Nights 59: Ruins

[inconstancy]

[ from here]-They were spilled out somewhere that she didn't recognize. This wasn't a super creepy hospital or anything like that. Or military base. Whatever, she was trying to keep up. But it was hard to keep up with what suddenly presented itself to her. It wasn't like anything he mentioned: not a cute Stepford town or anything similar; it looked

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[anemptydecapo]

[From here]

This was not a part of Doyleton.

That was an easy statement to make, but it was the only one he could make with certainty. He'd ran to Doyleton before after all and, mind clouded by panic and desperation as it was at the time, he remembered the path he took. This was an entirely different area and, as he glided toward one of the taller, broken walls to continue keeping cover, the Guild Head could honestly claim that he had no idea where or what this was. Lack of hazardous gas aside, it looked much like the ruined city from last night. It was smaller, though. Older.

There were voices ahead, one of which vaguely familiar and most certainly belonging to neither Landel or the man over the radio. He turned his head back toward Zanuff and gave a sort of "don't bother" gesture with his free hand. There wasn't a point in the ninja starting an altercation with uninvolved individuals, especially when that would call attention to their whereabouts.

[chippforprez]

It really shouldn't have been surprising that there was only more destruction waiting for the two of them when the forest finally cleared up, but Chipp looked surprised anyway as they stumbled onto a ruined town, or at least, what Chipp thought was a ruined town. He certainly didn't hope that was the case, but those crumbling structures were definitely buildings and the scene at the riverbank started to feel all more foreboding

[anemptydecapo]

Zanuff actually wished to follow them...? Venom shook his head, lowering his voice as the other man did. "If that voice belongs to who I think it does, then I doubt he thought that far ahead." Anyone more interested in starting a band than anything productive when in captivity could not have possibly thought of finding Landel for themselves. Whatever reason that imbecile was here for (or how he had gotten here that quickly--he must have used one of those rings...), it wasn't worth getting involved. And as it were: "They have no reason to hide themselves if they don't know we're here. If they find anything important, we'll hear it. Do not bother them."

He literally could not stress that enough. Attempting to do so would require raising his voice and he was not giving away their location. Not to Scott Pilgrim.Tch. The assassin shook his head again, this time to himself, before going back to examining their surroundings quietly. Out of all the wreckage, very few of the structures remained standing. It seemed implausible for someone to

[chippforprez]

Alright, now Venom was just acting weird. Chipp raised a brow as his companion did his very best to persuade him that contacting these two people was not a good idea. Did he know those guys or something? The events tonight have shown Chipp a few weird things: 1) Whoever was in charge here fucked up and 2) Venom actually had friends. Naturally, he was wondering if this was another "friend" whom Venom wished to avoid in order to preserve his image as fearless Guild Leader

[anemptydecapo]

It was precisely that way of thinking that caused the majority of misunderstandings between the ninja and the assassin. As one-track-minded as Chipp Zanuff could be, it looked like, despite "working together", there remained a level of distrust whenever he spoke with Venom. Most of what the Guild Head said was never taken at face value, which was unfortunate because most of what Venom said was intended to be taken as precisely that. Venom understood it was never malicious or intentional, but it was there. And it was annoying.

It was especially irritating right now. Buddy. His mouth opened without his consent, a scowl ruining the usual line his lips formed. When he said he had no friends, it was neither a play at pity or hiding things for the sake of his self-image: he really did not have people he could claim to be friends. When he implied Scott was an idiot, he was similarly hiding nothing: he really did think Scott Pilgrim was a mindless moron. They were not "buddies". Venom genuinely did not want Pilgrim's attention on him because

[chippforprez]

Unaware that the back of his head was looking like a mighty fine target right about now, Chipp nodded and started to head through the ruined streets, when he looked up at the horizon. Mountains... this whole area was surrounded by them, but he was just now noticing. All of a sudden, a lightbulb went off in his head, a rare moment that Chipp didn't hesitate to take advantage of. He slammed his fist into his palm, and forgot to turn down the volume in his voice as he announced the new plan.

"Yatta! It's easy, we just have to go to the mountains!" He looked at Venom with a triumphant look, like he just easily solved their problem of finding out where Landel was. It was so obvious; where else would one hide if they needed to make finding them very difficult? Of course, one could point out that it didn't work too well for Chipp and his Master, if one decided they really needed a punch in the face. Anyway, it was the obvious choice for where to look next. "He has to be hiding there. Where else could he be

[anemptydecapo]

"Yatta!"

What was he--?! It was impressive how the assassin both succeeded and utterly failed at physically conveying his discontent with Zanuff's sudden penchant for loudness. Both of his arms raised up, but neither one could decide just what their job was: the right (the one with the cue) shot toward the other man's mouth before curling back just inches away from its destination (he really did not wish to touch him. There had been too much touching tonight), while his left repetitively and angrily gestured for the man to keep it down (which his right hand soon joined in doing as well). In the end, it was an interesting mess of aggravated arm-flailing and it was a wonder the Guild Head hasn't simply used all that panicked energy to jab Zanuff in the stomach.

Thankfully Zanuff continued on to explain himself, meaning that embarrassing display was mercifully short. Venom's hands dropped back down to his sides and his head turned toward the area Chipp had been peering at. The mountains...?

Sigh. Without a word, Venom extended his

[chippforprez]

Failing to notice Venom's attempts to get him to lower the volume of his voice without physical contact, Chipp just grabbed his hand when offered and was about to dash off into the distance once more (it was really quite convenient that Venom could float) before he paused, remembering how those attempts worked out the last few times. It ended with Venom crashing into things or getting whiplash... and now that they were heading towards a mountain, even Chipp didn't think letting his colleague's face smash a mountainside was a good idea (and it was because Venom could float, now that he thought about it).

Fortunately, Chipp had an idea.

Assuming that Venom would have approved of this idea, as it preserved the integrity of his face, the ninja was quick to grab the rest of Venom and somehow managed to get the assassin on his back, tucking Venom's legs over his arms to make sure no one would fly off once he started running. "Wait, this works better! Alright!"

And so, Chipp started running... again...

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