Ok everyone, here is the next bit. Proving that (contrary to popular opinion) Decay can be happy, it just takes a while to get there.
Tales of the Legendary
[A Hero Sandwich Production]
Smouldering Decay: Staking a Claim (pt 6.4)
The warm pleasant feeling I had stepping out of the shower only had a little to do with the fact that I was now clean. As I toweled my hair dry, I briefly considered attempting to dry myself with my powers. The idea didn't last long, seeing as how it would negatively impact any chance I had with Wreckage. The last time I had tried to dry off with my powers I had ended up with half a head of hair. Thankfully it had been back when I was still a big fan of hats and bandanas, so I don't think that many people noticed.
Experimentation would have to wait until my hair was already savaged by some mission or another. It happened every couple of months, normally while fighting the Devouring Earth. Long hair was something I had tried to maintain a when I first got started as an official hero. It didn't last, too many enemies saw it as a handhold. Besides, shorter hair did a much better job of hiding the damage.
Shaving my legs used to be an in-the-shower activity, and a not insignificant one at that. Now it took all of thirty seconds to run a flaming hand up and down both legs, as well as finish off the few stragglers that had survived my earlier shower activities. It was a little strange that my hair burned while was skin didn't, they were both dead cells after all, but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. My own prepping for tonight done, I left the bathroom and did a quick once-over on my armor. I always used to wonder about the reasons behind some of the outfits the heros wore, and now I had an outfit almost as strange as some that I as seen pass through the ER.
It started with a mesh bodysuit inset with black leather panels and an abbreviated cape. The leather panels served two purposes; first being public decency and support, second being a convenient place to embroider runes of armoring. They won't stop a bullet, but they will stiffen up into a solid plate if hit with a arrow, fist or sword. I had tried the same runes on a pair of pants and a jacket once, it worked really well until I got knocked down into a pile of caltrops. Then the pants and jacket froze up, and I couldn't move. My teammates at the time thought it was hilarious. The short cape, and I almost hesitated to call it that, barely reached the middle of my back. It wasn't a fashion statement. It's main purpose was to create drag and keep me upright in the air, as the rest of my outfit was far from aerodynamic. With a skirt that acted like a wind-scoop and pair of shoulderpads making me top-heavy, face-planting wasn't outside the realm of possibilities if I caught a crosswind.
On top of the mesh and leather was a skirt, and an abbreviated top; these were simply for decency in the case the mesh ripped. Jumping over the streets of Skyway while holding my suit together with both hands was not something I wanted to repeat, ever. They were also made out of the toughest cloth I could get my hands on. They itched horribly if worn on bare skin, and laughed at my washing machine. The original light orange color was slowly darkening to a umber over time as it got impregnated with soot.
A set of shoulder pads hooked into the mesh top. They were my most recent hobby, black metal and leather, these could stop a bullet. Unfortunately the also couldn't cover all the much, due to being heavy, expensive, and inflexible. If I could turn a shoulder into a blow with these on I might be send back a step or two, or even on my ass, but I wouldn't be losing an arm any time soon. I still wasn't sure about my decision to engrave the runes on to the backs of the metal plates, where they would be covered by the leather backing. On the pro side it meant that they could get scratched up, dinged, and dented without having a detrimental effect on the runes. On the con side it made any sort of maintenance a real pain in the ass. I was happy to note that the arrow from earlier had only added one more small scratch in the surface.
A nice sturdy pair of cowboy boots served as footwear, steel toed for kicking, with good ankle support. Instead of gloves I would wrap my forearms in long strips of cloth. I had yet to find a pair of gloves that were durable to survive more than a week and didn't interfere with my dexterity or abilities. Nine times out of ten the cloth wraps wouldn't last more than a night, but they provided a nice testbed for enchantments that might eventually work their way into the more permanent outfit.
Topping this whole amalgam off was a pair of lab googles. Because it didn't matter how immune I was to heat, getting soot and cinders in my eyes still hurt. And when I have a habit of reducing a significant portion of my foes clothing (or the foes themselves in the case of DE) to soot and smoke, having eye protection was mandatory.
When I had started to wear this getup I wasn't sure I would stick with it. But it has a style of its own, and one that has grown on me. Once I was assured that nothing had been damaged in the fight, I piled the ensemble off to the side. Going over the armor after every fight wasn't something I always enjoyed, but it was something I always did. Delaying my nap by ten minutes wasn't always something I liked to do, but I did it anyway. Expecting the armor to stop a blow and being unpleasantly surprised was a lesson I only had to learn once. If I had time to sleep, I had time to check my gear.
Satisfied that my outfit was in good shape, even if it was in a pile on my bedroom floor, I crawled into bed. I wasn't tired enough to pass out for a full eight hours, but grabbing an hour or two during the downtimes was always a good idea.
My pleasant, and increasingly frustrating, dreams were interrupted by the phone. One hand groped around on the bedside table until I found the phone. "Hello?" I said, still not a hundred percent awake.
"Decay? Doc thinks he figured out what th' thing was the thorns were constructing, and wants to make sure it's not part of a set. You wanna join us?" Wreckage said.
I almost answered 'No, but you can join me' before finally settling on "Yeah, sure, I'll be there in five minutes." I emerged from the covers and sat up before asking "Where should I meet you?"
"North end of Perez Park, by th' gate to Steel."
"Ok, see you soon." I said, shrugging off the last vestiges of sleep. I glanced at the clock as I started to put on gear. Only an hour and a half since I had come home, Kentucky wasn't wasting any time. That was either good news or bad depending how much warning the thorns had. Good if we were capitalizing on surprise, bad If we were rushing in because they moving to another location.
Once I had put the mesh under-layer on, I shrugged into the skirt and top. Shoulderpads were hooked into place while I stomped into my boots. I was out the door a little more than 2 minutes after Wreckage had called, goggles in one hand, arm wrappings in the other. I launched myself in a ballistic arc towards the Perez Park gate. Taking the green line to Steel and then using that entrance would be easer, but slower. The trip across Perez was about as quick as I could hope for. I only fell through the canopy once, and I didn't run into a group of thorns or clockwork itching for a fight.
Catching sight of Wreckage and Kentucky as I arced through the air, I was able to relax a bit. Kentucky was keeping a lazy eye on the skulls loitering nearby; Wreckage was leaning against the info terminal watching the entrance to Steel. Both of them looked in my direction as I approached. I had yet to get the hang of traveling, or at least landing, silently.
Wreckage greeted me with a smile and said "That was fast." At least they weren't stressed, which was a good sign.
I smiled back at him and ignored all the subtext my libido was trying to inject into his greeting. "What's the situation?" I said as I walked the last few feet.
"I compared notes with some of the MAGI, and they came to the same conclusion I did." Kentucky said. "The one we found was definitely part of a set."
He pulled out a map of the zone with a large red circle on it. The three caves in that circle had been marked with x's. "It will be in one of these caves. The bad news is we're not sure which one. The good news is they haven't kidnaped another mystic yet, so we may be able to get the drop on them."
I looked at the map as he spoke, trying to correlate the overhead view with the mental image I had of the twisty pathways. Nothing clicked right away, so I figured I would just follow Kentucky's lead. "Any preference on where we start?"
Kentucky gave a quick look to Wreckage, who just shrugged, before pointing at the nearest one and saying "No reason to trudge through these woods any longer than necessary."
As we trekked through the winding passageways I kept trying to come up with something to say to Wreckage that wouldn't sound like a blatant come-on or meaningless small talk. Unfortunately my usual collection of quips was running dry. I couldn't banter about the magical artifact, as he had deferred all talk on that subject to Kentucky. Talking about either of our pasts was not the sort of pre-fight pep-talk that anyone needed. And discussing tactics? that would be more of a joke than the weather. All three of us preferred the simple plans. Simple plans worked: Kentucky rounded them up, I softened them up, and Wreckage knocked them down. Simple plans were easy to adapt if something went sideways.
Thankfully it wasn't all that long before we reached the first cave. Kentucky made a brief check to match the serial number stenciled on the door to one he had written down on the map, and we made our way inside.
The first sound I heard when entering the cave was the tic-tic-tic of clockwork. It echoed up from the depths of the cavern before us, the sound stretched and distorted by reverberations until I couldn't tell if there were three or thirty of the mechanical annoyances around the corner.
"Well this is unexpected." I said as we crept along the tunnel to the first major chamber. The clockwork were normally far more interested in man made construction, where they could pull wiring and metal support beams from the buildings.
"At least we aren't walking into a fight." Wreckage pointed out as we rounded a corner. The entrance to a larger chamber could be seen ahead, even if the contents were still obscured. I didn't realize it until Wreckage mentioned it, but the sounds we were hearing lacked the distinct noises of combat.
Of course Kentucky had to be pessimistic. "Doesn't mean there wasn't one. We might not be the only ones the Thorns disturbed with their ritual."
The sight that greeted us as we entered the larger chamber was both strangely normal and scary at the same time. About two dozen clockwork were slowly disassembling the scaffolding that used to stretch from one of the room to the other, about two thirds of it was now just lose timber. The clockwork had even pulled out the nails that held the boards together. Everything from Cogs to Line Oscillators to Tesla Knights swarmed over the the structure, making sure to get every last piece of metal.
I looked at the walls and in the lumber piles, searching for the dark smears of dried blood or ash that would indicate a fight with the thorns had taken place. "I'm not seeing any thorns." I said after a few moments.
"That doesn't mean they haven't been forced back, deeper into the cave." Kentucky countered.
"If they are, then we have plenty of time." I said in a whisper. "They aren't going to be dragging any hostages through here. And as much as I want to find out what the hell is going on, I'm not about to step foot in that room." As if to punctuate my statement one of the cogs finally succeeded in tearing a metal bracket out of the ceiling, more than a few rocks followed it down to the floor.
Wreckage gave me a confused look, this must have been the first time I had ever suggested running away from a fight in his company. I answered his unspoken question with one of my own. "Have you ever been in a cave-in?"
Wreckage blanched a bit before stepping back to be even with where I was standing, a few feet from the cavern entrance. Kentucky started at the celling for a few moments before nodding. "Your right, risking a cave-in before we even know if the thorns are here is a bad idea. But I'm calling it in."
"Feel free." I said quietly. Tension I hadn't even realized I was feeling leaving me as I no longer had to fight in this death trap.
The walk to the cave entrance was blessedly short, and Kentucky was on the phone before I even got out the door.
"This is Kentucky Smith. I'm with Flaming Wreckage and Smouldering Decay at cave 34-2263 in Perez Park. Mmm-hm, yeah. No sign of the Thorns, but we did find some clockwork acting very strange. When you send some people to check it out make sure they have a force fielder or someone with an earth affinity on the team -"
I didn't catch the rest of his conversation, Wreckage put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a concerned look. "You're right, I haven't been in a cave-in. But I'm guessing you have?"
I leaned into his hand and took a breath before letting it out in a sigh. "It wasn't a cave, but I don't suppose that really matters. Back home, I was in a building that almost collapsed. Half the ceiling dropped in and I almost bought the farm when some of the equipment blew, but I made it out." I gave him a tight smile before continuing, "I'm not claustrophobic or anything. I just have a... heightened awareness of load bearing structures." I couldn't resists giving him a quick hug and a peck on the cheek.
We walked over to Kentucky. He had finished his phone call and was standing with his back to us, looking at his map again. I appreciated the appearance of privacy he gave us, even if he was close enough to hear every word we said.
"Where to next?" I asked.
Kentucky pointed out the closer of the two remaining caves on the map. "Hopefully we won't get more clockwork intent on aggressive structural remodeling." He said as we started towards it.
Wreckage was quick to respond, "Nah, with our luck it'll be th' Lost setting up a beauty salon."
I snorted in amusement before joining in. "The Lost would never set up a beauty salon, they only care about how pretty you are on the inside. It's got to be a Hellion daycare center."
Kentucky smiled over his shoulder at us before shooting my idea down. "That wouldn't work, the Hellions would never setup a daycare center with that little natural light. It's going to be a Vahz mushroom farm."
Wreckage kept a straight face long enough to shuffle along like a vahz cadaver and intone in a dead voice "thhee coolloorrs". That got all of us cracking up.
I had to cringe a bit at that idea, even as it made me laugh. "Oh god, that's just what the world needs. Druggie vahz, so the next time you get puked on you get a contact high as well."
"But if they're staring at the sewer walls all day, they aren't out kidnapping people." Wreckage said, seeing the potential silver lining in the concept.
"So they are quiet for a while, what happens when they need to get their next fix?" Kentucky pointed out.
"Hallucinogens and psychopaths, two bad ideas that go worse together." I said. The vahz were bad enough as they were, having them act like strung out junkies wouldn't help the problem at all.
The conversation lulled for a moment until I snorted and punched Wreckage lightly in the shoulder. He responded with a questioning look and said "What was that for?"
"Thanks to you I can't get the idea of a Pariah going door to door selling Avon out of my head."
"So it's my fault you have a strange imagination?" He said with a smile.
"Well your the one giving me ideas." I contested, "I don't think I should be held entirely accountable for thoughts you caused to run around in my head."
"I give you ideas?" Wreckage said as he shot me a look that covered from boots to goggles. His tone of voice making it clear the opposite was far more likely to be true.
"Oh, so you have noticed." I said with smile before leaning in and whispering "I could give you much more than just ideas."
Before Wreckage could come up with a response to that Kentucky interrupted us. "If you two kids are done flirting, we have a cave full of thorns to apprehend." He said while pointing to a cave half way across the clearing we had just entered.
I turned in time to see a robed figure sneak inside. A quick glance around the clearing showed a few hellions loitering around the far end, but no more thorns. Content that more thorns wouldn't see us sneak in, I made my way over the cave door. I was tempted to call Kentucky 'dad' for that jibe, but I hadn't fully nailed down the dynamic the two of them had. And I wasn't about to jeopardize the work I had done so far for a cheap shot.
I ended up waiting for a minute after I entered the cave for the boys to catch up to me. I knew I was probably the topic of conversation, but to confront them about it would be a sign of weakness and insecurity. So instead I waited for them to show up and listened to the sounds echoing up from the depths of the cave. When they did come in Wreckage smiled at me, but didn't say anything. Kentucky gave me a nod, but I couldn't pin down his expression.
I didn't have all that much time to contemplate what they might have talked about, as we were soon cutting a path through the thorns. Strangely, making our way though a cave of thorns that wasn't expecting us was harder than one expecting heroes. Granted all the groups we ran across were smaller, but there weren't any choke points setup. And more than half our battles occurred because a group of thorns stumbled onto our location rather than vice versa. I found myself following Kentucky into combat far more quickly than normal. I had to make sure the group of thorns that just walked around the corner didn't contain one guy that never came around the corner, and was instead running off to warn others.
Jumping into combat like that was exhilarating, I could easily see why Kentucky and Wreckage had as much fun as they did. But it was also tiring, as I didn't have their reflexes or constitution. More often than not I ended up with a broad collection of minor injuries, nothing that couldn't be healed, but I could tell I was going to be stiff in the morning. For more than one reason if everything went according to plan.
After about twenty minutes of these short, sporadic fights a different noise was heard making it's way up from the depths of the caves. The banging of hammers and almost subsonic grinding of stone led us to a large chamber full of activity. There were three main groups in the cavern. The group closest to us consisted of three behemoths and a mage in green robes, they were extracting roughly hewn blocks of stone from the cave wall and carry them to the second group. The second group was a half dozen robed figures who were in the process of smoothing out the rough cuts made by the behemoths and carving glyphs into the stones surface. Complicated reasoning was not required to see where the finished stones ended up. The third group had a half dozen thorns in plain robes surrounding a much more extravagant figure. They were busy fussing over the final positioning of the stones and attaching several embroidered bands of cloth to the leaders robes. I couldn't make out exactly what he was ranting about, but I did hear the name 'Movian' crop up at least once, and the tone was far from complimentary. From what few bits of rant I could hear over the noise in the room, it was clear they were waiting to hear back from the group we busted earlier.
"Well I have to hand it to you Kentucky" I whispered to him "you tracked these guys down before they even knew we took out the other half of their plan."
"It wasn't all my legwork, the MAGI were more than happy to lend a seer to help track this down." Kentucky responded, "But it is nice to get the drop on these guys."
"Any specific plan for this Doc? Or do we just hand out a beating on a first-come-first-served basis?" Wreckage asked, eager to get started.
"Well Decay seemed to have so much fun last time with the behemoths, it would be a shame to deprive her of that." Kentucky said with a smirk in my direction. "I think we can make quick work of the rest and then help her finish them off."
"Sounds like a plan to me" I said.
Kentucky gave a quick nod to Wreckage and the pair of them were running towards the far end of the cavern. I turned my focus, and my radiation, on the closest group. The middle behemoth had barely gotten three steps towards Kentucky and Wreckage before it started to glow. It's roar of frustration as it turned towards me would have been amusing if it wasn't made while brandishing a rather large sledge hammer. I responded by summoning my own axe and throwing burning ash in the face of the closest one. It reacted predictably by dropping the hammer it was carrying and clawing at it's face. My attempt to immobilize the group with rings of fire was interrupted as shards of rock sprung from the floor around my feet. My boots shielded my from the brunt of it. But one particularly long spike ran past my boot and between the leather patches of my leggings, giving me a nasty cut on my thigh.
The mage in green, who I had dismissed at the start of the fight as not being a threat, was making me pay for my oversight. He certainly had my attention now. I ran past the three behemoths and took a swipe at him with my axe. Instead of the meaty thunk I was expecting, I got a 'tink' and a few sparks as the axe grazed off the rock armor underneath his robes. He smiled at me and drew back one rocky fist. I dodged enough to take the first swing on my shoulderpads and didn't let him swing a second time. Grabbing two fistfuls of his robe I was able to do more that just create cinders and hot ash, the whole thing burst into flame. And he dropped to the ground with a scream, proving that there were definitely some areas that the rocky armor didn't cover. While he was rolling around near my feet I turned my attention back to the behemoths. They were slowly making crooked paths towards me but none of them were in striking distance yet. I concentrated for a moment and summoned rings of fire around the trio, to make sure that I wouldn't be interrupted. I took a moment to stop the bleeding on my thigh and picked up the my axe I had dropped earlier. I wanted to turn the mage into hamburger, but he might know something about whatever it is they are constructing here. So instead of beating him about the head and neck with sharp edge of my axe, I used the flat of the blade. It took a few more blows than normal, but eventually he stopped rolling around. I slapped an arrest beacon on him and looked over at Kentucky and Wreckage.
Only the leader in the fancy robes and two of his helper were still standing out of the original dozen. They would probably finish up before I did. But I could probably finish off one of the behemoths before they were done. I walked over the closest of the trio and attempted my ash-to-face, boot-to-groin, axe-to-head combo. Step one worked fine, but I apparently didn't kick it hard enough in the jimmies. Because instead of clutching it's groin it blindly backhanded me. My pride was hurt more than my body as I got tossed into the wall. I Healed the minor bruises and scrapes from that as I approached for attempt number two.
The behemoth was still pawing at it's face as I walked around behind it and hamstrung first the left, then the right leg. It made a satisfying thud as it collided with the ground. Even though it was blinded and crippled it did manage to roll around a quite a bit, so it took me a while to land a killing blow. As I was prying the axe out of the back of it's neck Wreckage's voice called out "Need help with those?"
I looked over to see Kentucky shaking the mage in fancy robes by his lapels, and Wreckage walking over sans shirt. I'm not sure if he lost it in the fight, or if he took it off cause he was hot, but I approved either way. It took me a second reply with a distracted "Yeah... sure."
It didn't take Wreckage long to finish off the last two Behemoths, and I enjoyed the show. I also noticed a thin red line of aggravated flesh that ran from one hip to the opposite shoulder on his back, answering the question of how he lost his shirt.
Once the last behemoth was a smoking corpse I called over "Hey Kentucky, I'm going to go take care of Wreckage if you have everything handled here?".
Kentucky looked up from interrogating the head mage and glanced between the two of us before saying "Ok, I'll leave you a message if anything comes up."
Wreckage looked at me, then at Kentucky, before saying "But I'm not hurt, and we still haven't figured out what those things do."
Kentucky gave Wreckage a confused look "Wreck, Decay's about to jump your bones. I've got everything covered here. Go have fun."
It took a second before comprehension dawned on face and he turned to face me. Before he could ask whatever question was on his lips I gave him a quick kiss and whispered "I want you" in his ear.
Wreckage had enough time to call out a "Later Doc!" over his shoulder before I dragged him out of the cave and back to my apartment. I think I heard the mage say something about 'clueless heroes' before we left, but I was too busy making plans with my libido to care.
I woke up with a sneeze. And my back instantly regretted it. I laid still to let the worn out muscles quietly relax and stared at the ceiling. The cause for my rude awakening was slowly drifting down. Soot. I could even taste it in my mouth. Apparently our activites earlier had been a little much for some of my protective wards. In the dim candle light I could see that some of the sheets had definite body-part shaped scorch marks on them. And the walls. And the floor.
Wreckage -no, Chris, I reminded myself- had his face buried in the pillow and one arm thrown across my stomach. It felt good to just lie next to him. Nice on an entirely differently wavelength than last nights activities. The fact that I probably wouldn't have been able to getup without waking Chris was one more reason just to lie here and try to ignore the slowly falling soot. He had exceeded expectations in his performance last night and deserved his rest. Happy thoughts of last night were tempered when my gaze fell on the remains of my costume, or what was left of the leather and mesh bodysuit. The shoulderpads, boots, dress, and vest had all been easy to remove. If my distracted memories were anything to go by, they, along with Chris's pants, were in a disjointed path from the front door to the bedroom. The bodysuit wasn't easy to get into or out of. In my impatience last night I traced one burning finger from neck to navel, snapping through more connections than I could salvage.
I couldn't get too mad about it though, considering what had followed. It just meant that the next version of the bodysuit needed a zipper.
My lazy ruminations on costume design were interrupted when a flake of soot fell into Chris's ear. The warm weight of his arm left my stomach as he sleepily rubbed his ear, but his movements made me aware of a different warm appendage that was apparently ready for action again. I smirked as idea popped into my head. It couldn't taste any worse the soot already on my tongue, and it was about the nicest way I could wake him up.
http://sofaspud-prime.livejournal.com/4570.html][NSFW bit behind the link]
I didn't have time to do more than swallow before the covers were pulled back and Chis was looking at me with a sleepy smile plastered on his face. "Couldn't wait until I woke up huh?"
I crawled up until I was level with him and laid down on his chest. "What? I just wanted to say good morning." I said with a smirk.
Chris hugged me said "Oh I'm definitely having a good morning, but I don't think you spoke."
"I would disagree. I pushed air past my lips and moved my tongue to produce sounds that conveyed meaning. Most people would call that talking" I said with a cheeky grin.
Chris just looked at me for a second before dropping his head back to the pillow and admitting defeat "You win Lisa, it's too early for a battle of wits." He was silent for a moment before continuing "Why does it taste like I licked a briquette?"
The memories of last night combined with the tactile sensation of lying on top of Chris brought a warm flush to my cheeks as I answered "I didn't think it would get quite so hot last night, the wards on the bed may need to be reworked."
Chris looked at the ceiling and then glanced at the parts of the bed he could see "Just how much of the bed did we burn?"
I buried my face in his neck and continued "And the floor. And the walls. And the hallway."
"Oh.. yeah, I hope we didn't break anything?" Chris said with a worried chuckle.
"Nothing that can't be replaced." I said with a shrug. I rolled off him and got out bed. "Come-on, lets wash the soot our of our hair and grab something to eat" I said over my shoulder as I made my way to the bathroom, perhaps that trick with the cold water would keep the shower from getting singed. Now that we were both awake I was starting to get ideas again, and if we didn't have to worry about the hot water running out I fully intended to try them all.
----------
Partial blame and lots of thanks to Spud for hosting the NSFW content, I wouldn't have been brave enough to toss that bit up if it hadn't been for the directors cut of Reunions
Edit: removed extraneous verbage
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
Tales of the Legendary
[A Hero Sandwich Production]
Smouldering Decay: Staking a Claim (pt 6.4)
The warm pleasant feeling I had stepping out of the shower only had a little to do with the fact that I was now clean. As I toweled my hair dry, I briefly considered attempting to dry myself with my powers. The idea didn't last long, seeing as how it would negatively impact any chance I had with Wreckage. The last time I had tried to dry off with my powers I had ended up with half a head of hair. Thankfully it had been back when I was still a big fan of hats and bandanas, so I don't think that many people noticed.
Experimentation would have to wait until my hair was already savaged by some mission or another. It happened every couple of months, normally while fighting the Devouring Earth. Long hair was something I had tried to maintain a when I first got started as an official hero. It didn't last, too many enemies saw it as a handhold. Besides, shorter hair did a much better job of hiding the damage.
Shaving my legs used to be an in-the-shower activity, and a not insignificant one at that. Now it took all of thirty seconds to run a flaming hand up and down both legs, as well as finish off the few stragglers that had survived my earlier shower activities. It was a little strange that my hair burned while was skin didn't, they were both dead cells after all, but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. My own prepping for tonight done, I left the bathroom and did a quick once-over on my armor. I always used to wonder about the reasons behind some of the outfits the heros wore, and now I had an outfit almost as strange as some that I as seen pass through the ER.
It started with a mesh bodysuit inset with black leather panels and an abbreviated cape. The leather panels served two purposes; first being public decency and support, second being a convenient place to embroider runes of armoring. They won't stop a bullet, but they will stiffen up into a solid plate if hit with a arrow, fist or sword. I had tried the same runes on a pair of pants and a jacket once, it worked really well until I got knocked down into a pile of caltrops. Then the pants and jacket froze up, and I couldn't move. My teammates at the time thought it was hilarious. The short cape, and I almost hesitated to call it that, barely reached the middle of my back. It wasn't a fashion statement. It's main purpose was to create drag and keep me upright in the air, as the rest of my outfit was far from aerodynamic. With a skirt that acted like a wind-scoop and pair of shoulderpads making me top-heavy, face-planting wasn't outside the realm of possibilities if I caught a crosswind.
On top of the mesh and leather was a skirt, and an abbreviated top; these were simply for decency in the case the mesh ripped. Jumping over the streets of Skyway while holding my suit together with both hands was not something I wanted to repeat, ever. They were also made out of the toughest cloth I could get my hands on. They itched horribly if worn on bare skin, and laughed at my washing machine. The original light orange color was slowly darkening to a umber over time as it got impregnated with soot.
A set of shoulder pads hooked into the mesh top. They were my most recent hobby, black metal and leather, these could stop a bullet. Unfortunately the also couldn't cover all the much, due to being heavy, expensive, and inflexible. If I could turn a shoulder into a blow with these on I might be send back a step or two, or even on my ass, but I wouldn't be losing an arm any time soon. I still wasn't sure about my decision to engrave the runes on to the backs of the metal plates, where they would be covered by the leather backing. On the pro side it meant that they could get scratched up, dinged, and dented without having a detrimental effect on the runes. On the con side it made any sort of maintenance a real pain in the ass. I was happy to note that the arrow from earlier had only added one more small scratch in the surface.
A nice sturdy pair of cowboy boots served as footwear, steel toed for kicking, with good ankle support. Instead of gloves I would wrap my forearms in long strips of cloth. I had yet to find a pair of gloves that were durable to survive more than a week and didn't interfere with my dexterity or abilities. Nine times out of ten the cloth wraps wouldn't last more than a night, but they provided a nice testbed for enchantments that might eventually work their way into the more permanent outfit.
Topping this whole amalgam off was a pair of lab googles. Because it didn't matter how immune I was to heat, getting soot and cinders in my eyes still hurt. And when I have a habit of reducing a significant portion of my foes clothing (or the foes themselves in the case of DE) to soot and smoke, having eye protection was mandatory.
When I had started to wear this getup I wasn't sure I would stick with it. But it has a style of its own, and one that has grown on me. Once I was assured that nothing had been damaged in the fight, I piled the ensemble off to the side. Going over the armor after every fight wasn't something I always enjoyed, but it was something I always did. Delaying my nap by ten minutes wasn't always something I liked to do, but I did it anyway. Expecting the armor to stop a blow and being unpleasantly surprised was a lesson I only had to learn once. If I had time to sleep, I had time to check my gear.
Satisfied that my outfit was in good shape, even if it was in a pile on my bedroom floor, I crawled into bed. I wasn't tired enough to pass out for a full eight hours, but grabbing an hour or two during the downtimes was always a good idea.
My pleasant, and increasingly frustrating, dreams were interrupted by the phone. One hand groped around on the bedside table until I found the phone. "Hello?" I said, still not a hundred percent awake.
"Decay? Doc thinks he figured out what th' thing was the thorns were constructing, and wants to make sure it's not part of a set. You wanna join us?" Wreckage said.
I almost answered 'No, but you can join me' before finally settling on "Yeah, sure, I'll be there in five minutes." I emerged from the covers and sat up before asking "Where should I meet you?"
"North end of Perez Park, by th' gate to Steel."
"Ok, see you soon." I said, shrugging off the last vestiges of sleep. I glanced at the clock as I started to put on gear. Only an hour and a half since I had come home, Kentucky wasn't wasting any time. That was either good news or bad depending how much warning the thorns had. Good if we were capitalizing on surprise, bad If we were rushing in because they moving to another location.
Once I had put the mesh under-layer on, I shrugged into the skirt and top. Shoulderpads were hooked into place while I stomped into my boots. I was out the door a little more than 2 minutes after Wreckage had called, goggles in one hand, arm wrappings in the other. I launched myself in a ballistic arc towards the Perez Park gate. Taking the green line to Steel and then using that entrance would be easer, but slower. The trip across Perez was about as quick as I could hope for. I only fell through the canopy once, and I didn't run into a group of thorns or clockwork itching for a fight.
Catching sight of Wreckage and Kentucky as I arced through the air, I was able to relax a bit. Kentucky was keeping a lazy eye on the skulls loitering nearby; Wreckage was leaning against the info terminal watching the entrance to Steel. Both of them looked in my direction as I approached. I had yet to get the hang of traveling, or at least landing, silently.
Wreckage greeted me with a smile and said "That was fast." At least they weren't stressed, which was a good sign.
I smiled back at him and ignored all the subtext my libido was trying to inject into his greeting. "What's the situation?" I said as I walked the last few feet.
"I compared notes with some of the MAGI, and they came to the same conclusion I did." Kentucky said. "The one we found was definitely part of a set."
He pulled out a map of the zone with a large red circle on it. The three caves in that circle had been marked with x's. "It will be in one of these caves. The bad news is we're not sure which one. The good news is they haven't kidnaped another mystic yet, so we may be able to get the drop on them."
I looked at the map as he spoke, trying to correlate the overhead view with the mental image I had of the twisty pathways. Nothing clicked right away, so I figured I would just follow Kentucky's lead. "Any preference on where we start?"
Kentucky gave a quick look to Wreckage, who just shrugged, before pointing at the nearest one and saying "No reason to trudge through these woods any longer than necessary."
As we trekked through the winding passageways I kept trying to come up with something to say to Wreckage that wouldn't sound like a blatant come-on or meaningless small talk. Unfortunately my usual collection of quips was running dry. I couldn't banter about the magical artifact, as he had deferred all talk on that subject to Kentucky. Talking about either of our pasts was not the sort of pre-fight pep-talk that anyone needed. And discussing tactics? that would be more of a joke than the weather. All three of us preferred the simple plans. Simple plans worked: Kentucky rounded them up, I softened them up, and Wreckage knocked them down. Simple plans were easy to adapt if something went sideways.
Thankfully it wasn't all that long before we reached the first cave. Kentucky made a brief check to match the serial number stenciled on the door to one he had written down on the map, and we made our way inside.
The first sound I heard when entering the cave was the tic-tic-tic of clockwork. It echoed up from the depths of the cavern before us, the sound stretched and distorted by reverberations until I couldn't tell if there were three or thirty of the mechanical annoyances around the corner.
"Well this is unexpected." I said as we crept along the tunnel to the first major chamber. The clockwork were normally far more interested in man made construction, where they could pull wiring and metal support beams from the buildings.
"At least we aren't walking into a fight." Wreckage pointed out as we rounded a corner. The entrance to a larger chamber could be seen ahead, even if the contents were still obscured. I didn't realize it until Wreckage mentioned it, but the sounds we were hearing lacked the distinct noises of combat.
Of course Kentucky had to be pessimistic. "Doesn't mean there wasn't one. We might not be the only ones the Thorns disturbed with their ritual."
The sight that greeted us as we entered the larger chamber was both strangely normal and scary at the same time. About two dozen clockwork were slowly disassembling the scaffolding that used to stretch from one of the room to the other, about two thirds of it was now just lose timber. The clockwork had even pulled out the nails that held the boards together. Everything from Cogs to Line Oscillators to Tesla Knights swarmed over the the structure, making sure to get every last piece of metal.
I looked at the walls and in the lumber piles, searching for the dark smears of dried blood or ash that would indicate a fight with the thorns had taken place. "I'm not seeing any thorns." I said after a few moments.
"That doesn't mean they haven't been forced back, deeper into the cave." Kentucky countered.
"If they are, then we have plenty of time." I said in a whisper. "They aren't going to be dragging any hostages through here. And as much as I want to find out what the hell is going on, I'm not about to step foot in that room." As if to punctuate my statement one of the cogs finally succeeded in tearing a metal bracket out of the ceiling, more than a few rocks followed it down to the floor.
Wreckage gave me a confused look, this must have been the first time I had ever suggested running away from a fight in his company. I answered his unspoken question with one of my own. "Have you ever been in a cave-in?"
Wreckage blanched a bit before stepping back to be even with where I was standing, a few feet from the cavern entrance. Kentucky started at the celling for a few moments before nodding. "Your right, risking a cave-in before we even know if the thorns are here is a bad idea. But I'm calling it in."
"Feel free." I said quietly. Tension I hadn't even realized I was feeling leaving me as I no longer had to fight in this death trap.
The walk to the cave entrance was blessedly short, and Kentucky was on the phone before I even got out the door.
"This is Kentucky Smith. I'm with Flaming Wreckage and Smouldering Decay at cave 34-2263 in Perez Park. Mmm-hm, yeah. No sign of the Thorns, but we did find some clockwork acting very strange. When you send some people to check it out make sure they have a force fielder or someone with an earth affinity on the team -"
I didn't catch the rest of his conversation, Wreckage put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a concerned look. "You're right, I haven't been in a cave-in. But I'm guessing you have?"
I leaned into his hand and took a breath before letting it out in a sigh. "It wasn't a cave, but I don't suppose that really matters. Back home, I was in a building that almost collapsed. Half the ceiling dropped in and I almost bought the farm when some of the equipment blew, but I made it out." I gave him a tight smile before continuing, "I'm not claustrophobic or anything. I just have a... heightened awareness of load bearing structures." I couldn't resists giving him a quick hug and a peck on the cheek.
We walked over to Kentucky. He had finished his phone call and was standing with his back to us, looking at his map again. I appreciated the appearance of privacy he gave us, even if he was close enough to hear every word we said.
"Where to next?" I asked.
Kentucky pointed out the closer of the two remaining caves on the map. "Hopefully we won't get more clockwork intent on aggressive structural remodeling." He said as we started towards it.
Wreckage was quick to respond, "Nah, with our luck it'll be th' Lost setting up a beauty salon."
I snorted in amusement before joining in. "The Lost would never set up a beauty salon, they only care about how pretty you are on the inside. It's got to be a Hellion daycare center."
Kentucky smiled over his shoulder at us before shooting my idea down. "That wouldn't work, the Hellions would never setup a daycare center with that little natural light. It's going to be a Vahz mushroom farm."
Wreckage kept a straight face long enough to shuffle along like a vahz cadaver and intone in a dead voice "thhee coolloorrs". That got all of us cracking up.
I had to cringe a bit at that idea, even as it made me laugh. "Oh god, that's just what the world needs. Druggie vahz, so the next time you get puked on you get a contact high as well."
"But if they're staring at the sewer walls all day, they aren't out kidnapping people." Wreckage said, seeing the potential silver lining in the concept.
"So they are quiet for a while, what happens when they need to get their next fix?" Kentucky pointed out.
"Hallucinogens and psychopaths, two bad ideas that go worse together." I said. The vahz were bad enough as they were, having them act like strung out junkies wouldn't help the problem at all.
The conversation lulled for a moment until I snorted and punched Wreckage lightly in the shoulder. He responded with a questioning look and said "What was that for?"
"Thanks to you I can't get the idea of a Pariah going door to door selling Avon out of my head."
"So it's my fault you have a strange imagination?" He said with a smile.
"Well your the one giving me ideas." I contested, "I don't think I should be held entirely accountable for thoughts you caused to run around in my head."
"I give you ideas?" Wreckage said as he shot me a look that covered from boots to goggles. His tone of voice making it clear the opposite was far more likely to be true.
"Oh, so you have noticed." I said with smile before leaning in and whispering "I could give you much more than just ideas."
Before Wreckage could come up with a response to that Kentucky interrupted us. "If you two kids are done flirting, we have a cave full of thorns to apprehend." He said while pointing to a cave half way across the clearing we had just entered.
I turned in time to see a robed figure sneak inside. A quick glance around the clearing showed a few hellions loitering around the far end, but no more thorns. Content that more thorns wouldn't see us sneak in, I made my way over the cave door. I was tempted to call Kentucky 'dad' for that jibe, but I hadn't fully nailed down the dynamic the two of them had. And I wasn't about to jeopardize the work I had done so far for a cheap shot.
I ended up waiting for a minute after I entered the cave for the boys to catch up to me. I knew I was probably the topic of conversation, but to confront them about it would be a sign of weakness and insecurity. So instead I waited for them to show up and listened to the sounds echoing up from the depths of the cave. When they did come in Wreckage smiled at me, but didn't say anything. Kentucky gave me a nod, but I couldn't pin down his expression.
I didn't have all that much time to contemplate what they might have talked about, as we were soon cutting a path through the thorns. Strangely, making our way though a cave of thorns that wasn't expecting us was harder than one expecting heroes. Granted all the groups we ran across were smaller, but there weren't any choke points setup. And more than half our battles occurred because a group of thorns stumbled onto our location rather than vice versa. I found myself following Kentucky into combat far more quickly than normal. I had to make sure the group of thorns that just walked around the corner didn't contain one guy that never came around the corner, and was instead running off to warn others.
Jumping into combat like that was exhilarating, I could easily see why Kentucky and Wreckage had as much fun as they did. But it was also tiring, as I didn't have their reflexes or constitution. More often than not I ended up with a broad collection of minor injuries, nothing that couldn't be healed, but I could tell I was going to be stiff in the morning. For more than one reason if everything went according to plan.
After about twenty minutes of these short, sporadic fights a different noise was heard making it's way up from the depths of the caves. The banging of hammers and almost subsonic grinding of stone led us to a large chamber full of activity. There were three main groups in the cavern. The group closest to us consisted of three behemoths and a mage in green robes, they were extracting roughly hewn blocks of stone from the cave wall and carry them to the second group. The second group was a half dozen robed figures who were in the process of smoothing out the rough cuts made by the behemoths and carving glyphs into the stones surface. Complicated reasoning was not required to see where the finished stones ended up. The third group had a half dozen thorns in plain robes surrounding a much more extravagant figure. They were busy fussing over the final positioning of the stones and attaching several embroidered bands of cloth to the leaders robes. I couldn't make out exactly what he was ranting about, but I did hear the name 'Movian' crop up at least once, and the tone was far from complimentary. From what few bits of rant I could hear over the noise in the room, it was clear they were waiting to hear back from the group we busted earlier.
"Well I have to hand it to you Kentucky" I whispered to him "you tracked these guys down before they even knew we took out the other half of their plan."
"It wasn't all my legwork, the MAGI were more than happy to lend a seer to help track this down." Kentucky responded, "But it is nice to get the drop on these guys."
"Any specific plan for this Doc? Or do we just hand out a beating on a first-come-first-served basis?" Wreckage asked, eager to get started.
"Well Decay seemed to have so much fun last time with the behemoths, it would be a shame to deprive her of that." Kentucky said with a smirk in my direction. "I think we can make quick work of the rest and then help her finish them off."
"Sounds like a plan to me" I said.
Kentucky gave a quick nod to Wreckage and the pair of them were running towards the far end of the cavern. I turned my focus, and my radiation, on the closest group. The middle behemoth had barely gotten three steps towards Kentucky and Wreckage before it started to glow. It's roar of frustration as it turned towards me would have been amusing if it wasn't made while brandishing a rather large sledge hammer. I responded by summoning my own axe and throwing burning ash in the face of the closest one. It reacted predictably by dropping the hammer it was carrying and clawing at it's face. My attempt to immobilize the group with rings of fire was interrupted as shards of rock sprung from the floor around my feet. My boots shielded my from the brunt of it. But one particularly long spike ran past my boot and between the leather patches of my leggings, giving me a nasty cut on my thigh.
The mage in green, who I had dismissed at the start of the fight as not being a threat, was making me pay for my oversight. He certainly had my attention now. I ran past the three behemoths and took a swipe at him with my axe. Instead of the meaty thunk I was expecting, I got a 'tink' and a few sparks as the axe grazed off the rock armor underneath his robes. He smiled at me and drew back one rocky fist. I dodged enough to take the first swing on my shoulderpads and didn't let him swing a second time. Grabbing two fistfuls of his robe I was able to do more that just create cinders and hot ash, the whole thing burst into flame. And he dropped to the ground with a scream, proving that there were definitely some areas that the rocky armor didn't cover. While he was rolling around near my feet I turned my attention back to the behemoths. They were slowly making crooked paths towards me but none of them were in striking distance yet. I concentrated for a moment and summoned rings of fire around the trio, to make sure that I wouldn't be interrupted. I took a moment to stop the bleeding on my thigh and picked up the my axe I had dropped earlier. I wanted to turn the mage into hamburger, but he might know something about whatever it is they are constructing here. So instead of beating him about the head and neck with sharp edge of my axe, I used the flat of the blade. It took a few more blows than normal, but eventually he stopped rolling around. I slapped an arrest beacon on him and looked over at Kentucky and Wreckage.
Only the leader in the fancy robes and two of his helper were still standing out of the original dozen. They would probably finish up before I did. But I could probably finish off one of the behemoths before they were done. I walked over the closest of the trio and attempted my ash-to-face, boot-to-groin, axe-to-head combo. Step one worked fine, but I apparently didn't kick it hard enough in the jimmies. Because instead of clutching it's groin it blindly backhanded me. My pride was hurt more than my body as I got tossed into the wall. I Healed the minor bruises and scrapes from that as I approached for attempt number two.
The behemoth was still pawing at it's face as I walked around behind it and hamstrung first the left, then the right leg. It made a satisfying thud as it collided with the ground. Even though it was blinded and crippled it did manage to roll around a quite a bit, so it took me a while to land a killing blow. As I was prying the axe out of the back of it's neck Wreckage's voice called out "Need help with those?"
I looked over to see Kentucky shaking the mage in fancy robes by his lapels, and Wreckage walking over sans shirt. I'm not sure if he lost it in the fight, or if he took it off cause he was hot, but I approved either way. It took me a second reply with a distracted "Yeah... sure."
It didn't take Wreckage long to finish off the last two Behemoths, and I enjoyed the show. I also noticed a thin red line of aggravated flesh that ran from one hip to the opposite shoulder on his back, answering the question of how he lost his shirt.
Once the last behemoth was a smoking corpse I called over "Hey Kentucky, I'm going to go take care of Wreckage if you have everything handled here?".
Kentucky looked up from interrogating the head mage and glanced between the two of us before saying "Ok, I'll leave you a message if anything comes up."
Wreckage looked at me, then at Kentucky, before saying "But I'm not hurt, and we still haven't figured out what those things do."
Kentucky gave Wreckage a confused look "Wreck, Decay's about to jump your bones. I've got everything covered here. Go have fun."
It took a second before comprehension dawned on face and he turned to face me. Before he could ask whatever question was on his lips I gave him a quick kiss and whispered "I want you" in his ear.
Wreckage had enough time to call out a "Later Doc!" over his shoulder before I dragged him out of the cave and back to my apartment. I think I heard the mage say something about 'clueless heroes' before we left, but I was too busy making plans with my libido to care.
I woke up with a sneeze. And my back instantly regretted it. I laid still to let the worn out muscles quietly relax and stared at the ceiling. The cause for my rude awakening was slowly drifting down. Soot. I could even taste it in my mouth. Apparently our activites earlier had been a little much for some of my protective wards. In the dim candle light I could see that some of the sheets had definite body-part shaped scorch marks on them. And the walls. And the floor.
Wreckage -no, Chris, I reminded myself- had his face buried in the pillow and one arm thrown across my stomach. It felt good to just lie next to him. Nice on an entirely differently wavelength than last nights activities. The fact that I probably wouldn't have been able to getup without waking Chris was one more reason just to lie here and try to ignore the slowly falling soot. He had exceeded expectations in his performance last night and deserved his rest. Happy thoughts of last night were tempered when my gaze fell on the remains of my costume, or what was left of the leather and mesh bodysuit. The shoulderpads, boots, dress, and vest had all been easy to remove. If my distracted memories were anything to go by, they, along with Chris's pants, were in a disjointed path from the front door to the bedroom. The bodysuit wasn't easy to get into or out of. In my impatience last night I traced one burning finger from neck to navel, snapping through more connections than I could salvage.
I couldn't get too mad about it though, considering what had followed. It just meant that the next version of the bodysuit needed a zipper.
My lazy ruminations on costume design were interrupted when a flake of soot fell into Chris's ear. The warm weight of his arm left my stomach as he sleepily rubbed his ear, but his movements made me aware of a different warm appendage that was apparently ready for action again. I smirked as idea popped into my head. It couldn't taste any worse the soot already on my tongue, and it was about the nicest way I could wake him up.
http://sofaspud-prime.livejournal.com/4570.html][NSFW bit behind the link]
I didn't have time to do more than swallow before the covers were pulled back and Chis was looking at me with a sleepy smile plastered on his face. "Couldn't wait until I woke up huh?"
I crawled up until I was level with him and laid down on his chest. "What? I just wanted to say good morning." I said with a smirk.
Chris hugged me said "Oh I'm definitely having a good morning, but I don't think you spoke."
"I would disagree. I pushed air past my lips and moved my tongue to produce sounds that conveyed meaning. Most people would call that talking" I said with a cheeky grin.
Chris just looked at me for a second before dropping his head back to the pillow and admitting defeat "You win Lisa, it's too early for a battle of wits." He was silent for a moment before continuing "Why does it taste like I licked a briquette?"
The memories of last night combined with the tactile sensation of lying on top of Chris brought a warm flush to my cheeks as I answered "I didn't think it would get quite so hot last night, the wards on the bed may need to be reworked."
Chris looked at the ceiling and then glanced at the parts of the bed he could see "Just how much of the bed did we burn?"
I buried my face in his neck and continued "And the floor. And the walls. And the hallway."
"Oh.. yeah, I hope we didn't break anything?" Chris said with a worried chuckle.
"Nothing that can't be replaced." I said with a shrug. I rolled off him and got out bed. "Come-on, lets wash the soot our of our hair and grab something to eat" I said over my shoulder as I made my way to the bathroom, perhaps that trick with the cold water would keep the shower from getting singed. Now that we were both awake I was starting to get ideas again, and if we didn't have to worry about the hot water running out I fully intended to try them all.
----------
Partial blame and lots of thanks to Spud for hosting the NSFW content, I wouldn't have been brave enough to toss that bit up if it hadn't been for the directors cut of Reunions
Edit: removed extraneous verbage
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy