Apr 22, 2008 08:09
She'd been hoping to get out of Cleveland. Start over someplace new.
This wasn't, precisely, what she had in mind.
Standing on the roof of a building, wearing a ballgown and high heels, as people in the streets below her fight with something that....well, looks like something SHE ought to be fighting? Totally not her cup of tea.
Stupid skirt.
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The other members of his group obey: a seven-foot Valkyrie in horned helmet, wielding a broadsword, moves to jump at the dinosaur's back. Jean-Claude, a shortish man in a ratty old pair of blue jeans and a denim jacket, goes for its side with Wendell's aid. The two of them stay back as far out of its reach as they can manage, firing a haphazard assortment of guns at its roaring mouth. They aren't very good shots.
From behind Faith, a tall, burly black man with an impressive set of dreadlocks barrels out of the roof stairs and dashes to the edge of the roof with a shout, short curved knives held in both hands. Screaming an unintelligible warcry, he leaps from the edge of the roof to land on the T-rex's head. When its wrathful flailings lose him his knives, he attacks it with bone spurs protruding from his forearms.
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But, well...dinosaur. She should probably help, Faith thinks.
The gilt ornament holding her hair in place is also a knife; she pulls it out and follows the maybe-a-demon off the edge of the roof, landing neatly on top of the T-Rex.
Her skirt covers one of its eyes, at least long enough for Faith to kick that eye with all her strength, driving one of her heels into its skull.
Ever seen a hot girl in a ballgown kicking dinosaur ass before? Y'have now.
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And then it gets the bright idea to lower its head and ram the nearest building in a bid to knock the annoying clinging humans away.
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Maybe-a-demon, however, is, with a startled cry, and when she lunges for him, it knocks her off-balance, so that there's only one thing she can do to save herself from a nasty fall.
It involves swinging up into the T-Rex's mouth.
Things do not look good for the ballgown.
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They let go of one another and raise their guns simultaneously when the T-rex moves to step on a limping Tyr.
Too late.
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From the outside.
Inside, though, it's all softness and veins, and it's not that hard, really, for Faith to find a likely target.
It's not a very big knife, but with the strength of a Slayer behind it, it's more than enough to pierce arteries.
Is that a large amount of blood pouring from the suddenly-staggering T-Rex's mouth?
Why yes. Yes it is.
Wendell and the others may want to move before it collapses on them.
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She's covered in blood, saliva and probably other things it's better not to think about in detail, but she's alive.
Can't say the same for the skirt, though. That ballgown is pretty much a minidress now.
"Damnit," Faith says, swiping her filthy hair out of her face. "I hate it when they swallow me."
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"I'm Wendell," he says, swallowing. "That was good work you did there."
If he notices her soiled state, he doesn't pay it any attention.
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She shakes his hand. Very firm grip, for a girl.
"I'm sorry I couldn't catch your friend."
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"Thank you," he says quietly. "You tried, and you saved the rest of us. We're grateful."
Hild is done mauling the T-rex's corpse, and is instead kneeling by Tyr, tearing her hair and wailing. JC goes to comfort her and she shoves him away.
Taking a breath, Wendell continues. "We're what's left of the city of Montreal, us and two more. You can join us or strike out on your own." Gesturing to the T-rex, "I think you can guess which is a better idea."
Because, really. How many of those can she fight off by her lonesome in the course of a day?
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You know Faith's new here, right?
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"Monsters like that, and newcomers like you, show up every day. Have been for months. Back in August every statue in the city stood up and started walking around killing people. Since then... well, we do the best we can. We have a shelter, food and water-- that'll probably feed us for weeks if we treat it properly." This with another wave at the dinosaur corpse. "Nobody knows how the flashbangs work, but you felt what it was like. One minute you're somewhere else, the next you're here. Happened to me, too, right at the beginning."
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Faith starts pacing around.
"Interdimensional travel. Gotta be. Problem with the worldwalls, some sort of portal...take a powerful witch to do something like this..."
She trails off as she notices Hild, who is trying to lift the dinosaur off Tyr's remains. Sighing and shaking her head, she walks over to the Valkyrie, murmurs something softly, puts her hand under the T-Rex and lifts.
She's not strong enough to move the entire dinosaur, but she's strong enough to move its leg. At least they'll be able to give Tyr a proper burial.
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"We're going to the river," Jean-Claude explains. "To bury him. You have the right to join us; you fought with him, after all."
Hild rumbles and says something in an unknown language, with her deep, gravelly voice. Then she looks at Faith. "Come," she agrees.
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Faith follows them, slightly awkward, uncomfortable as always with other people's emotions - and her own.
This was not the way she wanted to leave Cleveland. Canada is cold. And gets snow.
And she doesn't speak French.
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