front doors to the pizzeria and looked around just in time to see the flash of the ladder and Kenji go flying. He honestly hadn't picked up his guns again since that day in the caverns and he now curses that ridiculous terror that keeps them stowed, useless and emptied under his bed.

There was something about panic that focused him though. It reminded him that Nguyen at the shop next door never locked the side door because the deadbolt sticks. That they had a wrench that could be a key to the hydrant in a pinch. They'd talked about it in case something caught fire.

When the bloody HM didn't notice him across the street, he heaved on it, and pushed, pulled, finally he climbed up on the long wrenches handle and jumped on it. The cap ... and he... fell pretty hard, but watching the fucker fly was more than worth it.

It was just, he wasn't sure what to expect when he turned the corner. Bloody, bruised, maybe 30 of the HM headless and the alley needing a super cleanup. He wasn't expecting Kenji as battered as he was....

Or that arm.

He simply stared. "The hell?"

Kenji hadn't really looked at his arm since it had split when he first Altered. He'd been afraid to, to be honest, but now, curiosity got the better of him, and following Tadashi's gaze, he too looked down at his arm.

At first, there was nothing, no reaction, just a blank stare as he tried to wrap his mind around what he was seeing. Instead of the normal human arm he'd known all his life, there was this gold, metallic...thing...attached to his body at the shoulder. That couldn't really be his arm--could it? He thought about curling his fingers, and in response, the reddish claws at the end of the metallic arm curled obediently. He thought about straightening his fingers, and the claws straightened.

Oh, man...Is this gonna be permanent?

A vague panic clawed at the back of his mind. Was he going to be stuck like this permanently? He could explain the injuries, but how the hell could he explain to his parents that he'd suddenly sprouted a robot arm? Was it a robot arm? He vaguely remembered hearing something on the network about someone growing robot arms for no particular reason. Was the same thing happening to him?

He turned a wild-eyed gaze up to Tadashi. "What the fuck is happening to me, man?" Shaking his head in a firm negation, he added, "This is bullshit--I can't go home like this..."

As if in response to his words, the metallic shell encasing his arm dissolved into a fine, multicolored dust.

Tadashi watched the arm ... dissolve away into a far more human, scarred limb without any comment at all. There was some part of his mind that couldn't even really understand it. The parts, the connections, the hints, they would all probably haunt him later until he started sorting through them.

But right now, he looked at Kenji's panicked expression and somehow didn't think the arm suddenly returning to normal was going to make it any better.

They have a popped fire hydrant, property damage, fucking holes in the concrete somehow... And he knew this area had camera systems. The most logical thing to do was to open up the doors and drag Kenji back into the empty workplace and trust in the fact no one would believe what the feed was, and if they did, everything was pretty justified.

Tadashi drops the wrench with a loud clattering of metal on asphalt and pulls his car keys out. He reaches down to offer Kenji a hand up. "Think you can make it to my car?"

He had no idea if that HM was going for backup, and it didn't matter what they explained to the police. It was way too dangerous. This was all way too real.

As he watched his arm revert to normal, Kenji's mind basically shut down. Like his ankle, his brain wasn't taking any shit either and absolutely refused to process any more of this crap. No, just...no. Hell no.

If Tadashi hadn't spoken, he quite likely would have just sat there all night, just staring dully at his once-again-human hand until the cops showed up or the HM returned to finish the job. As it was, it took a few seconds for him to process what his friend was saying. Finally, he nodded slowly and reached up to take the hand up. Even with Tadashi's help, climbing to his feet was a slow, painful process, punctuated with a great deal of cursing, but he finally made it.

"Yeah...let's get the fuck outta here."

Tadashi pushed down his impatience and stomped it into a deep hole for good measure. As much as a large part of his mind was nervously chattering about time, risk and danger, the rest was trying to reason out why this long really didn't mean anything. It didn't leave a whole lot of other thoughts, and the shellshock of it would come later.

The ankle was obvious enough, he slung Kenji's arm over his shoulder and took most of the weight. The car, was mercifully close for a three legged shuffle.

When they got there, without a word he jammed the keys in the ignition, and turned the engine over. Where they were going? Anywhere that was not here.

"So," he started cautiously. "What happened?"

Settling into the seat of Tadashi's car, Kenji shifted around a bit, trying to find a comfortable position. There wasn't one, really, so he finally gave up and leaned his head back against the headrest, closed his eyes, and tried to come to grips with what had just happened. Nope, his brain was still refusing to work, and trying to kick-start it into action only made his head hurt worse than it already did.

"Thought it was you back there, dude," he said a few moments later, in reply to Tadashi's question. "So I headed over." A small bubble of weak laughter broke from him, "Wasn't you. And when I tried to get outta there, the damned thing hit me with a mountain or something."

Pausing a moment, he swallowed, grimacing a bit at the dry, scratchy feeling in his throat. It felt as if he'd eaten about a gallon of sand, and he would kill for a soda right about now.

"I tried to blow the bastard's head off, like back in the mine," he continued, "but...didn't work like before. Something happened to my arm..." Scowling slightly, he glanced down at the arm in question as if he expected it to have changed into that alien appendage again, but fortunately it still looked the same as usual. "Hurt like a bitch, too."

Sighing wearily, he shook his head, "Everything's kinda a blur after that. Guess you must've showed up about then--thanks, by the way."

Tadashi eased the care down along Broadway, casting looks about for something that would help. It's an aimless sort of fishing that comes from being completely overwhelmed and unsure of what to even do about this. A doctor? Does he need one? What if I don't get him one and he had a concussion or something?

"Tsh, I know I'm scruffy but damn, man. I shaved this morning." The joke was a bit lame, but it was as good as he was coming up with, and a more graceful way of taking the thanks than he knew how to do.

"And you missed my brilliant heroics on top of it."

Kenji managed a weak grin at Tadashi's comment. "Yeah, sorry about that, bro. If it ever happens again, bring along a photographer, or something, so I can at least look at the pictures later."

As far as ideas on where to go or what to do next, Kenji had none either. He was just glad to still be alive and heading away from the area. Well...maybe he had one idea.

"Can we maybe stop by a drive-thru or something? I could really use something to drink."

There was something so out of the blue about the request, so nonsensical and inappropriate to what he should be doing, that it struck him as funny.

Actually it struck him as downright hilarious. A sort of helpless, hysterical laughter followed, that the only blessing to it was that they were at a light.

"I... yeah. Sure man. But after that we're finding one of those damn clinics."

Kenji had no idea why Tadashi found the request so amusing; to him, at least, it made perfect sense. He was thirsty, and his throat felt as raw as if he'd swallowed ground glass. Something cold to drink would take care of both problems. Right now, though, explanations were too much trouble, so he just shrugged it off.

At the suggestion of a clinic, his brow furrowed into a faint scowl. He probably did need medical attention...and there was really only one place he knew of where he wouldn't have to answer any uncomfortable questions.

"LSR," he rasped, "In the DD. Only safe place I know of."

Tadashi nodded at that. It was still a bit to get out of the sit down restaurants and onto the main drag where all the fast food... and anything still open was around.

"Of course, the dead district... You go in. I'll guard my hubcaps." For all the bitching, he did take a few moments to give his friend a better once over, just to make sure that kind of a detour wasn't going to BE the issue.

Too weary to argue at this point, Kenji just shrugged. "If you don't wanna go there, fine. Just chuck me in a dumpster or something. I don't really give a shit right now."

After a moment's thought, he added, "I'd really appreciate it if you swung by the drive-thru first, though."

Tadashi snorted and turned into a quick burger joint.

"I'm not sure I can find one big enough for you AND your bad luck. We may just have to ditch the luck and hope it holds."

Kenji barked a short laugh, but as they rolled up to the drive-thru window, shelved the conversation for the moment. After ordering the biggest Coke the place offered, he fished his wallet out of his pocket and wordlessly passed Tadashi enough money to cover the soda and whatever Tadashi ordered.

"Man, I wish it was just bad luck," he said once they were on their way again. Taking a gulp of Coke, he grimaced as the carbonation burned his throat a bit. Still, the soda was cold and sweet and after a few sips he felt less like he'd tried to swallow an entire desert. "Damned things seem to be getting a lot bolder now."

Getting another of the same, he handed the change over with the enormous soda. "And no shit they're getting bolder." He took a couple of heavy gulps before pulling out onto the main boulevard. The DD was a ways out, but traffic was thin this time of evening.

It gave him a lot of time to think, about where it was and what would have happened... "So. I probably owe you one anyway."

Maybe it was the comment itself or simply relief at having escaped with body and soul still intact--or perhaps it was just the endorphins kicking in, but for whatever reason, Kenji found Tadashi's remark hilarious. "Yeah? For what?" he chuckled, "Getting my ass handed to me by Cousin Itt's evil twin?"

Taking another sip of Coke, he snorted, amused. "Uh...no problem man. Glad to oblige." This struck him as even funnier, and as he leaned back in the seat once more, he was overcome by another fit of laughter.

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