further fighting Who: Cloud Strife + Sebastian Michaelis + Anyone! When: Late afternoon Where: Gimbels What: Creepy things sprouting out of nowhere and Cloud has to fight them off! A friend or two could be nice, though... Rating/status: ~PG for some possible violence?/ongoing.
Before he knew it, people were screaming.
And it wasn't the nice kind of scream, it was the panicky, hysterical kind of scream. As soon as Cloud had started Fenrir to drive out of Gimbels' parking lot, the crowd had exploded and pillars of dark gray clouds came spiraling down the concrete with a low growl. What burst upon impact was the shape of a bony, four-footed mammal, with a skull for its head, a long tail and clawed appendages that could rip a heart out if the monster wanted to -- and Cloud was sure that it would.
There was no time to think, no time to gasp and hold his breath or to disbelieve the existence of the Shadow Creepers or wonder how they made it to New York. By the time he had released the winged compartments of Fenrir, the Creepers had already gotten a mother and baby; the baby was a sure goner, the mother captured by her waist.
There were seven Creepers by the time he'd gotten hold of the two swords in his compartment and one of them he spun and slid to the sheath behind him. The other one, Cloud split to two -- this all happened in one beat. As a Creeper materialized and bounded for him, he was already spinning round his heels and cutting through its form with his blades, the monster exploding into a dark cloud.
And then he was running, heaving one of his blades to a Creeper leaping for a young boy and taking that down as well. Cloud slipped the bulky sword from his back and spun again in his spot to rid himself of two charging Creepers, both exploding into bags of dust. He twirled both swords in his hands and held himself ready. One, two...four Creepers stood poised around him, no doubt ready to tear him apart.
As the four monsters growled and leaped for him, Cloud braced himself to fight, again.