2013.04.03 - Gotham City Bug Hunt

It's spring. The sun is out, the clouds are little puffs in the sky, though the wind is up a little, causing the steel and concrete canyons to whistle a little more than they usually do.
However, that means absolutely nothing at the moment. Kurt's been feeling more than a little restless; call it being cooped up in the Institute, or bored of the Danger Room, or it could be that feral side of him that wants nothing more than to grab something and feel it break under his hands.
Welcome spring! When other eyes are turning to love and such, the blue-furred elf has turned away from that emotion and is going to blow off some serious steam.
It could also be his friend is rubbing off on him just a little?
Could be?
Regardless, Kurt finds himself, of all places, in.. the sewers that join Metropolis and Gotham. There's a decided dividing line there, in style and upkeep, and there has been some word that even below the sewers, there is a place that time and generations has forgotten. Sometimes, a little exploration isn't a bad thing.
Domino knows when a person is getting restless. The jitters in the hands, the look in the eyes, the tensing of facial muscles, it almost manifests in the same ways with everyone. She's seen it plenty of times in herself, too.
It's why she invited Kurt along on this hunt into Gotham's underworld. Not the dark alleys and shady dealings sort of underworld, but the real, legitimate world below the streets and beyond the subways. Old, old Gotham. Home to what many refer to as Mole Men, homeless that have created their own dystopian city beneath everyone else. Still, many miles of claustrophobic, maze-like tunnels remain unexplored. Entire caverns untouched over the decades. It's a trove for rare treasures, and more dangerous to explore than any naturally forming cave on the planet. An excursion down here requires special gear and planning.
A hunt requires even further refinement.
With a splash of grimy water beneath a tall pair of boots Domino drops down into a lower tunnel, decaying brickwork and scattered ancient yellow sodium lightbulbs doing little to lighten the ambience. She's left her trench far behind, nothing but armor, weapons, and lowlight goggles sitting upon her forehead. The short, bulky shotgun filling her hands had been specially picked just for this trip. Plenty of room clearing power without the sledgehammer punch that might tear down the decaying walls around them.
It's only natural that she would want to bring a teleporter along for a trip like this. She's not making any plans to die in hundred year old Gotham sewers.
"Alright, Blue," she says in a low voice that echoes down the narrow tunnel, "there shouldn't be anyone alive this far in. If it moves, it's probably what we're after." It also won't be a person. It'll be a giant, mutated bug.
Kurt is dressed normally enough, but.. he's carrying something that perhaps Domino's never seen him with before.. two swords that hang on his hip. And the way he moves with them suggests that he's so very familiar with their weight, with the way they lay.. not obstructing his movement in the least. If anything, he walks with that step of a man who knows he's armed. While it's not added confidence, it's.. with a knowledge.
The sodium lights provide just enough light for those glowing yellow eyes, and Kurt has to be careful not to bleed into the shadows and have his partner believe that he's gone. If anything, this might be a fun time to learn if he can hide another with him in those shadows. It'd be a useful thing; perhaps not now, but in the future?
Kurt's keeping pace with hands and feet, though he's doing so on the ceiling, avoiding the grimy water, though his path isn't much cleaner. His tail that dangles is the pull-rope, as it were, for him to descend.
"A mutated bug.." and even though he'd heard it before, he still shudders. "Terminex just wouldn't pay a house call here?" Still, Kurt is actually looking forward to this. It's a chance to stretch out and let go.
There's something to be said for the way Domino's hunting companion crawls around on the ceiling. "Watching you is giving me flashbacks of 'Aliens.'"
And Dom, without her pulse rifle. On the other hand, she does pat the side of the drum-fed pump action shotgun dangling across her shoulder. "I've got our exterminator right here. Besides, they'd ask too many questions. To some of us this is just another paycheck."
The tunnels split apart up ahead. She pauses in a low crouch, flicking the gunlight on to sweep down the side passage which had gone dark untold years ago. "My kingdom for a pulse tracker," she mutters before flicking the light back off.
Up ahead the distant sound of falling water carries down the tunnel, the artery that they're crawling through having cracked open. The old brick and mortar had collapsed along with a few feet of dirt and crumbling cement, opening up into a large room that looks like it had been a service yard for a subway back when it had been powered by a steam engine rather than electricity.
Dom approaches the opening with care, her weight enough to unsettle another loosened brick which slips free and clacks across debris on its way down, shattering into dark red powder some twenty feet below.
"Mind helping a lady out there, Fuzzy?"
Kurt answers Dom's comment about her flashbacks with a quick flick of his tail towards her face, a wide grin on his face briefly. Facehuggers! "I had nightmares for days after.." and he pulls his tail up again. "Made it through Two, und couldn't do another."
Kurt likes the ceiling, and would easily take her with him.. but that would be a little awkward, to say the least.
The gunlight does help those glowing eyes peer into the darkness, and he shakes his head. "I didn't see anything down there, leibling.. nothing moving.." On either side that he could tell, anyway.. though that second tunnel gives him a lingering feeling of 'eeeeeh'.. "Though my spidey senses tell me there might be something 'not good' down there." Even if there wasn't anything that he could key in on.
Kurt drops to the ground at her side now, his landing putting him into crouch; a position that he prefers when on the move than standing straight, which requires more thought. He, too, peers at the opening before he offers a smile and reaches out to take hold, "Hold your breath.." As if that's needed?
*bamf*
*bamf*
And the pair land 20 feet below them, the damp, the mosture clinging now to the blue fur. He wipes at his arms, his expression.. disgusted. "Bath when we're done?"
When the furry blue demon drops down beside Domino she extracts a hand from her weapon and reaches out without diverting her gaze to ..pet..the top of your head. "Don't worry, I'll keep you safe."
Is it a joke? Serious? All about endearment? Totally without obvious emotion from her part. Who the hell knows.
Dom's starting to get used to the teleporting bit, at least. It's always easier when she can see it coming. With that second of warning issued she's ready for the jump, suddenly appearing alongside you down upon the cracked tilework floor below. Any discomfort in her gut is swallowed back down as the gunlight flicks back to life, the woman sweeping the cavernous room beyond with her usual attention to her surroundings. Only a minor interruption in her game. Teleporting is starting to become a usable tactic along with her usual tricks, getting the literal jump on any opposition.
Clear. Nothing but shadows and falling water and sludge.
"It's creepy, right?" she asks. Even a soft tone carries for miles down here. "This feels creepy." The rusting hulk of old passenger cars don't seem to care either way.
..Wait. Something doesn't look right. Dom's light settles down the length of track, making a clicking sound twice from the corner of her mouth to try and catch your attention before motioning ahead toward the light with her head. There's ..organic debris ahead. Something doesn't belong down here.
At the unexpected scritch on his head as he stands a little shorter than usual, Kurt looks over and grins, his fangs showing, and his tail swishes in response. There was a story nearly 40 years ago, 'A boy and his dog'. Is this a different take on 'A girl and her demon'? Of course, in Limbo, it's already been done, but here? Kurt is doing just that what his mother had suggested; getting in touch with that 'other' side. Though, the chances are good she didn't quite mean THIS way.
"Ich habe keine Bedenken." I have no concern.
Once they land, Kurt is ready for anything, and he moves before Domino does. For those seconds, he's on guard until she finds her way, and it doesn't escape him that she's getting more and more used to it.. and is ready quicker. "It won't be long before you're as quick as Logan, leibling," he murmurs. Even quietly spoken, it seems as if the place echoes every sound they make.
Creepy is one word for it, certainly.
"Ja.. even the rats--"
Wait.. and Kurt does catch the flicker of light, a bit of something that doesn't seem right. Something that clearly doesn't belong.
Kurt is more than happy to be the bird dog, flushing out for a distance shot. He's the close up, as evidenced by his swords. He can see better in the dim light than she can, so it's something he can do!
Glancing back at Dom, Kurt nods and in the next second, the blue elf is a fleeting shadow up and over the old passenger cars, ready to land on whatever it is to scare it up.
What's left to discover isn't likely to get scared anytime soon. It looks like regurgitated goo from some unseen stomach. There's a couple of small bones and tufts of fur poking through the sickly brown mass, suggesting that some of the rats down here ended up having a less than comfortable ending some time ago. It doesn't look particularly old, either.
With you on the scene Domino pans upward, searching the ceiling and, true to movie fashion, checking those corners with the bright light bolted onto her weapon. "I'm already quicker than Logan," she says back in what might be a joking manner. "I don't have three hundred pounds of adamantium bogging me down."
Okay, so there may have been a few other reasons beside the teleporting why she invited you along for this trip.
"There's more..on the walls," she says with a hint of disgust in her tone. "Least now I know where the smell's coming from. Standard tracking rules, we've got evidence of passage. Now we need to find our trail. And watch our step." Because, eww. "Checking our six, hang tight." If there's more remains on the other end of those passenger cars then trying to pick a direction is going to be slightly more challenging.
Then again, with her luck maybe it won't be any trouble at all.
Kurt looks over, his tail swishing in the dank air. "Rats.." he murmurs before he steps easily over the tops of the cars, staying on the hard points so he doesn't fall through the rusted roofs. When she declares that she's checking their six, he's perched atop one of the middle cars, glowing yellow eyes searching the walls, the ceilings. The dim light is more than enough to illuminate the place for him, and he's got a scowl on his face.
"With all the carcasses, I wonder if this isn't one of their feeding grounds." Because it wouldn't be their garbage dump, right?
Craning his neck, his tail swishes again, and .. did he see something moving from under her light, off to the left? Luck comes in both flavours, after all!
"Three o'clock," is hissed, and he draws a sword, those glowing yellow eyes staring into the darkness.
Kurt differentiates between the bootfalls and the ceramic tile shift under your feet and what may lie ahead in the called direction. His tail swings around and takes the sword from his hand before Kurt takes the leap up and towards a top 'corner' of the rounded tunnel to the right. He looks back deliberately so you can catch a glimpse of those glowing yellow eyes and their position. "Top right.."
Anything else?
Blast away!
On point. Kurt moves forward, the light illuminating enough of the darkness, and as he advances, his attention is hyperfocussed, his pointed ears.. perking forward? Do they actually move that way?
For a heartbeat, two.. he's quiet, his muscles tense, his tail poised to strike the moment he leaps, and in his motion?
*SQUEEEEEEK!!*
Skittering quickly and directly towards Domino, there's a large, grey sewer rat running as fast as he can in the cleanest stretch of the tunnel.
Patience. Caution. Adrenaline. Steady aim. Domino stops and braces herself, the crisp sounds of her passing stopping altogether until only silence remains. A half-gloved finger rests along the curved metal trigger, holding. Waiting. Waiti--
"Shit!"
Her nerves may be ever so slightly on edge down here. She's not expecting a large rat to suddenly -charge toward her,- quickly jumping in place as the rodent darts beneath her and scurries along for the nearest spot of cover.
"Almost forgot about the rodents of unusual size..."
Clicking. Bigger than rat nails across the tile. She's not moving. Nightcrawlers don't 'click.' It's followed by a soft scraping sound, a small handful of dust falling away from the ceiling, passing over a sodium light as little more than a patch of fog.
Up comes the gunlight.
At first she doesn't see it. A sleek brown oval shape fitting in with the rest of the grimy architecture. Until it moves.
"Contact!"
There's a bright flash from the muzzle of her weapon, the room thundering with a single ear-pounding crack. The sodium light gets obliterated, more dust and debris raining down from the perforated patch of ceiling. The smoking brass and plastic hull of a shotshell clacks across the ground as she automatically cycles the weapon's action, readying a follow-up shot--
--for a target which she can no longer find. "Lost 'em!"
Kurt is keyed up, no doubt there. He's on the wall, his tail grasping the sword even as he holds on to the side of the tunnel. Those glowing eyes that see so well in dim light are suddenly cued towards the sound of scraping, of shifting tile, and as his gaze lifts as the light is briefly obscured, his eyes widen, "Zum Teufel.." and the other sword is pulled from his hip. One hand, two feet-- more than enough to keep him.
One step, two, and he's leaping forward towards that fog, the obscuring of the light his biggest indication of where the thing is. It's got almost as good an ability with blending into the shadows as he does!
He's ready to go, his muscles bunched for leaping before-
*BOOOOM!!*
Muzzle flash brightens the area for that split second, and a spray of shot exits the shotgun rapidly in a direction very near where he is, and in a *bamf* he is the hell out of the way.
Landing again in the same general area, Kurt is left blinking, trying to readjust his eyes to the dimness, now minus one light as the glass is sprayed all into the immediate area. Scurrying, at least, can be discerned, and swiveling his head around, those glowing eyes blink once again before he calls out,
"Eight o'clock!"
*BAMF*
*BAMF*
With the direction called, he, too, moves, putting him into a spot that if the creature backs off, he'll be there ready to meet it.
Times like this Domino wishes she could be shooting at other people. They're easier to spot! She knows what they're capable of. Giant beetles living hundreds of feet beneath Gotham's streets, not so much! As the dust slowly filters into the still air she's searching the enclosed railyard for movement, sounds, debris, -anything- that would give her the location of their lost bug of the hour.
Then you make the call.
She can hear it skittering across the tile after her own feet launch her away from the crumbling surface, the gun held close to her chest as she backflips once, drops into a crouch, turns, and fires shot number two.
BLAM!
SPLACK!
What had been a foot-long bug, quite possibly a mutated cockroach, is now reduced to a streak of ichor and a splattered carapace that slams against the far wall, spattering more of that goo across the surface before falling to the floor, twitching as the life ebbs away from within its shell.
Dom's quickly stepping toward it, the next shell clattering off to the side as she trains her weapon upon the pellet-riddled corpse. "Stay sharp, there's more of these things down here!"
Sure enough, the sound of their brief skirmish seems to be alerting more of them. Some go into hiding. Some step up to defend their colony.
Kurt likes being useful, and in this particular mission? He's feeling pretty good- or rather, he will when he's ready to collapse in his bed after having a beer at the end of the night. But for the moment, every muscle in his body is tense, and he's ready to leap on the bug if it gets closer than he's comfortable with, and teleport it the hell back and make another call for coordinates.
Now..
And there it is.. that second blast, and this time, Kurt is pretty much ready for the report as it echoes through the cavernous tunnel. The splatter, however.. well, that's pretty disgusting, and some of it gets on the fuzzy blue bird-dog, eliciting a, "Mein Gott.. that is disgusting," before he exhales softly- that too, echoing.
It's the *scritch* sound from farther up now that gains his attention, as well as your words. His gaze shifts forward, and where caves would echo with the sound of bats taking flight? This.. this is a bit creepier. Okay, more than a bit.
Kurt's on the ceiling again, and he calls out softly, "Would you like me to take you up here, leibling?" Granted, he'd have to carry her, but it's not a huge issue.
Every forward, however- always moving, and under the next, weak sodium-lit glow, he can see that which he'd heard yards back.
"I can go in like a cue ball und scatter them?" And any that run, can be shot at? Of course, his idea of scattering them is to run them through with the two swords he's currently wielding.
"Sorry," Dom quickly replies while nudging the dying creature with the toe of her boot. She can't help but make a disgusted expression of her own. "That is rather offensive, isn't it."
And they're definitely not alone, either. "Sometimes I really hate being right," she grumbles while sweeping the light across the room once more. Does she want to be on top of the coach cars? The bugs can climb..! Still, high ground?
"Beam me up, Blue."
Two *bamfs* later and she's back in the game, light shining down one of the tunnels as dozens of those rounded brown spots start to flow down the floor, the walls, the ceiling in their direction. They're everywhere.
"'Mein Gott' is right, the bastards are multiplying," she states in that low tone, the red dot of her gunsight snapping from one cluster of critters to another. "We've got some work to do, Blue. Go play, I'll mop up what gets past."
Shower after this? Try a few hours in a hot tub. Is it possible to get tub-side pizza delivery..?
High ground- high ground is good.. which is why Kurt spends a good portion of his time on walls and ceilings. It's better than being low. Vantage is nice all around, and bug splatter is usually at a minimum. Unless, of course, they're HUGE bugs!
Kurt goes to get her and sets her on a hard point with a touch of relief to that blue, serious face. Now, he won't have to worry about teleporting into the middle of a swarm to get her out.. mostly.
Kurt nods as he looks grimly down. "Ja," comes softly. "Und when you find one or two, there are always thousands you don't see.." Isn't that a happy thought?
Still, the response to his question receives a nod in acknowledgment. He pulls the sword from his tail, and now, he's dual wielding.. "Let's see what we can do, ja?" Looking into the nest, he's picking his spot, and while he does so, he murmurs, "Amanda's place has a hot tub.. und the restaurants deliver."
In the next heartbeat, Kurt is gone and reappears in the center, just a touch off to the right where he'll have something of cover for his back. He's not fully landed before he takes the first swing, the second.. the sword touch ringing out as he hits chitonous shell. Aiming higher now, he's hacking at antennae, leaping into the air, keeping himself away from those barbed legs, he strikes out at the joints of the legs..
The moment Kurt lands in the middle, there are a few that scatter on the outskirts, more apt to run for cover than fight.
It's a comforting thought, really it is. "I'm already seeing about thirty of them, what does that translate into?"
"I haven't even -met- Amanda yet and she's gonna learn to hate me," Domino replies. "Give the poor girl a break, that's what hotel suites are for." Because these two aren't about to take on an entire hive full of mutated 'roaches. They may as well be having lunch in the school cafeteria.
Then you're gone into the fray, giving her a chance to stand guard and watch you at work. When some of them scatter she slowly grins from around the red dot sight. "Sucks when the rats fight back, don't it?"
BAM-kCHAK!
There's probably better mediums they could be using for redecorating the maintenance platform, but it works in a pinch.
"Remember entomology, Blue,"--BAM-kCHAK!--"workers, breeders, and soldiers!" And, much as she'd rather not think about it? Probably a queen, as well. How else would these buggers be reproducing so rapidly? Which means she should conserve her ammo for the ones that actually try to hang around and pick a fight with the two X-Folk. Not that she's going to. These bugs don't belong in this city! They don't fit into the natural ecology of any location on the planet! Bullets are cheap.
BAM!
"She's gone," Kurt begins before he disappears and lands atop one of the creatures before plunging a sword deep between its head.. joint and the hard wing(!) case. There's a sickly sound of *ewww* as he twists, looking for that spot where he can disengage the head from the rest of the body. ".. for a couple of weeks.. und she'll be glad.." Once again, as the bug goes down under him, Kurt is pushing up and off, doing a flip in the air before he disappears into the aether, only to reappear once again, landing on another one, and one sword goes in deep while the other lashes at antennae. ".. that we're taking care of the place.."
Remember.. what? Yellow eyes look up, and the elf is beginning to look very much like the insides of a bug. It's hard to keep clean, and his tail swishes his thoughts on the matter. "Soldiers.." he murmurs, and he's glances up. What was that about being on the move.. until he's not and has to take stock of what and where he is. "Konigin?" Queen? "Oh.. crap." Nope, not in German that time!
"It's still -her- place," Domino calls back between spaced shots and spattered innards. "But, Hell. Whatever, I'm there."
With all of the commotion going on it's really easy to miss certain things happening a lot closer to home. There's creaking within the structure of the coach car she's standing atop of. There's also bugs all over the freaking place and a lot of racket coming out of her cannon of the afternoon. Then there's the matter of her power, itself. It's unpredictable, and at times...
One of the soldiers makes itself known, leaping through the air at her side, ready to sink mandibles into her neck--
--when the roof of the car shatters into orange dust, dropping her to the aisle below.
At times it's also completely unforgiving.
The bug that nearly got her ends up getting blasted from below, nearly exploding mid-leap before she slams down to the cracked wooden floorboards. "Ow!"
"I can do hotel," Kurt's back on the ceiling again, his swords hanging down as he takes stock. "I won't get yelled at for leaving--"
"Bu--" -g!
The sound of the metal giving way beneath the weight of the soldier bug is deafening, the creaking metal grinding.. and then collapsing due to weakness over the years. Decades. Almost century.
The sound of the shotgun blast is a sound for sore ears (literally and figuratively!), and he's got his attention divided. Back in the middle of the fray, he is, and the worker bugs are doing their best to defend; but with the distinct.. nasty scent that emenates from that now dying soldier bug? "Uh oh.." Bugs. Scent.
There's gonna be more.
Sure enough, another comes, but it comes from the other side of the nest, and it steps on the workers as it tries to make its way towards the interlopers. "I've got this one!"
"Good, 'cause I don't!"
This would have been a perfect moment to have a machine gun. Too bad Domino didn't bring one of them along for the trip! Another bug tries to get at her as soon as she's standing back up, the weight of it impacting with the window splintering it with a loud -snap.-
"I think they're pissed!"
There's no time to aim the weapon properly. With a touch the red dot of a laser sight comes into play, filtering through the growing haze in the large room forgotten by time. Almost as quickly as the beam comes into play it's interrupted by that beetle trying once more to get through to her.
When the window finally explodes it does so away from the mercenary, the shotgun speaking once more as shards of glass pre-dating the lamenated safety windows by several decades turning into a lethal rain of grimy shrapnel. There's not much left of the bug, itself.
She leaps out of the same window, rolling across the ground to bleed off some of her momentum before diving right back into the fight. "We've gotta push into the hive, down with the queen! Look--"
Out?
Before the thought can finish Dom's left hand has a pistol out and readied, barely taking the time to get it pointed in the right direction before she fires once, exploding the torso of another as it leaps toward you from behind.
Kurt's got his attention on that soldier bug, and sure enough, he's away from his wall, or rather, his back is no longer to it, but his side. He catches the sounds of Dom 'digging' her way out of the carriage as only the dotted merc can. A smile creases his face, though he tries not to smile too broadly due to bug guts. As long as he can hear that sweet sound of gunfire, he's a happy elf.
Movement is caught even as the elf leaps into the air, teleporting at the last moment before landing atop the soldier once again. The gunfire that erupts from a newly freed Domino causes that bug that was 'sneaking' up on Kurt to completely.. explode, and he ends up wearing a great deal. Sadly, his torso was covered, so some of the goo makes it on his face.
Wiping his eyes with the spade of his tail, the smile's turned into a grimace before he takes both swords and digs down. Even as he does, the soldier falls into its back as a tactic, the pincers working frantically to get whatever it is that is disrupting its movement (and health) away. Kurt leaps down, and as the bug thrashes, Kurt is hit in the hip, and is sent flying.. not towards the wall, no, but towards the center of the gathering.
Teleporting isn't in the cards on this one, and so Kurt curls up, his hands outstretched with his swords to act as defense. Uncurling at a moment when he's got some balance and less momentum, he pushes off, arms outstretched, and looks like a diver ready to do a swan dive back into the fray. He goes in against the soldier head first.. or rather, swords first, ready to take its head off.. and he flings up and over in deadly handspring.
Gunfire is something which Domino is all too happy to provide, too! There's lots of movement, lots of tiny, fast moving targets that seem to prefer clumping together rather than scouting out independently. The spread of shotgun pellets gives her a wide area of cover, ripping apart the lesser bugs by the handful with each pull of the trigger.
"They've gotta stop coming sometime!" Don't they..?
Every time the action cycles on her weapon it gets that much lighter, burning through the shells until the drum runs dry. With a practiced motion she sweeps the emptied gun across her back and hauls out a grenade, getting a running start before she leaps into the mass (and mess) with you. The pin's out and gone before her feet leave the floor.
"Port us down the tunnel, Blue!"
An underhanded toss behind her looses the priming lever with a merry little -Ping!- as her other hand reaches through the air for you, knowing that as soon as contact is made they'll be elsewhere. Away from the charge waiting to detonate.
Kurt's landed on his feet, his swords leaving a messy swath of injury and harm to the soldier bug. It's oozing from several parts, and the guts are keeping it from moving all that fast. It will die. Sooner rather than later.
Catching the sudden silence of the shot, a blue, fuzzy head pops up from the scene of the carnage and looks around in the dim light.
There you-- here you are!
The words 'port us' is more than enough. The fact that you're in the center.. okay, with a live grenade is more than enough for Kurt to know that it's time to get the HELL out of Dodge. Wrapping his tail around your waist (simply because he CAN), the roaches are left far behind, and the two reappear a reasonable distance away. And by the way? In a spot where he knows the ceiling won't come down on him and you.
It's like clockwork. The two disappear and reappear, Domino counting off the seconds for the fuse before she snaps her fingers.
Further down the tunnel there's a sound not all that far off from the bamf made from your teleportation, though larger in scale and much longer lasting. The air pressure within the tunnel shifts, drops, popping both of her ears as a vacuum effect causes the air to rush past the pair quickly enough to rustle her bladed locks of hair.
The explosion that follows sounds like it went off underwater, a peculiar -BWUMP!- followed by the sickly spattering of shredded bug parts flying back out into the tunnel. Half of an abdomen lands with a soft thump not far from where they now stand, the rest of the bug it came from simply not there.
"Glad to know those things work," she says aloud before flashing a toothy grin your way. "Singularity charge. Less likely to hurt the architecture."
Both of her pistols come out next with a pair of soft clicks, the albino sweeping one down to the floor with the other lighting the path ahead. "Care to storm the kingdom of Bugtopia?"
The air rushing past would give Kurt's fur rise.. if it wasn't mostly matted down with bug guts. His fur is a mess; strands of green and.. slime grey are mixed in with that indigo blue. Those glowing yellow eyes, however.. they're happy. Pleased.. and from the look of it, he's actually having a really good time.
Kurt smile broadly, allowing those pointed teeth to show once again, and coupled with the ichor.. it's a hell of a sight. His tail sways back and forth slowly, and his hands still hold his swords, drenched in the life goo of those roaches.
"Ist that what they are?" Hmmm. "They do," though he brings his tail up to dig into his ear in gesture. "Sorry.. popped. I don't suppose you have a piece of gum on you?"
Kurt watches you for a long moment before that grin brightens that messy face once again, and he drops a foot back, leaning forward in a sweeping bow; the sword in his right hand crosses his chest, the sword in his left is swept back like his foot.. and his tail rises. "I would love to, leibling." He straightens, mostly, from his bow, but it's more a combat crouch that is gained immediately after. "Shall we search?"
There's a lot of people that would probably be really unnerved by what they see standing there in the shadowy depths of Gotham. Domino isn't one of them. Rather, she's sharing your grin. "That's what that one was, anyway. After what we went through, you don't want me handling food."
A smirk is offered next with the sweeping bow, "Sometimes I forget that you teach drama." Once you realign yourself she reaches up to tap one of your gore-stained blades with the side of her pistol in a soft but acute -Ting.- "Your senses, my instinct. Let's find where the six-legged bitch is hiding."
Once more, into the depths of the railway tunnel. Further inside there aren't any lights to guide the way, the arched ceiling stained black from the carbon-saturated smoke the engines had once expelled into the air.
"I would think you would rather me wash my hands before handling food as well. I think my tail is the cleanest part of my body right now." Mind, Kurt's not bothering to wipe himself off at the moment. He's only going to get dirty again.
There comes an impish gleam to those pupil-less yellow eyes. Only one so familiar with his expressions could even begin to catch it as there is nothing.. no pupil, no iris, nothing that would hint to a 'gleam' to already glowing eyes. Still, it's there. His sword is raised, and with that gentle *ting*, he inclines his head. "No sense in not playing too," though his grin turns more feral for the next, "What is it? Taking a walk on the wild side." And he's having.. lots of fun.
Kurt takes a hold of your hand now, and with his senses and your instinct.. they will go far. As well as..
Kurt digs into his pocket and pulls out some plastic tubes. They're non-descript, and small. Holding one out to you, it's with a little bit of flair that he bends the tube, and a soft *snap* is heard. Suddenly, there's a soft white glow that comes. It's not bright.. but it's bright enough. Certainly enough for him to see by. With a little theatrics to the throw, he tosses the small glow stick as far as he can down the large tunnel. There.. many yards away now, there's a small, lit spot.
"Now, I can see."
"Hey, if you're the one going to eat it that's your decision to make," Domino replies while pressing forward, with your hand finding her own. That's ... Huh. Okay. She's not going to say it, but now she's thinking it: Date night. Movies just don't cut it with her. Guns, grenades, gore, and, in this case, Gotham. She may be faring better than you in the 'covered in goo' department, but she's far from being a rose.
The glowstick that you bring into play gets a soft sound of appreciation from her end, saying "You came prepared. Good job." She's so proud!
She's also getting -that- feeling again, stopping not far from where the glowstick landed to shine a gunlight down into a narrow drainage tunnel branching away from the railway. It'll be a snug fit, but it's just big enough. It's also covered in something notably slimy. "Ugh. I'm gonna regret saying this but I think that's the way we need to be going." With a slight grimace she holsters one of her sidearms, thinking "This is gonna get a lot worse before it gets any better."
Kurt's quite pleased with himself; the glo-sticks throw a perfect light for him. "Flares would have been too bright. Und we don't want to give away ..." our position? To bugs? Who knows- they may attack the light. Better for them to attack a glo-stick than the light attached to a weapon. "... our position," he ends a little, well.. lamely. He follows it up with a sheepish grin and a shrug, but doesn't stop walking.
He can actually see, and what he's looking at, he's not really very happy about. "The colour of the slime is changing, too.. und there aren't any carcasses."
Pulling another glo-stick from his pocket (He brought a handful!), Kurt cracks it again and throws it into the narrow drainage tunnel. Upon consideration, he hands you a few more for keeping. "Just in case.
"Now that I can see.." Kurt doesn't look thrilled with the prospect either, and he sheathes his swords. "I'll go first," he murmurs. "I can see better. Und if there's a problem, I can back us out."
"Then again, if we had some way of rounding all of these little bastards together that would make our lives vastly easier," Domino mutters while trying to figure out some way to make something like that happen. Just what would attract these guys? What do they have handy that would sound the proverbial alarm?
"Hey. You really got into things back there. You doing alright?" Any injuries she should be aware of?
As the one stick goes tumbling off into the distance she watches the pale white glow become more distant before rounding a curve and disappearing. The sound of its travel pauses momentarily then returns as it clicks across the floor.
"Sounds like a ten foot drop. Gonna be a rough trip if we aren't ready for the landing."
When you offer some extra sticks she finds places to tuck them into her combat webbing. As it turns out they fit perfectly into the elastic bands currently reserved for extra shotgun shells, which she clears out by reloading the bigger weapon's drum. Win-win!
"Alright, you're on point. Check, clear, give me the heads up. Oh, and catching me before I hit the floor would not go amiss."
"I'm sorry I didn't bring sugar for them.." Kurt pauses a moment before, "But our smell might bring them?" He grins again and leans in, "Lather, rinse, repeat.. many times to get this off of us later."
The concern, however, does gain Kurt's attention, and he ducks his head, the smile shifting to something a little more personal. "I'm fine, leibling. What about you? From that cave in?" If you're hurt, and still pushing forward? He'd never forgive himself...
"Now that we know it's a ten-foot drop?" The acrobat is ready, even though it'll be a tight fit. "Und of course I'll catch you. Wouldn't dream of letting you fall." He's got that tone, however, teasing you. He'd never, in a million years, let you fall when you are relying on him. Otherwise? You're like a cat! "Point, ja.. glowy eyes come in handy."
Squeezing in now, Kurt takes his time, shifting and moving along the closer quarters before he comes to the drop. "Going down.."
Domino makes a show of sniffing experimentally at herself, once more making a face. "I'd be surprised if our smell didn't scare them further away. Silver linings."
Aw, more concern for her? Sweet, but predictable. "Fine," she mutters while adjusting the shotgun sling about herself. "Not gonna say falling on your own grenades is -pleasant- per se, but I'm used to it."
Well, yeah. Of course you'd catch her, given half the chance. Could be from ten feet, could be from ten inches. Heck, she wouldn't put it past you to work alongside Bobby's ice formation in order to -make- her fall so you could bamf in and catch her. Thank the gods April First is behind them all. She made a point of avoiding the Xavier grounds on that day.
She finishes reloading with another meaty -Ka-CHAK,- the shells visibly rotating within the drum through clear windows molded into the body. "Back into the breach with you, Blue. I've got us secured up top. Hope you like waterslides."
See, in that blue furry body still beats the heart of a softie, even if Kurt is truly enjoying this entire 'letting go' thing, wearing the gore without blinking.. too much. Mind, it's bugs, but this is putting him into a role that he is truly.. flexing his muscles in. That, and he's enjoying the hell out of working with you.. fighting alongside and in tandem. He's learning new things about you, and working on applying what he knows and can do in order to augment what you can do. Strengths and weaknesses. He's discovering your weaknesses and adding his strengths, and vice versa.. and he wouldn't want to be anywhere else at this moment.
Okay, maybe the hot tub.
As for catching you? Any reason given is a perfect reason. Period. From falling out of the sky to tripping over something on the ground...
Kurt takes a deep breath and slides down that ten feet, cheating after a couple of feet. He disappears in the tube, only to reappear at the bottom before any real speed was gained. Yes.. he teleported for 10 feet.
Looking around from his vantage point, glowing yellow eyes narrow and his nose flares briefly. "It stinks down here, und it's not me.."
"Then we're probably on the right path," Domino replies from a crouch in front of the narrow tunnel. "Coming in."
Feet first--YECK that slime just -feels- offensive on her armor!--and she gives herself a little push into the darkness. The only way her shotgun will fit is by holding it above her head, meaning she's completely blind for the duration of her trip.
Accelerating..faster..bank to the left--freefall--bamf!
She appears beside you as a sheen of goo sloughs off of her armored skin, splatting to the ground around her in a none too pleasing sound. "Good lord..! Something -definitely- died down here. Don't suppose you thought to pack any clothespins with you?"
Through an arched brickwork doorway lies another larger room beyond, a gathering point for numerous water run-off lines. Many of them still have murky fluid pouring out of heavily stained maws. Rust-caked grates form old walkways and railings that are suspended from the ceiling by cables, short bridges linking brick walkways and ledges that don't appear to be much safer. Further below, as the light of another glowstick reveals, is a black-hued pool of water and waste.
Not much further inside is something even more unusual. Artificial light, not from a glowstick. Not from a sodium bulb. It's -white,- like from a fluorescent tube. Modern.
"Nein.. no clothespins." Kurt considers a moment before that grin reappears. "I should bottle this. Next time someone complains about my brimstone?" Has he got a real stench to share!
He's quite pleased with himself, truth be told, for making sure you got down safely. Kurt the safety net Wagner!
Still, it's time to move, and Kurt takes point once again, those glowing eyes at home with the darkness, though the dampness is starting to seep into his bones. His tail is stuck out and casually against the small of your back so it can be grabbed at any time, and he pulls his swords once again. He pauses, however, as the light becomes more evident, and his gaze moves up. "Was?" is whispered. "Was ist das?" What is that? A flourescent light!
Domino gets that 'I know something you don't know' glint in her eyes, "-That.- Is paydirt. You see anyone alive inside, don't let them get away." It seems as though she had been expecting to find something like this. What the heck is it, though?
It's a makeshift lab. Folding tables, beakers, a portable stainless fridge, StarkPad, microscope, and some particularly gruesome scenery amidst it all. Old cells line two of the walls, closed up until the only way in or out of them is through a locked cage door. Behind several of them are the dead remains of Mole Men, homeless people that had lived within the relative safety of this dark labyrinth before ending up here.
As for the -smell,- that would probably be from what remains of a much larger winged bug, appearing to be quite dead. Its mandibles are still set into the face of a man that had gotten stuck beneath its weight, a pool of dark blood having spread out beneath him and long since dried out. Lying a few inches from an outstretched hand is an empty pistol, a last-ditch effort to stop the threat before it could claim his own life. Double knock-out.
Only one thing is still alive within the area. A clear container holds just one of the roaches, looking an awful lot like the dead queen in miniature size. For lack of better expression, it's a portable genetic copy.
"There you are, you little hellion," Dom quietly says while stepping up to the table and lifting the container up toward the light, slowly looking over its lone occupant.
Kurt walks in slowly, his tail dropping from its spot to hang limply, yellow eyes searching the room before he begins to wander near the walls. "Mein Gott," his whispers. Pausing before the cages, he crouches down to look at the dead within. Turning to look at the gruesome scene in the center, the queen and the dead man, he rises from his crouch and crosses the room now to stand beside you.
"Was ist das?" Isn't the first time he's asking, and he's pretty sure it won't be the last. "It's.." a baby roach.. though, in roach terms, it is pretty large. He narrows his eyes as he, too, stares at it, "What do we do with it?"
Domino lowers the container slightly, returning her attention to you. "We keep it," she simply declares. "One living specimen, lab notes no doubt located on that Pad, maybe some sort of chemical mutagen in the fridge over there."
That isn't going to be enough of an answer for you, is it...
"Look, Blue," she says with a gentle sigh, "do you really think someone put out a contract to crawl down in this dirty old hole to wipe out a bunch of bugs? As what, a favor to Gotham?" Please just think about it, Kurt.
"They wanted something. Just like I wanted to get paid to find something. Killing bugs is all fine and hell, but it's easy. -This,-" she continues with a motion to the container still within her arms, "is a challenge. A living specimen, the code behind the infestation. There's an entomologist out there who's willing to pay a very generous amount for the recovery of these materials for his own study. -This- is what we came down here for."
And this is what she's going to deliver to him.
Kurt nods slowly, and puts a bug-guts-splattered hand up when you're done. His gaze doesn't leave that jar, however, and his voice is low after a few minutes worth of consideration. "As long as it's not the only copy of the research in existance." Statement, not question. He can agree with it, but that is his ultimate request and one that he truly hopes you can deliver. "I want a copy. Not for me, but.. just so there is another copy out there." Because he can almost guarantee that they'll be meeting this stuff again.
"Mutagen research, Domino."
Domino should have expected as much. Really, she had expected a lot worse. All the same, her shoulders stiffen slightly as she watches you with a very careful stare. This is yet another problem with trying to do a job with someone else tagging along. The pro's leading up to the inevitable con's. She can't very well make you understand, but she can make sure that you don't get in her way if it comes down to it. Her job, her contract. Her reputation on the line. Her payment.
That contract hadn't said anything about making a personal copy of the research data. The guy wants it for his own study, so he can put his name on it. So long as they didn't try to be the first to 'market' the discovery, where's the harm?
"This stays between us, Blue. The X-Crew isn't getting involved. I'll make a copy but no one else knows about it. Word gets out, it's bad for both of us. Understand?"
Here, then, is the next stage of your own transformation. Possibly even corruption. Domino's life is much different than the life of the average person living within the Institute. Those two sides will never see eye to eye in the end.
Kurt keeps his gaze level with yours, but he's not posturing as a standoff. This, to him, isn't a battle of willpower. It's.. a clarification of what the ultimate goal is. And to this end, he takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.
"This stays between us, Dom.." Like your name, and the past you've shared. There is nothing that can wrest those things from him either. Ever. "Just the research, Dom.. I don't want the things in the refrigerator, the specimen.. ja?" See? Kurt is willing to bend. He's not unreasonable. Besides, one day you may want that information, and there.. there it'll be. Perhaps not today, tomorrow.. but one day.
With that understanding now, and his allowences, Kurt begins to clean up, get the things set together that needs to go aboveground ready for transport. The sooner they're back up, the sooner he can get into that hot tub. In the middle of all the preparations, however, Kurt pauses in his work, and turns to face you, his expression.. honest. "I would not have wanted to be anywhere else today, leibling." And it's the truth.
Once spoken, however, he gets back to work.. and when he takes a once-over at the room, he checks with you, holding out his hand. "Ready, leibling?"
More than a clarification, it's a definition of boundaries. If you're going to work with Domino, if you're going to become a bigger part of her life, you have to know how things work. That in moments like this, she's not going to budge without a considerable amount of effort. Even then, the only weak point within her resolve is her own conscience. A scientist and some homeless guys getting killed over all of this means little to her. That line of morality hasn't been crossed yet. Nowhere near.
"Just the data," she confirms. "I'm not about to keep this nasty thing as a pet or put mutagenes in the same fridge that houses my midnight snacks."
Seemingly content with the idea that you aren't going to break that container and step on her prized insect she sets it back onto the table and goes to check out the fridge, finding exactly what she had been hoping to find inside. The scientist himself had brought a pack down with him at one point, which she appropriates for herself. Samples, StarkPad, and Miss Queenie Von Bettlesby all get tucked away inside.
She also takes the empty pistol lying on the floor. Waste not, want not. The blood will scrub right out.
With everything in order she accepts your offered hand, "Let's get the hell outta here."
But you did.. you allowed yourself to look into the letter of the contract and acceeded to his request simply because there wasn't word against it, but also.. you trust him. Just as the blue elf trusts you. It might be a little romantic (not in the romance definition!) way to look at it, but the result is the same. Boundaries are being felt out on both sides, and he is beginning to learn where to push to find a bend, and where there won't be.
It doesn't change his overall opinion of you, nor does it change his overall desire to work side by side more often; to learn more about you. Tactics. Approaches.. and the more personal. That comes in those fleeting moments.
Kurt watches as you do pretty much what he'd also done, taking a couple more things than he had- like the gun.
Once all is said and done, Kurt squeezes your hand and offers a soft, "Hold your breath," though it honestly doesn't do anything, the pair disappear from the lab, and reappear in a dark, shadowed area near where they'd parked the car. Once they 'land', it's Kurt's turn to take a deep breath, and he leans over a moment to clear his head. "Hotel.. und I have my.." Beat. "Do I remember correctly you have an image inducer?" Because right now, both of them really could use it if they're going to a hotel rather than to Amanda's!
Hot tub bound.
Category:Log