finalflight | OPEN POST; [ SEPHIROTH / FFVII ]

What the hell?

[ What has she walked into? That's what Carol is thinking as she instinctively starts running into the town, following the sounds of screams. She's not too worried about the fire. The energy blast from Mar-Vell's engine had made her almost invulnerable. Almost is the key word though.

The first building she comes to has flames coming from the upper windows, and a pile of flaming debris blocking the door. A photon blast from her fist knocks the debris out of the way. The door is locked, so Carol pulls it off its hinges and tosses it aside. ]

Anyone here?

[ It's hard to see through the smoke, but a small group of people appear from the haze. They're staring at her in shock. Carol moves out of the way so they can see the open door. ]

Everyone out!

[ They're quick to follow her order and rush past her. She grabs the last one, an older man, for a moment. ]

Anyone else in here?

[ He shakes his head, so she follows them out and starts looking around, listening for more screams. ]

[The heat is unbearable where she stands, enough to constrict one’s lungs from the inside like a pair of grasping hands. But the flames are not enough to overpower Carol — not someone as strong and nigh invulnerable as her — and though they might surround her, eating away at the building’s groaning frame, the ferocity isn’t enough push her back. No force of nature could.

Well, almost none, at least.

While she peers into the blaze, the flames seem to part in a rush, as if pulling away from a much more destructive presence careening through them. At first it’s nothing but a blur of black leather and silver tendrils whipping behind it, until it’s close enough to reveal a flash of bright, cat-like eyes. The sweep of an impossibly long sword.

Sephiroth appears before her, cold and smiling and shaped like death, Masamune poised and ready to cut her in two. The tip of his katana sails in her direction.]

[ Most of the buildings nearby are already engulfed in flames. If there was anyone in those buildings, it's too late to save them. The glow of her power surrounds Carol as it absorbs the energy of the heat, giving her some protection. She is just considering retreating from the blaze when she sees movement where no movement should be. Movement that is definitely not the flickering of flames.

A dark shape rushes towards her. She has a confused impression of black and silver as she takes a step back. It doesn't stop, and she catches a glimpse of what seems to be... a sword?

Carol is already propelling herself backwards, taking to the air as a sword blade swipes through the space where she used to be. A sudden increase in heat warns her she's too close to a burning building, so she moves away, hovering a few feet above the ground, out of range of the sword.

Her fists are glowing with photon energy, but she doesn't fire yet. Ingrained military protocols from two different cultures insist on assessing the situation first. It could have been an attack, but it could also have been defensive. It could even have been local authority mistaking her for whoever, or whatever, had caused the disaster.

Hopefully this won't be the time her universal translator craps out on her. ]

Back off! I'm not here to hurt anyone!

[She’s fast. Faster than the others, the ones who fell so easily to his blade, like cutting down brittle frames made of air and paper. None of them could ever hope to avoid Masamune’s bite, the curved steel of his katana already splotched with crimson. No, this one is different — this one ignores the knifing heat of the fire as she retreats from the building’s proximity, avoids the long reach of his weapon by lifting herself off the ground, and the strange light emanating from her fists pulse in a surreal, intriguing way.

Sephiroth pursues her out, but this time in a slow, unhurried way, unfolding from an offensive stance. He takes one step forward, two, his gait improbably quiet for all the chaos he’s caused, burning and screaming behind him.]

You’re not like the others.

[—he replies, his easy violence temporarily stymied by curiosity. His grin casts wide.]

But you’re in the way, all the same.

Edited 2020-06-04 02:57 (UTC)

Is that so?

[His grin is disturbing, and Carol revises her analysis of the situation. Probably not a defensive local. Definitely not the local authorities. Odds are shifting in favor of 'madman who caused the destruction'.

She takes in his appearance, now that she can see him better. Black leather coat, with huge pauldrons. Long, silver hair. A seriously long sword.]

Nice sword. Compensating for something?

[Yes, good idea, Carol. Poke the bear.

She shrugs mentally and smirks at him. If he is the cause of all this, then better he focus on her than any possible survivors.]

I like the shoulder pads too. Very eighties.

[Carol your 80s comment is well and truly going to fly over his head

Sephiroth is well beyond the point of being shaken by words meant to act as nettle beneath his skin. The argument could be made that even before this day, when the hairline cracks across his mind did not break and shatter, he would’ve been unaffected by the taunting. Perhaps he had heard the comments about his sword many times before, after all, and from fellow SOLDIERs — ones that he would’ve called friends, in those memories already starting to become warped at the edges.

But that might as well have been a lifetime ago. Before he had been given the whole swath of the truth, before the world shifted beneath his feet and he saw that he had only been living a lie. Stepping out into the light, away from the suffocating grasp of ignorance, had been such a revelatory, such a freeing, such a welcome thing. Sephiroth made sure to christen the occasion with fire and steel.

This woman, however, is an oddity. A likely obstacle on his return trip to the Mt. Nibel reactor, someone who he had seen fit to free a small group of humans from the angry hunger of a fire, and who would likely do the same for any else she’d stumble across. Someone playing hero, who has piqued his interest with her hovering flight and the halos around her fists.]

Different, but I wonder if your insides look the same.

[A reply that does not seem to acknowledge her own.]

Should we find out?

[He doesn't react to her taunting, and she didn't really expect him to. Instead he makes a creepy comment about seeing her insides.

That settles that. Threat established.]

I'm going to have to pass on that.

[Her right arm extends, and a photon blast erupts from her fist, headed straight for him. It's not full power, she's not going for a kill shot, but it should make him think twice about his plans for vivisection.]

[It isn’t a power like he’s seen before, not exactly. Though he does expect it to a certain extent, having been privy to the glow around her hands up until now, knowing that she must be holding it at ready, much like an infantryman releases the safety of their rifle before firing it off at a threat.

Sephiroth treats it like magic — and he had been trained (likely so, the memory so far gone now, stretching itself into the background of his mind) for years to avoid attacks flung his way, and to counter swiftly, terribly. He springs up, leaps into the air with inhuman ease, her energy blast slicing just past him and slamming into the ground where he once stood.

Masamune shivers in the warping heat of the atmosphere, reflecting the flames in an orange-brightness as it careens directly towards her, a downward swing of his sword aimed straight for her head this time.]

[Whoa, he's fast. That sword is heading for her again. Carol dodges in the air, letting him go past her and flying slightly higher this time.]

What's your problem anyway? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?

[Her fists glow brighter, building up more energy than the last blast.]

Or do you always go around trying to cut people open and look at their insides?

[Her tone is conversational, with a hint of sarcasm. Yon-Rogg always told her that humor was a weakness. Vers never believed him. Carol certainly doesn't.

She releases two photon blasts this time, one from each fist. One is aimed at his head, the other at the hilt of his sword. Given enough time, she can melt most metals. Of course he's probably not going to hold still long enough for that, but maybe she can knock the sword out of his hand.]

[Sarcasm and humor might as well be empty words, for how little they affect him. At this point, so much of Sephiroth cares not for what others might say, what they might think, in this world forged of lies and filled to the brim with those who hold a stolen inheritance in their hands.

But again, there’s something quite different about this one, made obvious by her easy flight that not-magic bursting from her hands and flying at his head. A swift dodge to the side avoids the first, and a slice of steel careens through the second. The force is still enough to push him back, as though he has just cleaved an explosion in two, jostling his frame; but Sephiroth remains planted to the ground this time, not pursuing her mid-air.

Eyes sharp, at least this time they flicker with curiosity.]

What are you supposed to be?

[It doesn't escape her that he phrased his question as 'what', not 'who'. Rude.

Since he didn't attack again, Carol considers how to answer as she lands, still keeping a good distance between them. There's no easy answer to his question. The ranks and titles she has claim to mean nothing on this backwater little world. And even if they did, she wouldn't call herself a Kree anyway. She still flinches mentally at the memory of her arrogant description of herself as a 'noble warrior hero' Kree to Fury. Of course at that time, she had considered Earth to be a backwater little world.

She shrugs.]

I'm a traveler. Just passing through to somewhere else.

[She doesn't offer a name, just throws his question back at him with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.]

And what are you supposed to be?

OPEN POST; [ SEPHIROTH / FFVII ]

This should be interesting!

To say the least 8)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject