Obsolete

[in_extremis]

WHO: Tony and open!
WHERE: The university, the mine hole...?, the beach caves
WHAT: Fixing the zombie problem
WHEN: Through the October biohazard event
WARNINGS: Gore, probably! Zombie stuff.


a. the beach
It was quiet, like the sand and the fog that hung so densely over the water cushioned any sound. Even Tony's footsteps, which had been so trudgingly heavy to Tony's ears on the road, were deadened as he reached the beach, and the creak and rattle of his armor as he moved was softened to static, like the hush of the waves. The fog was thick enough here that he had to pause and squint through it as he broke through the treeline, trying to spot the shape of the radio tower that should have been a clear landmark. It was leaning, precariously. If anyone not yet accounted for had made their way down here, and Tony suspected they had, to keep the water to one side and away from where the zombies must have been congregating around the sounds and lights of the city, the tower might not have been working for them. Tony hissed, and started a jog toward the caves, slowed by the heavy metal, and the regular ring of the scabbard at his side bouncing into his armored thigh.

It was only as he was hauling the weight of the metal up the rocks that he heard it. He had to stop, sweat from the effort quickly chilling in the cool air to raise goosebumps along his skin as he listened. A slap-slap-slap, like someone running, barefoot across the stones, echoing in the caves. Not the shamble of the zombies struggling to animate their limbs. Tony took a breath, could feel the call at the back of his throat, and it came out as a sigh when he realized it wasn't just one set of footsteps. Slap-slap-slap-slap.

The fog didn't seem so smothering as Tony turned to climb quickly, the clanking of his armor like an alarm and every rattling breath a siren.

b. the mine
Littering the city with as many posters as possible to draw people to the safety of the university was only really effective if the entire zombie horde didn't descend on the same building. And it was temporary, armor against a battering that had to be redirected. On a small scale, that was easy; Tony could spot movement in the fog, and shout, "Hey, come and get it!," or bang a metal fist against a concrete wall to ring like a dinner bell. Any sound, any movement, and they'd come lurching after him, immediately distracted from whatever had been driving their struggling brains a moment ago. As a mass, though, they were formidable.

The bigger problem was, even Tony's fireworks had been confiscated. The more complex devices, with controlled chemical reactions, timers, pressurizers, remote controls and kill switches, all of those were all his, and all immediately useless in the dead city. What their alien babysitter recognized as more computer, or less immediately as explosive, suddenly didn't work like the systems Tony built were sensitive to the whims of the weather. And what he needed, something that just blew up if he threw it hard enough, had to be built again, against the hope that whoever was keeping his toys away from him wouldn't notice for long enough.

The top of the greenhouse provided a clear vantage point over the gaping void that was the hole in the earth where he was supposed to die. Making a quick explosion, that was easy; Tony could assemble a grenade with his eyes completely unfocused, staring into the darkness all the while, until he had the mass drawn back by his shoulder in a slingshot to send in a perfect arc toward that emptiness. Most of them exploded before they reached the mine; some hit the wall a few feet deep, and rained fire into the depths of it, a silent lightshow at this distance. They were all as effective as Tony thought, drawing huddled groups of zombies toward the commotion, managing to lure a few of them over the edge. As a mass, though...

There had to be some way to set up a show.

c. the university
D.A.T.A.'s aperture looked dull and still. Watching over the grounds would be his job right now, if he wasn't in Tony's lap, his motherboard exposed to search fruitlessly for some loosened wire, sign of discharge, warped board, that could be fixed to bring him back to life. Instead, it was Tony that glanced up occasionally, his muttered apologies long since fallen silent, peering out into the dark through the narrow gap at the top of the window's reinforcement. The view was always the same. A dense carpet of fog, swirled by slow, jerky movements, and a brilliant ceiling of stars. The thunder continued to rumble, like it came from the fog itself, the stormclouds clinging to the earth. Tony barely heard it anymore, like the occasional pop from the candles flickering around the foyer. His busy hands slowed as he watched the stars with longing.

It was the strange light that darted between them, fizzing like lightning, that snapped his focus down to an unfamiliar movement outside by the gates. It wasn't loping or shambling, but moved with awareness. Intent. D.A.T.A. bounced as he hit the ground and Tony vaulted himself off of the ladder he was perched on to see over the barrier, then went sliding to a stop on the polished floors in front of the lever that he had to haul up and over to crank the doors open. They groaned, and thundered like the fog as they reluctantly parted, pouring light out into the night. Tony cut through it like a shadow, and could feel all of the hungry attention snap toward the signs of life. He didn't hesitate, winding back and pitching something into the sky, where it popped with a shriek and a flare of light, exposing him just long enough to wave impatiently to the figure in the dark while the zombies tracked the noise with their dead eyes.

Comments

a

[out_of_order]

By this point it seemed like going anywhere was a bad idea. At least Cal had been used to operating without the Force long enough that whenever the storms cut him off like it did now, it wasn't completely disorienting, although it was still noticeable to him, akin to having some temporary sensory blindness.

The other main downside to this sort of thing was the fact that his primary choice of weapon required power, and that wasn't happening so long as other things were shut down. It was really annoying, and walking around with a length of pipe in hand just didn't have the same feel, although when it came between being unarmed and that, he much preferred having at least something to keep the slavering hordes at bay.

And hordes there were, much more swarms of shambling undead than even the ones he'd deal with on Dathomir. That in itself is a bit unsettling considering there'd been a lot of undead Nightsisters. He wasn't particularly impressed when a few of the zombies here looked to be dressed in the tattered reds of the dead witches. As such, he wasn't too surprised to see the zombies out here moving so quickly. That was about the speed of the undead Sisters, which made it even more unfortunate to be lacking a working lightsaber.

BD-1 trilled an alarm by his ear, and the Jedi squinted into the fog. Movement, although not towards them- not yet. His Force senses might be dulled, but his other senses weren't. If those things were moving elsewhere, that means they found another target. Cal glanced at his droid, who gave a small beep, by now well familiar with his human to know the Jedi's intent, and quite frankly, it usually matched the droid's own.

Cal gave the pipe a spin, still too weighty compared to his lightsaber, but he grasped the end firmly in hand as he started to move in the direction of the noise, another sound becoming quite clear beyond the number of footsteps. Metal? The fog made it hard to discern as he came nearer to the caves, but not so much the humanoid forms. Wait, were they coming from within?

"Oh great," he groaned, right before he turned and swung the pipe towards one just as it locked eyes with him and made a lunge.

b

[deal_me_in]

Running for shelter was the last thing on Cayde-6's mind. He was a Guardian and the Guardian tenants were devotion, bravery, sacrifice and death. They were meant to protect and fight for those who couldn't. Being made of metal when you were facing a bunch of hungry dead folks didn't exactly hurt either, in this specific instance.

Needless to say, hunkering down for cover wasn't something that the Exo intended to do. If there were people out there who hadn't made it to somewhere safe- wherever that was, then he'd see them clear to get there. Finally having something to shoot didn't hurt none either.

His destructive toys might've been snatched, but there was more than one way to make an explosion, and Cayde had stocked Molotov cocktails long before he'd ever acquired fancy things like thermal detonators. It was just incredibly annoying trying to lug around a bunch of bottles!

But that just then? Now that was a proper explosion! So far as he was aware, there were only so many people who could and would pull off such a thing. Also, explosions meant that was where all the action was happening, and he wasn't going to miss out on that!

Jogging along with just the faintest clink of bottles jostling around in the bag slung over his shoulder, the Exo slowed as he crossed the square of the city center. Making his way up to the roof of the agricultural center was the next most natural thing for him to do, always preferring a good view. It was harder for zombies to sneak up on you if they couldn't make it up a rooftop, but he wasn't accounting for the possibility of accidentally sneaking up on someone else once he got to the top.

c

[thepurpleone]

He absolutely hated this. It was bad enough being aware that he was cut off from not only his ninpō and therefore his brother by extension, but being physically separated from Leo made Donnie all the more anxious, especially with no way to contact him. It had been too easy to lose track of him once droves of zombies were upon them, and calling out would only attract more unwanted attention.

As it was, there was already enough unwanted attention. Why were there so many of these things and where did they come from in the first place? Donnie wanted to laugh at that- that was thinking logically, that was looking for reasonable answers when there simply was no reason for any of this, save to possibly drive them all crazy. He'd tried very hard to ignore the fact that some of those faces amongst the shuffling dead had looked vaguely familiar, but thus far none of them had resembled anyone he'd been close to, a small blessing despite all the awfulness it implied.

Where had Leo gone? Did he go to take cover at the university? He'd seen the signs everywhere so hopefully, maybe? Leo had too. And if not... Well, Donnie had to start somewhere and at least if his brother wasn't here, perhaps someone else there had seen him?

The sound startled him as he made his approach, feeling all too exposed as he made his way towards the building. He saw the light ahead and while part of him felt relief, the other part of him knew that he wouldn't be the only one seeing or hearing the noise that had accompanied this revelation.

For once Donnie didn't think twice as he ran the moment he saw the movement, only because he knew that he'd be seen as well. The turtle moved quickly, and then nearly stopped once the light of the flare had revealed his assistance as a mix of complicated and very inconvenient feelings tried to burst their way out of the box he'd thought he'd secured them in.

[in_extremis]

The shuffling, groaning, and sound of creaking metal in his own ears was interrupted by something new--a wet thunk, and the hollow ring of an empty pipe. It twisted Tony's stomach, and he had to turn, crouched in his climb and barely an arms length above a climbing zombie below. This, he had to ignore, because he was staring down onto the beach, where he recognized, "Cal?" What he didn't have to say was what are you doing here?, and why are you doing that?.

He let himself slide down into a seat on the edge of the rock, where he could kick a heavy boot out into the face of the climbing zombie and knock them back down onto the sand. They had barely landed when Tony said, "Don't--try not to hurt them." The zombie he had dislodged was flailing weakly, getting its bearing back, and not making the request sound very serious. Not when several more came thoughtlessly trampling over it to reach the rocks themselves.

[in_extremis]

The perch at the edge of the roof had felt so comparably safe to the rest of the city, none of the zombies able to scale the smooth windows, that most of their noises had started to blend together for Tony. The explosions made the streets echo, and the undead groaned and stumbled, and the faint clanking sound must have been debris being kicked or tossed. It wasn't until that clanking was right behind him that Tony startled, suddenly not alone and in danger, and he yelped and pitched forward enough to then have to throw himself to the side before slipping from the roof entirely, dropping the grenade he was holding down the sheer face of the greenhouse. He had the space of a breath to twist enough and look over his shoulder where he was flattened to the roof, to spot the threat that had come upon him, then start to frown at Cayde for the surprise.

It was then that the grenade hit the ground, and the whole building shook as the windows were blown inward.

[in_extremis]

Donnie didn't have the chance to hesitate for long. From the door, Tony could only hold himself back with anxious waving for so long, then he was lurching forward himself to grab Donnie's hand and pull, like he could make him run any faster. Gravel and broken glass bit into his feet, and he could feel fingers brush his arms before he had them clear over the threshold, and he couldn't pause to check over his shoulder before he was blindly kicking at the winch that sent the doors slamming thunderously closed. Quieter, under the heavy boom of the wood and metal thudding into place, there was a crunch. The seam of the doors oozed, black and thick, dripping down into a tacky puddle.

A steady thumping at the doors followed, but Tony never turned to look at them; he was already searching Donnie, passing his free hand over his head, then down his arms, hissing, "Are you okay? Did any of them get you?"

[out_of_order]

Cal would be grateful that he was spared the inquisition, especially when he was a little busy. He danced back, sweeping his makeshift weapon in a wide arc to make sure he had plenty of space before glancing in Tony's direction.

Somehow he wasn't surprised to see the man, and he might even envy him the extra layer of protection, but that couldn't have been easy to be moving in. "Hate to say it but they're not giving us much choice otherwise," he noted, eyes tracking the jerking movements as something else came running at them. He brought the pipe up, the metal ringing dully as it deflected the wild swing of arms.

[deal_me_in]

Well, it wasn't like that response was completely unexpected, not that Cayde had really known anyon was up here! He threw a hand out as though to forestall his buddy a fall, but when Tony managed to save himself, the Exo offered a sheepish grin.

At that point he'd bounced forward to offer a hand up when things suddenly things were exploding again, and he tottered about as the structure beneath them shuddered with it.

"...someone's definitely not going to be happy about that."

[thepurpleone]

There were so many things going on that Donnie could only let himself be hauled after, ignoring the uncomfortable sensation of the ground beneath his own feet. He all but fell into a heap once they'd gotten through the doors, but by the time he'd pushed himself up to glance back and make sure they'd locked things out behind them, Tony was upon him.

For a moment he felt like all he could do was stare dumbly as the man checked him over. It had been over several months since he'd last spoken to Tony and he'd kept track of every passing day like it wasn't driving him crazy. If his tech were working he'd give the exact number of days, but was there a point to it?

The discomfort had followed him into the building, pain drawing his attention to his feet. Half-heartedly he pushed away Tony's searching hands before moving his own to brush at his feet, wincing at the little bits of glass that had tried to hitch a ride.

"'m fine," he murmured in belated response, the easiest thing to say, but he was at least pretty sure he'd avoided any unwanted zombie contact. Pulling himself together as best he could, he looked around.

"Is...anyone else here?"

[in_extremis]

"I know, but..." Tony breathed, and had to leave the point aside to kick another one off of the rocks, which only got his ankle grabbed by a third. They were climbing fast, faster than their shambling in the city suggested they could. He had to elbow the new one hard enough to feel the cartilage of their nose slip sickeningly easily to the side, snatching the scabbard from his waist as he did.

"I don't think they have much choice, either," he finally articulated as he used the sheathed sword to jam between a zombie's teeth.

[in_extremis]

"That's probably bad," Tony agreed, muttering as he pushed himself back up to a reasonable sitting position and leaned over more deliberately, trying to assess the damage. "Now they can get in there." And there was the majority of their food, until Tony could rig them a way onto the ships with the shuttles out of service. After a beat, still looking down at the cracked road and the zombies stumbling into the debris, Tony asked, "D'you think Tommy'll believe you or me more?"

[in_extremis]

The brush off was enough for Tony to immediately back away, both hands raised in a surrender or apology, and awkwardly frozen that way until he could bring himself to reboot them and mechanically draw them both over his heart. "Doc's around," he readily offered. "Billy. He's probably still awake. I can wake him up. Hold on. Try not to make too much noise." He finally looked at the door then, where the zombies still mashed their bodies hungrily, trying to reach through to them. Donnie couldn't just wait here.

One of Tony's hands escaped, only to redirect as he started to reach for Donnie again, giving another wave to direct him further into the room and away from the walls. "There's plenty of room," Tony assured him, bouncing on one foot himself as he tried to move, brushing away glass. "He can show you somewhere to sleep."

[out_of_order]

The Jedi was putting in the effort, although sticking to the defensive was rapidly looking like a bad tactic as it did nothing to keep the zombies from continuing to come at them.

"-we're not given a chance and I'm thinking the whole point of any of this is to make us as vulnerable as they think they can get away with," he countered.

All the hits against the pipe were really jarring him all the way up his arms for how hard the undead were managing to hit. Cal dropped down to snap a leg out and kick one of them in the knee, wincing as he felt it cave in and back, sending the zombie staggering. "Did not intend that..!"

[deal_me_in]

Cayde inched closer towards the edge to look down as well, absently reaching over to pat his bag at the soft cluck that came from it.

"Ooh. Yeah. But hopefully they don't- I mean, there shouldn't be anything to draw them inside, right?" So long as no one decided to duck in there for cover...

His optics flicked back towards Tony as he tilted his head thoughtfully. "I'd say it's a toss-up. Maybe he'll think it was the zombies?"

[thepurpleone]

That wasn't the answer he was hoping for. Donnie twisted around towards Tony again in alarm, and not particularly because of the thought of being left alone while things were outside trying to get in.

"Wh-" He blinked as Tony seemed to abort that train of thought, eyes tracking the movement of that restless hand as it tried to wave him in. The turtle pushed himself to his feet, dusting himself off as his brows furrowed like he were trying to discern some strange new language.

"No, I don't-" Donnie shook his head. "I'm looking for Leo. He's...he's not here?" Tony would have led with that if he were, wouldn't he? Anxiously he turned back towards the door, like he could try seeing past it to assess the threat waiting out there if he dove back outside.

[in_extremis]

The argument was important, but only as long as both of them could still talk to have it, so Tony had to pause again with his tongue between his teeth while he held back another zombie with its teeth bearing down on gauntlet and tried to solve the puzzle of getting Cal up off of the sand and out of the fray. Hopefully, the kid wasn't too distracted in the meantime, because Tony had to act impulsively, and his only warning over the sudden rumbling and clattering of the first loosened stones was, "Heads up!" Moments later, a great, black boulder was tumbling free from the rock face, where Tony was barely hanging on to his sword that he had shoved between the stones to work one free, his feet scrabbling for purchase on the freshly exposed glass of ground sand below it.

The boulder crushed a path through the climbing zombies, throwing itself down onto the beach. Hanging by one hand on his lodged sword, Tony gestured with the free one for Cal to take, urging, "Come on!"

[in_extremis]

"Neither of us says anything," Tony agreed soberly, with an academic nod. "Let him speculate." Maybe Tommy wouldn't even notice the signs of an explosion. Hard to say what the zombies were capable of, under the circumstances.

Tony leaned back on his hands, to squint back up at Cayde, inquisitive eyebrow raised with an assessing sweep over his gear. Cayde was going to have to infer the question, though, because Tony was continuing, "Shouldn't matter, if we fix the problem. Even if he found out you intentionally bombed his greenhouse, he'd forgive you, for the greater success."

[in_extremis]

That was enough to make Tony stop, now hovering in the middle of the room that seemed so big and empty and pointless, just space to echo the noise of the threat outside. Of course Donnie didn't come here, of all places, for security; in Tony's check over him for injuries, Tony should have noticed that his brother wasn't attached to him. Worse, Tony couldn't even give him a good answer. In the heavy pause that followed Donnie's question, Tony had to quickly build a wry smile to try to at least be encouraging and he said, "Here? Of course not, this is the last place he'd be, I'd be worried if he was. The world hasn't ended yet. He must be looking for you."

Unfortunately, that meant he was out there somewhere, and Donnie being here meant they hadn't planned on a safehouse, so Tony's smile couldn't last long. "We can get a message to him," he blurted, not sure what that meant yet, but sure he needed some way to convince Donnie not to go back out there alone. If Leo was looking for him, then they could be sure Leo wouldn't be looking here, either.

[out_of_order]

At the very least Cal hadn't considered the necessity of apologizing to a zombie, which was pretty easy when most of them still got right back up and resumed their intent of trying to rip your face off. "Uh-oh," he groaned as BD-1 also gave a startled beep, both of them catching the flash of red as a Nightsister wove her way through the clawing hands.

He didn't think twice once he heard Tony shout, glancing back before he threw himself to the side as the boulder came careening through. The plan was obvious then, and the moment it had gone past, Cal pushed a hand into the sand to shove himself up, sliding the pipe between the strap over his utility vest before making a leap for the rising rocks to start his own climb. Not touching the Force for five years had insured that at the very least he had built up his own strength to be able to climb and hang around the dangerous wrecks of starships as a scrapper. Once he got close enough to Tony, he reached for that hand to get up that tricky spot.

[deal_me_in]

"Storms get weird, accidents happen," Cayde nodded back. Catching that look, he turned slightly, lifting the flap of his bag so Colonel could poke her head out from where she nested, somehow comfortable, it seemed, over the rag-stuffed bottles beneath her. "Well, I wasn't going to leave her at the bar with these things running around, now was I?"

And as much as he trusted in her amazing prowess as a battle chicken, some of these zombies were a bit more unpredictable than Cabal grunts that he wasn't about to let her play at distraction.

"-I wasn't the one with the fun toys! I'm hurt you didn't share, by the way," he said, placing a gloved hand over his chest with the most distraught look he could summon.

[thepurpleone]

The words definitely weren't reassuring in the way they might have tried to be, Donnie's stomach twisting at the confirmation. He could argue a few things, but the point of the matter would still remain the same, and the seconds were ticking by.

Leo wasn't here.

"He must be looking for you."

Those words alone were enough to spur him to move, although not very far as once again the turtle hesitated as he came closer to the door, enough to make out the wetness that hadn't been there when they'd entered. It was enough to make him pause.

Couldn't go out that way. There had to be another... He was shaking his head at Tony's suggestion, forcing himself to turn back towards him, desperate determination etched on his face. "I need to get back out there. Is there another exit? A window?" Anything? How fortified had he made this place?

[in_extremis]

For leverage, Tony had to force a heel into the rocks with a screech of protesting metal, so he could pull Cal up and get him closer to the ledge above where they could keep climbing, out of undead reach. Theoretically. The zombies weren't slowed down by a difficult climb, letting their nails break off and flesh scrape raw as they dragged it across the rocks.

Tony struggled considerably more, plate armor weighing him down and chainmail catching on ledges as he hauled himself up, legs kicking fruitlessly. Still, he wheezed as he climbed, "The point of this," like there hadn't been an interruption at all, "might be to make us do something we regret. We might be able to help them. I know some of these people."

[in_extremis]

Eyeing the chicken suspiciously, like she might have been carrying greater secrets in that bag, Tony had to ask, "Are they getting that far up?" The roof had seemed safe, up until Cayde appeared, from anything making the climb up to him. There were just stairs to the Deep End. If the zombies were that determined, he had been underestimating them.

The hole in the middle of he city drew Tony's focus again, and he shrugged one shoulder, weighing a hand, his argument against the accusation. "It's still a work in progress," he admitted. "They like the pretty lights and sounds, and, listen, I can't blame them. But right now I'm playing local shows, and what's really going to get their attention is a stadium."

[in_extremis]

That was a vise around Tony's heart that made him have to swallow thickly before he could answer, glancing around for any way to convince Donnie it was actually safe here, only starting to doubt it himself. "What you need," he started to correct, advancing again with cautioning hands up, and aborting before he got too close with his elbows drawing back. He tried to soften his voice to continue, "is a plan, some fuel. Running around and hoping, you're just going to keep passing each other." That still wasn't a reason to stay here, and with one more glance over his set up by the door, his armor waiting and the bundle of flares for distraction, he offered, "I'll go. I should be out there anyway, I shouldn't be here."

[out_of_order]

Cal scrambled up, digging the toe of his boots into whatever bit of purchase he could find them. BD-1 watched anxiously as he clung to the Jedi's back, squealing a warning as a couple of grasping hands were getting uncomfortably close. Cal responded with a well-aimed foot, not watching as the undead figure went tumbling back towards the ground.

"That would be extra twisted if they imported people we knew and made them undead, just for us." He paused to catch his breath once he'd caught up with Tony, resuming his climb after a glance over his shoulder. "Think we're that special?" he asked, wondering just what lengths anyone would go through just for a response.

"I know if it were Merrin in my place she'd tell me 'I would not have hesitated to smite your undead face,'" he intoned in his attempt at an impression of the Nightsister. Behind him his droid buddy gave a strange mix of sounds, making Cal laugh in spite of things, even as he winced.

"Okay, so my Dathomirian accent needs work!"