epidemiology | BUT MY HEART IS WILD, AND MY BONES ARE STEEL

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BUT MY HEART IS WILD, AND MY BONES ARE STEEL

CHARACTERS: peter parker & YOU
DATE: 3/22 - 3/23
WARNINGS: violence?? possibly... some cannibalism attempts, jfc
SUMMARY: turns out that a mild coma didn't actually keep the virus from progressing, and now that he's out and about at nearly 7 weeks infected, things are a bit bad. time to catch a spider. easy, right?

SANS.

( when he finally figured out his infected state, his only option seemed to be isolation. it was not a great plan, admittedly. he hadn't had a lot of time to make it, even if he'd promised Keith to make preparations just in case. he couldn't hole up in quarantine, not when he was a threat to anyone that hazarded going too close, so that meant more extreme measures.

one little slip was all it took to devastate. Stiles had been proof of that. Peter refused to let there be another slip.

the plan was simple. lock himself away where the infected numbers were high, to keep anyone from finding him. steal enough barbiturates to keep himself under as... well, as long as he needed to be. he had not been concerned with an endgame. it could have worked, maybe, if he'd trusted someone else to be close enough to monitor him. the dispenser he'd made did its job, but he'd discounted exactly how much of the drug he'd need to even drag him under. he hadn't taken enough to last even a week.

when he woke, he was not the same person that had been willing to render himself comatose to protect everyone in Woodhurst.

he was no longer thinking; his thoughts were burned away in the fever of his hunger. nothing else mattered. so when he crawled from the sewers, he doesn't exactly seem like someone wise to get particularly close to. there's already blood on his hands, his pupils so wide in the dark his eyes almost seem black — and if that weren't eerie enough, the first hint at a sound makes him react, and not simply by running. that'd be too easy, wouldn't it?

no, crawling along the wall suits him just fine, at a rather alarming speed. it seems rife for a horror movie, only it's reality, and it is a reality that is coming in a little too quickly. the sound that had caught his attention was a woman walking to her car, unaware of the danger lingering in the dark. leaping from a wall to land on her is enough to knock her to the ground and knock her out in one fell swoop, which might be just as well. she won't have to feel his teeth sinking into her arm. )

REIKA.

( turns out, when someone capable of crawling up walls and throwing cars starts a frenzy in the middle of downtown, it draws attention. especially when the count of injuries is climbing and climbing fast. the screams, the cries for help, the few people left on the streets fleeing for safety seems to have little effect on him anymore. if anything it seems to set him off, throwing whatever he can reach at the nearest sound. which is a bit of a problem, when he can lift just about any car he comes across.

he doesn't exactly hear the threat coming. no, he feels it, a shiver down his spine, hairs standing on end. even with the knowledge it's coming, he doesn't bother to stop chasing the next mark he's after. he crawls after his fleeing target, skittering along the wall with demented focus. even as the terrified civilian screams for help and stumbles into the street. it doesn't matter how much he eats anymore, he's still hungry — and he seems to have decided on his next meal. )

NOT SO SUPER AFTER ALL. (OTA)

( spider-man is actually only so amazing. he can crawl up walls and lift incredible weights, yet he's far from invincible. he might have done well to remember that a lot sooner, chances were a lot of people would have been saved a lot of pain.

still, he's been chased and pursued, and by individuals strong enough to actually keep up with him. more than keep up, really. his brain was burned into thoughtless fever, and his actions were stuck on instinct, instead of forethought. Audentes wasn't the only thing he had to worry about, either, as Woodhurst was determined to fight back as well. for example, getting hit by that pest control van had definitely not been expected. who could really expect that kind of irony?

he's hidden in the dark, pressed against a wall and nearly dazed. he definitely looks as if he's in need of help, though considering the smudges of blood on his face and hands... you might not want to risk it. )

HAISE.

( there are only two things that matter to him at the moment. trying to sate the endless hunger that only seems to be amplified the more he tries to silence it, and evading those that have intent on keeping him from it. evading violently, if need be. he's somehow managed to avoid capture this long, and that's in no small part from how capable he is at slipping away, and hearing who might be after him before he can even see them.

still, he's running on madness, not sense. not to mention Peter had been wise enough to take off the webslingers that allowed him to move through the air so quickly, just in case. hard to say if he'd even have the sense to use them, now, though if he could it was certainly for the best he didn't have the option. he's not as fast as he could be and that leaves him open to intervention.

even though he's not particularly inclined toward the idea.

he's distracted, trying to beat down a heavy metal barricade that was hiding something to eat. the screams inside only seemed to make him work more feverishly, like a panicked promise if he could just manage to get inside. terrifyingly, he's doing a damned good job beating the metal in with his fists — unless someone can stop him. )

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( does it get his attention? no. not really. voices don't do much when his brain is a fog of infection and fever. there's a tingle of warning at the base of his neck, one he would be wise to listen to, he just doesn't. he leaps from the wall to a car parked in the street, crunching the metal of the roof as he lands and splintering the glass of the windshield from the impact. one wouldn't think a kid his size could make a dent like that. it sort of says a lot about the force he'd utilized in the jump, doesn't it?

the civilian that had been running from him ducked in the splay of glass and crunch of metal, and that's just enough time to leap on him, instead.

the spider intends to take piece out of his throat, unless Reika has something to say about it. for everyone's sake, let's hope she does. )

[ Seeing that her voice has no effect, Reika forces herself to dash harder - she focuses and a bright golden aura surrounds her baseball bat, manifesting as a pressure spike in the air that shoots forward straight at Peter's back. Hopefully it'd knock him off his victim.

If not, she'll be in physical distance in two more seconds and she has plenty of other Blood Arts to pull off. Peter's impact is about what a medium-sized Aragami would make on a car, so if he isn't as fast as the Blitz Hannibal, she should stand a reasonable chance.

She's been fighting monsters larger than her for a long time, after all. ]

( well, the idea is it knock him clear. he's quite focused on the prospect of feeding, yet the prickle in his spine refuses to let him truly get lost in it. he turns to face whatever threat it is, and he's only faced with a wave of air that's unreasonably strong, considering there's no clear source for it. he doesn't have time to try and avoid it, and ends up knocked back from the uncertainty more than anything else— though he rolls out and sticks low to the ground, clearly no worse for the wear from it.

he's been chased a lot already. Reika is far from the first. it makes him especially cautious when trouble looms. he is both perfectly aware of his strengths and incredibly aware of his limits, so it is always a perilous balance, deciding whether he should risk it or run. he evaluates her silently with no recognition in his expression as he rises from the crouch, an eerie reminder that he's spider and human both, and he'll take whatever movement benefits him best at the time.

the man that has been freed skitters away, and the spider doesn't chase; Reika has his attention, now, though it's hard to say whether that's a good or a bad thing. )

[ The swiftness of Peter's response does surprise her a little, though she supposes hoping for an easy opponent would be wishful thinking. Perhaps she's a little rusty from a three month break from hunting, but her mind falls into the usual routine quite easily. Assess the opponent, and find its weakness.

Peter has the advantage of mobility, that she can see - so she has to rely on projectiles and long-ranged attacks. She can't shoot without her proper weapon, but she can at least put pressure waves.

A light blue aura flickers around her bat as she swaps to another of her arsenal, also waiting to see if he would pounce first. Though... ]

Peter?

[ Just... maybe, it'll work. It's worth a shot. ]

( the words seem to sift over his head, as good as if they weren't said at all. he doesn't care about words, even if yes, of course he heard them. the fever doesn't allot any brainpower for listening, and without that it's impossible to process the information that is trying to be relayed.

he can see the weapon, and he can weigh the risks of charing. still, it was difficult to tie a blast of air to a person. a perfectly normal person with a bat? not a particular threat, considering what he was capable of.

the bat won't break him, but it gets his focus all the same. he takes a step closer, head tilted and attention more on the bat than Reika herself. the next step comes faster — by the third he's running.

not a good sign, especially when he can move quite quickly. )

[ Well, it was worth a shot.

For the next few seconds they watch each other, and then Peter starts moving - a lot faster than she had anticipated, so she jumps backwards to put a little more distance between them. He's very fast, but she's also faster than the average human, which should give her enough time to use the bat to block... whatever he was going to do.

It may be just an ordinary bat, but it's reinforced with a Blood Art and is therefore a lot sturdier than it might give. The wood hums with resonance, the cocoon of energy around it ready to be released as she seems fit.

Next move. ]

( what was he going to do? well, not an easy question to answer, when the spider in him is so reactive to the moves of an opponent in every altercation he has. his senses guide him, predict what is coming, and he responds in kind. he'd have figured it out when he got there.

she moves away instead, not that it slows him down much at all. she holds her bat up, and it makes it clear enough that his first step in all this should be to disarm her. when he lunges forward this time, its bizarrely low. going under a potential swing to end up on the next to her, and then he'll try to wrench the weapon from her grasp with both hands, twisting from behind her grip on the handle and away at the weakest point of her grip, between her thumb and the rest of her fingers. )

[ The speed puts her at an immediate disadvantage, much like her spars with Haise - but she's learned form fighting with him, and her tactics shift to more be on the defensive. Reika doesn't move while he makes his maneuver, waiting until he comes into place - before directing the Blood Art backwards instead of its usual forward spurt, venting a pressure wave directly at him.

It'll hit her too, but this is nothing compared to being bodyslammed by something twenty times her weight. As soon as there's an opening, she'll reaffirm her hold on the bat and get a little distance between them. ]

( even spider senses have a hard time predicting magic, or something close enough to it that there's not an obvious explanation for what happened. before, he wouldn't have guessed that the source of the blast that had knocked him free of his last target was Reika, yet two instances in short order? it seems a wise guess that the girl was responsible, though he couldn't fathom how.

he had been startled by it the first time. that had given her a bit of advantage. this time? he expects it well enough, plants his feet and takes the blow. he's hard to displace when he knows what to expect, he can seal himself to whatever surface he wants to — and when the pressure hits Reika as well, he takes that as his opening to try and close the distance, instead of leaping he charges forward to try and tackle her legs out from under her.

if she's the source of the baffling blasts of air, then he wants to try and stop her as quickly as possible. )

[ Julius rushes to the commotion with his stance on guard. In his hand is a simple sword, it's the same one he got from Perdition's Rest. ]

I came as fast as I could. What's the situation now?

[He takes a glance back at Peter, trying to asses the situation. They've gotten into a mess...]

Edited 2017-04-17 05:18 (UTC)

[ Infected aren't Aragami, something which she tells herself that she needs to revise her strategy. If Peter tries to come low, she might have to step on him to jump away.

She's not him, but she's also not just a normal human. Sorry, Peter. ]

We have to knock him out!

[ 'Him' being the person she's fighting, or rather, trying to get away from. ]

Don't hurt him! Use the flat end. [ Of the sword. ]

Alright, I'm on it.

[Will a short hit to the head be enough? Who knows? Somehow, Julius has a feeling something's amiss....Nevertheless, he approaches Peter with the other end of the blade cautiously. It's nothing personal. ]

Here goes nothing.

( would a hit to the head do it? ah, maybe, but you'd have to hit it first. he can hear the approach, Julius doesn't try for much in the way of stealth, and that means he's certainly got plenty of warning.

enough to retreat, rolling away and landing near a car.

perfect, considering he can huck it at both of them. )

[ This is far too little time to be able to brief Julius on intel, so: ]

Come with me!

[ They can try to surround him. A car is still slow enough to be avoided, considering that they dodge fireballs and needles for a living. ]

I'm on it.

[He follows Reika's lead and does his best to not show any openings. Julius is quick on his feet for a human. Thankfully the car's easily avoided for now. They should be alright if they keep this up. ]

Later you'll explain everything to me, won't you?

[Now's clearly not the time to ask questions. Julius would like to ask Peter a thing or two as well, when he comes back of course.]

I will.

[ The car crashes and... doesn't explode immediately, but it might later. ]

He's really fast. We need to corner him. Herd him with Blood Arts, maybe.

( he can't really make sense of their communication, though the fact they're strategizing is enough to put him even more on defense. the car didn't do him much good, but maybe retreating will.

he is fast indeed, and if there's no distraction he'll start heading up the nearest wall — and he climbs faster than he walks, eerily enough. )

[ As far as God Eaters can jump, they can't... climb. Reika picks up a piece of rubble from the floor and uses her bat to hit it upwards, above Peter's head to hopefully distract him.

The car might explode soon, but they don't know that yet, do they? ]

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BUT MY HEART IS WILD, AND MY BONES ARE STEEL

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