Zombies from all parts of the city

[3wingedangel]

WHO: Sephiroth and everyone
WHERE: Temba
WHAT: Zombie fights
WHEN: October
WARNINGS: Zombies, emotional distress at having to kill zombies that look like loved ones

I Don’t Give a Damn Because I’m Stone Cold Already

Sephiroth is less than thrilled when the storms increase. His powers are going haywire, just as he was warned, and so are the weapons. Bad enough he doesn’t have the Masamune. Now he doesn’t have reliable guns, either. He’s had to go searching for any non-electric weapon he can find and has probably ended up with what to him is a very short sword.

He finds one just in time to confront the first batch of zombies. These happen to be zombie Agrii. As soon as he gets over his initial shock, he makes short work of them. That . . . was not good. He’s sure there’s more where those came from. He’ll have to make sure everyone else is okay. . . .

Another zombie comes out of the mist. Sephiroth stares, falling back in horror. It’s rare to ever catch him like this, visibly shaken, but the sight of this zombie, when he’s already afraid the real person is dead back home and that it’s Sephiroth’s fault, is just too much.

Oh my God ...

“Zack ...”

The zombie comes closer. Sephiroth grips the sword tighter. He knows what he’s been told about the storms and seeing people you love in them. Is that what that is? He doesn’t have much choice but to hope and believe that’s what this is. He steels himself and strikes.

He falls to one knee, stabbing the sword into the ground as he trembles. These sadistic aliens.... Whoever it is doing this.... How can they know to make perfect images of people from back home? They’ve never seen Zack.

He pushes himself up and starts through the fog. No doubt others are going to be in trouble from this. He’ll have to find them.

One female zombie, she won’t behave

Sephiroth soon finds other residents in need of help. The hotel, the diner, the hospital ... zombies are everywhere! Who is it he’s trying to rescue? You? He lunges from behind, attacking the zombies as they reach for the unfortunate person. One tries to bite his wing, but he makes short work of it before it can do anything. He is a master swordsman and he shows it when several come at him at once. It’s a good thing he’s on your side.

“Are you alright?” he asks when they fall.

I’m headed for a breakdown

After days, weeks of this, he’s growing weary beyond belief. He can’t count the number of times he’s killed Zack. Even Cloud sometimes. It’s not really them, but ... when it looks like them, there’s only so many times he can do it before it really takes a toll on him.

Outwardly he is always the same—nerves of steel, determined, the hero of old. He kills zombies, he protects the living, and when he can, he tries to help search for a cure for those who have been bitten. He rarely sleeps.

Killing one more Zack zombie is the last straw. He finally just sinks down on a box, wherever he is, and covers his face with a hand. All his wings are drooping to the floor. There are no zombies here, so he’s safe, but perhaps you find him?

Comments

[3wingedangel]

"He seems to be very productive in bettering this city, from what people have said," Sephiroth said.

He gave a dark smirk. "I would imagine you are better off not knowing."

[tempredmental]

"Yeah... I've gotten that impression..." Keith nodded slightly. He then took a deep breath at the next statement, though.

"I can't really disagree..." he said softly. Sure, he was curious, but he'd already seen how it could go when you heard about yourself being a worse person with what happened to Allura. Honestly, sometimes Keith wondered where that could end up going for him. He definitely tried his best to do what he thought was the right thing, the good thing. But he was no angel. He'd been in his share of trouble for sure.

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth studied him a moment. "You sound as though you have heard unpleasant things, even if not about yourself," he observed. He doubted what he had revealed about the other him would cause such a reaction when they'd barely met. Of course, if Keith didn't want to talk about it, Sephiroth would not pry.

[tempredmental]

"Yeah..." Keith shrugged. Granted, it wasn't really his story to tell. It was Allura's... "I just... it was about a friend. And we heard about what her other self had done." He shook his head. "It really shook her up."

He glanced over at the other guy for a moment, and then blanked for a second. Keith knew he was bad at names, but... had they even given them, yet? He couldn't remember offhand.

"What's your name again?"

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth nodded. "I can completely understand." He was still horrified by what he'd been told.

"Sephiroth," he said. "And you?"

[tempredmental]

"Keith."

He nodded in greeting. Okay, so that was done. And, considering the guy asked his name, Keith assumed that meant they hadn't actually introduced themselves to each other, yet. So now he didn't feel so bad.

But, also, they weren't alone anymore... there was that weird snarling gurgle that indicated some incoming zombies that was getting closer to them from the fog. Keith was pretty sure it was closer than he normally would have heard it by, so he pushed down his fatigue and stood quickly, readying his makeshift weapon as he tried to figure out where the noises were coming from.

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth nodded in acknowledgment and then tensed, hearing the sounds too. He clutched the short sword he found (probably a normal-length sword by anyone else's standards) and looked around. Then he struck out in the fog, hitting an approaching zombie.

More were coming from other angles as well. Sephiroth again became a flurry of feathers as he attacked as many as he could. But of course he couldn't get to them all.

[tempredmental]

"Shit..." Keith didn't have his normal blade, but his board with nails was doing a fair job of things. He moved pretty quickly, all things considered, and he was determined to keep going. But he was also tired. They were going to have to support each other on this.

Keith shifted so that they were more back to back and able to defend each other's blind spots. He wasn't used to fighting with someone who had wings though, so sorry, Seph... he might bump into you a few times.

[3wingedangel]

Hopefully Keith wouldn't trip. The two lower wings hung practically all the way to the ground unless they were being lifted up.

Sephiroth appreciated the backup and did what he could to support Keith. He can see the other is tiring. Sephiroth had high endurance, but when his powers faded out that likely zapped some of that as well. But he pushed himself to keep going, slicing zombies in front of him and to the side. He managed to get one that was about to get Keith, but that distracted him from one coming at him.

[tempredmental]

Thankfully, Sephiroth was close enough that Keith wasn't completely off balance worrying about wings and stepping on them. Even with his senses dulled more than usual, he was aware enough to compensate for that. And, after a few bumps, he pushed hard to get some space between them in order to not keep knocking into each other.

But that did leave a bit of a gap for some of the zombies to get between them... hence Sephiroth needing to take out one heading for Keith. But that one got close on the other side, and Keith heard the snarl in time to spin and take it out, knocking it to the ground before smashing the end of his board into it's skull with a sick crack.

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth also appreciated when the bumping stopped. He had also tried to move to keep that from continuing to happen.

He looked back with a start when he realized the zombie was close. He gave a nod of acknowledgment that Keith had taken it out in just time.

He continued to fight, taking out what zombies he could and then pausing to listen. Would there be more?

[tempredmental]

As the wave slowed down and they finished the last of them, the snarling faded, leaving just the sound of their breathing, oddly heavy sounding in the dense fog-created silence. Keith's was heavy at first, as he still hadn't fully rested from the last battle before this one, but it thankfully had been shorter. Gradually, his breathing slowed and steadied again as they waited, straining to listen.

"I think... I think that's it for now..."

Still, there was more patrolling they needed to do, and sitting around waiting for waves upon waves of them to come in wasn't going to eliminate them all. It was the storm that was creating them in the first place, after all.

"We should probably get moving..." Before they potentially got trapped.

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth nodded. "We stayed in one place too long. We should finish patrolling and then get back to safety."

He wondered how much more Keith could take without having a better rest in between.

[tempredmental]

Keith nodded in agreement.

"Yeah... I'm not sure which way you were headed or already looked over, but I came from that way." He gestured. "So, I'm gonna go over that way next." And he pointed in the other direction where he'd been planning on heading. "Mainly, just looking to find people and get them to safety." He frowned slightly. "There's no point in trying to kill all these things. The storm'll just make more."

He was determined to keep going, and he would... but his recovery times were taking longer from the storm, just like his endurance was lower. It wasn't going to be easy.

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth nodded as well. “I’ve mainly been killing the ones getting too close to me or others. I was heading in the direction you’re planning to go.”

So perhaps they might as well look together.

[tempredmental]

"Okay." Keith supposed there was some safety in numbers... they could watch each other's backs or whatever. Or, if one of them got hurt, they could help each other get to safety.

He gave a nod for them to start moving. If they were careful and didn't go crazy, he could recover more energy on the move.

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth nodded too and started out, staying alert. So far everything seemed peaceful, but he didn’t want to get too comfortable. He would try to move slowly enough that it wouldn’t further wear Keith out, but he was concerned to go quickly.

[tempredmental]

Keith managed to keep a decent pace. He was used to pushing his limits. He just wasn't used to those limits being so restrictive. Keith was okay keeping pace with Sephiroth for now, and, as long as they didn't have to fight again, he seemed to also be regaining some of that energy as they moved, his own pace picking up a bit more as they moved along.

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth was glad to see him regaining some energy, as well as pleased that they hadn’t been attacked again yet. But that situation could always change and he remained alert for any possible trouble.

“… Things have been disastrous ever since I arrived,” he remarked. “First the serial killer problem and now this. Is it usually like this?”

[tempredmental]

"Well-..." Keith stopped himself. Was it? He knew things could get crazy, but... He sighed. "No, but... also... yes." He knew that didn't help. "We don't usually have serial killers... or serial... attackers... whatever's going on," Keith said. "But, the storms and crazy power stuff happens kind of regularly. But, the zombies are new."

So... no... but also... yes.

[3wingedangel]

“Heh,” said Sephiroth. “In other words, things are always insane, but this particular brand of insanity is new. During regular times, are the storms the only odd thing that happens?”

[tempredmental]

"Mostly," Keith said. "You've missed calibrations." That was a whole other story. "But that also comes from Drift Fleet."

Which... yeah. That was also a whole other story.

[3wingedangel]

"I have heard about calibrations. It sounded very uncomfortable, to say the least. What is Drift Fleet?"

[tempredmental]

"Yeah," Keith nodded. "That's a nice way of putting it... having people roaming around in your dreams and memories every night for like a week." He sounded slightly bitter as he said it, but also kind of resigned that it was just A Thing that they had to deal with sometimes. "It doesn't happen a lot, thankfully.

"Drift Fleet was how the people that brought us here found us," he then explained. "They were fans of the show... which is honestly kind of a weird thing to begin with. There aren't many of us left, but some of us were part of it. We were kidnapped across realities and then forced to be contestants on some interstellar reality show. The Agrii were fans and considered us to be the heroes of the show, so they figured out a way to get us here from there." Which kind of answered another question.

"So, no... I haven't been home, yet," Keith said quietly. "It's been a long time. Around seven years, I think, between the two places."

[3wingedangel]

"I suppose that's something," Sephiroth grunts, although he's thinking once would be too much.

He raises an eyebrow at the description. "Drift Fleet sounds completely bizarre and twisted, even for a reality series." It's clear from his tone what he thinks of reality TV. "At least on every other reality show I know, the contestants agree to be there.

"Seven years is a long time to be away from home," he says sympathetically. "I too was forcefully removed from my home for years after the Heartless destroyed it."