Join in the horrible screams, take part in murderous deeds [semi-open]

[pimpcoatbankai]

Characters: ichigwraaaaaaah and others (please tag in!)
Date/Time: The evening of February 15th
Location: Various, ending on Captain Planet
Rating: R for eventually gore and bloodletting
Summary: Evil Twins are loose in the Sphere. It’s just unfortunate that Toushi’s happens to be a super powered berserker and on a rampage.

Comments

[chibimischief]

Just because he was small didn't mean that he hadn't noticed that wild, burning, dark reiatsu that had flickered into life in the Sphere. It was familiar, disturbingly so, which of course meant that Crimson had had to investigate it, even if he was only five.

But he had at least managed to keep his reiatsu wrapped tightly around himself as he carefully followed the... thing, which just so happened to curiously share a similar feel with Toushi, around. It was hard at times, given how fast the monster could move and how slow he himself was, but over time, Crimson managed to pinpoint down a pattern to its movements, realizing that it was tracking down those with more powerful reiatsu. And when he had realized that Lin was nearby, he'd carefully taken himself closer to her, hiding himself in a nearby bush, ready to wait-- Except it was suddenly there, in front of Lin.

So what was a man stuck in a five year old body supposed to do?

Chuck a rock with all his strength at the monster, apparently. And let his already sizable reiatsu flare out as he jumped out from the protective cover of the branches, armed with even more rocks, too-large hat roughly pushed back so that he could see properly.

"Over here, over here!"

Brilliant move, Crimson, absolutely brilliant.

[ichigwraaaaaaah]

It was a dazzling move of inspired brilliance. The rock hurtled towards the Hollow, and without even flinching the creature lifted a hand and crushed the projectile into dust.

For a moment, it seemed as though that would be the end of the matter. The air was still.

Then the Hollow flickered out of sight in an instant and with a casual flick of the too-familiar long black daitou sword and an eerie rattle of the chain attached to the end, it blew away the ground in front of the bush with a shockwave of raw power.

[chibimischief]

Alright, so Crimson couldn't help the quiet 'eep' that escaped from him when the monster moved and just appeared right in front of him, threatening to blow his hat away had he not already found some string to keep it tied around his head earlier on in the week. Course, that didn't stop him from stumbling back a couple steps or so from that shockwave.

Of all the times to be small and useless. Had he been in any less control of himself, Crimson would have been visibly annoyed. Angry even. But that didn't stop experienced grey eyes from looking over the thing, studying every marking and every fluctuation and nuance of that darkly powerful reiatsu. The scientist part of him, he supposed, the part that was unafraid of death, perhaps even a bit curious about it.

Which might account for the, "I don't suppose we could all just sit down and talk about this, hmm~?" as he scrambled up onto his feet and took a couple steps back in an effort to draw the monster away from Lin. Where to aim the next rock... Perhaps the eyes?

[sting_to_death]

Suddenly there was another reiatsu to her left, and an all too familiar one at that. It took her a moment to process what was happening-- to realize that kid over there was Crimson, and to realize his incredibly brilliant idea was to throw rocks at that monster to distract it from her. "Seriously?!" She muttered under her breath, struggling to understand how a so-called genius like Crimson could think that would have worked. But genius or not, he was just a child right now, so she was going to chalk it up to that, rather than to Crimson being willing to die so that she wouldn't get hurt (which would have still been offensive, anyway, did he really think she wasn't strong enough to handle this on her own?)

Her gaze went from Crimson to the monster, then back to Crimson-- that annoying brat even had the guts to sound all cocky when he talked. Did he not understand what was going on?

In a split second, she was between Crimson and the monster, crouching, grabbing the child (child?) by the wrist, her other arm sneaking around his tiny waist to hold him to her, and try to block him in place at the same time. Given a few seconds, and if Crimson wasn't going to wriggle out of her grip, she could have brought him somewhere safe. Yes, she was turning her back on the enemy. Yes, she was aware it was a huge mistake. And yes, she knew she should have used Crimson as a decoy and attack the monster for behind.

But no, she wasn't going to. Against her better judgment, Lin decided it was more important to make sure Crimson wouldn't die than to take down the monster, or to save her own skin.

[ichigwraaaaaaah]

Two?

Oh this just made things that much easier.

The Hollow roared a challenge and rushed at them, sword unleashed, swiping at them with blistering speed and ferocity.

The brat had guts, the bitch too if she thought that that was going to be enough to stop it. It would destroy them both.

[crimsonmischief]

As much as he would have rathered that Lin had left him behind, Crimson didn't fight the grip Lin on him, instead holding onto her securely so that she didn't have to put too much effort into holding him while making sure not to impede any of the movements of her arms and legs.

"Lin!"

The voice of a frightened five-year old ran out urgently, wide grey eyes tracking the monster's movements as best as he could, unable to do anything but cry out in warning to the woman who had turned her back on the monster to protect him. It wasn't supposed to work out that way, she was supposed to go away, to leave him behind and get help. After all, he was expendable, especially in this form, while she was not. And as he was now, he couldn't do anything but rip off the stopper he had on his reiatsu and letting it roar free against that thing flying towards them, gritting his teeth as it tore out of him in a draining torrent of raw, defensive energy, hoping and praying to it would be enough to slow it down, or that the thick curtain of it that he had wrapped around Lin would be enough to at least lessen the damage from that wickedly black blade.

[sting_to_death]

Shut up. Her grip on him tightened, both in anger and worry. Lin was having trouble seeing the man she hated in this frightened child screaming against her chest. She had to get them away from there-- or at least get him away, somehow.

That's when it crossed her mind, what if she let herself get hurt on purpose? That would make her disappear immediately, bringing her to Bastet, and there she could have asked for help. And that would have been a good strategy had she intended to run away, but what was going to happen to Crimson? She hadn't tested how it worked, had no idea whether he would have been teleported with her or not. She couldn't risk, she had to find somewhere to hide him before running away.

But the black energy coming from that blade was faster than her, the barrier of Crimson's reiatsu not enough to block all of it. Lin heard it seething through the air and braced for the impact, her body closing around Crimson.

When she opened her eyes again, she wasn't outdoors anymore. Finally letting go of the child beneath her, Lin held herself up on her hands and knees, feeling warm liquid leaking down her back and sides to the floor. She thought with a wry smile that she was going to have to apologize to Bastet for making that mess, when her vision wasn't so blurry anymore and her knees had stopped feeling that weak.

[chibimischief]

If the sudden appearance of two reiatsu signatures in her house hadn't altered her to their presence, then Crimson's cry of "Bastet!" certainly should have as he quickly scrambled out from under Lin, body trembling with the effort it took, having thrown almost all of his energy at the monster and into his attempt at minimizing the damage. A clear failure if the blood dripping down around him from Lin was anything to say.

Operating on pure adrenaline only, he quickly undid the obi around his waist and reached up to press it against the gash running along her back and shoulders in an effort to staunch the flow of blood. "Lin, if you die on me, I'll never, ever leave you alone after you come back."

[felinemystique]

Crimson hadn't needed to say anything; they'd practically appeared at her feet, just as Lin had done countless times already this month. Except this time, Bastet didn't even have the chance of being annoyed, only alarmed at Lin's injuries.

"Shit," she muttered, kneeling on the living room floor. "Kisuke, move." Despite the urgency, she was gentle setting him aside before pulling Lin to her feet.

"Come on, I have you," she murmured, bending to lift her over her shoulder. "Kisuke, bring me a bowl of water," she called, carrying Lin to the spare bedroom.

[sting_to_death]

Lin had meant to tell Crimson to shut up, that she had no intention to die and that even if she did, she was never ever going to allow him near her, memories or not-- which was plausible, after all the very first time they talked, when she didn't even know who he was, that instinctive, unpleasant feeling she'd got from him had been so strong it would have been impossible to ignore.

Before she knew it, Bastet was hoisting her up over her shoulder, she was probably going to get dirty with her blood, that was unacceptable, completely unacceptable.

"I'm sorry." She muttered weakly, trying not to move at all, making it as easy for Bastet as possible. That was the most she could do, at the moment: not do anything at all.

[chibimischief]

Clambering up onto his feet, Crimson ran over to the kitchen, shakily climbing up the chair that had just eventually been left there for him out of the exasperation of this week. When the bowl was filled, he slid back down to the floor, spilling some water along the way, but managing to keep the majority of it in the bowl as he hurried into the bedroom, placing the bowl next to Bastet and then moving out of the way. "Bandages?"

[felinemystique]

"Don't apologize," she said, flipping back the bedcovers with one hand before gingerly laying Lin on her stomach. "What happened?"

It was hard to assess the damage just yet, with all the blood covering Lin's back, so Bastet ripped a strip from the sheet, dipping it in the water.

"In the first aid kit, bottom drawer of the chest outside the bathroom," she said, beginning to wipe the blood way from Lin's back. Just bring the whole thing, and some hand towels." With Lin's alarming appearance, Bastet didn't yet notice how exhausted Crimson was, and had fallen into her familiar habit of depending on him to be at her back.