Wellspring Attack

[npc_kun]

Characters:NPC Nothing, NPC Charger, NPC Steve and OPEN
Date/Time: Friday, September 23rd, midnight
Location: Wellspring Island
Rating: PG-13 and up
Summary: The beginning of the end.

Questions and general plotting can be done on this post. You can also page the NPC muns on that page or on our mod contact post. Please remember to forward date

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Huo and Sniper and a gibbering mouther of unpleasant disposition, Wellspring

[getsome_sleep]

Though he jolted awake when the explosion sounded, at the first few confused moments - at the crackling of the fire, at the blaze of red and orange and gold, at the beginning of scrambling and screams - Huo had been sure that he was still dreaming.

The water in the hot springs remained warm all night, and there were few better places in the Sphere for the tense and overworked to relax in. He hadn't planned to doze off stretched out in the water, much less to sleep deep into the night, but not much had gone as planned these days, and now he scrambled to wake, to come to grip with his surroundings and to understand what was happening. He pulled himself out of the water, with no time to dry himself or even tie up his soaked hair, because what was happening was becoming abundantly clear with every bit of wind that blew his way.

Fire.

Briefly he stood on the edge of the spring, frozen. The right thing to do was very obviously to get back in the water, where the fire could not touch him, and lay low. This was the simplest, surest way to survive.

But the island was burning. The fire, whatever its origin - whether an accident, sabotage, something more sinister yet (Orca - not Orca, surely not Orca - why something like this?] - it would flow along the woods, consuming as it went, and it could swallow the Spa and eventually, the Clinic. Where Stellaris could be even now, and Genius, and he could not even guess how many others.

And what can you do about it, except get in the way? He needed to get his journal out and try to communicate -

At that instant, the moment's hesitation became a moment too long.

Kneeling by the satchel that held his journal, Huo froze once more, this time not with uncertainty but with instinct of the gut not the mind. Suddenly all too aware of the pale white of his clothes, beacon-like in the dark, he looked up into the woods ahead of him, and knew that something was looking back. Something large, something moving, something with half a hundred eyes.

The journal, he was going to get the journal, then he could call for help. No, help would never come on time, he needed to get up and run. Weren't his shoes here, somewhere? He could run barefoot. No, he couldn't, not through the woods. Not into the fire, there was still the fire at his back and the water, he couldn't run into the water of course and why couldn't he think straight?

It had a hundred eyes, and it was looking at him. It was looking at him. It was coming.

[longnosedliar]

After separating from Cloud, Sniper began to rethink his plans. So the Clinic was surrounded by monsters, and was apparently under attack and he decided to stay? Being brave and trying to help sounded good, but the temptation remained to simply hunker down at home and wait until this all ended.

But it wasn't going to end, was it? Things were getting worse and worse, and there was nothing saying that the fire and the monsters weren't going to spread throughout the entire Sphere. Which meant that he and his friends would all be in danger, and he'd never be able to forgive himself if he turned back now to leave them all to burn.

In the end, he elected to curl into himself, stuff his sleeve in his mouth and whimper pitifully for a few minutes before continuing on. He decided to walk over to the Hot Springs to check to see if they were on fire. If not, they could use that water, right?

And there he saw Huo. With some big, floppy, disgusting thing from his nightmares. It was literally a pile of eyes and mouths. Eyes. And. Mouths. What the hell? Why would that even exist? And why the hell was Huo here? Friend or not (not, he reminded himself, most vehemently not), he wouldn't just stand here like he did with the woman who died. Never again. "Close your eyes!" He yelled at Huo.

He threw down a flash star to blind it - hah! What do you think of that you gut churningly terrifying monster you? - and then jogged over towards Huo to toss at gunpowder star at it while it was still stunned.

Sniper really had a few choice words to say now. Like, you can't even fight idiot, or I still don't like you but I saved your ass anyway! or maybe you need my help now, huh? Circumstances silenced these quips.

"Oh good," he said flatly, "you're naked."

[getsome_sleep]

Even with the unnatural confusion blanketing his mind, the clear shouted order got through, and Huo closed his eyes tightly and turned his head away just in time. He could see the bright light against his eyelids, and knew that it worked because the fog lifted enough for him to think, good, good, the more eyes, the easier to hurt with light and other things. I need an irritant. But where was he going to get that, or anything? He was -

The voice and comment registered. He opened his eyes and looked up. "Well-observed, gui-Sniper."

Ironically enough, in the mental list that he had certainly not had reason to keep before of people to be rescued by while wearing nothing more than a loincloth, Sniper ranked quite high. There were certainly worse people to bear humiliation before. One could almost call it justice, if one were inclined to contemplate deeper issues, fate and the ways of Heaven while mostly naked, dripping wet and about to be devoured by a sludge-like horror.

Understandably not quite so inclined, he instead elected to glance back into the dark. The monster was hesitating slightly, it seemed, injured enough to reconsider its attack. He snatched up his satchel - judging it and the journal and papers it contained more important than his clothes, or his dignity for the matter - and was just about to tell Sniper that this was a very good time to run.

But the creature preceded him, answering fire with fire - a jet-like stream of spit that exploded out of several mouths at once, blazing and burning through the air at the two of them. It was without thinking that Huo grabbed Sniper's shoulder with his other hand to force him down to the ground, ducking under the jets.

"The water!" he gasped out, unfortunately not quite in a position or mood to now be glad about the loincloth business after all.

[longnosedliar]

"Not really," Sniper muttered, pointing at his own eyes and apparently lacking what little mental filter he usually had. "Kinda hard to miss the fact that it has about a billion eyes--"

And then of course he was cut off by Huo dragging him down beneath the fire which just led to a small moan of, oh god fire, of course it breathes fire, because that makes complete sense in an eye-blob.

When Huo pointed out that they had water to their advantage, he almost rolled over there but cut himself short with a vicious shake of his head. "There are more monsters out there," he said, urgency in his voice, "I need my gunpowder to stay dry. You go ahead."

He also needed it to stay away from the fire unless he wanted to be blasted into a million little pieces which sounded just fractionally less pleasant than being charred to a crisp. He tried not to think about it too hard, lest he lose his courage now.

C'mon Sniper, think, think, think, think, think... you have to think, you're really no good at much else...

He had an idea, but didn't have the time to articulate it yet - all Huo would see was the way he pulled a circular shell out of his bag and looked at it like it would somehow save their asses.

[getsome_sleep]

More monsters. Ah, yes, that was very definitely what Huo had wanted to hear. Where had monsters come out of, to begin with? But perhaps that was not the most pressing question. More urgent was the question of how not to die within the next few moments.

Unknowingly, his thoughts followed Sniper's; and he was rather less concerned with courage and more concerned with the aforementioned not dying. "One touch of flame, and you'll curse the day you mixed that gunpowder. Leave it. We need something that will hurt its eyes more permanently than light." His knowledge of Sniper's arsenal was too basic to recognize that particular shell; perhaps the other man had had the same thought. Sniper was clever, after all. It was all that both he and Huo truly had to show for themselves in battle.

Well, Sniper had cleverness and an arsenal. Huo had only the first.

The right thing to do was to dive in the water, hold his breath and duck under and hope. Nothing would serve the interests of not dying better. But he did not. He stayed down next to Sniper, not moving, still prepared to pull the younger man into the pool and safety at a heartbeat's notice. "I will not go while you stand and fight."

[longnosedliar]

"You think I don't know that?" Sniper snapped at Huo, patience running thin. "I made these, I know how they work."

But he wasn't willing to sacrifice several months worth of work, not now, not when the Sphere was plummeting into turmoil. If he didn't make an effort to protect the only way he knew how to fight, he would end up standing by the sidelines as his friends leaped into danger. Without his weapons, he would be useless, and that, he could not abide.

"And I'm not planning on standing, either," he said. "What we're gonna do is use its fire against it. See this thing? Here, hold it." He shoved it at Huo. "Next time it breathes fire, I'm gonna throw a gunpowder star at it - that much flame'll make a huge explosion. What I want you to do is to hold the shell up to the explosion and it'll suck the force right out of it."

It was a hazy sort of confidence that he possessed, but it was confidence nevertheless. "And whatever you do, don't push the button afterwards. That'll hit it harder than what practically any of the close combat fighters we've got can do."

[getsome_sleep]

Well. Through the panic, the fire and the sheer madness of every aspect of their situation, Huo found himself grinning just slightly. Because that was a good plan, a very good plan, simple and elegant and immediately effective, and few things were as beautiful as simple, effective plans.

He should have expected that much of Sniper. They had proven themselves a more than adequate team before. That they should run into each other now was fortunate. If only, between them...

Later. When there was no fire-breathing monster to consider.

Without a word of protest at the part of it that required him to hold up a shell at an huge explosion, he took up the weapon, finding his hands unusually steady at it. "Very well." He had no intentions whatsoever to push that button - he clearly remembered the crippling pain of breaking his arm with exactly such a shell last time. "I shall save it for the next creature." Because that was like Sniper, too. That was almost definitely part of the plan as well.

"I am ready when you are."

[longnosedliar]

Sniper nodded, trying to push aside his fear to face forward. After a moment, he managed to fool himself into believing that this was something he could do - though if he sought to fool the outside world, he failed; even on the ground as he was, his legs trembled - and raised a fist in the air.

"Oiiii, little ugly, over here." Its eyes fastened on the moving target, and one of its mouths opened to spit out a plume of flame. Sniper tossed the gunpowder star in his hand up into the air to collide with the fire, close enough for Huo to absorb it but hopefully not close enough let him feel too much of the heat and immediately tucked his head down and rolled out of the way before it could touch him. The stench of burning hair filled the air, but he escaped unscathed. The same could not necessarily be said for his ponytail, but it was a worthy sacrifice. He glanced behind him to see whether or not Huo was successful in his part in the plan.

[getsome_sleep]

It worked about as smoothly as could be expected, which is to say that even as he raised the shell and was as braced as he was going to be, Huo still felt his heart take a moment to consider stopping when the fire and force of the blast swept at him. But he closed his eyes and held on, and was well rewarded - the explosion sank into the shell like food down a hungry mouth and never touched him, not even his hair, which he was rather less happy to sacrifice than Sniper. A blink of an eye, and it was done: now he stood at at the edge of the water, still soaked and wearing not much at all, but looking across at the writhing shape of the monster too painfully injured and burned to mount a fresh attack. It made obscene sounds.

It's hurt. What can be hurt can die. It was a very pleasant reassurance.

He spent no undue time in watching, but quickly ducked down to his knees besides Sniper, cautious with the shell while looking the other over. Just fine. Untouched, almost. "It worked," he reassured him with a burst of the relieved cheer that commonly followed not getting killed against highly unlikely odds. "Gui-Sniper, are you well? Look up. That was beautifully done."

[longnosedliar]

As usual, Sniper began to visibly glow when Huo gave him such lavish praise, then appeared to catch himself in mid-swell and did his best to dampen it. He didn't want praise from Huo, he scolded himself, he was just here because he didn't want him to die. That was it. It didn't make him happy at all to have the strategist appreciate his plans and--

Nope. Not at all. Still, for a moment, Sniper's grin gleamed in the night air. And he had to admit that Huo was pretty gutsy to trust his word and the shell. Sniper knew that if someone else had told him to do such a thing, he would certainly be more hesitant to hold it up to a great fiery blast such as that.

"One more gunpowder star ought to do the trick," he said.

[getsome_sleep]

Brief as that smile was, Huo caught it; still bright-eyed with their small victory, it was hard to contain the flash of hope that it sent through him. One way or another, for whatever reason that the Heavens might have, there they were, forced to cooperate to survive - how could that be wasted? Nothing did better to form a bond between men if such a bond could at all be formed.

No, he told himself, his inner voice cold. They are your old tricks again. One does not plan a bond. And still, he treasured that smile.

“It appears too hurt to so much thinking,” he answered, entirely businesslike. “What worked once will likely work again - “

He froze mid-sentence. There was something else beyond the creature’s wails. More than one something.

“There are more coming,” he said quickly, raising the shell a little. His mind worked swiftly - but not so swiftly, now, that he fell to giving instructions rather than asking cooperation. “Tell me, would you rather hold the weapon or play the bait?”

[longnosedliar]

"More?" Sniper said incredulously, brows rising as he flicked his head back and forth to search for the source of the wails, dread rising deep inside his gut. But this is what he had prepared himself for, he scolded himself, particularly when he left Cloud to go help the battles. Oh, but he wanted to flee.

No, Sniper, you're a brave warrior, remember? And more importantly, Huo's not. He's brilliant but he can't even hold a gun, and what will he do if you run away now? He swallowed, then glanced over at the other man, wondering what exactly he was thinking - if he was thinking of Sniper's shells, then only Sniper knew how to use the weapon. If he was thinking of the impact dial - the shell Huo currently held - then either one of them could use it, but Sniper knew that they couldn't risk Huo dislocating his shoulder when he had to use all of his physical resources to run should the case be. It was painful, but Sniper was well accustomed to pain, and knew how to push his shoulder back where it should be, knew how to fight through whatever pain was sent his way.

That would be better, then. "Weapon."

[getsome_sleep]

Oh good, Huo thought, though it was not a thought that he was proud of. He very much preferred to be the bait - it sounded like the worse role of the two, but it did not involve holding onto the dial as it spat its ferocious energy and being responsible for just where that energy went. It made that much more sense that the fighter should hold the weapon, while the frail noncombatant did his best to look that much more frail. And that much more delicious.

"Very well. Here," he handed Sniper the dial - cautiously, with both hands. "Now I'm afraid that you must put aside your bag and hide underwater. They have too many eyes to otherwise fool. I will draw them to the water's edge, and when I jump in, fire." Even as he spoke, he picked up his white tunic and threw it over a branch, the makeshift flag a pale swath to attract every eye in the vicinity. What a ridiculous plan. But anything that kept them alive was perfectly respectable.

[longnosedliar]

"Right," Sniper said more assured now that he could safely stash his bag off to the side, well out of the way of water. The way he snatched the dial away was far from careful, but he was well accustomed to using it by now and knew that his steady hands would not push the button by accident. He dragged the bag aside and spared a moment to wish that he was as scantily clad as Huo, for he did not relish the thought of fighting in sopping wet clothes for the remainder of the night. Heroics were one thing, but there was something to be said for not freezing to death.

With a shrug, he plunged underneath the water - quite pleasant actually, a mundane corner of his mind happily noted, and a place he wouldn't mind dipping into without the presence of mortal danger - and awaited Huo's signal.

[getsome_sleep]

With Sniper gone under, the stage was set; and now was the cue for Huo’s mind to wise up to the reality behind the plan, which was that he was currently posed on the verge of a pool in nothing but a loincloth, waving a white flag at no less than four chattering monstrosities with the express purpose of making himself look even more ridiculously vulnerable than he was. The plan hinged on it, on him looking like such easy prey that the monsters would not bother with anything like fire. He took brief comfort from the fact that even if he was devoured, Sniper was safe - could probably eliminate the things while they were feasting.

And briefly he thought, it would be the easiest thing for him. He need only delay a moment. No one would ever suspect foul play. But no, he knew just as quickly, of course not, not Sniper. Sniper was a good man.

They were creeping closer at an unreasonable rate for things that didn’t have legs per se. They smelled his terror, most like, his complete helplessness. They knew that he had nothing but his wits and that head-on, wits versus sharp teeth was no contest. They were close enough for him to almost imagine words among their incessant noise, and then one of them opened a maw and shot something out -

Huo didn’t wait to see what. He whirled round and dropped into the water inches away from Sniper’s hiding place. A splash went up, thick and obscuring. I trust you, he thought at Sniper, destroy them all.

[longnosedliar]

Sniper watched anxiously from beneath the water. He felt safe enough, knowing that he was skilled at holding his breath underwater and that he was just as comfortable submerged in water as he was on land, but he feared for Huo. This was a risky plan, perhaps riskier than what he would normally expect from Huo, and he half-expected the creatures to burn Huo to a crisp in front of his very eyes. Sniper had never seen a man burn to death, never wanted to, but he had read in his many books of those who did, how it was supreme agony. It certainly sounded like a painful death and he could see it in his mind's eye, searing fire blazing outwards until his ally was reduced to nothing but ashes.

When Huo jumped in and joined him underwater, Sniper felt relief briefly surge within him. It powered him to leap out of the water, though he had seen the monsters from where he waited and he was afraid. He cried out inarticulately as he burst forth, some sort of garbled war cry that made him sound more confident than he was, and he thrust the dial outwards.

The ensuing blast was a messy one, but it was as effective as Huo could ever wish for, Sniper knew, but that wasn't on the forefront of his thoughts. Instead, he whimpered his pain, tears in his eyes, and clutched onto his aggrieved shoulder. He complained, "Damn it, I hate this thing...! That hurts!"

He had suffered greater hurts before, true, but that didn't make it any less painful. He turned to the water. "It worked, you can come out now."

With that, he grabbed onto his shoulder and yanked it forcibly out in place with a quarrelsome grunt of pain. An eyeball rolled from off from the wreckage and landed with a plop into the water. The sound was quiet when compared to the blast, but loud in the ensuing silence. In spite of himself, Sniper laughed to hear it.