Streets of Fandom, Saturday Afternoon
It was possible that going out Saturday afternoon wasn't the best idea Henry had ever had. To be fair, everything looked perfectly ordinary through his window, and it wasn't until he was a good block away from his apartment that he saw his first gremlin.
The small, green creature gnashed its teeth at Henry in what could have passed for a smile if there hadn't been the suggestion of slime and fang to it. Henry had a terrified moment -- long enough to lean down to grab a rock -- before the thing dashed at him.
BLAM!
The little creature's head exploded into a shower of yet more green slime. "Well, that doesn't get any less gross," Cindy drawled from Henry's left. "It didn't get any on you, did it?" She sauntered towards him, casually holstering a handgun with the ease of long practice. "Was this your first one? I got jumped in my hotel room this morning. God, I hope the cleaning crew can get whatever that gunk is out of the carpet."
It would almost certainly be better for her cover if she were to pretend to be a little more upset by this. But she could do damage control after the invasion of toothy, slimy, whatever-they-weres was over with. Especially since the sound of her shot seemed to have attracted a few more.
Nausea ran through Henry, and he brought the hand not holding a rock to his stomach. There was more than the one. Oh God. He centered himself, tried to stay still in the timeline. He shouldn't be this afraid to fight something this much smaller than him -- he'd fought enough humans in his life --but his brain was having a hard time convincing the rest of his body of that.
He was too frightened and startled to be clever, or to feel any particular way about Cindy's apparent composure except grateful. "It was the first," he said, and swallowed his excess saliva. "You're a good shot. They -- they're getting into buildings, too? What are they?"
He tossed his stone at one that was getting closer. The injured creature hissed.
Another creature crawled out of a nearby sewer grate and dashed for them. Cindy kicked it into the wall of the nearest building and its head made a sickening crunch with the impact. She deliberately stepped between it and Henry as it slowly began sliding to the ground.
"I live in New York. Sometimes it pays to know your way around a weapon." As excuses went it was kind of poor, but most people considered New York a cesspool of crime and filth under the shiny Broadway and 5th Avenue exterior and usually went with it. In other times, Henry might be one of the few who questioned it, but he didn't seem to be in very good shape right now. "You okay?" she asked, leaning towards him. "Maybe we should get you inside, let you lie down? I can hold these things off for awhile."
Cindy, that was not anywhere near as reassuring as you'd meant.
"I'm fine," Henry said, and shook his head. "I didn't know slime made me woozy."
Look, an actual joke, if a weak one. He didn't buy the New York line -- he knew how New York's crime stats compared to Chicago's, and he had never needed a gun -- but it was not the most curious hour of his life, and he wasn't exactly in a place to do a qualitative analysis on it at the moment, no. He'd go with the explanation for the moment.
He was fully on his feet and looking for more ammunition when a gremlin launched itself at him from a nearby windowsill. Its claws barely met his collar before Henry abruptly disappeared into time, clothes crumpling to the pavement with a bewildered gremlin on top.
...
...
No, really, ...
To say Cindy was taken aback was putting it mildly. Very mildly. She took a step forward and nearly got her ankles bitten by the gremlin that had...instigated whatever the hell had happened to Henry. If the nasty creature hadn't gotten tangled up in Henry's clothing, it would have gotten her. Well, her boot, at least--the hardened leather was probably thick enough to stand up to even their sharp and pointy teeth.
Said boot leather was being applied to the creature's face and Cindy managed to unholster her gun, thumb off the safety, and shoot it before the creature landed. For good measure, she also shot the one Henry had hit with a rock--she didn't like the way it kept hissing at her. And then she scooped up Henry's (thankfully slime-free) pile of clothing and headed back to the hotel.
If these creatures didn't cause spontaneous teleportation, someone was going to have a lot of explaining to do.
[OOC: NFI. Preplayed with the smashing steel_not_glass.]
The small, green creature gnashed its teeth at Henry in what could have passed for a smile if there hadn't been the suggestion of slime and fang to it. Henry had a terrified moment -- long enough to lean down to grab a rock -- before the thing dashed at him.
BLAM!
The little creature's head exploded into a shower of yet more green slime. "Well, that doesn't get any less gross," Cindy drawled from Henry's left. "It didn't get any on you, did it?" She sauntered towards him, casually holstering a handgun with the ease of long practice. "Was this your first one? I got jumped in my hotel room this morning. God, I hope the cleaning crew can get whatever that gunk is out of the carpet."
It would almost certainly be better for her cover if she were to pretend to be a little more upset by this. But she could do damage control after the invasion of toothy, slimy, whatever-they-weres was over with. Especially since the sound of her shot seemed to have attracted a few more.
Nausea ran through Henry, and he brought the hand not holding a rock to his stomach. There was more than the one. Oh God. He centered himself, tried to stay still in the timeline. He shouldn't be this afraid to fight something this much smaller than him -- he'd fought enough humans in his life --but his brain was having a hard time convincing the rest of his body of that.
He was too frightened and startled to be clever, or to feel any particular way about Cindy's apparent composure except grateful. "It was the first," he said, and swallowed his excess saliva. "You're a good shot. They -- they're getting into buildings, too? What are they?"
He tossed his stone at one that was getting closer. The injured creature hissed.
Another creature crawled out of a nearby sewer grate and dashed for them. Cindy kicked it into the wall of the nearest building and its head made a sickening crunch with the impact. She deliberately stepped between it and Henry as it slowly began sliding to the ground.
"I live in New York. Sometimes it pays to know your way around a weapon." As excuses went it was kind of poor, but most people considered New York a cesspool of crime and filth under the shiny Broadway and 5th Avenue exterior and usually went with it. In other times, Henry might be one of the few who questioned it, but he didn't seem to be in very good shape right now. "You okay?" she asked, leaning towards him. "Maybe we should get you inside, let you lie down? I can hold these things off for awhile."
Cindy, that was not anywhere near as reassuring as you'd meant.
"I'm fine," Henry said, and shook his head. "I didn't know slime made me woozy."
Look, an actual joke, if a weak one. He didn't buy the New York line -- he knew how New York's crime stats compared to Chicago's, and he had never needed a gun -- but it was not the most curious hour of his life, and he wasn't exactly in a place to do a qualitative analysis on it at the moment, no. He'd go with the explanation for the moment.
He was fully on his feet and looking for more ammunition when a gremlin launched itself at him from a nearby windowsill. Its claws barely met his collar before Henry abruptly disappeared into time, clothes crumpling to the pavement with a bewildered gremlin on top.
...
...
No, really, ...
To say Cindy was taken aback was putting it mildly. Very mildly. She took a step forward and nearly got her ankles bitten by the gremlin that had...instigated whatever the hell had happened to Henry. If the nasty creature hadn't gotten tangled up in Henry's clothing, it would have gotten her. Well, her boot, at least--the hardened leather was probably thick enough to stand up to even their sharp and pointy teeth.
Said boot leather was being applied to the creature's face and Cindy managed to unholster her gun, thumb off the safety, and shoot it before the creature landed. For good measure, she also shot the one Henry had hit with a rock--she didn't like the way it kept hissing at her. And then she scooped up Henry's (thankfully slime-free) pile of clothing and headed back to the hotel.
If these creatures didn't cause spontaneous teleportation, someone was going to have a lot of explaining to do.
[OOC: NFI. Preplayed with the smashing steel_not_glass.]