[MW] Pennsylvania

[re_mybrains]

It's a pleasant March afternoon in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania -- sunny, partly cloudy.

In the courtyard of Pennsylvania Apartments, the bang of the front door slamming is still echoing when it opens again.

Two dozen zombies, in varying states of decay, are staggering towards it.

A human lighting generator, a superhero, a geek, and two regular schmoes are coming out the door to face them.

Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets.

Comments

[re_mybrains]

Yeah, there are few things as pathetic as a downed zombie.

"You okay, Shaun?" Tom yells from beside Andrew.

[stilljustandrew]

Andrew turns left, fires twice, hits the zombie on the second shot.

"Looks like we're almost in the behind you," he shouts.

[re_mybrains]

"What? --Shit!"

He spins and fires several times, hitting the zombie square in the face twice. It staggers backwards a few steps and falls.

"Jesus fuck thanks Andrew--"

[ellectrical]

Elle's not carrying any weapons, but her hands are crackling before she steps through the door. It's simple, apparently: Anyone she didn't come here with is fair game. And they're all zombies – which don't look much like Tom's cardboard cutouts, and but a lot like fucked up humans. Except slower.

And they don't fly, or do much of anything else.

None of this bothers Elle. She doesn't waste any time in sending a thick, blue electrical charge that leaves a rather tall, gangly one charred beyond recognition before it has time to make much noise.

Now that it's down, that she's seen what it takes, well – she won't be quite as quick about it.

She moves sideways, with her back to the wall, as two more approach from the right – one looks like an old man, wearing something tattered and bloodstained, though Elle recognizes the clerical collar. Her left hand opens to toss a small, bright blue sphere of electricity toward him; it's not even enough to shock him, but more than enough to set his shirt on fire.

The zombie screeches and stumbles into the short, balding man behind it, making Elle grin before she uses both hands to send the electricity toward their heads to leave them nothing more thank hunks than burnt up flesh and charred bone. Her eyes linger on them long enough for another to get close enough to latch a hand on her ponytail – Elle spins to grab the zombie's arm, her hand sparking with the amps to burn straight through its skin. It's a skinny woman in a red tank top that recoils momentarily before Elle reaches toward the thick metal chain of a necklace around its neck and pulls.

Hard. The woman's distracted by clawing at the high voltage chain as it burns into her neck as Elle lifts her hand to incinerate her face. This time she isn't slow about letting the woman drop and choosing another.

There's not a lot left – the lawn is mostly covered with variously splattered and burnt corpses. After a quick scan, she hits a middle-aged woman in the back with a thin bolt of electricity that slices through the air like lightning. It's bright white, enough to bring the woman down without killing her. The woman's yell is brief, and she immediately tries to pull herself up again. So Elle throws another handful of electricity toward her.

The zombie's not incinerated until the fourth throw. Elle's face is blank when she lowers her hand.





But she smiles, and almost skips more than steps as she walks away.

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

"Goddamnit," is the rejoinder. Too close, too close, too close.

"Watch yourselves, guys!"

Kendra has learned over the last few thousand years to be ambidextrous.

This comes in handy.

"Fuck this," she mutters. Her trusty morning star is retrieved from her hip as she gains altitude, twists in the air, and rockets downwards at a favorable angle.

Sometimes, it's best to go to the melee rather than have the melee come to you.

When she hits the shamble doing sixty per, thanks to Nth metal, zombies are suddenly horizontal. Her sword works with brutal economy, taking off a head in a lefthanded stroke, neatly avoiding getting hitched in any cervical obstruction.

There's less blood than she expected. She knows she can't get bitten, which is why her morning star is playing a game of Connect the Skulls.

CRUNCH crunch crunch.

[stilljustandrew]

... yeah, that kind of leaves Andrew and Tom with little to do but stare.

"Wow."

[re_mybrains]

"Damn."

Beat.

Muttered: "Dude, I totally kissed her."

[stilljustandrew]

"Seriously?"

Andrew grins.

"Dude."

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

Kendra doesn't hear this exchange. She's too intent on reducing that last zombie skull to something resembling ground chuck with one, two, and three blows.

Finally, after being satisifed that anything cerebral that might possibly be able to animate said zombie's body is now rendered inert, she stops.

She's festively blood splattered, but it's all in a day's work, right?

"That was quick."

[re_mybrains]

And, less ten minutes after they stepped through the door, the metaphorical dust -- and the more literal and much grosser fragments of zombie -- is settling.

Tom takes a deep breath, ignoring the smell, and says, "Everyone okay? Elle? Shaun?"

[re_mybrains]

"Yeah."

Way quicker -- and way easier -- than it would've been on his own.

He takes a deep breath and says, louder, "Everyone okay?"

[ellectrical]

"Yep," Elle calls, still smiling as she steps over a couple corpses to head toward him.

From her demeanor, you'd think she was a kid returning who just bought a candy store. No one should really be that cheerful right now.

[got-red.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I'm-"

Whatever he's about to say is cut off by the surprise arrival of a blonde-haired female zombie to his left.

"Shit."

His aim is off on his first swing, and the bat connects with her shoulder with a thunk.

[re_mybrains]

The zombie grunts, annoyed, and staggers at the impact. The move puts it a step closer to Andrew, currently distracted by the rest of the shamble.

You can almost see the cogs engaging as it transfers its attention from Shaun to the others.

Of course, zombies being, well, zombies, they can only really focus on one thing at a time: tracking, or moving.

[got-red.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Fine."

He absent-mindedly wipes his hand on his shirt as he goes to join the others.

[got-red.livejournal.com]

The second swing is right on target,and takes the zombie down with the sickening crunch of wood meeting bone.

It also makes a hell of a mess.

[re_mybrains]

"Don't let that get inside you, man--" Tom is calling.

The shamble is rapidly falling. A few seconds, Hawkgirl takes to the air -- and now the shamble is less shrinking and more kind of liquefying.

One straggler, what used to be a dreadlocked girl in exercise gear, stumbles out of the path of Hawkgirl's Death From Above act, headed for Shaun.

[stilljustandrew]

Andrew's glancing around to make sure nothing's still moving.

"I'm good."

[got-red.livejournal.com]

"I know!" he calls back, spotting the straggler.

The zombie stumbles and falls as his first swing hits its neck, and the second swing finishes it off.

[re_mybrains]

And, rather suddenly--

Stillness.

Tom takes a deep breath and calls "Everyone okay?"

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

"Still have all my fingers and toes. I'm okay."

The roasted zombie corpses left by Elle provoke a long look. It's maybe not quite up to Black Lightning's abilities, but it's damn impressive.

Meanwhile, she unsnaps her sabretache, pulls out a square of felt, and starts to wipe the bits of gore off of her morning star.

[re_mybrains]

"Okay."

The adrenaline's wearing off. He wipes his forehead with the back of his hand. "Okay. Don't let any of that" -- a nod towards the gore -- "get inside you, any of you, okay? Wash it off as soon as you get back to the bar."

A deep breath. "And thank you. Thank you, guys. I couldn't -- I would be so dead right now. Thanks."

He takes another breath, and jerks his head towards the door. "Okay, you guys should probably go back."

[ellectrical]

With a shrug, "Ok."

Elle doesn't take any time to think about it, and doesn't ask why he says 'you guys' and not 'we.' Job's done. Whatever.

She heads toward the door back to the Bar.

[stilljustandrew]

Overlapping, Andrew starts "Listen, are you..."

Elle's cheerful departure appears to make him stall out midsentence. He turns to look after her, blinks, and then shakes his head and starts over.

"Are you gonna be all right here?"

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

"When 'you' go back? Excuse me? What are you talking about?"

Kendra has stopped wiping the residual blood and meaty bits from her weapons. She's stopped so she can stare at Tom.

You know that look.

The Hawk look. The one that you can see even through the mask. The look that says that an immediate readjustment in your plan of action might be in order.