open!

[shootingshields]

Characters: Peggy Carter, open!
Date: throughout Turtle Dive Event
Location: Various!!
Situation: Various!! Comments will contain threadstarters, but also feel free to start your own. c:
Warnings/Rating: violence against zombies. also i have no preference as to whether you reply [action] or prose.

Comments

[emasculates]

No. Nor weapons.

[Her tone suggests she would like very much to change that in the very near future.]

[shootingshields]

Fire has proven to be by far the most useful weapon. They must have some in the palace - [Another brief gesture to her torch.] - if not, I got mine in the Fire Sector.

[But if Aisha doesn't have anything else to defend herself with, getting to the Fire Sector seems ill advised right now.]

[emasculates]

Then I will go there.

[See how little she cares about zombies? Because this is how little she cares about zombies.]

Spasiba, Agent. Good hunting.

[shootingshields]

Would you like backup?

[It's not that she thinks Aisha incapable, not in the slightest. It's just Peggy being Peggy, and she's better prepared at the moment.]

[emasculates]

[And she actually considers it. She'd already taken several strides away from Carter, but now she stops, turns back halfly.]

Do you think you can keep up?

[... it's not actually a question so much as a challenge, half-playful. It has always been rare, that a woman could keep up with her. It is why she fought with Fahd.]

[shootingshields]

[A challenge, a tone Peggy immediately picks up on. Her mouth twists into a half-playful grin of her own.]

Yes, I believe I can.

[With how hard she's pushed herself in the past, to reach where she did. Even knowing how good Aisha probably is, Peggy knows she's good, too.]

[emasculates]

[Aisha smirks, and sweeps a hand out in a gesture meant to imply that Peggy should accompany her.]

Then we go. I will keep left.

[Battle plan time.]

[shootingshields]

[She closes the gap, takes up pace next to Aisha on the right.]

Do you want to borrow something until a torch is found?

[She only has one gun on her, but there's a knife shoved into her boot - something she acquired during her time in Keeliai.]

[emasculates]

Do you have a blade?

[She'd hardly deprive the woman of a gun given the scarcity of ammunition, but she won't make the same mistakes twice and you don't have to reload knives.]

[shootingshields]

I do.

[And she reaches down, pulling one from her boot; it's not terribly big, but it's larger than a pocket knife. Peggy holds it out for the other woman to take.]

[emasculates]

[And take it she does, flipping it lightly in her hand to test the weight.

It's a far cry from her bowie, but when one survived slitting throats with the sharp edges of tin cans in a desert theatre of war, it will suffice.]

I will see it is returned to you.

[And then they're at the exit to the palace antechamber.]

[shootingshields]

Thank you.

[Peggy slides through the exit quickly enough, but there's a shift in the way she carries herself; subtly more alert, a more guarded manner of walking. In the process, she preemptively lights up her torch.]

[Fortunately, at least, Fire is the closest sector to the palace.]

[And realizing that, Peggy wonders if that was on purpose, related to this event, if it wasn't just a one time thing.]

[emasculates]

[Aisha notes the subtle change, and lifts an eyebrow in faint approval. Carter has not seen the wars she has, but she has an instinct for the fight. She accommodates for the presence of a unit, and adjusts accordingly.

Beyond the palace, there is the dim glow of the Fire Sector in the distance, but all else is black. What alarms her is not the absence of light but the sounds in the darkness. It is a battlefield symphony, noises the dying make. Whimpers, whispers, screams, and everything seems to echo eerily as if the overhead dome is acting as an amplifier.

She flicks the knife to her left hand, keeping her gaze away from the torch. It will only ruin her vision, and she has always hunted well in the dark. They cross the courtyards of the palace quickly, efficient economy of motion, and it is at the palace gates that the source of the sounds become evident.

The creatures are crawling on the white marble walls, the wrought iron gates. They are beaten down by kedan footsoldiers, but it seems to be a tireless process. Hm.]

I was brought here via a side-gate. This way.

[And she cuts across the courtyard to one of the smaller side-doors.]

[shootingshields]

[She doesn't respond, just follows after Aisha, noting the scene as they trek along. The sounds are familiar in that she's been out often enough, and she's been slowly growing a deafness towards most of it, at least enough that it does not break her focus. One scream could not deter her from whatever person or kedan she was helping at the moment.]

[When they reach the door, she waits, with a silent glance at the other woman to ensure they're both prepared. Peggy quickly double checks her own gun, feels again for the lighter in her pocket, should the torch go out.]

[emasculates]

[And while Peggy's covering the door, Aisha eases it open and slips through silently. The creatures, drawn to light, are not as numerous here.

Aisha catches one in shambling disarray, drives that knife through the base of its neck. It won't kill it or permanently disable it, but it'll buy time enough for Peggy to set it on fire and allow them on their way.]

[shootingshields]

[Peggy steps through the door after Aisha. Before the jiangshi can do much more, she does indeed walk forward and catch the flames at its arm; she steps back as it spreads, to avoid getting licked by the fire herself.]

[She only starts moving again once she's satisfied the fire will burn it to ashes.]

[emasculates]

I am surprised they burn, after the ocean.

[Shouldn't they be waterlogged? Or, alternately, should the pressure not have crushed them indiscriminately?]

[shootingshields]

I'd wondered about that myself. It's a word I hate to toss around, but there could be some magical aspect to it all.

[emasculates]

[Aisha mislikes the word as well, possibly more than Carter does. She's seen too much of the mundane ascribed to it.]

We will concern ourselves with that later. Move.

[And onto the Fire Sector they go...]

[shootingshields]

Assuming we get any answers. [There's a little pessimism in her tone, but she easily starts moving again, towards the fire sector.]

[It's the brightest, with thanks to the nature of it, easy to locate.]

[But Aisha and Peggy are alive, and that's all the creatures need. Three of them hone in and start on both women, but only one initially makes a quick approach; it aims for Aisha, given Peggy's the one with the fire in hand.]

[emasculates]

We do not ask for them. We take them.

[That is exactly her opinion of the Emperor, lbr. And yes, she's eyeing those zombies with a rather calculating expression. Some distaste. No fear.]

If I am bitten, shoot me. Burn the body.

[And on that note she just jumps into the fray. She hamstrings the first zombie (ineffective) and delivers an axe-kick to the back of its head that sends it stumbling towards Carter.]

[shootingshields]

[As it comes towards her, Peggy wastes no time swinging her torch and lighting it up. She ignores it as it burns and heads for one of the others, gun out just in case.]

[It reaches for her, and she brings the flames down on its head, giving it a swift kick near the hips, enough to knock it over as it flops and smokes in the flames.]

[emasculates]

[She deals with the third one with a sharp blow to the sternum and in the barest moment of bemusement it demonstrates afterwards, she slips around behind it and sticks her knife at the base of its spinal column to sever it from the head. Their flesh is weakened and degrading enough that with the knife having severed the spine and trachea, she can quite handily rip its head from its shoulders.

It doesn't render the creature inert, but it will sure slow it down, and allow for it to be burnt in the meantime.]

[shootingshields]

[Brutal, but effective, and Peggy's seen the brutalities of the Eastern front.]

[She comes at the mangled corpse quickly enough, swiping the flames at it and setting the last one ablaze. She jumps back as it takes a swing at her, with no strength but that of the dying and horribly wounded, and soon enough, all three of the jiangshi are gone and burned.]

[emasculates]

[And in all her ladylike glory, Aisha spits on one of the burning corpses.]

I preferred Russian boys.

[They were easier to kill. :(]