Participants:
| Scene Title | Happy VD |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | On a cold and dark night, Lucille gets reacquainted with an old friend who spreads the love around. |
| Date | February 14, 2013 |
The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
The American Civil War isn't civilized, not the way it used to be. This time there is no stopping for breaks in the afternoon where soldiers from opposing sides come together to share news of family and friends. The world is so much larger now, and so much colder. This February the trenches of New York City, are harsh and unforgiving. Between the bitter cold and the snow storms, both sides have been hit by sickness, disease, and finally death. Even the most hopeful merely stare blankly into cold mugs, dreaming of better days.
Tonight the sky is bleak and black, without even a moon, only the green streaks of tracer bullets. They mock shooting stars but no one who sees them bothers to make a wish, because between both sides, there's no hope that this will end anytime soon. If she were Delia Ryans, she would be praying to St. Jude tonight, the patron saint of desparate and lost causes. Unfortunately she isn't… she is Lucille and Lucille doesn't believe in more than two things anymore. Kill or be killed, the tenant she lives by.
Glancing to her left, Billy took the latter part of her belief system to heart. He lays against one of the many stone pillars of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, staring at Lucille. He has been for hours now, ever since he took that bullet to the head. There are others, huddled against different pillars, but she can only see him, his dead expression aimed at her.
There aren't any sounds emitted from the young woman as she stares across at Billy. Blue eyes taking him in one last time before she strides over in her all black garb, uzi in one hand and throws a nearby blanket that was left by some unfortunate soul over the man's face. She can't take that look anymore, Lucille shivers as she stares up at the broken window to her right.
Pivoting so that Billy was behind her, the thick blood on his face already starting to sleep through the material of the blanket coating it in red.
Luce sighs as she checks her ammo. It's been a long week and there doesn't seem to be any sign of it stopping at least not fully. Taking a moment to sweep her long auburn hair into her dirty hands and tying it into a ponytail.
"Fuck."
Those strides should have been made in serpentine. The moment Lucille gets up to walk over to Billy, a barrage of ammo sweeps through the broken doors trying to claim another victim. Lucille. One of the bullets streaks by her leg close enough for her to feel the heat as it rips a hole in her dirty jeans.
"God damnit Ryans!! STAY DOWN!!" Yells one of the others, the voice belongs to Favre, but she can't be too sure, she can't see. "Next time you pull shit like that, we're lea—" His voice is cut off as more gunfire erupts, this time to answer the call of the ones aimed at her. Favre doesn't say any more.
When Lucille gets to Billy, she can see three more people from her unit. One, a girl that can't be more than fifteen or sixteen, too young for all of this. There's sweat on her brow, dripping enough to make clean streaks on her dirty face. The clouds of her breath are kept small and dissipate quickly after leaving her mouth. She's frantic, and as terrified as a horse being led through a burning barn. She inches closer to the edge of her pillar, not taking her eyes off Lucille.
She's going to make a break for it.
"Fuck!" Is repeated this time with a grunt as the bullet rips through her pants. Blu eyes wide as she crouches down and moves out of the way. "I-" she's stopped because Fravre stops talking. The young woman looks over in his direction. He's down. Lucille grimaces and fires a volley of bullets out of the window before ducking down again. Her heart is pumping and her hands are sweating beneath the surface of the gloves she wears, her ability doesn't turn off. But the gloves help that and so when Lucille sees the young girl ready to charge for it, she reaches out a hand.
"Wait wait." Is said tersely, "Don't run there. Not yet." The beginnings of a plan start to formulate in her mind. She has to get them out of there, Luce can't lost more people. She refuses to today.
"I'm gonnatry to draw fire in the corner over there," Where Fravre is, "When they're shooting my way, I'll take cover and you run. Run the fuck out of here, okay? You've done good, you've done fine." She tries to stress to the girl.
Frantic brown eyes dart in the direction that Lucille is pointing and the young teen gives a slight nod.
"I don't wanna die," her voice is quiet and hoarse from too many silent tears. Lucille can't remember a time since she met the girl that she hasn't been crying. "I don't wanna die…" she repeats. And again, "I don't wanna die…" Like a mantra. Her breath is shakey and the small puffs just wither out of her mouth now.
"I don't wanna die…" From her new angle, Lucille can see that she's holding her waist tightly with both arms and that breath she's barely letting in and out is very controlled as the girl shivers. "I don't wanna die…." just loud enough for Lucille to hear.
"I don't wanna die…" quieter now.
"I don't wanna…."
Sarah.
That's when Lucille remembers her name, Sarah.
"Sarah, you gotta really hear me." Lucille is mentally kicking herself before looking over to her other comrades. "Please make sure she doesn't get herself shot." Holding the girl firmly, she stares her in the eye. "Breathe." As Lucille does this an idea strikes her and she leans in closer, maybe this could help.. as she gets closer though she notices the lack of breathing, the way she clutched her stomach. She's gone too. Luce starts to shake. Eyes wild with pain for the girl. She's too young for this. She's far too young for this.
She plants a small kiss on the girl's cheek. Her blue eyes swirling to that golden amber color as her ability activates and she floods her own body with adrenaline, the effort is hard. She can't always force what aspect of her ability comes alive, but she had been practicing, for times like these.
There's a quick look over her shoulder at the other two. "Once they are firing in my direction, run that way. Don't look back, we're outnumbered. I'm hoping they'll focus on me.. I'll meet you guys where we hunkered down for two days, remember?" Or at least Lucille hopes this is how things will work out. Her senses are laser sharp, heart pounding fast with the adrenaline, she looks between the two and nods.
Backing away fast she signals for the war buddies to wait as she charges over to where Favre was yelling. Her breathing is heavy and her footsteps pound on the cathedral floor. She doesn't try to fight the nerves and anxiety that come with this adrenaline rush, she feeds into it. Opening her mouth in a loud yell that turns into a screams, trying to get the soldiers outside to focus on where they think she might be behind the walls.
Firing her uzi as she does whenever she is out of cover. Ducking behind and crouching at a wall, not moving as bullets whiz by. Chest moving up and down rapidly. She's got nine minutes and twenty seconds before the effect runs out.
A trail of holes in pillars, walls, and on the floor follow behind Lucille as she makes a beeline to where Favre was. Still is. He's lying on the floor, his face half gone where a bullet entered the back of his head and exploded out the front. His jaw hangs open from when he was still yelling at Lucille to stay put. A spray of brain, bone, and blood makes the floor slippery and hard to navigate but not unmanageable. It's already gone cold but hasn't frozen just yet.
Don't be a hero
He told her when they first started.
Heroes die
Between the fire of guns, the screams, and the blast of the uzi, Lucille does manage to draw a little of the fire. Until the other side notices what she's doing. The sudden movement of her comrades causes the fire on her to be abandoned and renewed on the fresh targets. One by one, Lucille watches in horror as the soldiers she was with are mowed down. The enemy isn't kind. These kids fall one by one as they're riddled with bullets from the knees up.
In a matter of minutes, Lucille is alone.
Don't be a hero. It's still echoing in her head as she pats him down and removes what ammo supplies she can take with her. Shoving things in the pockets of her pants and the compartments on the belt she wears. Luce believes she's succeeded in saving the other kids but no in fact she is wrong.
The horror of it all strikes the woman hard in the heart and she leans over with a grimace before ducking down more and letting out a low hiss of breath. Her heart is pounding faster and she knows that she doesn't have too much time left. The come down of her adrenaline rushes are something she has experience with, that doesn't mean she's at her best fighting shape but she can still maneuver.
Three minutes have passed.
She leans over and shoots more of her uzi out at the soldiers before ducking down, her hand goes to land on a nearby grenade. Favre didn't get a chance to throw it. Gripping the thing with her hands she closes her eyes and prayers to her mother, that's her saint. And tosses the explosive over and out the window after removing the pin with her teeth. Once that has exploded she muses, she can maybe get to the other soldiers in the the confusion. A firefight has her at a supreme disadvantage. She cries out again, gold eyes wild as she fires more into the group of soldiers outside.
With an earth (window) shattering kaboom, the grenade explodes causing an echo of screams to ring in Lucille's head. When she pops up to fire next, she can see a few pieces of enemy soldiers lying in the snow and one hanging limp over a low concrete wall. His machine gun lags, hanging by its shoulder strap still attached to him. Unfortunately, she didn't get all of them. Every time she comes into view, firing her uzi, a half dozen begin firing their machine guns in her direction.
Across the room on one of the bodies, a radio crackles.
«zzztt»
«ccchhrrrrkkk»
«Eagle Two, are you by?»
«zzzrrrrccccchhhhkkkttt»
«Eagle Two do you copy, over?»
«kzzzztt»
Could they have called a few minutes ago?
Cursing to herself as she snaps her attention away from the carnage outside she nods firmly to herself. What would dad do? Might have been a question she should have asked yesterday. Or an hour ago. Lucille blinks away the sweat on her brow from dripping into those amber colored eyes and she nods her head again. She can do this. Taking off from behind cover she leaps across to close the distance powering her body with that dose of adrenaline. Gunfire is flying and Lucille's eyes look wild as she looks this way and that way a little frantic. She clamps down on the nerves hard and turns her uzi to fire at the guards when she has a brief window while leaping in the air.
She smashes down on the ground with a roll coming to the radio to grasp for it and pull it to her hands. "Yes damn it, yes. In the Cathedral!" She can't remember the damn name and then, "OVER."
«kzzzt»
«crrrcchhhkk»
«Safe word, over»
"Bananahammock! Bananahammock! Hurry up!"
Her heart is thumping hard in her chest, in her ears. She fires more bullets and stops to reload her gun. "Come on, come on, come on." The Ryans girl thinks to her family, the one she has to get back too. Didn't they all have families though? That they needed to get back too? Lucille bites her lips as she slams the clip back in place into the uzi.
Eyes narrow as she fires more precisely from around the cover of the wall. Don't let them get nearer she thinks. Don't let them get nearer.
«click»
Nothing.
Time is relative. Seconds feel like hours when your hand is pressed against a hot stove and hours feel like seconds when you're in the arms of someone you love. Right now, for too many hours, it seems like everyone has forsaken or forgotten Lucille. Until…
«Sending the Turkey, over»
The Turkey?
"The fuck?" Lucille says under her breath as she flings herself back behind more cover before laying on the floor and quickly pushing herself on the floor, a well placed kicked sends her sliding across the floor on her side as she fires the uzi into the group of soldiers. "FUCK YOU!" One of the soldiers might be really sensitive and take offense to that or something.
In this time right now, Lucille wishes saying those words had more of an effect. Like Tahir's ability. But it does not..
The floor, slick with blood, is an easy slide and some of Lucille's shots actually do hit home. Two more enemy soldiers fall, at least four left to go… and now she's out of ammunition.
click
To the Ryans woman, it's almost like an echo heard 'round the world and when her slide falls short of the next pillar, she's left open and as vulnerable as a beetle on its back. She sees one balaclava masked head pop out from near the door and then hears, "Advance!!"
Her wish for them to not get closer isn't granted when she hears a scream and sees one of the enemy soldiers sliding towards her. He’s a black clad shape and when he slows to a stop right in front of her, he’s already unconscious. The still air turns windy next to her and she can feel herself being pulled away from the downed man and toward cover… too quickly. Before she has time to protect herself from hitting the wall, she stops and visible is Edgar's grinning face.
"You called…" he says— a little too cheerily, "and the Turkey has arrived."
Running out of ammo is just not what you want when you're in a heated gunfight with government soldiers. "Aw come on!" She shouts and hits the barrel of her gun with a open palm out of frustration. Because she refuses to die whimpering while out in perfect view for the soldiers bullets. She's not ready to die and that shows on her face before she is whipped away so fast that her head goes from side to side as she stops with..
She's felt that sensation before.. She knows it. She hasn't felt it in a year or so.. Since Alaska and lo and behold. "Edgar?!" Her mouth drops open, gold eyes on the man catching his features sharply. "You're the fucking Turkey?!"
She almost expects him to make a turkey noise.
"Uhh yeah," he replies, looking a little confused by her reaction. "Yer welcome?"
He's covered almost completely in what looks like a dry suit. It's mostly brown with splashes of red, orange, and yellow. On the upper arm closest to Lucille is an embroidered patch of a turkey. He ducks his head out to take a peek at their situation and then shrugs back to Lucille. "Seven out there, we can make it. You ready?"
"Th-thank you." Lucille gasps out and she looks at the Turkey patch and then back to his eyes. You've got to be kidding. Luce's eyes are wild as she tries to steel herself, nerves still a jumble in her head from the adrenaline. "Let's make it f..fast." Grumbling, she holds onto Edgar's arm. "And..thanks again.. Turkey."
"Bakbaka?" She tried she really did. Luce holsters her uzi in the thigh holster and makes sure she is holding on tight, almost wanting to close her eyes but she keeps them open. Gold irises staring ahead, she won't hide from any of it.
"'Ey!" Edgar says sharply, scooping up Lucille into a princess carry and standing straight up.
The enemies begin firing the moment the pair become visible but the speedster dodges the bullets like they're travelling through water, carrying Little Miss Badass. They zip between pillars, out the door, and finally pass by the enemy shooters to safety.
When he finally sets Lucille down, he gives her an insulted sniff and sneer, "I'll 'ave you know tha' the Turkey is a very majestic bird. 'Appy Valentine's day."