genessia | Hey Mercury, Can You Give Me a HAND?

He hadn't expected to hear from her for a while. He was still kind of digesting it himself, to be honest - she had brought his past back to the forefront of his thoughts, a not altogether pleasant experience, but at the same time it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Or, more accurately, not nearly as bad as he had expected it would have been. His deep-rooted toxic anger was always an issue, and the last time he had seen her in Remnant her temper was very much the same - yet the two forces that should have met like a spark and gunpowder had instead parted ways with a handshake and a deal.

He was a little surprised at her. He was almost baffled at himself.

He's not terribly busy when he gets the text message - lunch break, not that he has to clock in and out for them - though that first one has him wondering just what the hell the blonde brawler had gotten into. Whiskey, from the looks of it, though her voice soon chimes in to better explain everything.

He arches a brow, tapping the button to record his reply.

"Did you punch another wall? I will need to start charging you for that, you know."

"Hey, that wall totally had it coming, don't be biased." Even though they were only using the voice function, her voice easily reflected her smile as she made her way toward Nova City with quick, sure steps.

But if he was going to fix her arm, he should probably know what she was actually punching, huh?

"You know that Metal Head guy that's been killing people in Attleton? I got a good lead on where he was hiding out. We went a few rounds, but he escaped. I didn't realize the damage he did until I went to open a door. My hand popped right off."

In the background Mercury could hear several gasps, and a solid thump.

"She doesn't have a hand!"
"She said it came right off?!"
"Granny Applebottom just fainted! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"

Yang cleared her throat uncomfortably and quickened her steps. The sooner she got to Nova City, the better.

"So yeah. Aaaaanyway, are you free for a tune-up?"

Well, he had been hoping for something interesting to happen. Just goes to show you really need to be careful what you wish for. He shakes his head a bit at all the commotion, offering an audible sigh.

"I should inform you that there's no way I'd possibly be able to get that done before my lunch break is over."

A deliberate pause.

"Buuuuut I set my own hours. Guardian perk. How far out are you from Nova?"

For a moment Yang paused in the middle of the sidewalk as people brushed past her. Lunch break? He wasn't going to leave her hanging, was he? If he was on the job, though, there wasn't anything he could do about it without risking a write-up, so it wasn't as if she could get mad at him for that. But as she was half-finished with her resolve to just deal with the consequences until he could make the time, he let her off the hook.

Jerk. But hey, she wasn't going to complain.

"Fifteen minutes, I'm on foot," she answered. "Thanks. The sooner I get this fixed, the sooner I can get back on the job." Yang didn't want the trail to get cold, but that might wind up happening anyway if the recovery time wound up being significant.

An old woman was toddling across the street, heading straight for the blonde huntress. Yang immediately stuffed her stump into her pocket and avoided eye contact. Nothing to see here, don't you dare faint in the middle of the street, grandma.

Edited 2017-10-03 04:29 (UTC)

"Don't thank me yet. I'm handy at maintenance, but if you've seriously broken that thing it might need parts I don't have. Hopefully, it was designed to detach instead of breaking anything important."

He takes a moment to thumb through some menus on his device, already heading for the door to begin his trek home. She'll receive a text message, significantly less scrambled and typo-riddled than her own, with the address of his apartment. That's where all his tools are anyway - he just hopes Emerald isn't around, because that's not a reunion he expects will be comfortable.

"I'll see you in a few."

"Uh, maybe? I'd check, but I'm trying really hard not to freak out every elderly person in the city right now." At least things like this were supposed to be commonplace in Nova City. Then maybe she could relax instead of clinging to building shadows like some sort of misshapen freak. Seriously, people, it was just a robot hand!

Yang brushed her thumb over the screen at the message ping, making note of the address, and gave a sharp nod once she'd committed it to memory.

"Got it. See you soon." She pulled the communicator from her ear, shifting it in her hand to end the feed. Her fingers fumbled and the communicator started to slip, prompting her right arm to jerk forward out of instinct in a wild attempt to catch the device.

"HEAVENS TO BETSY!" Thump.

"Oh come on!"

* * * * *

Twenty minutes and three rescued old women later, Yang stepped out of the elevator on Mercury's apartment floor. She checked the sign to see which direction to take to find his unit, then veered to the right. A knock on the door, and there was Yang, holding her dismembered hand up to give it a little wave. "Yo! Took a little longer than I thought."

He hadn't made it home long before her, barely having time to change into a black tank-top and shed his gloves - if he's going to be working on tiny mechanical parts he doesn't want any sort of fabric in the way of his hands or arms while he works, though it does reveal the plethora of scars that were once hidden beneath armor plating and cloth. Various shapes, various sizes, various lessons.

He's just setting his tool kit on the table in his living room area when he hears the knock, sauntering to the door to swing it open - and met immediately with her severed hand, waving at him.

His expression, for a long moment, is completely neutral.

Then there's a roll of his eyes, a shake of his head as he turns about-face to head back into the apartment, waving her in towards the table.

"You know, a part of me thought you were exaggerating, but I guess you're just that lucky."

Lucky, right. Actually, she probably was lucky. If Metal Head had realized the extend of the damage he'd done to her arm, there's a good chance he might have stuck around and finished her off instead of making a run for it. "I guess I've been pretty hard on it. Even before I got here, I had to do a lot of sparring just to get used to how it feels."

He probably had some idea what that was like. She followed him inside, nudging the door closed. With his back turned to her that way, it was impossible not to notice all the marks he bore. Yang was no expert on battle wounds, but she had a funny feeling that most of them weren't caused by Grimm. Whatever happened, it must have been severe to overcome his aura and make a lasting mark...several of them at that.

Maybe it was more of those 'stairs' he mentioned.

"So how bad is it?" she asked, setting the hand down on the table before pulling a chair around to straddle it and prop her good arm on the back. There didn't seem to be any jagged parts, so what he'd said about it being designed to disconnect under too much stress was the likely scenario.

Edited 2017-10-03 13:30 (UTC)

"Punching is probably the easiest part. If I had to guess, your handwriting is going to suffer for a while."

He knew damn well how difficult it could be to adjust. You never really understand how critical toes are until they've been replaced with one solid chunk of metal. He pulls a chair up adjacent to hers, leaning over her severed prosthetic to study the joints where the two parts should make a whole. Even as he starts to grab a screwdriver he begins to explain his diagnosis.

"Worse than you're probably hoping." Blunt, expressionless, he sets to work on tinkering about with the inner workings of her hand. "There's a part missing that's not cheap. We're talking three month's rent for one little, but super important, piece of equipment." He slides the hand into its socket, continuing to tinker about. "All in all I'd say..."

He sits up, looking her dead in the eye.

"Kidding. It's fine. You can probably move your fingers now, but I'm going to make some extra adjustments while I'm in there."

That...was one of the reasons Yang had never written back to Ruby. It wasn't exactly a good excuse, but just trying to write 'I'm sorry', and seeing the pitiful scrawls of her left hand, made the empty pit in her heart yawn open even wider.

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to practice with that," she admitted. At least tapping messages through the communicator didn't require the warmth of a human fingerprint to register contact.

She pushed her stump forward once he was settled, her gaze flicking back and forth from her wrist to his face. The distress flitting across her features was pitifully obvious. Three months rent! How was she going to earn that when almost every job required the use of a right hand? She'd only just started bounty hunting too, there was no way she'd be able to earn...

...

Yang squinted at Mercury.

...

"You suck." But when she looked back down at her hand, there was a tiny grin tugging up at the corners of her mouth. Her upper arm muscles twitched, and the fingers responded with only a minor delay. Some adjustments would be good, yeah.

"Can you show me which parts to pay attention to?" she asked, watching his work with mild fascination.

"I've heard."

Is the nonchalant reply, his smirk much easier to spot as he focuses on getting back to work. Weird. Hadn't she said it would take her a while to even consider liking him? He's pretty sure he's coaxed a couple grins out of her already. Must be his natural charisma.

Yeah. That's it.

"This here," he remarks, pointing to a mechanism by her wrist with the tip of his screwdriver, "is the spring release that popped your hand off. By default it's pretty easy to trigger, but if a door was the last straw it's probably a bit too sensitive. I'll fix that - my knees have something pretty similar, it's not hard to customize."

He leans forward a bit to look closer as he works, shifting in his seat a bit to get a better angle. Yeah, that brings him closer. Yeah, he doesn't care.

"Em used to use it to pop my legs off in my sleep so I'd wake up without them. Had to install a few plates on my own to make it impossible to do that from the outside."

That was really useful information to know. She couldn't think of a situation off the top of her head where she'd want to remove her hand intentionally, but knowing that she could might come in handy someday.

What really surprised her was that he told her where the similar function was located on his own prosthetics. Plates or not, that was a weakness. Did he really trust her that much to share such a thing with her? And was she being an idiot for seeing it as a good thing instead of being leery of a second double-cross?

She wasn't really sure.

Her eyes moved to his face, then the top of his head as he moved closer to her. Yang didn't tense up, nor did she blush. She was used to people. It seemed he was too. It was just...kind of curious, she thought, that he could be so comfortable around her after their conversation just a few days ago. She looked back at her hand when he gestured with the screwdriver.

"You guys are pretty tight, aren't you," she remarked, glancing back at Mercury's face. Because the story was weirdly charming, all things considered. It served to remind her that despite everything that had happened, those two were still teenagers. And they still did the same stupid teenage things that Yang and her friends did.

Comfort, discomfort, these things flew by pretty fast in his mind. Letting something faze him required giving a shit, and even though he's become an arguably less awful person than he had been upon first arrival he still had a long way to go when it came to emotional investment. Being close could only be uncomfortable for two reasons, really.

One, when there was an implied threat, and simply put he's not afraid of her.

Two, when there are implied feelings, and those remain pretty goddamn absent.

One might argue for a third case involving physical attraction, but that's never been a deterrent for him in any way whatsoever regardless.

"She knows me better than anyone, yeah. Vice versa, too." He lifts a finger, as if to stop a question he predicts might be coming. "And no, it's not anything like that. If anything we know each other way too well for that kind of thing to ever work."

Too well? How did that even work? Maybe it was just some sort of bad guy/ex-villain thing. And he thought she and Weiss were the weird ones, pfft.

"Not what I was going to ask, but I appreciate the heads up anyway," she remarked. "I'm guessing other people ask that a lot, though." Honestly she assumed they were a thing, which was why she wasn't going to pursue confirmation.

If only things were like they used to be, she would have perked right up after hearing he was single. Now? Nothing. She was just glad he was fixing her arm and not, like, freezing the middle finger in place to permanently flip off the world.

"I was just gonna ask how long you guys had been working together, that's all." It would give her a frame of reference as to how long Cinder's plans had been put into motion too. She wasn't going to let herself get curious about him.

At least, that was the intention, but things changed...

"It's everyone's favorite assumption. I don't really care, but I think it makes Em want to puke, and if she pukes in our apartment it's going to be a smell I have to deal with."

He wasn't sure if Yang knew Emerald was his roommate - though it wasn't exactly a super secret, either, so it didn't matter terribly. He keeps making little adjustments to a few screws in her arm, tightening springs, testing wire tension. An arm and a leg don't look the same on the inside but the similarities in the mechanisms inside are pretty strong. He can handle this.

"About a year or so before we wound up at Beacon. She didn't like me at all on day one. Can't say I made a great first impression."

His tone was casual, flippant, and he figures Yang will assume he's just referring to his usual charming demeanor and sharp tongue. She doesn't need to know Emerald first met him under circumstances of patricide.

"I need to do the other side. Turn your arm over."

A year didn't seem like a long time to plan the annihilation of Beacon. Cinder certainly had made the most of her time, it seemed. That fact aside, it was also pretty quick for Mercury and Emerald to know and like each other to the degree that they did. There was a deep level of trust there that some people took years to foster.

Just how lonely had they been before Cinder found them...?

Yang gave her head a short shake, ridding the thought before it could take root. It was just something to keep in mind and be aware of. Even if she did develop sympathy, she was pretty sure neither of them would want it from Yang.

Obediently she pivoted her arm to press her metal palm against the table, fingers slightly spread apart.

"Have you ever made a good first impression on someone?" she teased with a mischievous grin. Honestly she couldn't imagine anyone who cared less about first impressions, save for her ~~drunkle~~ uncle.

Emerald and Mercury had been tossed straight into the deep end, sink or swim - and if one of them sank, they both would, so they learned pretty fast how to keep each other afloat. It wasn't healthy all the time (most of the time, really) but it worked, and it meant they knew that when the cards were on the table they had each other's back.

For better or worse.

"It happens sometimes." Cinder, for one, had been thrilled at what she discovered. "And technically--" he continues, twirling his screwdriver to point it at Yang's nose, "--you didn't hate my guts at all on day one, if memory serves."

Not that his first impression upon her had been a fully genuine one. But.

"Yeah, well... I'm not always the best judge of character." It sounded a little too mean and biting once the words were out of her mouth, which wasn't her honest intention. It wasn't like he needed her to soften the blow, but she didn't want to repay his service with spite and bile.

Her finger gave the tip of the screwdriver a little push to angle it away from her face.

"Once you said you hated chick flicks, our relationship was pretty much doomed."

At least he left a strong enough impression that she would remember their first conversation after his arrival.

"Unless the chicks are undressing, I'm not interested."

Thaaaaaaaat's our Mercury!

He twirls the screwdriver again to return to the task at hand, nudging two of her fingers a little further apart to adjust a specific coil between them. That's the problem with something as intricate as a hand - if you adjust one thing, you need to adjust a dozen other things or it'll be completely out of whack and fall apart anyway.

"So if this Metal Head guy beat you once, what's your game plan now? Unless you've figured out some flawless tactic to take him down, it's just going to be the same thing again."

She splayed her fingers further apart, watching him work. It'd be tough performing the same kind of intricate adjustments with her left hand, so she'd have to practice using her tools on her garage projects until she was steady with a screwdriver.

Mention of the bounty hunter was a good way to bring her back down to earth, though, and she sat up a little straighter as her face went serious. "Well, the first thing that came to mind was just hitting him with a truck, but that's not gonna work if he's hiding out where I think he is."

Yang had worked out the type of victim he pursued and the areas he would watch for his prey, enough that she could lure him out by acting as bait. What she hadn't been prepared for was the sheer amount of armor he'd been wearing, or how huge and physically tough he'd prove to be. For someone to withstand Yang's punches, that was pretty rare, especially in Attleton where the locals didn't have things like aura or magic. Apparently punching someone's ultra-hard reinforced steel head over and over made her fist fall off later, who knew?

"If I can get my hands on some fire or ice Dust, though, I think I'll have a better chance of taking him down. Either of those applied to metal armor is going to force him to take it off, or at least make him so uncomfortable that I can get through his defenses."

Edited 2017-10-04 02:12 (UTC)

He keeps working while she theorizes, tilting his head one way then the other as he considers her proposed strategies. The truck thing, while amusing, was probably not the way to go.

"Or a big enough magnet," he offered 'helpfully', lifting his screwdriver from the inside of her hand to set it down on the table. "Hell, why not go for lightning dust and just make a bug zapper out of the guy?"

...

"Does the bounty specify dead or alive? In hindsight, I should have asked that first."

...

"Kidding."

Was he?!

Edited 2017-10-04 02:27 (UTC)

"Magnet might be fun," she admitted, obviously tickled by the idea the way she started to smirk. "I have no idea where you'd get one outside of a junkyard, though, those things are pretty stationary."

Sure would be convenient if there was a junkyard close by, though. It would make sense, actually. ...She'd have to pull up a map and check because that was actually a really good idea as long as her arm didn't get caught too.

And the idea of using electricity as a means of stunning the culprit was also pretty clever. For all of Mercury's flaws, he definitely wasn't stupid, and he had a knack for instinctively knowing how to discern an opponent's weakness.

"I guess it didn't really say..." she hedged. But she didn't plan on killing him, especially since that would put her pay at risk. Taking him alive, when wanted dead, was something the authorities could remedy easily enough.

Yang tilted her head, and the smirk spread into a grin. "You sound pretty invested. Did you want to take a crack at him too?"

"Invested? Not exactly."

He sat up straight, arms folding over his chest as he stretched his neck, rolled his shoulders. Being hunched over like this wasn't exactly ideal posture, after all.

"But I thought your big return to form would be an explosive debut, not a comedy of errors that ended with you literally falling apart."

It remains astonishing that so many people don't like him, really.

"Honestly, I think the embarrassment would literally kill you if you failed so miserably again. As a Guardian, I probably shouldn't let that happen."

Yang had two options before her: tease him right back, or kick his chair out the window with Mercury still in it. The latter was awfully tempting, and if he'd been leaning back even just a little...

...'As Guardian'? Attleton wasn't even his city. Yang leaned forward, squinting at him suspiciously.

"Are you worried about me?"

The very notion was preposterous, she knew good and well he probably just wanted a piece of the action. But he'd been needling her this whole time, and successfully at that. Maybe she could provoke the same kind of reaction, just once.

"Yang! Don't call me out so brazenly!"

You would think that he wouldn't be ready to go full 120% sass on the girl he'd had a very tense, very uncomfortable talk with last time they were face-to-face, but this is how he copes. This is how he moves forward - his way, at his stomping pace, without looking back so long as he can help it.

"I'm not ready to confess all of these deep feelings I have towards you, so please! Spare me, until my heart is prepared!"

His face falls immediately after.

"Also, I'm bored."

Yang snickered. "Pfft. A likely excuse. You're super worried and it's adorable."

Seeing as he wasn't messing around with the screwdriver anymore, Yang stood up and flexed her fingers a few times. The joints moved as smooth as silk. She curled her fingers into a fist and took a few whiffs at the air with a series of quick jabs followed by one swift uppercut. Nothing fell off or made alarming grinding noises.

"Hey, good as new! You really do know your stuff." Yang guided her chair back to its proper place and faced him with a grin, settling her hands on her hips. "Well, since you put in all that work to fix up my arm, I guess it makes sense for you to be there to help test it out."

She'd told him before she wasn't sure she'd be comfortable to have him at her back, but Mercury been the one to suggest a truce with the maintenance. This could be an olive branch from her in return, as well as a way to test out his sincerity.

"Split the reward fifty-fifty?"

Edited 2017-10-04 03:39 (UTC)

"Assuming you don't die in the process this time, that is. If you kick the bucket and leave me to finish the job, I'm taking all of the money."

But it's too tempting to pass up - he really needs something to do, and some guy in way too much armor sounded like someone he could let loose on, go all-out. There are only so many ways for a guy to relieve the kind of tension that came from too much inaction, and he seriously doubted she was up for the other kind, so bloodletting it is.

"Oh, right." Ahem. "But please don't die, I'd be suuuuuuuper upset."

"I'll buy you a crying pillow if that happens," she grinned. And she was still getting half even if she died because that would just mean Mercury took out Metal Head while he was busy killing Yang.

She reached for the door and turned the knob. When her hand didn't fall off, she flashed a triumphant ~~shit-eating~~ grin at Mercury before stepping into the hallway. "I'll give you one guess where a serial killer would hide out when he needs access to a lot of molten metal that he can't make with supernatural or magical means."

Because that was their biggest clue right there.

[TO BE CONTINUED...]

Welp, thought Yang as she flew gracelessly through the air, Fire Dust was definitely the wrong choice.

A large coil of chains slammed into the small of her back, sending a nasty shock up her spine and stealing her breath. "Ugh..."

It should have been obvious that it wouldn't work, now that she'd seen the results. A guy who spent a lot of time around boiling molten metal wasn't going to have any problems with heat. Lightning, then, to--WHOA!

The spark of reflected light was all the warning afforded to Yang as the oversized harpoon sliced through the air. She hadn't even got her feet underneath her, or had a chance to draw in the breath that had been knocked right out of her. All she could do was plant her fists into the ground and shoot. The recoil of the twin blasts had enough power to shoot her backwards, and the harpoon speared just between her boots where her head had been just a split second before. Yikes, she'd almost been a Yang-kebob!

And Metal Head was still coming straight for her.

Hooking her toe under one of the loops of chain, she lashed out with her leg to fling the metal into his path while spinning up and onto her feet.

~All right, Mercury, I've got his attention. Now would be a good time to do your thing!~ she thought, pumping three more shots at Metal Head's helmet as he shook off her attacks like they were little more than butterfly kisses.

And this guy was supposed to be a mundane?

Welp, thought Mercury as Yang flew gracelessly through the air, Fire Dust was definitely the wrong choice.

He had to admit, he hadn't expected much coming here to track this guy down, but he was a genuine pain in the ass. Moreso Yang's than his, at this particular moment, but he was impressively strong and deceptively fast for wearing all of that armor. Not the worst he'd seen, not by a long shot - Genessia had its fair share of freaks - but this wasn't going to be as open-shut as he had hoped it would be.

A little scowl touches his face. He didn't even get to finish his lunch, and it's all because of this asshole.

Yang's managed to grab his attention for now and that's enough for Mercury to spring into action, charging the armored assailant from behind while he focuses on the blonde. The armor didn't have many cracks in it, but that was fine. Yang needed time to switch ammo, he just needed to get this guy's attention and keep him off her back for a few.

He dashes in low to the ground, closing the distance effortlessly - Metal Head might be fast for his stature, but Mercury's just plain fast - and sliding down to kick out the back of one of his knees. It's not hard, the joint is meant to bend that way after all, and the moment he staggers for just a split second Mercury is springing up with his hands, flipping in midair to connect his heel with the man's head as hard as he can.

Which, after continuing to train on a nigh-daily basis here in Genessia, is pretty fucking hard, and while the armor isn't crushed or destroyed by the impact it's enough to knock the man over, though not unconscious. Still, Mercury figures his head must be ringing after getting jostled around in that tin can, zipping back a bit to put some distance between them again.

"What's wrong, can't keep up?"

That's right. Eyes on him. Don't mind the brawler, wherever she is now, who better be moving forward to Plan B.

Yang pulled to a stop, digging in with the toe of her boot to swing herself around. Now that she actually had a moment to breathe, she jerked her arms back, discarding the empty shells from her bracers and disengaging the incendiary ammo completely. She slapped in the lightning dust rounds and cocked back her fist.

Kh-CHAK.

All the while, Metal Head rolled up with a fluid, steady motion, and reached behind him to yank the head of his harpoon out of the floor. The metal plates of his massive chest continued to rise and fall as if he was enjoying a simple stroll in the park instead of wrecking a pair of bounty hunters.

The weapon must have weighed a hundred pounds, but he swung it as if the harpoon were fashioned of styrofoam. It bit through the air in two swift swipes at Mercury to force him to back up.

But his visor was still fixated on where Yang stood, glaring at him as she brought up her fists. He arced back with the harpoon. Instead of ducking out of the way, Yang rushed him, propelling herself with another blast of Ember Celica to erase the distance between them. Her palm slammed up into his armored wrist, not to cause damage, but to keep his arm propped up as she pumped a few founds into the exposed socket under his shoulder.

He grunted.

Finally, a sign of actual discomfort! But there was no chance to celebrate as his left hand snapped out and closed like a vice around Yang's throat and jaw, lifting her off of her feet. Her first instinct was to grapple with those impossibly large fingers to peel them off of her, but as she was, she wasn't a match for his strength. She slammed her lightning-charged shots into his plated chest and helmet, two, three, four times. She could feel the jarring power lancing through his plating and reverberating into her bones.

Metal Head turned, and walked, moving without hesitation toward a large glowing vat where melted steel oozed black and scarlet.

Yang grit her teeth, punching harder. There was a faint flicker of sparks in her hair but she forced it down.

It wasn't a crutch.
It wasn't a crutch.
She didn't have to use her semblance.

Seizing his thumb, Yang swung up her leg to hook over his arm for leverage and focused her aim into his elbow, blasting it to force the joint to bend the way an elbow should not. His fingers twitched, she dropped. His boot caught her in the jaw and sent her sprawling, closer to the vat of steel. Her body was aching and her aura was low, but she forced herself to her feet and threw two more lancing electric shots into his armored body. The guy was a juggernaut, what did it take to slow him down?!

It wasn't working.

He had managed to dip under the first swipe of Metal Head's harpoon, already flipping out of the way before the second one lashed through the air, and he kept his distance with a thoughtful frown. Armored or not, they should be doing more damage. Breaking that armor apart shouldn't be an issue for either of them, but the dude just kept chugging along like it was nothing. Yang was definitely taking more hits, but she was the one armed with what was supposed to be this dude's weakness but was barely any more effective than their other attempts.

Barely - but it was effective, if only a little, and that just meant they needed to hit him with that shit but a hundred times harder. It looked like that was going to happen as he saw the familiar way her hair began to light up - that's right, let it out, finish this shit so they can get paid!

It's gone as quick as it came, and he throws his hands in the air, head rearing back as he gives her a look that she's far too preoccupied to notice. What gives?

Whatever. He'd have to think of something else.

He leaped in a high arc towards Metal Head again while his attention was on Yang, using his head as a springboard to vault through the air and land at the brawler's side while she fired again.

"Save the ammo. Individual shots are like mosquito bites, we'll never get anywhere that way." He pursed his lips for a moment, glancing at her weapons - Metal Head was still advancing, but Mercury knew he had a couple seconds to think before he was in striking range, and he'd see in his peripheral if a harpoon was about to be chucked. Think. Think.

"We have to detonate the whole clip at once. I'll get his eyes on me - you get that shit in him however you can."

He took in a breath, huffed it out - time to show Yang what he'd been up to. His knees bend a little, thigh muscles tensing - and then he's gone, and the ground where he was standing a second ago is cracked from the sudden explosive force that he used to take off towards the armored asshole. Boot hits chest with a solid impact, firing a round to launch him away again, sending him to the ceiling, and he launches off that to come down, strike, launch away, rebound, strike, launch away, rebound--

He's like a lightspeed pinball, hammering blows into Metal Head with each pass, with a force that would normally be enough to sever limbs from bodies and rend bones to dust. On this guy, it doesn't have nearly so dramatic an impact, but it keeps him staggered, halts his advance for at least a few moments, makes him at least consider defending himself instead of continuing to pursue Yang.

He can't do this all day, Blondie. Get a move on.

Ordinarily she might have balked at the thought of wasting an entire clip on just one person, especially someone that should have been a cake walk for one of them on their own. But it was obvious that what they were doing just wasn't enough.

Tch, what a waste...

Ignoring her aching jaw, Yang gave the top of her bracer a short twist, disengaging the string of lightning shells from her weapon's chamber. Get it inside him...easier said than done, with as few chinks as Metal Head had, so they'd just have to make their own.

The sharp clang of metal against metal echoed through the factory with each of Mercury's devastating blows. The villain's head jerked to the side each time Mercury's heel connected, but inevitably, his attention would track back to Yang. He advanced. Mercury's attacks could slow him, and occasionally stagger him, but he'd already chosen his prey.

Yang furrowed her brow, and grinned, gathering her confidence. Bring it on, big guy.

She lowered her head and started to run, picking up speed as she pumped her arms. "Clear out!" she warned Mercury as she reared back her fist and leaped.

Metal Head's arm blurred to snatch Yang clean out of the air, his monstrous paw almost wrapped completely around her waist. Even though she couldn't see his eyes through the deep shadow of his eyeslit, they seemed to burn into her, and she heard a hitch in the hot breath that seeped from underneath his helmet. His fingers tightened, leather and steel gloves creaking as Yang grimaced. Her elbow jerked, struggling to free her trapped arm. Just her luck that he'd manage to pin the one that held the ammo!

He pulled her closer, and for a brief second she thought he was going to slam his plated head into hers. But she was brought up short.

And he was inhaling.

"...And I thought you couldn't get any creepier," she snarled as he breathed in the scent of her hair. Almost nonchalantly he flung his harpoon in Mercury's direction, more to free his other hand than anything, as he reached up to press his fingers into her wild mane of gold hair.

"...Don't. Do it." Yang's eyes flashed with warning, her body growing tense. But with all of that hair and those steel and leather gloves, it was bound to happen. A few gold hairs tangled in the metal joints. When he moved his hand toward her throat, some of those hairs went taut. And snapped.

"You jerks just never LISTEN!!!" Gold blazed into bright flames as Yang's semblance tore free from her crumbling self-control, flooding her body with heat and raw power. Her left hand closed into a fist and crashed against his visor, driving it into his nose with a nasty crunch.

He roared with pain and fury, and Yang's heart thrilled. Thrusting out her legs she drove her heel into his shoulder and pressed up, twisting, forcing him to release his grip before she broke his wrist. With her right arm now free, she plowed that fistful of ammo straight into the narrow slit in his helmet, twin tails dangling from where she'd driven it in. Hair flickering down her back, she drove two fierce blows into his gut.

Then his elbow crashed into the side of her head with immense and unstoppable force, driving away the last of Yang's aura. It lifted her off of her feet. The fire in her hair died. The sight of bubbling molten steel rushing to meet her was the last thing she saw before her vision blackened.

Clear out, she says, and he figures that now she must be ready to really let him have it. Okay. Finally! About freaking time. He makes one more pass, landing in front of him for just long enough to flip him off before ricocheting up into the steel girders above, where he makes a landing to watch from a higher vantage point.

She got caught immediately.

So, that's awesome.

A scowl touches his lips as he lowers himself to perch atop the girder in a squat, fingertips bracing himself against its surface as he shakes his head at the sight of her in this guy's grip. What the hell was with her? In the tournament she'd been unstoppable - now it was like she didn't know what she was doing, and it occurred to him that if she didn't get her shit together then repairing her busted arm was going to be the least of her worries by the time this encounter was finished.

He lifts her to his face. Sniffs. Mercury's nose crinkles - he was no saint himself, but man that's just weird. The harpoon goes sailing his way, but it's clear that he's not really paying much attention and the weapon doesn't really threaten him at all as it arcs through the air - he doesn't even have to move, and so he doesn't. He's busy thinking again, starting to consider exit strategies - he could probably kill this guy if he had the time, but with the way the lug is focused on Yang he can't guarantee her safety anymore, and hell, he shouldn't have to. She's supposed to be a Huntress, right?

Something happens - he's too far to tell exactly what from up here, just that his fingers were in her hair, which is also weird because there's no way he can possibly feel it, but Mercury doesn't have time to idly wonder about that as finally, fucking finally, Yang snaps and manages to merge her fist with his face in an explosion of flame that he's all too familiar with. The ammo goes where it needs to. Good. She doesn't relent, lashing out at his gut. Also good.

He strikes her head, knocks her out, obliterates her aura, and sends her soaring towards the pit of liquid metal.

Less than good.

Heaving a sigh he leans forward, beginning to fall off the girder before kicking off with his legs to fire himself like a bullet towards the ground, his heels barely digging into the concrete floor before he blasts off again in a horizontal path. She's already unconscious by the time he catches her, arms wrapping around her still hot-to-the-touch form to yank her out of her flight path and back onto solid ground. Apparently, yes, he did have to save her ass after all. He's a hero. Yay.

He sets her down, looking her over for a moment, pressing fingertips against the bruise forming at her temple. He can feel her pulse throbbing, so while it's gonna hurt like hell when she wakes up she will, at least, wake up, so that's one less thing to concern himself with.

Now back to business.

He doesn't give the guy the satisfaction of a big dramatic finish, or a final zinger to drive his defeat home - he's bored of it. This guy's worn out his welcome, and so Mercury barely looks engaged at all as he lazily swings his leg up, firing one burst of homing dust at the exposed strings of ammunition.

Fuck off.

Snapping tendrils of electricity crawled over the monster of a man, hot enough to make his helmet smoke. His back arched all the way back, his body stiff and spasming wildly.

Metal Head's legs kicked and thrashed as he toppled over, a thick yellow foam oozing out from beneath the helmet. The edge of his boot kicked against a girder, and when his leg straightened, it shoved him backward, off the platform, and into the very vat of steel where he had plunged so many of his victims.

His earth-shaking echoing bellows were not human, but it wasn't long before the steel filled his mouth with a wet squelch.

Those screams wormed into Yang's subconsciousness. A flash. Fire dwindled into sparks, and the sparks died...

"Nnghah!" she suddenly snapped awake, curling in on herself with a violent twitch. For just a brief moment, her wide eyes were haunted and vacant, her left hand clutching at her right shoulder defensively.

One breath.

Two.

...Damn it. Gritting her teeth, Yang forced her fingers to unclench as she pushed herself up onto her hip. Mercury was right about the pounding in her head, it was thumping something fierce, and her metal fingers stole into her hair as she hissed in pain.

She'd used her semblance. After being so sure she had it under control it had still ripped free. She'd been savage and brutal in her assault instead of clearing out for Mercury to detonate the ammo. After all her training, she'd still had to go all out for someone who didn't have any powers or abilities. What the hell?

Yang shook her head, not liking the way her temple throbbed in response, but it cleared her senses a little faster. "Ugh... You get him?"

It's gross, and gruesome, and absolutely unpleasant, the way this "man" dies, and frankly Mercury doesn't give a shit. It was him or them, at this point, and he sincerely doubted anyone would mourn his passing. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

He hears Yang wake with a start, turning to eye her warily. The sudden reaction, the way she grabbed at her shoulder, but especially her eyes. He'd seen a look like that in the mirror, once upon a time. A trigger.

Curious.

But he's not about to delve into that, not when there are much more important things to go into, and he kneels in front of her to speak in a... soothing, gentle voice?

"Shhhh, shh. It's over. He's done."

His smile, pleasant. Kind. Warm.

"Yang."

A hand on her shoulder (the left one), patting lightly.

"You were terrible."

Wait. Why was he smiling like that. Her brow knit in wary confusion, eyes flicking back and forth as she pulled her head back. Did he get punched in the head too?

Her gaze dropped to the hand on his shoulder, just when he made his gently stated proclamation.

You were terrible.

Anger wiped away confusion in an instant as her expression darkened. Her hand slapped his wrist to knock his arm away from her shoulder as Yang shoved herself to her feet. She stood up too fast, dizzying her for a moment, forcing her to lean over with a hand pressed to her knee. That was a crummy thing to say, but that wasn't what pissed her off.

She was mad because it was true. The only time she'd been more humiliated in a fight was when tiny little Neo dodged everything Yang had to throw at her, and almost killed her.

And she still couldn't remember how she'd even survived that encounter. "Let's just go," she growled, forcing herself to straighten and storm forward.

Edited 2017-10-05 03:08 (UTC)

"That was terrible," he continued, as if she hadn't declared the conversation over, "because you're rusty, right?"

He pushes himself up similarly, stretching with catlike laziness as if he didn't just end a life. Shockingly enough, he wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

"And no, that wasn't a jab at your new arm. You've been out of the game too long."

He turns on his heel to face her, hands clasped behind his head as he starts to follow in her footsteps at a much less furious pace than she had set off at. She's hot as the sun, he's cool as steel. Funny that there's a molten pool of hot metal not too far away. Symbolic, somehow.

"If only there was a budding young hero to offer his services in getting your ass back on track! But where, oh where would you find such a masochist?"

Her shoulders twitched, hunching further and further as she grit her teeth tighter and tighter.

Rusty.

Out of the game.

"It was sloppy!" she spat, whirling on him with a flicker of sparks in her hair. "Bad enough he got away from me the first time, but this was downright pathetic! I used my semblance, and it just made things worse!" she flung her hands apart with a bright flare from her mane.

Her scarlet eyes smoldered with fury...and slowly faded back to purple as she clenched her jaw and glowered at her fists. Even now, after the fight, her temper was still getting the best of her.

"If you weren't here, he would have killed me. Even if death doesn't mean much in this place, it's no excuse for that kind of failure." Yang turned around, stalking away from Mercury. "You just proved you're not waiting for a chance to stab me in the back, so you don't have to keep being nice to me," she grunted. "I'll vouch for you if anyone asks, all right? So drop it."

His brow arches a bit as she spins towards him, but he's visibly unconcerned - her aura just shattered, after all, so even if she can summon a spark of her semblance it won't be enough to do anything with. He doesn't voice disagreement, either, because honestly he felt that she was right on just about every count. It was sloppy, she made things worse, she could have died, and yeah, he proved a lack of ill intent. He sure as hell doesn't have to do her any favors.

But.

"I'm not being nice to you. I need a sparring partner I don't have to hold back against - it just so happens that you need someone who isn't ever going to go easy on you."

He walks just a little faster, closing the gap somewhat between them.

"Unless you think beating yourself up is going to yield results. Pro tip: It never does. Sulk or swim, your call."

Someone who wouldn't go easy on her...

Yang's steps slowed as his quickened, and her boots dragged to a stop as she turned to look at Mercury. Her pride was smarting almost as much as her head, and it was hard...it was really hard...to accept the situations where she was vulnerable. Especially when there were other people around.

The anger drained from her face as her gaze dropped to the side. Now that the adrenaline was fading, she realized she was just tired. Tired of being mad, tired of being scared, tired of being disgusted by herself. "I guess...I do need someone who can push my limits." Her gaze lifted back to his face, and she let a weary little smile touch the corners of her mouth. "And if I can learn to control my temper around you, there's not going to be much else that can ruffle my feathers."

Maybe she'd misjudged him. Not just for the changes he'd undergone, but assuming he'd only been doing this to settle old scores and keep the peace. He wasn't giving up on her, and if Mercury of all people wanted to pull her back to her feet, then she should let him do it.

"You sure about this? I could punch people pretty hard when I let my semblance take over, and that was before I had the super-powered robot arm."

Edited 2017-10-05 04:01 (UTC)

Well, like he said, it wasn't entirely selfless. Good sparring partners were hard to come by - in this place people existed on all sorts of power scales, and it was a challenge to find someone on his level. A lot of people were either too weak or way too strong, and there's nothing to be learned from either. Yang, he knows, can put up just the kind of fight he needs her to.

He just has to put in a little elbow grease to get her there.

"Let me put it this way. That tournament, way back when? Winner: Yang Xiao Long?"

He struts closer, closer, almost awkwardly close - but that's the point, isn't it? He's not afraid of her. He leans in a bit, lowering his voice to a conspiratory whisper.

"I let you win."

He spins around her, and now it's his turn to start walking away from her as he leads the way towards the exit, continuing in a carefree sort of tone.

"So no, I'm not worried about what you can dish out, and yes, I'm sure."

She blinked at him, stunned for a moment. And blinked again.

"Do you tell yourself that at night so you don't cry yourself to sleep~?"

Aaaand there was that sunny, playful grin, right back where it belonged. She let him walk a little further ahead...and sure, maybe her gaze dipped to just below his waist once...but she had to admit, there was a little bit of warmth in her heart that wasn't there before. She was grateful he'd been here with her, not just to keep her from plunging into molten steel, but to help her find the balance she wanted. She wasn't quite there yet, but she was closer.

Yang moved after him, falling into step at his side. "Thanks, Mercury."

He doesn't bother to respond to her first retort, just rolling his eyes again. She'd find out soon enough, he figured, and her whining had come to a stop. Which was good, really, because while schadenfreude is one of his favorite pastimes her sour mood had been giving him a headache, as though he had been the one struck in the side of the head before.

His gaze drifts to her as she finds a place at his side, wearing that cheery disposition that almost threatened to lift his mood just a little higher, as if she was spreading some kind of virus that was trying to corrupt him. It wasn't weird seeing her smile, but it was weird knowing he'd put it there.

He wasn't really used to that.

A shrug, a scoff. "We'll see how much you're thanking me after a week, if you even last that long."

She chuckled, and turned her head forward.

"Oh...I think we'll be trading bruises for a lot longer than that." Together they passed through the loading dock doors of the sweltering factory, the cool autumn night of Attleton sweeping over their perspiring brows in sweet relief.

Hey Mercury, Can You Give Me a HAND?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Not scared?! I saw the t-shirt!

he averted her wrath! no fear!!

He's still on probation, he's not safe yet!

Safe enough, he ain't scurred

YOU WILL BE. Yoouuuu wiiillll beeeeeeee. +_+

he will surely shiver in his highly weaponized boots

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

2/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject