fandomtownies | Warehouse District, Saturday Night

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Warehouse District, Saturday Night

The fight between the new Fandom-folk and some of the biggest bosses on the island had disturbed something. That was Kathy's best guess for why there were more hollows out tonight than normal--that, or they'd realized the glut of new people led to easy pickings. Kathy had had to change direction multiple times to avoid hollows prowling about looking for an easy meal. She ducked into the burned out remains of one of the old stores to let another go by, keeping her head down to avoid being spotted by a creature that looked like it was made of...knives and shattered glass?

Once it had passed, every step it took chiming gently in the night, she snuck out and continued on her way, scurrying along as fast as she could without making herself cry out in pain. But maybe she was less sneaky than she thought or the glass hollow had better senses than she'd assumed, because she soon found herself being chased by something that could shred the flesh from her very bones.

She stumbled on a bit of trash, hit the ground with force enough to jar her legs from the kneecaps down, and pushed herself back up to stagger forward on unsteady limbs. Soon enough, she'd have to turn around and fight; she wasn't running fast enough to get away. But maybe, just maybe, she could find a decent place to make a last stand?

This wasn't going to end well. But, hey, at least she wasn't going to go hollow?

[Expecting one, but open! Thread with Alluka comes first chronologically, any others will take place in Kathy's warehouse]

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Alluka was just courting another giant lecture from everyone at this rate. She really was.

But Papa and almost everyone had been off, busy, and she'd been left to her own devices, and things had felt weird and Nanika had been weird and then Alluka had started worrying about Kathy all over again.

So she was out, once more a brightly coloured smear as she sped through town on her ATs. Ringo would be proud at how good she was doing. Even now, when Nanika complained there were more things outside than before, nothing bothered Alluka.

Not that anyone else was going to care about that. She now had experience in knowing that no one thought she could manage on her own. Since it was generally true, it didn't particularly bother her.

All the same... she was out, by herself, all over again, skating through the warehouse district and feeling twisty inside, like she had to hurry. Nanika didn't confirm or deny it either way.

Blocked. The way forward was blocked. Fuck! Someone or something had slammed into this building at a high enough velocity to knock most of it into the street. And Kathy wasn't agile enough to climb over the heap of detritus blocking her way. Her eyes darted to the left and right, gauging her odds but--nope. To the left was another building, to the right was an alley with a weird noise emanating from it. Both bad options. Out of habit, her eyes scanned the rooftops, but it was pointless. If she couldn't scrabbled over some debris in the road, she couldn't make up onto the roofs.

Instead she turned back the way she came, pulling out her gun with and her knife. She wasn't sure how much good either weapon was going to do her, but she wasn't going to go down whimpering.

"Come on then!" she yelled at the hollow that was serial killer-stalking her up the road. "Come on!"

It was the sound of the tell that got her attention, the words going in one ear and out the other. Alluka would know that voice anywhere, though she'd never heard Kathy sound like that before.

Her Kathy had never needed to speak like that around her. This Kathy was different, though still Kathy.

Alluka put on a bit more speed, carefully timing her jumps the way that Ringo had showed her how. She wasn't anywhere nearly as effortless as Ringo was, but leaping from building to building wasn't hard so long as she made sure the jumps weren't too big. And at this speed, it was easy to clear things.

She saw Kathy down on a street and it took her little time, her ATs making the most noise, the rest of her silent, as she hopped from the building, to the pile of debris that used to be a building and then, greatly daring, hit the wall at the right angle to bounce off of it to get back onto the street in front of Kathy.

It was the first time she'd ever managed that maneuver. Ringo hadn't ever taught her, though Alluka had seen her do it. Her chest puffed out in pride as she circled to a stop.

"Kathy!" she cried, taking in what Kathy was doing. "What's wrong?!"

At a time like this, Kathy would normally do something cold and calculation--push someone down, leaving them behind to face the hollow while she took advantage and got away. For a big monster, she might even have hamstrung the other person or shot them in the knee--she hadn't had to do that yet but she'd been preparing for the day. And upon seeing Alluka, her resolve should have firmed. After all, Alluka had Nanika, and the entity would keep the little girl safe.

That was what she should have done. That was what she was prepared to do.

But instead, she yelled, "Get out of here, Alluka! You still have time to get away! Quick, now, before it tried to get you, too!" She pointed down the road, where the mess of metal and steel lumbered into view.

At this rate she was never, ever going to convince Alluka that she was a lot different from the Kathy she knew.

Alluka blinked those big, blue eyes of hers at Kathy, confusion stealing over her face as Kathy yelled at her.

She spun to look where Kathy was pointing. And that was--that was certainly a thing. A big, bad scary thing.

"Why aren't you running, Kathy!?" Alluka wanted to run, she really did, she wasn't brave at all, but Kathy wasn't moving.

Why wasn't Kathy moving?!

A temporary regression, she assured you.

"I can't run!" Kathy said despairingly. "My legs don't work! Dammit, Alluka, stop talking and get the hell out of here!"

Where the fuck was Dante? Either of them? Or Alluka's papa, the one that looked like a hollow? Or Anders or Eliot or anyone who could come and get Alluka away from here and out of danger!

"Dammit, Alluka, I won't be able to hold it off for long!" Or much at all, and she didn't want the girl to see her shredded and bleeding. Call it pride, which was better than a stupid commitment to Alluka's mental well-being.

"GO!"

"Huh?!"

That was Alluka not running, more like being terribly, terribly confused. Kathy could always run, couldn't she? What was wrong with her legs? Why wouldn't she be able to handle it?

Kathy could handle anything! Alluka had a child's earnest faith in Kathy, which wasn't easily broken no matter what the circumstances.

"But Kathy--"

The monster thing was getting closer. Halfway down the street now, the glass of it chiming chillingly against the street.

Desperate now, Kathy pulled up her pants, showing Alluka her mottled and misshapen legs. Ugly scars the width of her thumb pulled at her flesh and beneath them were the lumps formed by improperly set bone. "I. Can't. Run!" she said through clenched teeth. They didn't have time for this! "Go now and I'll try to make sure it doesn't follow!" Mostly by giving it something to eat while Alluka got away.

Fitting that this would be her end, considering how many times she'd forced others to play a roadblock in her stead.

Except that shocking Alluka wasn't the way to go. She stared with blank incomprehension at the injuries.

Death she'd dealt with. Blood didn't bother her.

But she'd never seen anyone's skin look like that.

She didn't move.

She wasn't trying to shock her, she was trying to show her. "They're broken and they don't work right," Kathy explained frantically, counting down the yards between the hollow and them. "I can't run or climb or ride or do anything but die here, Alluka! So would you just go so that you don't end up that way, too?!"

But it was too late for running.

The hollow was there, all sharp edges and empty fury, empty hunger, and Alluka hadn't moved. She was still staring at Kathy's legs even as the hollow raised it's claws at her, too quick for her to move, or for Kathy to move.

As the claws descended, though, it was not too late for Nanika to move.

Alluka's huge blue eyes emptied out into aching pits of darkness, her mouth shifting, losing form and teeth and confusion as Nanika's empty doll-like smile came out to play.

"No."

That was all it took.

It was too late for the hollow to run, to back away, to change it's mind. It was committed to the attack.

Nanika did not even bother to look at it as her wild, dark, and chaotic magic shredded it behind her, leaving nothing but a twisted, bloody husk that was barely recognizable what it had been.

Blood went everywhere.

Kathy had expected to look like she'd come out the wrong side of a Cuisinart after fighting off that thing, but...not like that. She was drenched in blood like a prom queen in a horror movie and wearing an expression of the more purest confusion she had possibly ever donned.

"Alluka?" she whispered, trying to push herself to her feet on legs that were shaky for reasons beyond the physical.

For the space of several heartbeats, Nanika stared empty-eyed at Kathy.

Then her body slumped slightly and as if taking a deep breath, Alluka came back. Her eyes and mouth returning to normal.

She was covered in blood, her back black with it. It barely seemed to register to her.

Alluka shook her head. "I'm okay!" she said, since Kathy looked kind of... funny.

Shaken. The word Alluka was looking for was definitely 'shaken.' "We should...we should get you cleaned up," she said in a voice that tried for steady and almost succeeded. "Your papas will freak out if you come back looking like that. And it would be a shame to ruin that pretty dress of yours. Sound good?"

If there was one thing Kathy was good at, it was cleaning fresh blood out of clothing, at least.

"My papas are going to be mad anyway," she said, since she'd snuck out again. It wasn't her fault that they kept taking their eyes off her and she had important people to look after. "But alright. Blood gets sticky and tacky when it dries anyway."

... It wasn't the first time Nanika had killed something and Alluka had been there in the aftermath, no.

She glanced at the twisted lump that remained, but her expression didn't change.

"Are you alright, Kathy?"

"They'll be a lot madder if you come home looking like an abbatoire," Kathy said, pretty much on autopilot. She was still staring at the remains in horror. "And you need to be a lot more specific about that question, sweetheart."

Kathy was alive? Did that count for some value of okay? For anything else, though...

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Warehouse District, Saturday Night

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