♦ ♦ 29TH CONTRACT - Video/Action/Text

[mortemscintilla]

[ It happens as it's just getting light, at six in the morning. At the City's mountaintops, the vista is bleak, almost apocalyptic. On a flat stretch of rock, the harsh treeless beauty of the landscape opens out on both sides, making Hei feel small, less than himself, yet at the same time pleasantly calm. His form, outlined in a blue glow, is preternaturally still. His eyes are fixed on the meteor shard he holds up, between a thumb and forefinger. ]

[ It takes a moment before he channels his ability and focuses on periscoping it skywards. But when it happens, the scent of ozone floods the air like a thunderstorm. The abrupt blue light glaring off him is intense; it's hard to see anything beyond it, and when you blink, pink and orange spots blind you. ]

[ In a perfect funneling arch, the light shoots straight for the City's barrier. ]

Options For Run-Ins:

1) Mountain-top (After): [ Have you spotted the source of the disturbance? Then arrest him. We suggest wearing shockproof gear and sunglasses. Rubber boots are also a plus. ]

2) Hiking (Before): [ He's plotted out a careful route. He's marked a spot with a perfect trajectory to target the Barrier. Now all that matters is reaching there. In his thick clothes and heavy gear, he seems like an explorer. But if you see him -- and recognize 'Li' -- you might be surprised at how spry he is with a coil of rope on the towering rocks. ]
 
[ ooc: Barrier Plot post! Characters who can withstand the horribu blinding light -- and climb the mountain he's sitting on -- are free to run into Hei. Tags can be Before or After the energy-blast itself, but please title them as such! Backtag friendly as always.<3 (...c-curse my slow ;;). ]

Comments

Ffffft. Considering how often they get thrown around, impervious to pain also fits in xD

[mortemscintilla]

[ He wouldn't. Trust and forgiveness are to his profession what wearing a red bullseye out is to target-practice. The syndicate is full of crooked-edged people, and unless you're crooked-edged yourself, they'll cut you to ribbons. In that sense, it's unnerving for Hei, to meet people who don't confirm the essential accuracy of his experiences and worldview. Flash doesn't strike him as stupid. He does, however, seem to possess a helpful streak a mile wide. In most circumstances it'd be suspicious. After all, Hei has feigned sweetness and stabbed people in the back enough times. ]

[ But here, his gut tells him Flash isn't upto anything. His mask is a token. Even if you take it off, he's essentially the same person underneath. ]

A-Airsick -- ?!

[ 'Li's eyes widen and his grip tightens reflexively as Flash begins windmilling his arms. It's like watching helicopter rotors -- attached to a human being. It's strange, but also interesting; something Hei catalogues in the analytical part of his mind. The tendons, the pressure, the high velocity speeds, questions and theories on how Flash's arms aren't being torn from their sockets. The rest of him just enjoys the odd phenomenon. Gusts of air press against his face as they ascend. A prickle of adrenaline -- like from a freefall -- spreads up his spine. ]

...Wow...

[ Pure 'Li' -- the stunned, stupid grin audible in his voice. ]

Right?! Bones of fucking steel, these people. And they don't bleed either.

[fastest_dude_ever]

[The laws of physics and biology don't strictly apply to Wally. It's the speed force - the extradimensional source of his powers and what will one day be his Valhalla - that gives him his powers and keeps him from being charred man-meat. Convenient, eh? The side effects of moving at the speed he does are largely nullified. There is the issue of his phasing out of reality and once or twice accidentally contributing to time travel, but that's not something he would like to repeat. Not until things become desperate, that is.

The ride is anything but smooth. Doing this requires constant readjustment to remain balanced. As they climb hundreds and then thousands of feet atop the red tornado that is his arms, he remembers that he never quite learned how to stick a landing doing this. Whoops! He shouts above the wind:]

Okay, so I'm gonna lower myself and you can just go ahead and jump off.

[He hopes the kid isn't too clumsy. He had enough grace to climb a mountain, right? Once they reach a flat part at the peak, he begins lowering himself at a turbulent hover until he's roughly fifteen feet above the ground.]

Or if they do bleed, it's always that artful line of blood at the mouth xD 1/2

[mortemscintilla]

[ It's fortunate that Hei's preoccupied -- at least, as preoccupied as he gets -- by the current experiment. Otherwise he'd be interested in learning more about the details of Flash's ability. (It wouldn't be pretty. Once BK201's interest is stirred in anything inexplicable, he sinks his teeth in and doesn't let go. His resolution to deconstruct the City's mysteries into basic blocks of clarity, is a perfect example of that. Monomania has its upsides and downsides.) ]

[ The higher they go, the chiller the air gets. Hei studies the mountains around him -- snowcapped peaks, connected by saddle-like ridges, spanning as far as he can see. He compares a spike-shaped point to a similar pattern he'd memorized on his map, and nods. His coordinates for the best access-point to the Barrier are there. It's a jolting ride, clothes flapping and wind roaring in his ears. But to someone who makes windsports like paragliding and gymnastics like wire acrobatics part of his professional repertoire, a fear of heights gets nixed early on. ]

[ He strains to catch what Flash is saying. ]

Oh. Oh. [ He yells to be heard against the whistling wind. ] Okay! Here goes!

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei isn't clumsy in the least. But 'Li' is. Even so, the terrain is too risky to feign stumbling, just to maintain his cover. He'll end up spraining his ankle. As Flash descends over a landing-patch, Hei makes his move. He leaps past the whirring red arms, twisting, freefalling. A dodgeroll is a primary lesson taught in any extreme sport. Swooping through the air, he watches the ground enlarge abruptly, With a jolt, he hits feet-first, the impact shuddering through him, bending his knees to roll sideways, absorbing the shock along his side and shoulder. When he surges to his feet, his posture is instinctively poised as if he's just completed a grand jete, not jumped off the airborne Flash. ]

[ If it makes him suspicious -- oh well. He'll learn in a minute there's more to 'Li' than meets the eye. ]

Oh, yeah, so they are gonna be roomies for a week 8D

[fastest_dude_ever]

[He blinks a couple times in...well, mild surprise. That was a pretty deft maneuver - one he would expect from Batman, Black Canary, Ollie, or maybe even himself. He's seen and fought alongside combatants enough times to see the mark of experience in leaping from above average heights.

Wally, for his part, doesn't land in a graceful Superman way. He more just stops moving his arms and flops to the ground on his stomach with an "oof" as air collapses out of his lungs. Thankfully, the snow makes the ground soft enough to where regaining his bearings isn't too tough. He stands up, rubbing his chest.]

You got some training, pal? Parkour? Martial arts?

sporfle that can only end in lulz xDD

[mortemscintilla]

Both.

[ His reply is, like everything else about him, hedged and oblique. Hei's been educated in all spheres -- acrobatics, Chinese martial arts, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Krav Maga and lowdown dirty street fighting. All facets are variegated and precise, but they aren't 'formal training' as such. His instructor, Reynard Maxley, didn't believe in soft soaping his recruits. There were no stages, no easing into combat on the frontline. In a global war, they couldn't afford the luxury. Instead Hei was offered a rudimentary framework of each self-defense technique, then tossed into the battlefield. It was no different from evolution. Those who weren't fit to live were quickly slaughtered. And those who were ruthless enough to survive ... ]

[ Well. That psychological damage would come later -- the isolation, the amorality, the cost of it. Back then Hei had only the foggiest idea what was being mortgaged, what he'd have to offer later as collateral. ]

[ He watches Flash land in the powdery snow with a thump. But he eschews Li's exaggerated mannerisms. No fussiness; no helping him up. A hand cupped above his eyes, he examines the skyline instead. Calculates the right spot for targeting the Barrier, then nods. This will do. He glances back at Flash, and the flatness of his gaze is eerie. His voice is different -- deeper and colder in pitch than 'Li' can afford. ]

[ This isn't the same person Flash carried up the mountaintop. ]

You've been useful. But I'd recommend stepping back now.

[ Exploiting Flash's good nature is one thing. But if the experiment goes haywire, Hei would prefer the other man not be harmed unnecessarily. ]

It'll be like the Real World!

[fastest_dude_ever]

[The abrupt change in demeanor is enough to make Flash step back. It would take a man far denser than he not to see the difference. A chill runs through him that has nothing to do with the cold. Someone without Flash's impulse and courage (which borders on idiocy) would probably leave completely. Bad vibes here.]

What are you going to do?

[His voice is even. He's not going to question the change in 'Li', but nor will he leave without an answer. He knows, immediately and unequivocally that he's been had. The least Li - Hei - can give him is a reason why. Wally has faced down certain apocalypse (and been to Apokolips) dozens of times and it will take more than an about face fr a kid he thought he sort-of knew to make him stand down.]

With a dash of Big Brother xD

[mortemscintilla]

[ Five years ago, the monster forged in the frontlines of Heaven's War -- the Black Reaper -- would have no patience for questions. One touch of his palm to Flash's shoulder, and the City would be one corpse richer. But since escaping from the Syndicate, since fighting alongside a reliable team, Hei has learnt something unique. Temperance. Perhaps that quality was always latent in his nature. He just never had the freedom to exercise it. He still functions on the basis of Want Take Have, still sees everyone as a framework of skin and bones to slit and dismantle, but he's never been given a choice to view the world differently before. ]

[ Here, he does. Freed from orders, mindgames and assassinations, it's astonishing what he's learning about himself. ]

Conduct an experiment. [ Terse and matter-of-fact, his expression revealing no emotion one way or the other. A beat, before he adds, ] No one should die from it. Provided it's done right. [ Collateral damage doesn't bother him if it's for a purpose. But he also won't be responsible for harming innocents. ] I'm interested in examining the Barrier. Seeing how it interacts with the City. What lies beyond it.