Who: Tyler and Peeta What: Demon attack while on their way to the same bakery Where: Near Baxter's When: During Breach Plot Rating: PG-13 for violence Status: Complete
Summer was here at last, which meant that Tyler had plenty of free time during the day that had previously been taken up with classes and studying that he had to fill. He was working more nights than he did when he’d been taking classes, but that didn’t help spend his time.
He wasn’t entirely sure what to do today, but visiting Caroline didn’t seem like a bad call. That, and the hole in the sky that had appeared over Anaheim was worrying, and he thought it might not be a bad idea to talk to Caroline about it. See if she knew anything, either from their own dreams or one of her friends’. He wasn’t far from the front of the bakery when a group of something appeared in front of him. They were by far the creepiest things he’d seen in his life and he hesitated, a little frightened. Then one lunged at him.
Heading over to another bakery felt a bit like cheating, but Peeta only did it so he could see Caroline. He honestly got along with Audrey, but the friendly rivalry was there a little bit. They were two different kinds of businesses, but he was more than happy to stop over there to see Caroline when she was working the day away. Little did he know that today was one of those days when the OC went to shit. He had spotted Tyler off in the distance, but didn’t really register it in his mind before something demonic came out of the ground.
There were quite a few of them and Peeta made a noise of surprise, which attracted the attention of a couple of them. He wasn’t sure what to do as they came after him, but he knew he would probably confused them by rushing towards them.
Tyler sidestepped the charging demon, and then, not really knowing what else to do, punched it in what could probably have been called its face. As the creature reeled, Tyler turned toward the very human sound he had heard.
And there was Peeta. Of course there was Peeta. For a heartbeat, Tyler considered just letting Peeta fend of himself. After all, he was ex-military, wasn’t he? But Peeta was outnumbered, and really wasn’t a bad guy, and the thought disappeared almost as soon as Tyler had it. Instead, with a burst of werewolf speed, he left his stunned demon behind and threw himself at one of the demons making its way toward Caroline’s boyfriend, grabbing it around the middle in a football tackle.
When he rushed the demons he managed to get at least one with his shoulder and knock them down to the ground. He wasn’t even sure what he was fighting against and he really wasn’t thrilled about it either. But suddenly Tyler was joining in the fray against these awful looking creatures. He knew that Tyler was a werewolf, but he was amazed at the speed that the man moved. It was a lot like Caroline’s powers, but there was a more feral nature underneath it all.
Peeta wasn’t afraid to throw a couple punches, but he really wasn’t capable of trying to get these things to disappear with just his bare hands. “Shit, hey. Um, any idea what these are and how to make them go away?” Peeta called out as he fought and dodged the creature.
“Don’t have a clue, dude. I’m pretty sure they’re not from my dreams.” He sure hadn’t run into anything like this yet, and Caroline had never mentioned them. Then again, Caroline tended not to tell him much about what was in his dream future. Not sure what else to do, but knowing the go to killing blows in his dreams usually tended to involve snapping necks, he grabbed the demon by either side of what could be called it’s neck and gave a sharp twist. The creature stopped moving. “But killing them seems to work okay.”
“I think we might want to get inside once these things are gone. Hopefully they can’t just slide through a doorway,” Peeta wasn’t sure if he could keep up trying to take them all down at this point, but he was able to grab at least one of them and follow what Tyler did with the neck snapping. There was a brief pause before he did it though as he reminded himself that it was not a real person. They were finally starting to dwindle in number, “This is ridiculous.”
Tyler, for his part, could probably keep going for a while. It was hard to remember that human’s really couldn’t. In his dreams, werewolves were weaker than vampires every day of the month except for that of the full moon, and since it seemed like everyone in his dreams was some sort of supernatural being, he didn’t often think of how humans would be fairing.
“You should start making your way there,” he said after a moment. “I can hold these ones off. They seem solid, so I think if we bar the door we should be okay.” Hopefully. He really didn’t know what these things were.
It was kind of nice being around someone who seemed to forget that Peeta was just a normal human. One that had put up with a lot of shit in his dreams, but a normal human nonetheless. Caroline sometimes got too hung up on that small fact, but they had been working through that during their relationship. “Alright, but try to make it in there quickly.”
Peeta wasn’t going to leave him behind, but he did need to get out of the middle of the fray. He shoved the demon thing that was approaching him and bolted for the door to the coffee shop. Tyler was moving faster than he thought was possible, so he managed to make it inside without incident, and held the door closed as he waited for Tyler to join him. Head turned to try and assess the objects inside the store that could be used as protection.
Tyler had never moved like he was now, squatting down on his haunches and pushing off with his hands, much like a four-legged animal, when he wanted to throw himself at something. But the movement came naturally to him, and seemed to afford him more power than he would have had if he was still moving like his normal self. He tried not to think about how much of it was the wolf in him, instead just letting his body move how it naturally wanted to.
Once he caught sight of Peeta safely inside, he tackled one more demon that was getting a little too close to the door and let himself into the building, closing the door quickly behind him. “We have anything to work with in here?”
Watching Tyler was something else. It was like watching Caroline go full on vampire. The instincts kicked in and you could feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up because you knew you were around a predator and you shouldn’t interrupt them. He opened the door and quickly closed it once Tyler was inside and he kept his back to it. “We could move the tables and chairs. I’m not sure if there’s anything in back. I think we might be okay for now,” unless they figured out how to break glass, “We can walk away for a moment and gather some supplies.”
Tyler nodded, breathing a little heavier than normal but otherwise feeling fine. “Why don’t you check the back for some kind of weapon and I’ll barricade the door,” Tyler said, stepping away from the door toward one of the tables. The windows were a little worrisome, but they didn’t seem especially smart out there. “You hurt?”
“Just a little bruised. I think I’ll be fine,” nothing seemed like it hurt at this moment, but he also knew that the adrenaline was running high, so it might not be figured out until later, “You fine?” He called the last part out as he walked to the backroom to find a weapon. He couldn’t really find anything because it was just a bakery, but he was able to find a couple fire extinguishers that would work well for hitting things and grabbed the knives they had.
The tables were easy to move, at least for Tyler. They were still cumbersome, but Tyler was able to grab one in each hand and pull them toward the door. The two would probably do it for now; there was no point in overdoing it.
“I’m fine,” Tyler said. He was pretty sure he had a couple of scrapes and bruises as well, but they were likely already healing. Werewolves couldn’t heal as fast as vampires, but they could definitely heal faster than a human. At least being a wolf came with some perks. “Just the knives, huh?” Tyler said, briefly looking over the fire extinguishers and deciding that he was better off with something sharp. “I can work with that.”
If anything major ended up happening he would most likely go to Caroline to be healed and call it good after that, “Yeah, knives and the extinguishers. They’re somewhat heavy enough to make an impact, but the knives will probably work a lot better. So, do we want to just settle in and wait for them to retreat?” He wasn’t quite sure what the game plan was honestly, but he wanted to get out of this place as soon as the coast was clear.
Tyler frowned, peering out the window. Now that Peeta and Tyler weren’t in their immediate line of sight, most of them had taken to milling about aimlessly outside of the shop. “I think our choices are fight our way out, or wait for someone else to come along and get rid of these things. It looks like they want to stay close to that green thing.” He frowned, looking over at Peeta. Not only was he human, he was also missing a leg. While that hadn’t been evident yet so far, Tyler wondered exactly how viable of a plan running was. “I don’t really want to waste my whole afternoon here.”
“There is a back exit. So, I’m not completely opposed to the running behind their backs and not getting our hands dirty again. I haven’t poked my head outside yet to see if there’s anything there, but we might have a really good chance that way?” Peeta offered up. He had seen the back exit door when he had gone looking for weapons. He wasn’t afraid to be a ‘coward’ in this kind of situation because the last thing he wanted to do was die from some stupid demons.
Tyler nodded. “Back exit sounds like the best plan right now,” Tyler said. He could keep killing the things, but right now that seemed fairly pointless. They just cropped right back up again, like some sort of goddamn video game. He tucked a couple of the knives into his belt and grabbed took hold of a fire extinguisher. “I hope Caroline’s boss doesn’t mind that we rearranged the furniture,” he said, heading back toward the back room. Or stole their knives, but, well, Tyler would return them.
“She’s usually pretty chill,” Peeta commented with a soft laugh, “I think that we can send her a gift basket with an apology note and bring this stuff back later. Let’s just get the hell out of here.” He held onto the knives in one hand and took the fire extinguisher with the other. A silent hope that nothing would attack them as they left was given and they made their way to the back. Peeta opened the door slowly and held a knife at the ready, trying to ignore how familiar it felt to being back in the Army, and slowly checked to make sure the coast was clear, “Okay, we’re good. Get back to your car and get home safe, okay?”
Tyler stepped out of the door, giving the air a tentative sniff. The place reeked of demons, but at least none of them smelled especially close. For a very brief moment, he debated taking Peeta up on his offer and leaving him there, but Caroline would probably kill him if he let demons eat her boyfriend.
Besides, Peeta wasn’t that bad.
“You got a ride? I could drive you home if not.” And if yes, well, Tyler would walk him to his car before heading home himself.
“Yeah, my car is just down the other end of the street,” Peeta was a little surprised that Tyler was offering that. Their first meeting had been a bit tense, but they had managed an uneasy ground of acceptance that both men were important to Caroline and that wouldn’t be changing anytime soon, “But thanks, man, I appreciate it.” If Peeta couldn’t make it down the street to the lot just at the end without being killed then he didn’t deserve to live because he had used up all his luck.
“Yeah? Same direction as mine,” Tyler said, which was actually true. “Come on,” Tyler said, walking ahead of Peeta toward the cars. “We might as well stick together until we’re safe.”
“Sounds good to me,” Peeta gave an easy shrug with a good natured smile as they turned to head back to their cars. Sometimes the weirdness of the OC brought people a little closer together and at least he knew Tyler had his back now. That wasn’t something he took lightly.