psychoshenanigans | Goodnight // AU

Entry tags:

coil,
zhas

Goodnight // AU

Coil knows how it is, by now. They go to a city for a particular task--a peace treaty, an assassination, a little structural upheaval--and they stay because Zhas can't go home happy without something returning to the grave. They're in Queens tonight, chasing things down tight, twisting alleys and winding roads, between dingy buildings and apartment units that crowd out the stars. Zhas has mentioned, very briefly, that he grew up in Queens. As he's not said a word about it since, it may go without saying that he's focusing on the hunt with particular zeal tonight.

They've got a group cornered. Zhas leads them right to them, six or seven, stuck at a dead end in their race to escape their pursuers. They're just grunts, and mostly Wolves--they start showing teeth and growling the second their banging against the easy-giving chain-link fence proves useless. One of them tries to climb up it, only to be dragged back down by a "buddy" of hers and called a useless coward.

Zhas fires one of his bolts while he still has distance--and in the chaos, one of the smaller ones slips away through a crack between the buildings. Just a little too big for his hulking friends to manage. Another one tries to follow, but they get a well-aimed bolt to the side of the head.

So that's five against two. Good odds?

They charge, two going straight for Coil. One is slower (but probably strong), and the other's face suddenly bares a striking resemblance to his clan's namesake.

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She keeps staring at him for a moment, breathing quieting down to something less panicked. She still looks shocked and confused, more than a little rattled, but she slowly, shakily, makes he way back up to her feet.

"Y-You..."

She's still hesitant to move her hand away from her mouth, but she's working on it.

"Your... your friend, h-he..."

He's in the middle of trying to figure out what the best way to backtrack is, wondering how far Zhas has managed to get by now, still trying to figure out if he should do anything other than just leave this girl where she's at...

Until he realizes that her incoherent, fearful muttering isn't completely incoherent. It's just weird enough to catch his attention again.

His friend? Who could she even...

He even looks down at the pile of ash, trying to figure out if there was any way she could have misconstrued that guy for a friend somehow, even in her panic.

She shakes her head. She may be panicked and a little crazy, one arm lowering to hug herself upright, but she seems to at least have some idea of what she's talking about.

"T-The guy with the--" She points awkwardly to her own face, "--the p-paint."

This... doesn't make any sense.

His eye abruptly narrows in confusion and he takes a few steps toward her. One more glance around, just in case he missed something here.

When he's fixed on her again, it's with the slight headtilt that he hopes will get her to explain what the hell she's talking about, since he can't exactly ask.

"He hasn't t-told you...?"

And then... something strange happens.

Coil can feel a slow, climbing sense of dread. It's not coming from outside, but inside. What she's saying is important. He has to stay and figure out what she's talking about, because he needs to know about Zhas.

She shuffles her feet a little, a step closer, peering wide-eyed at him from behind where her hair is falling over her face.

He shakes his head... both in reaction to how many things are not right all of the sudden, and just as an answer to her question.

Because, despite how foreign the anxiety is, he does want to know what she's talking about. He needs to know.

He doesn't know who (or maybe what) this girl is, and he suddenly doesn't care. Zhas is much more important.

"He needs you to stay here."

Her expression becomes more severe. Her breathing slows to a stop. But it's all right, because she's going to tell him everything. She steps more evenly, signs of her fear disappearing the closer she gets.

Zhas is busy. Zhas needs him here. Her expression splits and she reaches up for his face, teeth showing and fangs peeking out from the top of her horrible smile. She fills him with disappointment and guilt and makes him want to stay.

"I'm sorry..."

But it's fine. They'll take good care of him.

He knows she's a vampire; he knows he's been tricked. She's getting close, going to touch him, so he grabs her wrist...

...But that's all.

He tries to pulls her hand away from his face, but he doesn't try to twist any bones. Because what if she's right? If he doesn't listen, he's going to screw up the one thing that Zhas told him to do. He's off on his own, so if he messes up now, Zhas might reconsider how useful he'll be to everything...

She looks a little scared, again, when he grabs her wrist... but she keeps in control. What she has now is perfect. She won't touch him if he doesn't want.

"...It's okay, you'll be fine here."

Soft, purring. She slips in the perception of genuineness, if he'll take it. She's not going to hurt him; she would have killed him minutes ago, while his back was turned, if she wanted him dead.

And Zhas will be back soon. He'll come and fix it. It'd be so humiliating if he'd disobeyed. Mortifying. Why would he do a stupid, worthless thing like that? Zhas would just see him as a failure. He might never take him anywhere again--and then what would he be? Nothing.

Lonely little nothing.

While she spins these things through his head, she eyes his neck more and more... and despite herself, she starts to lean in and tilt her head, drifting closer and closer...

It stops.

Her head explodes, splatters to the side from a sudden blow. Her body follows momentum, she slumps and topples over and starts disintegrating from the impact point.

There's a little laser point on the ground, aimed about a foot away from her. Now that it's quiet, Coil might register that the noise came from a distant rooftop, three stories up--where he can momentarily see a set of glowing, orange eyes.

Then they, and the little red light, duck back out of sight.

Coil jumps, suddenly free, heart leaping into his throat with the shattering of everything that had been holding it tight.

He's empty of foreign thoughts and left again with only what his own mind is generating... and that's somehow maybe a little worse. The jolt of adrenaline is enough to make him feel sick.

There's still so much dismay and worry, and humiliation, and it's all his own. He should be smarter than this--he'd been tricked, she'd somehow known exactly how to get into his head, and then he'd needed to be rescued.

But Zhas is okay, it's over, and the relief of it just adds another element to make him struggle through catching his breath and evening out a stuttering brain.

He's suddenly very aware of how caught out in the open he is. Maybe it's just the lingering ghost of dread, but he feels exposed. And lost. Wiping ash from his face, he ends up turning in half of a laughable little circle, wondering what the hell is going on and what he's supposed to be doing about it.

He doesn't get much time to figure it out. An effeminate voice calls out from a nearby window, the figure lounging on the sill. Even with Coil's muddled perception, it's safe to say that he wasn't there a minute ago.

"You two are cruel, aren't you?" The stranger looks at his fingernails before deeming a glance in Coil's direction. "Poor dear, you didn't even give her a chance. She would have taken such good care of you."

Footsteps are approaching from the way he'd come in. Figures are emerging from behind the houses. Six, eight, maybe eleven if he looks over to cover his blind spot.

If there's anything that has a hope of getting Coil to pull himself together quickly, it's that. He manages to stuff his flightier emotions down under frustrated anger, collecting himself in a hurry, to face... everything.

He hastily counts--making sure to turn and make up for his blind spot--takes stock of all the cover and resources that he doesn't have, leaving him with... not a lot at his disposal.

He can't even quip back something clever, to make himself feel better. All he can do is calculate as best as he can, fight to remain calm, and keep the fewest monsters on the side he can't see.

That, and pray that Zhas has a better handle on what's going on than he does.

"So you're that little Clearsight he picked up, huh?"

The monsters stay in their places. Most of them are Wolves, but they seem much more controlled than the previous ones, for better or for worse. They're just standing, waiting, looking this runt over and deciding how best to tear him apart.

"I hear you're a Necromancer. How many of those did you have to kill to figure that one out, hm? How many extras died?"

Zhas, admittedly, does not have a great handle on the situation either. He'd disappeared, having seen one or two of them hanging around on the sidelines--but by the time he'd found a better vantage point, Coil was surrounded. He has to pick his targets carefully, and work quickly.

The telltale laser mark appears near Hel, swinging up and adjusting--but it's not on his head for more than a second before the vampire snaps his fingers.

And the rooftop that Zhas is on, located right behind Coil, suddenly... explodes.

Telekinetic blast. No fire, messy blast range. If Coil wasn't watching before, he'll be just in time to watch Zhas' body get catapulted onto the next building and roll, lifelessly, off the roof.

He hits the ground without any resistance, and doesn't get up.

That's when they decide to lunge. Four on Coil, four right towards Zhas.

The explosion startles him, but not in the same way that watching that girl's head get blown apart did. Instead of a sharp, reactionary panic... this hits him deep, in that same place where all that earlier dread had been dragged out of.

He hears the roof get demolished, sees Zhas get lifelessly thrown, and then he doesn't hear anything at all.

He feels cold, all of the sudden. A horrible shiver in his blood, something inside of him sinks, and he's attacking the first two vampires to reach him without giving it any thought.

The decision to act never quite happens. All of his calculations, tallying up just how outnumbered he is, it all evaporates and he lashes out. Knees, unprotected facial bones--he whips around to strike whatever openings that he mindlessly spots, before he takes off across the road to try and intercept what's headed Zhas's way.

He needs to get there; he needs to get in their way.

These guys aren't the rabble they were chasing before. These men and women are at least proficient in a fight. If the ones earlier were kids looking for a brawl, these guys are the bouncers and policemen of the Nightwalker world. None of them scamper off.

But it still comes as a surprise to them when the young hunter comes at them so quickly. One, two, crippled for a time--the third makes a block, and the forth just jumps out of the crazy kid's way--for a couple of seconds.

This guy's fast, and darts in between Coil and Zhas, approaching with a (potentially justified) kick towards his chest.

Being intercepted and attacked has him automatically whirling out with his staff, looking to deflect the blow in one half of the weapon's spin and aiming for the guy's head with the second half of it.

This monster's faster than the others, though. Whether or not he actually manages to deflect the kick, Coil's going to have to hold up and actually spend some attention here.

And he's not exactly thrilled about having to do that. He has a goal, and this thing is in his way.

The deflection connects, but he ducks immediately afterwards--the blow flies right over his head. He grimaces when he puts weight back on his sore foot, but it's a quick stop to a twisted smirk.

He zips behind him and tries to grab him--maybe hold him still long enough for one of the bigger ones to pummel him a little. It doesn't really matter what happens, though--he's deemed it his goal in life to keep Coil away from his downed partner as long as possible.

The quick vampire is suddenly too close for his staff to be useful and slips around to where struggling with a kick wouldn't be reliable at all. He's too close and everything in Coil's head lurches when he realizes that he's behind pinned down.

So, before his balance can be pulled all the way back, he suddenly drops. He can't get far with how he's being grabbed, but hopefully it's enough to throw his center of gravity down. Twisting hard and levering his attacker over his hip, he tries to flip him.

And if he ends up with a prone vampire in front of him? He's bringing his staff down on something vulnerable. Like an eye.

Despite his best efforts, he gets twisted over Coil's side. He tries to stick the landing, but his foot can't find enough traction and he ends up slipping onto the road anyway. He doesn't have much time to reorient himself before something heavy gets smashed into his eye socket.

He hisses and convulses, but otherwise--? One down.

One of the vampires that had zipped ahead gets close to Zhas, who's just now starting to show any signs of consciousness. Even before he's really able to move enough to get up, he grabs his nearby rifle and cracks the end as hard as he can into the monster's face.

He drops it immediately after, but that buys him some more time to try and figure out how to move his legs again.

At least Zhas is alive, but this fact is only adding to Coil's blinded urgency. Seeing one of them even reaching for him is enough.

He's not waiting to be attacked again. He's not waiting for anything. As soon as the smallish vampire is out of his way, he's charging for Zhas again--and whoever is next in his way.

Running to gain as much speed as he can in the short distance, spinning his staff to build momentum, whoever's next in line has one very angry little hunter bolting right for them.

The first thing in his way has the awareness and common sense to get the hell out of his path, skittering halfway up a streetlight instead. The second thing in his way is not lucky enough to share that sense--this one's focused on her prize, darting out of the way of the stumbling foe just to end up right in Coil's sights.

It's around this time that Hel decides to leave, quietly slipping back into the dark of the window with another lone vampire following him afterwards. He's seen everything he NEEDS to see, really. He would be quite surprised if any of these vampires succeeded in their goal. As long as they're keeping quiet and not waking up the more observant parts of the neighborhood, he has no further reason to be a referee.

Maybe it's Hel's disappearance, or maybe it's the fact that they weren't expecting this much of a fight, but as a whole... the vampires start to lose their togetherness. A lot more attention is being turned towards the thing that's hurting them.

Coil lunges for her--his body stopping just short while the momentum of his staff continues, whirling out to knock aside what limbs she's got poised for defense and punching open whatever opportunity he can make for himself. And as soon as he makes a dent somewhere, the weapon is snapping out again to break it.

He's determined to cut her down. He's so close.

She is literally knocked aside, beaten right off her grounding. She falls on her back, the air suddenly bitterly cold, ice slicks out in little streams below her--and someone else slips on one of them, cursing at her to keep her shit together.

They shouldn't be a problem for Coil. They're easy to walk over, don't go that far. Now there's no one between him and Zhas (who is at least trying to get himself up off the ground, now, arm mechanism whirring with the sound of some malfunction).

The one on the streetlight, though--he'll take his chance.

He jumps right for him, on his blind side, fully intending to knock him onto the ground.

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