Summary:Ananym tries for Koa and Keiko again. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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It's late. It's late enough that it's dark as Koa leaves the office. Well, it doesn't have to be all THAT late for that to happen and Koa doesn't usually burn the midnight oil AT the office. If he does that, he does it elsewhere. But it's still a solid seven PM as Koa makes it out into the SHIELD lobby and walks out onto the street toward the parking lot. He's got a file folder tucked under his arm and his sleeves are rolled back. Today was a research day and while he has a couple of the answers he's been looking for, he's well short of the full picture.
The WAND agent yawns and pauses to toss his can of green tea into the trash. Good for staying awake, that. He rolls his shoulders a little bit, stiff, and catches slightly a slight pain shoots through his chest.
"Ow." He mutters. The scar from where his heart was cut out of him. It still hurts sometimes.
Keiko has found herself a quiet corner just outside the lobby, near the parking lot, sitting on a low wall with her smart phone in her lap. The open recording app is gathering lots of baleful glares from the spirit caller.
When Koa walks past, Keiko looks up, canting her head when he winces. "Do you want me to carry those for you?"
Koa stops to peer at Keiko and cants his head first one way and then the other, not entirely unlike a dog who doesn't understand something. "What on earth are you recording?" Him? Or just people in general? Or is she watching for something?
"Sure, if you wouldn't mind." He offers out the file folders. They're thick but not overly so. Still it is a few inches worth of paper. "The scar still catches sometimes. I thought you'd be long home by now."
"Uh…. I was recording something for Elena. You know … just in case…" She trails off, judging by the sour look she gives the phone as the app is shut down - it's not going to well for her.
"I got held up with the class they want me to take and given it was so late I thought I'd try to do this in the quiet, when there was no one around." Taking the files, the small peruvian looks at Koa. "That was more than catching though, wasn't it?"
"A bit, yes." Koa says rolling his shoulder. "It's a bit more sore than it used to be recently." Throbbing intermittently for what reason he has no idea. He starts to walk again, toward the parking lot.
"I'd like to say it'll be okay. That Illyana will make sure you get home. But you know we can't promise that. We will do everything we can though." And by we he means mostly not him, though of course he'll do everything he can too.
They step around a planter, turning a corner that puts them out of sight from the front door and a portal opens in front of them. three people stride through. Two of them are young men - early 20's - in tattered cloaks and outlandish but rugged clothing that looks like it was bleached at some point. The last one is Ananym. Witchfire. And she has Piotr's sword.
"I told you we would meet again."
"I know that Koa, but there's nothing wrong with being prepared. Not that I will be." Keiko mutters a bit. If Koa gets the feeling there's something wrong with what she was trying, he'd be correct. Not that she gets to say anymore.
"It shouldn't be … " Stopping as the portal open, her arms full with the files Koa just gave her, Keiko scowls.
"Seriously. Haven't we taught you enough of a lesson, yet?" Keiko eyes Piotrs sword, scowling even more. "What do you want this time?"
"A merciful death for the both of you." Ananym says as she calls magic into her hand. Her to unspeaking compatriots do likewise and Koa barely manages to get up a shield as they hurl energy at the both of them. The sparks and noise are instant and the heat from spellfire is intense but both Koa and Keiko are unharmed.
"Holy sh- Keiko!" That's 'Keiko drop the files and fight because they're really not all that important!' Hopefully she gets that. It's a good thing she still has her spirits. They might need them.
Keiko doesn't need Koa to tell her, the files are flung in the faces of the three before them. Hopefully they'll get some nasty papercuts, given the way that Keiko has thrown them. It takes a moment to pull the rod from her pack, as she does the peruvian touches her tattooes.
Onyxia and Mirlo appear in the air above the three, shrieking loudly - it might hurt Koas ears. Bella appears in front of Koa, growling and snarling … working out who the biggest threat is.
"How about I give you one instead?" She says to the three. "Make your minds up before I decide to treat you like the demons of Limbo."
Ananym lunges forward and slices Koa's shield. The sword slams into it edge-on and there's some kind of magical discharge that unravels the barrier. By this point Koa has charged his bracer and reached into the nearby planters to pull out every bit of liquid water in there. It forms into a great spinning hammer above his head.
"For Siffror!" One of the men yells as he charges his fists with lightning only to get slammed by the water-hammer sideways and head over tails over a planter.
"Fuck off, I have a hammer." Koa mutters.
Keiko only barely has time to register that her opponent has moved. Literally blurred and blinked to a location about four feet from her left as he spins an axe at her head. At the same time Ananym swings the blade low trying to trip her up before the spirits get into the fight.
Ananym. She's the biggest threat.
"Bella! Keep him busy!" Koa says to the wolf, pointing at the man he just punted before he turns toward Witchfire.
"Nice." Keiko grunts as she turns to find the threat posed to her. "Seriously. I'm not in a mood to do this." She doesn't need to tell Onyxia or Mirlo what to do, they dive at the blinking man with talons outstretched "Bring me their eyes …" OK. She does tell them something.
Ducking the axe and seeing the blade swing in her peripheral vision, Keiko seems to 'hop' - letting the viscous blade whistle under her feet.
"Do not that let blade touch you, Koa. It won't hurt humans." She says to the Agent. But it will hurt them. She remembers it from Limbo.
"Enough … " Her quarterstaff whistles towards the axe wielding mans head as Bella leaps, placing paws on the other mans chest and bearing him to the ground, her jaws closing over his throat.
Witchfire turns to Koa and tries to hit him but the relic-expert fluidly dodges out of the way. Keiko has seen this before. He can get fast. And strong. But he can't slip up. One hit of that sword and he's in a lot of trouble. She swings it again at the hammer and it slaps her away. She looks confused at that. Like she expected the hammer to disintegrate like the shield. Nevermind. Soon she and Koa are caught in a deadly dance as he dodges from her blade and his hammer - whirling by the force of his will alone - strikes and counter strikes. The Asp-Goddess avatar also strikes out seeking an opening.
Keiko strikes her target true and sends the man stumbling. He blur-blinks again and is twenty feet away from her in an instant. It's a similar story with Bella. As she's about to strike a killing bite, her target turns into lightning and flashes away. Though in his case, really away. As in, it's not clear where he went but he's not here now.
Blinky man can blink but he's two avians to deal with. When he appears in the instant, Onyxia is ready and drops from above, talons outstretched and human head screaming. She comes in one way and Mirlo the other.
Bella howls as the lightning arcs against her, the smell of burnt fur fills the air. She turns and leaps, paws outstretched for … Witchfire and that sword. The Wolf doesn't know to avoid it.
Bella catches Ananym on the shoulder as she twists to avoid Koa's hammer. The woman howls in pain as she's bit and the momentary distraction lets Koa lash out and wrap that asp around her sword arm. He comes in to deliver a punch - Keiko knows how hard he can punch - but a mystical shield appears just in time to save Witchfire.
Over elsewhere there are renewed screams as two demonic spirit birds attack an already somewhat dazed and wounded fighter. He raises his axe to defend himself but it's quite difficult against opponents as agile as these. He may not be much more trouble.
But Witchfire will be. She manages to get her sword into play and slices the Asp that Koa is holding her with, then twists violently to dislodge Bella and goes for Koa once more, aiming for the heart.
Bella growls as her teeth close on the shield. She's confused but not for long as she's dislodged. As Witchfire lurches for Koa, the Wolf leaps for Witchfires arm, trying to knock the sword wide and away from Koa.
Keiko busy at the moment, Blinky guy is fighting off Onyxia and Mirlo, ineffectively. This time her staff swings, connecting with his knuckles hard. "Stop fighting or they will bring me your eyeballs."
Keiko's strike forces Blinky to drop his axe just as one of the birds gets to his face. He cries out in pain and alarm and immediately - possibly instinctively - blinks again. This time he too seems to be gone. Mirlo and Onyxia might be able to find him but that'd take time and Koa is still fighting.
Bella manages to knock the blade wide. It slices along Koa's side instead and burns. The WAND agent cries out and the water hammer slaps Witchfire aside. She doesn't stick around. The fight has gone against her and her companions are gone. She simply opens a portal beneath her and drops through it.
Leaving Koa, Keiko, her spirits and a mess of paper.
Thanks to her spirits, no one got near Keiko. She's breathing heavily but for the most part, uninjured. Even Mirlo and Onyxia seem ok. The two avian spirits return to Keiko's side as Withfire portals away.
Mirlo lands on her shoulder and Onyxia beside her, rubbing her human cheek against Keiko's arm. Creepy.
Bella whines as she lands, she managed to slice her paw on the edge of the blade, and limps towards Koa, leaving spectral track behind her.
"Koa…" Keiko runs her hand down Onyxia's back before heading to the agent. "You aren't ok." beat "I'll collect your files in a moment." That's … sorry. In Keiko-speak.
Koa scratches Bella's ears. "Good girl." He murmurs to the spirit. His eyes are bright red right now. He's got a strong urge to find something to punch or better yet, kill and eat. He doesn't but he really really wants to.
"I took a cut. That thing slices through my shields like they're not there." He may have to put some research into why. Being without the ability to defend himself makes fights like this a lot more dangerous. At least his hydrokinesis works fine against it.
The Agent puts his hand to his side. It comes away bloody. He winces, and then again when there's a pulsing pain in his chest. "Ow….. What about you Keiko? You hurt?"
"I told you to avoid that blade." Keiko shakes her head "Just Bella. Onyxia and Mirlo took some hits but nothing bad."
"That blade melts demons." That's all she says, frowning at the wince. "Your chest again? That's not just the scar tissue."
"Yes how foolish of me to not listen to you." Koa mutters snarkily. He strokes Bella's ears a bit more and then straightens himself out. "It's probably not. It seems to come from inside. I don't know what it is and if WAND does, they're not telling me. Hurts though."
That makes some sense really. Koa had his heart ripped out and what it got replaced with comes with some decided metaphysical issues. If some of those are manifesting physically, well, that's probably to be expected. Horrifying, but to be expected.
"Don't get smart with me." Keiko mutters at the snark. "Does it, or is it in sympathy to something? Like, you know, the use of a sword."
"Let me get your files and … come home with you. I'll put your files back together as best I can when we're there. You recognised the others with Ananym?"
"Much as I appreciate that Keiko, shouldn't you be spending time with your daughter?" After all Keiko had been preparing to film a goodbye message for her - as sober a reminder as there can be that what they're about to do is incredibly dangerous - and Elena would probably appreciate her mother not working horribly late in the hopefully unlikely event that she buys the farm.
"I'm not sure if it's in sympathy with something or just when it does something to me." Because it IS doing things to Koa. What those things are is a bit unclear but it is most decidedly making it harder for him to keep his beast in check. The snark is just one aspect of that. She's seen what he's like when that part of him is in charge. He's not quite a different person but he's definitely not the same.
"They looked like more of that group. Mutants it seems. When they were taken none of them were confirmed to have powers, but from what I saw there's someone with some kind of near-teleportation ability and someone who can turn into lightning."
He'll have to go look up names and see if he can match them.
From around the corner there's the sound of boots. Several armed SHIELD security appear. Late, of course but better late than never.
"Agent Turner. Agent Kurita. What happened? Are you injured?"
"I should… though she'll be in bed soon and asleep." She is only five after all. "I could fetch her on my way … " she sighs again and shakes her head. "Come home with me, then. I don't want you to be alone, Koa. I know what it's like, dealing with the demons."
"Why would they have been confirmed? They were children. If I understand what I've listened to recently, most mutants don't show their powers till their teens."
At the sound of the boots, Keiko touches her tattooes again - the three spirits turn to 'smoke' that lays against her arms and disappears.
"I am uninjured. Agent Turner is not. We were attacked by Ananym again."
Koa chuckles dryly and sighs. "Alright. I'll come back to the house for a little bit." It'll give him a chance to check in on folks anyway and make sure the house wards are holding properly. And maybe there'll be leftovers and he won't have to cook himself.
"That is if they let me." He mutters as Security shows up and Keiko throws him under the bus
"Do you need medical attention, Agent Turner?" The lead asks.
Koa glances down at his bloody side. "I'll be okay. Thank you though."
Security nods. "Agent Kurita, Senior Agent Peters wants to speak with you tomorrow."
"Do that. There'll be left overs and I make a mean Mac and Cheese." It might be one of the few things that Keiko can really cook.
"They'll let you. Who would dare argue with the great Agent Turner." the spirit caller mutters in return. "And you probably do." That's sotte voce, but he'll hear it.
At the last summons, Keiko actually starts. "Whatever she thinks I did, I didn't do it." That's a standard answer for the new Agent. "Did she give a time?" If not, it will be sometime between her early morning reading classes and whatever else the day holds out for her.
"Tomorrow at your earliest convenience." Security says as they start to head back into the building. Pandora may MAKE Koa sit down in medical tomorrow but at the moment Security isn't going to argue with Koa's self assessment.
"They're going to patch it up and tell me not to strain it. I can do that myself." Koa says, red eyes flashing. That is different. Keiko knows or can reasonably suspect that prior to all this he'd have gone to medical right now. The fact that he's willing to be stubborn about something like this is possibly slightly worrying.
"Well. Shall we? Or are you going to try to convince me to let the medics look me over?"
Keiko lives with stubborn men. She's stubborn herself. She's not going to argue with Koa. "No, I'm going to make you come home with me and let me look at it. And then tomorrow, I'm marching you to medical myself, before I go and see Agent Peters."
That brings a frown. "Why does the Senior Agent want to see me?" She gestures, not really expecting an answer from Koa to that and wanting to get home to see her daughter.
"She didn't tell me." Koa says frowning. "Let me know when you get back from it." It's not common for the senior agent to have private talks with rookies so this has to be something rather unusual. Still. It's not all bad right? Agent Peters knows what she's doing and she'd have a good reason.
"We'll see about medical tomorrow. For now, let's get out of here."