Well, you know me, I never learn. So peel me off the hook.
Rusty Hunt leans against a tree in a park with his face pressed up against the bark. There's only partial awareness of his surroundings right now. He's supposed to be working. He hasn't sold shit this week. Rusty feels like shit. Sick as fuck. The trashcan sitting a foot away from him is filled with trash and his vomit. He may have seriously fucked
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And apparently he lucked out today! For there is a familiar face he never gets to see as often. He strides over to Luke and leans against the pier beside him. "You know, I hear there's a Rift in the lake."
Greetings? Des don't need no steenkin' greetings.
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"Really?" He tilts his head to the right. "And where'd you hear a thing like that?" Not that he doubts the source of Des' information.
Des is a detective after all. He can tell the difference between good information and bad. It's been a long time, but he hasn't forgotten his heroes from the basement. Some are gone, some remain... bloody hell, he's tip toeing into Beatles territory. The point is it was the memory of them and the adventures that they had that kept him going in the other world.
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"People." He shrugs, wincing a bit, because the person he heard it from was Kara. "One person, actually. She used to talk about something down there missing its mate since it came through or... Something." He climbs up on the bottom rung of the railing and leans out and over, staring down in the depths of the lake. "Sometimes if you look carefully, you can see something huge down there."
He doesn't step back, still scanning the water as if looking for something. "So how are you, Cat-Boy? Ain't seen you since Christmas."
And before that he hadn't seen him since before that mass exodus. The times, they are a-changin', and everyone keeps moving on.
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So much has been lost they couldn't quite cover it all if they tried.
"You can?" Luke stares into the water and takes a gulp of his milk. "I dunno if I see anything at all, but never really noticed that sort of stuff."
He turns toward Des and half grins, mostly at the nickname, though there's a distracted look in his eyes. "Yeah, sorry. We were supposed to go out for beer, yeah? Just been busy. I'm alright though. 've been worse. Been better, too, but I've been worse. Haven't had it nearly so bad as a lot of people these days..." Even if the CLF has been quiet lately. "What about you?"
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Except God probably doesn't know either... Des has never had much faith in God paying attention to anything on earth, despite being pretty close to sure that He exists ( ... )
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Luke has no desire to find out what might be crawling around down there in the water. He had his fill of adventures with the Rift already. Well, there was only the one creature. The other adventures involved falling through one, but... details.
"You kinda got a big head." He grins, turning sideways on the railing. "I think that's somethin' I'd have to see for myself." Luke blinks and stares at him, with a half smile filled with confused amusement. "...Ferris Bueller?"
Luke has never had much time to watch movies... or anything entertainment wise so that stuff tends to go over his head.
"Nah. I'm good at not attracting attention though." Spends enough time in beds, it's hard to be found out. "You be careful. If you're pokin'. Course I know you're experienced and all, yeah."
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And is it just his imagination or did he see a shark's fin or something drift near the top of the water? ...Right, probably just his imagination. He's sitting here talking about things in the water, so obviously, he's going to be seeing things.
Des looks affronted at the mention of the size of his head and then just snickers, although his determination to look like that doesn't bother him is greatly hindered by the fact that he's now compulsively touching his head. "Yeah, it's a movie," he says absent-mindedly. Don't worry, Luke. Most of the people he used to know are a little weak on pop culture. It's very sad, but not unheard of.
"Good, Cat-Boy," Des grins, giving him a clap on the shoulder. "And I'll be careful, I promise. I'm good at getting myself out of bad situations. It's a talent." He winks, looking smug and arrogant. The sort of look that the universe really loves to wipe off people's faces really, really quickly.
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He grins at the hand on his shoulder even if it hits him painfully, too. Luke misses the ridiculous nickname. He misses feeling like he has a family to count on.
He misses having people to come home to, but that was all such a long time ago. It's hard to believe he can still remember what it was like.
"Yeah, I know, you are. Big detective, ri-" Luke would finish that sentence, but the water moves. Not in a natural way either like with the breeze, but it shifts, creating larger than normal waves. It catches his attention like the pink sparkly bike caught his attention in kitten form. "Did you see that?"
He turns forward on the railing, again, and leans over it trying to get a better view of what's happening down there. There's a rumbling from the water that sounds an awful lot like a distorted growl. The pier seems to be shaking.
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Yeah, because there being a space whale under the goddamn pier is surely a reason for everything to be FINE, TOTALLY FINE.
And then comes the growling and he instinctively grabs Luke's shoulder. "I think we better step away from the railing."
And yet he makes absolutely no move to do so, staring at the water like a deer stares at oncoming traffic.
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And how has no one ever noticed it before? Unless it keeps to the depths usually, which means something must have enraged.
"Ye- Yeah, I really think that might be a good... idea," he says, but only makes a halfhearted effort to step backwards as he hardly register's Des' hand on his shoulder. Curiosity has the best of him. What is it?
And then a blue dragon-serpent creature rises up from the water towering over the world and roars with its mouth hung open, swinging it's gigantic head around as it searches for the source of what has it enraged.
"Back," he yelps, sounding a lot like a kitten whose tail's been stepped on. "Far... far back!" Luke grabs on to Des' arm, pulling, in both a desperate need to protect and be protected from the giant monster flailing and heading towards the pier in the water. Luke nearly trips over his own feet trying to back away from the pier as fast as he can, unable to turn away, because what is it?
Curiosity really did kill the cat.
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He registers that Luke is pulling him and then manages to get enough of his senses to haul him back on target when Luke nearly trips over his own feet. "It's bad news!" He answers Luke's unspoken question and now it's his turn to start tugging.
There's a warehouse not far from where they're standing. Why there's a warehouse on Navy Pier is anyone's guess, but it's there and it might be unlocked and it's the best option right now. "That way. That way," he yells, practically tugging Luke in that direction and trying to avoid looking behind him lest he get captivated by the sheer what the fuck of that thing. He's seen dragons before, but they sure as hell didn't look like that.
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He runs, looking back to keep an eye on what the dragon creature is doing at every moment.
The dragon-creature rears up and widens its mouth, aiming a hyper beam attack in their general direction. There is running. The running angers gyarados. There's a moment that the beam collects at the mouth of the creature, bright, light of pure energy generating power.
Luke yells, again. "Des!" And then he runs into him in an attempt to tackle Des to the ground as the beam goes over their head and takes out part of the warehouse ( ... )
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He turns back to keep an eye on the monster. No, it's not paying attention to them anymore, which is good, because the warehouse doesn't look like it can take too many more blasts like that. Luke climbs into the hole in the wall behind Des, but once inside he wishes he had hung back instead. The guy that whirls the gun on them makes him jump and tense, mostly because Des is in front of him and in the line of fire here and there's nothing he can do. Luke doesn't carry a gun and has never even held one.
Then he gets distracted by the corpses, especially the one that must have been hit by that beam. Vomit keeps rising up in his throat, threatening to bring him to his knees, but he can't look away from it. That could have been them, either of them. Luke starts to tremble barely aware of their conversation ( ... )
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"Bloody hell," he squeaks and practically jumps back at the sight of it. He really should have expected it, and he did expect weapons, but not weapons that are this big.
Well, that's useful.
He looks over at the gangster... who is now apparently talking to one of the corpses. Luke winces and bites back the urge to vomit, again. He actually feels bad for him and has to resist the urge to put a hand on his shoulder. Somehow he doubts it'd go over well, and the thrashing that shakes the warehouse and practically sends Luke sprawling on the floor reminds him that this isn't the time to offer comfort to strangers.
Luke raises his eyebrows and grabs on to the biggest gun, hauling it out of the pile. "Think this'd do the trick?" Or should they get more than one?
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