ArchivedLogs:Reflex

Reflex
Dramatis Personae Flicker, Tian-shin	2015-11-29 "{... you serious?}" (Part of Flu Season TP.)
Location <NYC> East Village
Historically a center of counterculture, the East Village has a character all its own. Home to artists and musicians of many colours, this neighborhood is known for its punk vibe and artistic sensibilities. The birthplace of many protests, literary movements, it is home to a rather diverse community and vibrant nightlife. The day dawned bright and cold, the sunshine interrupted now and then by small, scudding clouds. By noon, the air has grown warmer, though still brisk. The streets looks sparsely peopled, those who do venture out upon them moving in small, armed groups. The belltowers and speakers of city churches stand quiet so as not to draw the undead along with their congregations. But the dead still come. The austere gray stone of the gothic revival church towers over Broadway, a small knot of zombies jostling at the door and several more wandering the grounds. Tian-shin jogs toward them quietly. She wears a red canvas jacket, black jeans with tall black boots, black gloves, and a red and black plaid newsboy hat with her hair tucked underneath. Long streaks of blood stain the blade of her sword, though she otherwise looks remarkably clean save for a few spattered drops on her cheeks. Before she has even stepped onto the grounds, a zombie pounding at one of the church's windows just falls over, twitching briefly and then going still. Flicker's clothing s nondescript. Olive-ish khaki pants, hiking boots, a black canvas jacket a bit too big for him, his arm still twined with vine-pattern in silver and green. At first he's just a blur of motion dropping down from a rooftop. The grimace on his face can only be seen /after/ his crowbar connects with one of the zombie's skulls. But only briefly. He's returning to a blur of motion -- the /other/ zombies are suddenly toppling, falling, getting shoved back away from the doors and windows. Some of the zombies are scrabbling over themselves to stand back up. Some are just pulling themselves along the ground right where they lie, groping towards Flicker -- or at least where Flicker most recently was. One, in its groping, has closed its hand around a rock. For a moment its scrabbling pauses -- before it lifts its hand, pulling itself into a kneeling position to throw the rock towards what it can see of Flicker. Clumsily, admittedly. Tian-shin only reaches the steps of the church after Flicker has plowed through the ranks of the zombies. One of the few left standing suddenly falls as though its strings had been cut, its eyes well and truly dead now, staring bloodshot at nothing. "{Look out!}" she cries as she sees the zombie lift its projectile, too alarmed for incredulity. Taking the steps three at a time, Tian-shin finally reaches the main press of zombies. She plunges her sword through the eye socket of the nearest one as it tries to pick itself back up, and kicks another away from her to make some space. The rock misses by a longshot, Flicker blipping out of the way to crack in the head of another zombie well before he even notices the motion -- but then he is stopping still. /Staring/ in the direction of the one who has thrown the rock. "{... you serious?}" He has time for incredulity. Eyes wide. His arm is lifting to shove away one of the biters lunging towards him. Hard push. Topple it to the ground. Gaze locked on the one who threw the rock. "{This some kind of} quisling {in the pack?}" Tian-shin opens her mouth, but cannot initially find a reply. Or perhaps the crawling zombie swiping at her feet has distracted her. She hops over and puts one foot on its upper back to hold it still while she dispatches the one behind it, then neatly severs its brain stem with a swift downward stroke of her blade. Once she has gotten a split second to consider the rock-throwing zombie, she stretches out her senses toward it, searching for the chemical markers that separate the dead from the living. Tian-shin's senses can easily detect the decay set into the rock-throwing body. Which, once it has thrown the first rock, sets about grasping for a second one. It throws this one at Flicker, too, now that he's settled /down/. A little bit more steadily. Flicker doesn't /dodge/ this one. His incredulous look hasn't /faded/, though. He catches it easily, staring at the rock in his hand like -- wat. "... Tian-shin?" Puzzled, he throws it /back/ at the zombie. While cracking another one in the skull as it lunges at his side. "{It's definitely rotting.}" Tian-shin says, gesturing at Flicker's tenacious opponent before spinning around to put her sword up through another zombie's throat and into its skull. Only the rock-thrower and one other remain of the main pack, though the few stragglers from elsewhere on the church grounds continue to shamble toward them. "{And yet...}" Her eyes go wide. "{One of the students has been doing some research and said that it was possible some of the new zombies aren't completely mindless. But that was speculation. This...?}" She gestures at the zombie helplessly. The zombie does not catch the rock that Flicker throws. Unsurprisingly. But it does roll itself to the side in an attempt to get out of the /way/ of the projectile. It's not a very good attempt; the rock still thuds into its shoulder. The zombie does not throw anything else at Flicker -- neither does it attack again. When Flicker throws the rock back at it, /it/ pushes itself back, moving behind one of its fellows who is crawling forward to snap at the X-Men's ankles. The drop of Flicker's arm is almost casual to dispatch the last of the main pack that the other zombie has shuffled behind. "{This,}" he says, puzzled, "{is thinking. I... it's /scared/ of us. I mean it's -- trying not to die, now.}" He sounds -- kind of distressed. At this. His teeth gnaw at the inside of his cheek. "{If they... aren't... mindless...}" "{Does that mean it might not be beyond...some kind of treatment, even now?}" Tian-shin takes one slow step toward the zombie, sword still in hand but not raised. "{Can...can you /understand/ us?}" she addresses the zombie this time, then repeats the message in less hesitant Mandarin and Cantonese. The zombie continues to back away when Tian-shin takes a closer step. It doesn't give any answer to the questioning, though. Its eyes have shifted away from Tian-shin and Flicker to -- the sword in Tian-shin's hand. Its movement stops when Tian-shin stops, gaze focused for a moment on the sword. Its teeth champ together, though it makes no further move /towards/ them. "{... I don't know,}" Flicker answers uncertainly. "{I mean. It's. /Dead/. You can't.... fix. Death. But it's not. They don't...}" His hand lifts, scuffing through his hair. Then reaching out -- crowbar-free -- towards the zombie. Palm-out. "{Can't fix death, usually,}" Tian-shin agrees, with qualification. "{But a few years ago, I would also have said the dead can't walk.}" She gestures at the zombie again with her free hand. Seeing the shift of its focus, she pivots slightly and holds her sword out of its line of sight. "{Or have a sense of self-preseveration.}" Once the sword is out of its line of sight the zombie switches its focus to Flicker's crowbar. It eyes his empty hand and then the mechanical one. Slowly shifting back to its feet. When he holds his hand out it lunges for his hand, though, teeth snapping -- and one hand pushed outward to shove at the arm with the crowbar. Flicker snarls when the zombie lunges for him, sharp and angry. It's reflex, really, and his are faster than most people's. The crowbar slams inward, too quick to even track. Quick and sharp, its pointed end jabbed hard into the zombie's temple. A moment later he's shimmered out of place, a few feet back. A look of horror in his expression as color drains from his face. The bloody crowbar thuds from his fingers to the ground. "{-- I. I didn't. Mean to. It. I. Oh.}" Tian-shin doesn't seem to comprehend what has happened until Flicker's crowbar falls to the ground, and then she lets out a barely stifled cry. She does not turn her back on the zombie until she sees it go still, but does sidestep toward Flicker. "{I think we're done for today. We need to talk to the team.}" Her face has gone pale and her eyes wide, but her voice remains--mostly calm. She stretches out her free hand, but doesn't quite touch him. "{Come on. We'll draw more of them if we linger much longer.}" Flicker is staring -- down at the corpse he just felled. Now only one among many, but it takes him a while to look away. Stiff and slow, he stoops to pick his crowbar back up. Nods mutely in answer to Tian-shin, holding his weapon slack at his side as he falls into step beside her.