poly_chromatic | ♦ ♦ 10th Contract [Action/Video]

[ Rustles and shaky breaths. Li, tense and grimy, appears onscreen. He seems to be huddled under the planks of a boardwalk. The darkness around him is slatted with threads of pale-yellow light from the lamps glowing above. ]

Wh-What's going on? Does anyone know?

[ A tiny voice. Edging into panic. ]

Everywhere I look, there's m-m-monsters and -- H-e-e-ey! Hey! Let go!

[ Wild scrabbling. A strangled scream. The device spins, topsy turvy. And a terrifying face is glimpsed. ]

[ Abruptly, the feed ends. ]

Options:

[ (Damsels & Derps: Li) He's racing at full-pelt down the street. Chased by a horde of decaying zombies. And a sharp-toothed clown. Wielding an axe. It's rather like he's leading a parade. The single most horrific parade in history. ]

[ Someone save him, pls? ]

[ (Thrill Kills: Reaper) He's known he'll encounter trouble during recon. He's counting on it. In a dark narrow lane, he finds himself cornered by an eerie group of creatures. And that clown again. They give him a fight. ]

[ Finally. ]

[ A real fight. ]

[ Thrilling to snap bones. To spill blood and break into sweat. Thrilling to feed on adrenaline and put his abilities to use. ]

[ He battles the creatures for a solid hour. By degrees they edge him into an empty underground lot. Fluorescent lights flicker above, creating a surreal strobe effect. The air is thick with the smell of blood and rotting garbage. Blade at ready, Hei dodges between swiping claws and glistening fangs. With his black coat and eerie white mask, he almost resembles one of the monsters. ]

[ But even battling them, he's fearless, like it's nothing. He leaps upon a fanged demon, who roars when Hei grabs his head. He twists the jaw, hard and fast, and lands on his feet as the opponent crumples under him. Lunges, in the next blink, at the cackling clown. His dagger strikes the axe, steel clanging on steel. ]

[ He's going in for the kill tonight. Why hold back? ]

[OOC: Just a warning, guys. If you have horror-movie phobias, don't click the links. Particularly the clown one. I understand a lot of people don't like scary psycho clowns ;; ]

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[Korra is fighting in the same lot. She's cut & bleeding all over, struggling to adapt the bending techniques she knows to airbending and really, REALLY wishing airbending lent itself better to violence.

She doesn't notice Hei -- she can't spare attention for anything but the monsters trying to kill her.]

[ He can't see who else is here, either. But now isn't the time to worry about that. The monsters converge on him all at once. The floor under him is slippery with spilled blood, but he keeps his footing. ]

[ Blinding a zombie with an electric shock, he pivots, kicking, incapacitating the nearest monster by crushing its ribs. He continues spinning in a dervish-blur, slashing at the second monster's throat, whirling to snap the third's windpipe. It happens so fast they fall still-snarling. ]

[ Only then does he spot Korra. ]

[She unwittingly fights her away closer to Hei. She still doesn't register him as him -- when he shows up in her peripheral vision, he's just another monster, and she goes on the attack.]

[ He's trained to adapt to the moment. In the furor, he sees her coming. Instinctively, he blocks her attack. Blade whistling a half-inch above her skull -- slashing at the zombie behind her. But there's too many opponents. Too close-range. His focus isn't 100%. In the crowd, it'd be very easy for him to injure her -- or vice versa. ]

[The knife whizzing above her head sets Korra's nerves on fire. Instinctively she kicks her apparent attacker.]

[ He dodges. But not fast enough. Her foot connects with his face. And his mask. He drops, kicking scythelike at her feet to knock her down. He doesn't need an extra opponent while there's others to deal with. A fanged beast swipes at his skull. Hei pivots out of the way. But the lightweight mask has already chipped. ]

[ Between one blink and the next, it cracks entirely. Exposing his face. ]

[ Dammit. ]

[Korra jumps to avoid his kick, but another monster hits her and she stumbles backwards. She almost misses the mask fall from her face.

Almost.

She dispatches another one of her opponents and turns back to the masked man. Her heart stops when she sees Li's stupid face.

WHAT.

JUST.

HAPPENED.]

[ A cold sensation, the opposite of dismay, suffuses him. Anger. Not good. She's seen his face. But there's too many obstructions between them. He can't reach her and deal with her lasting memory of this encounter. ]

[ Never mind that now. ]

[ He has to deal with his opponents first. ]

Don't get distracted. [ He snaps it at Korra, ducking to avoid a pair of fangs. ] Keep your eyes on the targets. [ Whipping a wire out, he snares a zombie's throat. His eyes flash red, electricity surging to fry the creature, filling the air with the stench of burnt flesh. The faster they eliminate these monsters, the faster he can dispatch Korra. ]

Edited 2012-10-11 00:00 (UTC)

[Korra keeps fighting the monsters. Her body is detached from her inner turmoil; instinct guides her when her mind fails.

Li is the masked man. It's impossible to believe except he's right there, dispatching monsters with the same easy grace that he had used against her before.

Later on she'll feel sick, remembering how she had confided in him, how she had held him and kissed him during that curse. Over the past few months, this masked man -- Li -- and Amon have merged in her subconscious; all the terror, anger, hurt, and disgust she feels towards Amon are channeled towards Li.

But for right now, she's not thinking about any of that. Her only concern is surviving, and in her bones, she knows Li is as much a threat to her as the monsters. She needs to get out before there are no more monsters to distract him.

She carefully fights her way towards the exit, ready to run the first chance she gets.]

[ She's right to view him as a threat. She's seen his face. She can't live to tell others of it. No one in Hei's world has survived a confrontation with the Black Reaper. Somehow, that makes it simpler. He can drop the pretense, the sugar-and-fluff facade. ]

[ He can bare the predator's teeth he's kept painstakingly hidden. ]

[ He watches as she fights monsters, crippling and electrocuting opponents at his own end. In his head, he's calculating the potential places to swoop at Korra from, the potential angles to deliver a shock-dose, the number of monsters he has to cut down before making his move. It's all done in a split-second. Hei can gauge how to avoid impact from bullets and explosives if need be. A human up against a lifetime of supernatural opponents must appear superhuman too. ]

[ With a howl and a blood-splatter, the last monster falls. Knife raised, Hei lunges in on Korra in one action, hilt of his weapon angled toward her with bone-crunching force, aiming to connect with the underside of her jaw. ]

[But Korra manages to duck. Whether or not she has immediate access, she has several lifetimes of experience fighting supernatural foes, and this gives her just enough of an edge to survive. She knows she can't defeat him in a prolonged fight.

So she runs.]

[ Running again? She has better survival instincts than her brash attitude suggests. But he's determined to pursue. This dance-off of impasses has continued long enough. In a flash, he's whirled to charge after her, one hand securing a wire to toss her way, lasso her down and end everything. But a dark shape drops before him from above. ]

[ A wall-crawling monster. ]

[ The knives and wires, the excruciating shock, all meant for Korra, are focused on the creature instead. By the time it crumples, singed and slashed, Korra is out of sight. Dammit. Hei's eyes narrow. She'd better be a fast runner. ]

[ Because he'll chase all night if he must. ]

[Korra does run fast, getting as far as she can before choosing a random building to hide in.

She won't let him take anything from her, not like Amon took her bending.]

[ I'll get you, my pretty. ]

[ And your not-so-little dog too. ]

♦ ♦ 10th Contract [Action/Video]

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