Anna might be (elatedorgassy) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-07-06 12:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, anna of arendelle, yue katou |
Who: Anna and Katou
When: During the Rift Plot
Where: Street corner, then skyscraper roof
What: Battling demons
Rating/Warnings: B for Battle/some swearing and violence
Status: Complete!
There was nothing that got Katou’s blood pumping quite like the Orange County being overrun by monsters and ghoulies. He’d wonder if there was something wrong with him if he wasn’t already completely sure that there was.
But it was practically custom wrapped. He’d just graduated high school the week before, and was wondering what to do with his time, and then like clockwork, it was time to go out and kill some monsters. He had his sword, Shiranui in hand, and was very much looking forward to find something to run it through.
But first - he was pretty sure he recognized that redhead. “Why the hell do you keep going outside in times like this?” he asked, trotting up behind her.
Anna probably should just stay inside while all these crazy things go down. She should have learned by now that she wasn't the best fighter, wasn't great at dodging bullets, and couldn't really run away if things got crazy. She wasn't very fast. Optimism was her strength, and when it came to giant battles against baddies and whatnot, it wasn't very powerful.
That didn't mean she didn't try.
When the crazy rift opened outside the Boardwalk, Anna knew this was something she should be better prepared for. She headed to her car to get her sword--after so many of these crappy events, she'd put it in her trunk for easy access. Not that she was an expert at wielding the thing, but she'd had some experience.
So today she had it with her, and spun around, swinging it in the air at the sound of the voice. The metal stopped before it swung into Katou, but only just.
"Jesus!" Anna cried out. "Don't sneak up on a girl like that!"
When she turned swinging, Katou brought up his fake arm to stop the blade at the same instance he brought his own sword around, holding it low but so that the blade was perfectly positioned to slide under Anna’s ribs. It was purely an automatic reaction, something that had been conditioned into him after the heavenly war in his dreams, and he had no intention of hurting Anna, but something in the gleam in his eyes and the set of his mouth suggested that if Anna took things further then he wouldn’t hesitate to skewer her.
But she didn’t, the blade stopping a hair’s breadth away from his hand, and the look was gone in a split second, replaced with an exasperated look. He lowered his own sword and casually pushed her blade away with his hand. “You’re going to take off someone’s ear with that thing,” Katou chided. “Anyway, I didn’t sneak up on ya now did I? I announced my presence and everything.”
“You were sneaky.” Anna said, accusingly, glaring over at him. It was strange, whatever was between them. Not quite friendship, but still… friendship? Anna would have called him her friend, but he was probably her least favorite friend more often than not. They both exasperated the other almost as much as they amused one another. “You were being sneaky even in announcing yourself.”
Then she turned her attention and her blade back in front of her, holding it with shakey hands as the scene unfolded. It was crazy; monsters all over the place, bright lights and fires, things going insane. But then again, what else was new?
“You have any idea what the latest insanity is?” She asked, glancing over at him.
For his part, Katou thought of Anna as one of his friends. He liked the girl, mostly because she was so much fun to tease. And hey, he felt a little protective of her. He didn’t understand why she kept putting herself in these situations when she couldn’t fight her way out of them, and there was a big part of him that figured whatever she got she deserved, but he couldn’t bring himself to just desert her.
“A lot of fun,” Katou said cheekily. Like he knew or cared why monsters were crawling out of weird green portals. It wasn’t his job to know these things. “Are those lizardmen up there?” Katou asked, shielding his eyes so he could get a better look at the creatures. Bronze in colour, the lizards walked on two feet, wore plate armour, had wings, and were carrying swords. It wasn’t the strangest sight he’d seen since he moved to the OC, but it was up there. “Very Fear and Loathing.”
“We can’t stop here. This is bat country.” Anna said, eyes on the … whatevertheywere in the distance. But those weren’t bats. No, they were much worse than anything out of the mind of Hunter S Thompson or Terry Gilliam. (Because Anna had seen the movie, but not read the book.) The look on her face grew a bit more concerned, then a bit more horrified as the creatures seemed to be coming closer. “...Are they… getting bigger? To you?”
Katou gave an amused snort. “Yeah, Girlie. That’s what happens when things get close to you. It’s called…” Uhhhh… “Perception or some shit,” Katou said, scowling a little at himself. “Just stay back here and let the Mighty Katou deal with ‘em.” Seriously, plate armour aside, how hard could a bunch of lizard-brains be to kill?
He walked almost lazily to meet the dragon people. Once he was about half-way between Anna and the draconians, he turned to look at Anna over his shoulder. “Man, these things are even uglier than them vampires from last year. And they stink a lot worse too,” he said.
“Who the hell are you calling ugly, human?” the creature hissed at him, which made Katou jump a little.
“Holy shit, I didn’t think you could talk.”
Anna took a step behind Katou, though she refused to call him “the Mighty” even in her own head. She actually shrank back a little as the dragon people got bigger and bigger, then she could smell them. A part of her wanted to yell at Katou to stop talking, but the creature spoke first. Her eyes went wide.
“...maybe we should just….” Go? Run away? Hide until this was all over? Anna could do any of those things.
“Welcome them to the neighbourhood?” Katou cut in helpfully. He took his sword in both hands, eyeing up the lizardmen. Dispatch the one in front of him, then the one on the right. After that they seemed spread out enough for now that it would be as easy as shooting fish in a barrell.
He held the sword overhand to bring down onto the dragon-like skull of his opponent, but the lizard was faster than than Katou expected. Stronger, too. The force of his parry made Katou lose grip with his left hand, but he didn’t let that stop him from taking another swing from the side, holding the sword only with his right.
Unfortunately he went wide, and the creature was able to easily step backwards to avoid the blow, then brought its own sword down on Katou’s, disarming the teenager. Katou was starting to get a little nervous, but he didn’t bother watching the sword as it skitted away from him. Instead, flexing the fingers on his left hand he drew out his claws, and plunged them into the monster's chest.
“I gots all sorts of tricks up my sleeves,” Katou said cockily as he began to turn his body toward the second draconian, which had already stepped forward and was beginning a swing. Something was wrong though - something was stopping him from pulling his hand out from the dragon. He let his knees gave out and fell heavily onto his ass, the sword whistling harmlessly above his head, and allowed himself a look up.
The creature had turned into a goddamn statue! He was made out of stone and Katou’s hand was trapped fast inside of it, at such an angle that it was now pulling painfully at his shoulder joint. He tried to give it a few tugs, but from this angle he didn’t have the leverage needed.
Katou let out a peel of nervous laughter, a terrified smile frozen on his lips as he realized the other draconian was standing above him, sword raised above his head. So this was how it ended. With his fist stuck in a fucking statue, not protecting anyone. He squeezed his eyes shut and raised his hand as if his fleshy arm would stop the blade as the creature’s sword started its downward arc.
This was one of those moments that Anna dreaded. The attack of mysterious creatures had her both scolding herself for being so cowardly, wanting to run and hide, and feeling a strong, powerful urge to go out there and fight for what was right. It left her mostly paralysed, watching the scene unfold in front of her with horror on her face, her jaw hanging slightly open.
She winced when the sword went flying, and again when she saw the creature turn to stone with Katou’s arm stuck inside. And others were approaching. Her heart was thundering now, her hands gone clammy, but now was her moment to act. To react, but to act, to save her friend in a way that she’d done once before in her Dreams.
The sword started its downward arc, but never met its intended target. Anna had stepped forward with a grunt that turned into a powerful yell, and lifted her own sword. She was holding it with both hands, and swung it around in an arc of her own, deflecting the blow from the creature and sending his sword swinging harmlessly down to her right. The creature looked as surprised as Anna felt, though that didn’t stop her from lifting her blade again and thrusting it straight at the body of the lizard guy.
Of course, it banged off of his armor, but sliced into his side where the plate ended.
When, after a couple of seconds, Katou didn’t find his head cleaved open, he tentatively opened an eye and saw Anna going toe to toe with the weird creature. For a moment, Katou was almost relieved. Then he realized Anna had no idea what the hell she was doing.
“If you don’t have the strength to go through armour, don’t try to go through armour,” Katou scolded, the irritation evident in his voice, at the same moment that he lashed out with his feet in order to trip the beast before it realized how inept Anna really was and turned the advantage. Katou was nearly back on his feet by the time the unsuspecting creature fell heavily to the ground. “Stab it in the goddamn head, Anna!”
Anna had taken a couple of fencing classes from her ex, but that was nothing compared to what actually happened when she tried to use the thing in real life. But she had the thing bleeding, and then Katou had him falling down. Anna didn’t have to be told twice! She lifted the sword and brought it down as hard as she could, yelling with power all the while. The blade probably could have been sharper, and Anna wasn’t that strong, but somehow the blow rang true. She separated the lizard/dragon/whatever creature’s head from its body.
Then she gasped and squealed. “Oh my god! I did it! Ho-ho-holy crap!” She laughed. “I can’t believe that worked.”
“Congrats,” Katou said dryly. He yanked hard on his arm to withdraw it from the statue, but to his surprise, at that exact moment the statue turned to dust and Katou stumbled back a couple of steps with the force from his withdrawal.
He immediately ran to his sword and scooped it up, then grabbed Anna bridal style at the same time his wings burst from the back of his shirt. A couple more steps, and he was in the air, desperately hoping that the winged creatures below him wouldn’t try to follow. Or, at the very least, that he was the faster flier out of them all. It was mildly humiliating retreating like this, especially since he was pretty sure he could take them now that he knew about their strength and the whole turning-to-stone thing, but he was a little frazzled and needed to compose himself. Besides, Anna had gotten lucky once. He didn’t want to test how long that luck would hold.
Anna didn’t have long to dwell on her victory before she was swooped up into Katou’s arms and he took off up into the sky. She turned and wrapped her arms around him, careful not to hit him with her sword or drop it and send it sprawling. “Wha--t? Wait? Where are we goooooing!?” She yelped and her grip tightened around him as they zoomed way, way up into the air. They were probably a mile up by now and Anna was terrified.
“Away from here,” Katou said grimly. He risked a glance over his shoulder, and realized not one of the scaly creatures had followed them into the air. In fact, a couple were on the ground shaking their swords at the two humans. Katou let out a triumphant laugh, and landed on a nearby sky scrapper. He rather unceremoniously dropped Anna.
“Fuckers have wings and they can’t even fly. Man, that’s gotta suck.” For them, of course. For Katou and Anna, it was definitely a good thing.
Anna fell to the ground when he dropped her, and landed with a hard thump on her hip. A little yelp escaped her as pain shot up and down her side from the landing. Gosh Dangit. She’d been so freaking kick-butt and then he’d just dropped her like that. After a moment she rolled onto her back then her other side, and then she sat up a little, wincing. “Yeah. Stupid creatures.” She said, and slowly climbed to her feet. Where on Earth were they? She glanced around the building, then down at the neighboring skyscrapers to try and figure it out.
“...I hate this. Maybe it’s time to move.” Anna said, frowning. Though, she wouldn’t. She couldn’t.
Katou smirked a little when she yelped. He hated to admit it, but she kind of saved his life. And she’d friggin’ beheaded some lizard thing, and that was badass as hell. He wouldn’t have thought her capable of it if he hadn’t seen it himself. And so dropping her was his way of giving her a hard time in order to make the rest of this a little easier to swallow.
“You’d miss me too much if you moved,” he said, his smirk fading into a slightly softer smile. He placed his hand on her head in an affectionate, if not incredibly patronizing, way. “You did alright, Anna.”
Well, there wasn’t much else that Anna could do in response, was there? She turned to glare, and stuck out her tongue at him.