soul_logs | [Closed] But we are ready and prepared to fight

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[Closed] But we are ready and prepared to fight

Characters: Steve Rogers and Hades
Location: Scandinavia
Rating: PG-13
Time: May 24th
Description: A forgotten God and a living Legend go troll-hunting.

After maybe an hour of speaking with the locals, following hints and getting a vehicle Steve and Hades finally arrived in the outskirts of a forest that was supposedly part of a famous park. Hades had left most of the speaking to the human Meister, assuming correctly that doing so would inspire more faith and cooperating from those they met.

The place their tracking had led them to was the shore of a big river that was filled with water that was of a muddy blue-green color and kept making small noises as the floods rushed by. A light rain was falling and the barest hint of faint mist had build up along the surface of the water.

Hades walked up to it until sand mixed with the earth beneath his feet and only a few steps divided him from taking another unwanted swimming lesson. “According to what that one said the last victim was snatched from about here.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. It wasn’t the ocean, but all that water still reminded him of his late brother. Silly stupid brother who had went down while trying to punch giant scorpions in the face. “…I don’t think that dying in the water is really preferable to dying on the land.”

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Steve glances at Hades at his "tried it once" comment, but decides not to ask more about it yet. Want to focus on the current mission and all. It'd be helpful if there were tracks or any other prominent signs.

"With the forest and a source of water nearby, it'd be an ideal place to gather resources." He agrees with Hades' sentiment. It's always nice to work with someone that is just as focused, even if he doesn't agree with Hades on some other moral issues. "Rocks. Guess they're boulder sized then."

He nods to the water. "If they're large, they'd probably sink. The person can then have a chance to flee." Although, retreating is usually not on his agenda.

"Probably." He agrees without really saying anything. Hades always had a way of speaking in ways that makes others have to work to draw the conclusions he has already reached. First it had been out of his own lack of knowledge, later because he is interested in how they might see things and think differently than him. Knowledge and its pursuit is his one big weakness.

He gives the water another considering look. "How far can you see past the surface of that?" Despite his words he hasn't moved any closer to the waterfront and there was a loose sense of tension in his stance. The innermost of the god's three right ears quivered lightly. "The rain is loud, but what else is?" Even in a weather like that birds and other small creatures usually made some noise that was lacking here.

At the question, Steve briefly looks at different areas, but he really can't see that far past the surface. The light mist along the surface doesn't really help either. "Not far. Think that there's something in its depths?" He returns his attention to Hades, noticing the slight tension in his stance.

"Only the rain is making noise here. Can't hear anything else." He wonders if Hades can hear more stuff than him. "Do you hear anything?"

"No, but I feel-" He never got to say what he felt because a sudden rock shot out of the water and tried to grab the gods legs. At the same time a loud roar echoed from the other side of the trees which began to shake wildly as something big and heavy was making its way through them quickly.

Guess he should've seen that coming. If something's too quiet, something was bound to happen.

Steve quickly moves to pull Hades out of the way, his hand gripping his wrist maybe a little too tightly. "Ready?" Seems like now is the time to resonate, use what practice he got to fight these trolls.

Hades' shifts first into his Weapon form first and only then replies. "Always." The kishin eggs still holds one end of is Weapon form and is now trying to use it to whip them both around like a toy on a string.

"The one from he other side will reach us in two minutes and a little less than fifty seconds. You have until then to deal with this one."

Steve worries for a moment about Hades, being pulled from two ends definitely doesn't seem pleasant. But he quickly pushes that aside, trying to maintain his ground as he maneuvers the meteor hammer to either hit the troll or make it lose his hold. However, the troll is strong, and despite his strength, he's slipping up a bit.

"Less than three minutes. Seems like plenty of time." He quips in return, but doesn't say much else.

"Hmph", Hades comments with his trademark noise that can hold a thousand different meanings depending on his mood and circumstance as he observes the tug-of-war with his Weapon form. "First actions, then talk."

The troll evades the first hit by bending to the side, but it gets hit by the second because it doesn't want to let go of its prey. The hit is enough to make it stagger. Feeling that something is off Hades frowns lightly, his mood echoing through their resonance. "Watch ou-" He doesn't have time to finish his warning before the kishin egg already stumbles back, misses its footing underwater with one leg and starts keeling over backwards while it is still clinging to the Meteor Hammer like a lifeline.

Damn, this was going to be wet again, wouldn't it?

Edited 2013-05-14 03:42 (UTC)

Steve doesn't disagree with him on that one. He continues to focus and steady his grounding, but he can feel the strain reaching its maximum.

He feels Hades' mood, but it doesn't prevent him from losing his grip on the meteor hammer as the troll falls back into the river, causing a large splash around him. Letting out a small curse, Steve rushes over to the river, ignoring how wet his clothes are getting. He just needs to get Hades out of there.

The thuds of the approaching second troll come closer and closer as the thrashing of the first one disrupts the ground of the river and turns the water the color of mud. It still hasn't let go of the Weapon and Hades observes with mild combination of worry and interest that it is using his Weapon-form like a reversed fishing line. Steve would definitely have to watch out not to get hit.

The water probably slows his movement a bit, but he pulls out his shield to block the strikes, hoping that the thing can last for now. Once he gets close enough, he jams the shield into the troll's neck, hoping that he'll release Hades from the blow.

The shield barely lasts and Hades sends a pulse of his Weapon-inherent madness wavelength through the Meteor Hammer's chain in order to repulse and confuse the troll so that Steve can hit it properly. He still has no intention to actively help anyone, but if Hades has the choice between who of the two gets to swing him then he still prefers Steve.

Ignoring the gurgling scream of the injured troll as it lets go in order to clasp its injured neck Hades transforms back just long enough to move within Steve's reach before he shifts right back into a Weapon again.

His Weapon form is humming with a faint sensation of power as if it were greeting Steve. 'What did I say?'

Steve notes that the troll starts to move around in confusion, figuring that Hades might have had a hand in that. He appreciates the help, attacking the troll would have been a lot more difficult without that interference.

Releasing his cracked shield, Steve grabs the meteor hammer, returning the sensation that he feels from Hades. Without wasting any more time, he swings at the troll with the weapon, aiming to strike it in the head. "Action first."

"Heh" An image of small teeth shining up in an unpleasant smile reflects in the material of the Meteor Hammer for a moment as its head comes down and cracks through the back of the head of the kishin egg as if it were an overripe melon. Almost immediately thin, black hair-like tendrils spring forth from the Weapon and remove the corrupted soul from the disintegrating body, sucking it into the Weapon.

There is a short pleasant hum that reveals that Hades' does have emotions like pride (and a vengeful side) in his voice when the god speaks up again. "10 seconds until the second one rushes you. It seems like it is going for a running tackle."

It's the first time Steve's seen a Weapon absorb the souls before, almost feeling a little uncomfortable at the sight. He doesn't like the thought of Weapons getting stronger from absorbing souls, but he mentally brushes it aside for now, wanting to be focused on the battle at hand. He can't be sidetracked when the other kishin egg is about to strike.

"At least this one doesn't have the element of surprise." Steve moves into position, gauging the distance and preparing to move and strike with the meteor hammer at the opportune time.

If he were in his humanoid form Hades would have given Steve an ill-boding look while his full attention were on him as he caught traces of his Meister's reaction to his tacking claim of that soul.

"Hmph", the Weapon commented as the kishin egg slowed down for exactly one step at the sight of it's dying comrade and then charged them headfirst with a loud challenging roar. "This one is less clever."

"We'll take advantage of that."

As the troll begins to charge towards them, Steve starts to swing the meteor hammer to strike at its vulnerable head. It's definitely gruesome, but excessive violence is something that he's familiar with. There's really no time to hesitate either.

The kishin egg charges blindly ahead until the head of the Meteor hammer crashes violently into his and just sends it flying. For a moment the body just keeps running, endangering the team through its sheer amount of mass that is still driven forward by its own momentum.

Hades transforms back once it falls to the ground. "This seems too easy."

Steve is glad that this one went down rather quickly, better that it doesn't cause much harm to them. Still, Hades does have a point, things are rarely this easy. He remembers warning Tony about the same thing with Loki.

"There could be more of them, hiding around. Waiting for a surprise attack again."

"Hmph." Hades' standard answer is nonchalant.

Stepping forward, he says "There are still kishin eggs clos-" He trails off as his body stiffens for a moment when the sensation of hot wires being rammed through his veins races through Hades in a brief wave. Ah, so that wasn't the truth. He shakes his head lightly, smiling knowingly to himself. "There are no kishin eggs clo-" Again he doesn't get to finish his sentence.

The Greek god turns to Steve once his body relaxes once more. "There is one kishin egg close-by." This form of confirming the truth without actually bothering with the in-between is a bit violent in this world, but it is still the most familiar way for Hades to find something out. All in all he thinks that the brief intense pain might even be better than the usual lack of feeling anything when he finds that he can't say something.

Steve notices when Hades' body suddenly stiffens and he frowns a little at that. He wonders if something is wrong. "Are you alright, Hades?" Steve does look concerned, Hades is his partner for this mission after all.

Oh, and there's still one kishin egg left? Looks like they ran into a lot this time. It's good that they managed to get this far though. "Can you locate its position?"

His concern earns him a sideways glance. "It is but the usual side-effects of me trying to say something that isn't true."

He takes a small breath and makes a step towards the woods. "I can." But it will hurt. He does not say this. Figuring out the right direction for them to go takes Hades a few moments where he keeps turning different directions while he keeps mumbling under his breath just to cut himself short over and over again. Out of habit he has switched back to speaking Greek, but if Steve bothers to listen he will quickly notice that it's always the same words. Verification through falsification had the bad habit of being quite case-sensitive.

When he is finally able to finish the sentence and switches back to English Hades is paler than usual and the hand he uses for pointing shakes lightly. "That direction."

Steve pieces the information together, so Hades feels pain whenever he lies. Guess that explains a lot of things and now he's using it in a tactical way, judging by the repeated words. But still worrying. It's not like he wants the guy to hurt himself for this. It doesn't feel right to him and he places a hand on his shoulder when Hades points in that direction.

"That's enough." He looks at his slightly shaking hand and pale face.

Hades stiffens under the touch and without him noticing his breath catches for a moment. Then he regards Steve cooly before he slips out from under his touch. "I'd prefer if you don't do that."

Steve lowers his hand to his side, his expression slowly returning to a neutral form, although he's still a little concerned.

"Do you need to rest?" It's a risk, but Steve doesn't want Hades to keep on pushing himself and collapse.

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