aubergines | ( #002 ) FAKE MARRIED AU

[ Kasumi's sure to look away, but even then she can tell just how bright and obnoxious the flashes are, so her reaction is a mix between oooh, aaah and good god. Definitely more potent than Kasumi's own flashbangs, which is totally fine given that they're shaking off two types of enemies at once. When her eyes begin adjusting again and the sound dies out, she leans out of the elevator a bit, waiting for Peter. ]

Come on!

[ Her omni-tool is already crackling. And her decoy? Totally exploding now, knocking back the already-blinded and discombobulated Cerberus lackeys. Unfortunately for them, there always seems to be a lot of sparks flying around whenever these two are involved. ]

[ Say what you will about these two -- at the very least, they don't do anything halfway.

Unfortunately, that's butting right up against the fact that Peter is, at best, unlucky as fuck. So while he's distracted in getting his ass out of the fight, he doesn't see the Husk coming in from his left, leaping and wrapping its limbs around him bringing him to the ground. Its teeth clamp down on his shoulder before he's able to shuck it off, blasting it with a bolt of lightning from his gun. He leaps to his feet again and jumps into the elevator beside Kasumi ]

Get us the fuck out of here.

[ There's a moment of silent panic on her part when her "On your left!" comes too little too late, and he gets tackled to the ground. But he's made it, which is one hell of a relief, and with that Kasumi unleashes the chain overload. It jumps from Husk to Husk to Cerberus guy to whatever's next. She ducks back into the elevator just in time as the doors start to close, and she takes care of one last, very resilient Husk whose arm is about to block the door from closing all the way by shooting it in the face.

The doors close, finally, and so begins the most excruciating elevator ride ever. The silence that follows makes Kasumi realize how her heart is beating quickly, how "adrenaline rush" doesn't even begin to describe this, and how hard she's breathing, but it only takes her a moment until she turns to Peter, Medi-Gel ready. ]

That looks like one hell of a bite, Quill. Let me take care of it for you.

Edited 2014-11-11 12:00 (UTC)

[ These elevators seriously suck, but at least they have time to catch their breaths, now. At some point he had holstered his guns in favor of applying pressure to the injury in his shoulder, but once Kasumi turns to him, he moves his hand aside. The bite is angry and red and bleeding with definite teeth marks there, but at least the Husk didn't end up taking a chunk out of him. ]

Christ, that asshole probably had rabies or something. Fuck husks.

[ As soon as he moves his hand out of the way, her omni-tool glows as she goes in and starts applying Medi-Gel to his wound to stop the bleeding and close it up. ]

Hold still, alright? Fortunately for you, turning into a husk isn't really quite like turning into zombies in the movies. You'd either have to be impaled on a giant Reaper stake... or piss Cerberus off and get zapped into one, apparently.

Oh, good. [ He says it in a flat voice. ] I'm feeling a lot more reassured. Thanks, Goto.

[ All the same, he sighs in relief when the Medi-Gel gets to work, and a lot of the tenseness goes out of him. He shuts his eyes and tips his head back against the elevator wall. ]

If I turn into one of those things, make sure Rocket does not get free rein of my ship. And make sure Drax doesn't pilot. Actually, you know what? Just make sure Gamora gets the ship. She won't fuck it up.

[ He's joking, of course. No one gets his ship. ]

[ The wicked smile on her face says, why would I want to do that when I could just take it for myself?. First the Milano, then the Normandy. Obviously. ]

Gamora gets the ship. Got it. Maybe you can leave that on a post-it somewhere on the ship too, just in case.

[ By now the medi-gel application is finished, but she's taking another look at his wound just to make sure it's good to go. ]

I've really gotta work on a will.

[ The Medi-Gel's done its job and done it well, it seems, at least judging by the fact that Peter's expression has smoothed out from its pained grimace. His shirt, though, is another story; it's splattered with blood -- some of it his own, but most of it from close quarters combat with Husks. ]

When we get back up, we should, you know. Probably avoid public areas.

[ She steps away from him when she sees his relief and just in time, the elevator is slowing (as it can apparently go even slower) to a stop as they reach the upper floor. ]

I mean, that's a cake walk for me. Maybe you should invest in a tactical cloak sometime, Quill.

Anyway, I'm not too worried. I suspect that a lot of guards that we'd otherwise run into are kind of. Predisposed to dealing with the craziness downstairs, yeah?

I'm thinkin' more about the civilians screaming bloody murder and mobbing me.

[ Again, joking, but he does look, like, super gross. Husks are the worst, he decides, as he steps out of the elevator. ]

We should get the place evacuated. Nuke the entire thing from orbit.

We could. [ She follows him out of the elevator, but turns around with her omni-tool out again, jamming it into the nearby console so the elevator ceases to be functional.

Now usually she would avoid becoming too embroiled in an incident like nuking a settlement, but this? This is screwed up, and it's Cerberus, so she wouldn't feel bad if it came down to that. She did take part in a whole suicide mission that amounted to Shepard giving the Illusive man a big fat middle finger as she blew up the Collector Base, after all, so she's got no problems blowing Cerberus things up. ]

Let's get these people out of here.

How the hell are we gonna stage a mass evacuation without it being suspi--

[ He interrupts himself with a thoughtful, "Hm."

There are a few things that Peter Quill missed out on, being kidnapped and taken from Earth as a child. School dances, for one. Midterms and finals and finishing term papers five minutes before they're due, for another. The Disney Renaissance. MP3 players. Touch screen phones.

But one of the things he really missed out on was high school pranks. (He doesn't know it, but his class' senior prank had been pretty tame -- filling the hallways with hay and calling it good.) And, you know? One of the things he's always wanted to do was set off the fire alarm.

It's probably why he's grinning and locating the closest fire alarm trigger. ]

Ready?

[ What Kasumi had in mind was definitely more elaborate, and probably needlessly complicated for a situation like this where they have to get people out and do it now. Surely, hacking into the intercom system and coming up with some other reason that refugees (or rich cowards, whichever) had to evacuate might have taken a little more time and finesse is the least of their worries right now.

So while at first she looks uncertain, she's quickly and wholeheartedly nodding her head at him. ]

Go for it.

[ Somehow, his grin widens as he yanks at the alarm. And just like moments ago, sirens go off, and the lights along the hallways start flashing an angry red. Over the intercoms, a recorded message in a calm, accented woman’s voice advises people not to panic, and to make their way to the closest exit.

Peter tries to hide his disappointment. He was kind of hoping the sprinklers would go off, too, but that’s neither here nor there. He grabs Kasumi by the hand and starts leading them away – though he doesn’t really have a destination in mind. ]

What’s the plan?

[ She tilts her head at him, since his question has an obvious answer. ]

Get the hell out of here and plow through whatever else gets in our way?

[ Sass aside, luckily he grabbed the hand she doesn't need to use her omni-tool, so she uses that the pull up the schematics again. ]

Not sure if there's a more covert way out, unless you're still up for crawling through vents. Otherwise, we basically come out the way we came in. Or blow a hole in the wall--whichever, really.

[ The idea of going through the vents makes his skin crawl -- not that he'd ever admit it aloud. ]

I'm up for whatever's easiest, honestly. I'm easy like Sunday mornin'.

If I had a credit for every time you've said that, like, ever, I'd quit my job and retire to a remote island.

Anyway, whatever's easiest? Definitely blowing a hole through the wall. Vents are more subtle and all, but I think we sort of threw subtlety out the metaphorical window when we pulled the fire alarm-- [ When they come up to an intersection of hallways, she takes another quick glance at her omni-tool. ] --make a left here.

[ He rolls his eyes at the credit comment (his defense for using the line so frequently is typically, “What? It’s a good song!”), and makes the turn as directed. ]

Are we seriously gonna blow up a wall? I mean, like, okay, all for the path of least resistance, but you’re soundin’ a lot like Rocket, here.

[ Nevermind the guy had loaded Peter up on explosives. “Never know, Quill,” and a shrug had been his response. Peter didn’t think he’d actually need that stuff. ]

[ She gives him a mischievous smile. ]

I mean, we've already been compromised, and I do enjoy a little pyrotechnics every now and then.

[ Fond, fond memories of blowing Hock's helicopter up into fiery little bits come to mind. ]

[ His sigh is way over the top. ]

Why do I hangout almost exclusively with crazy people?

Easy - because there's never a dull moment with people like us.

[ She slows down in her tracks then, pulling her hand away from Peter's grip and examining a nearby wall. ]

What do you say we take out a couple more brainwashed Cerberus lackeys on our way out? Other side of this wall bets us to the base of one of those watchtowers by the entrance.

[ Alright, he was playing the long-suffering straight man before, but her question makes him smirk. His fingers touch the trigger behind his ear, and his mask flares to life. ]

See? Now that’s the proper way to show a guy a good time.

[ He digs into his pockets, pulling out a handful of explosives the size of ping-pong balls. He frowns when he recognizes a bit of flaking paint on one of them -- he's, like, 80% sure Rocket dismantled something from the kitchen to make these. Peter shakes his head as he kneels in front of the wall Goto pointed out and thinks, What a god damn asshole. ]

These bombs used to be a food processor. [ He says it as he presses a couple to the wall. ] Thought that'd be a fun and terrifying tidbit of info for the both of us.

[ She steps back and lets him do his work. The mention of a food processor makes her tilt her head, though, before an incredulous expression takes over. ]

I'm surprised you guys even had a food processor. Though I suppose it makes sense, given the fact that anytime anyone tries to chop food with actual knives and a cutting board on your ship would probably just end up stabbing someone else.

[ Peter gives her a pointed look, though it's masked behind his helmet. He feels strangely compelled to defend his teammates' abilities. (If he cared to admit it, it's because he's proud of them and this little ragtag team they've put together, but that sounds stupid. If asked, he'd say it was because they would kick his ass if he didn't say something in their favor.) ]

Please, they've got more skill than that. They wouldn't stab anyone they didn't mean to. I've seen Drax cut a tied-up hostage loose without even glancing at her. And I've seen Gamora throw a knife across a crowded room and nail a guy in the eye. It was awesome.

[ Clearly his lifestyle has given him a strange definition of "awesome." He reaches up to place a few more of the explosives closer to the ceiling. ]

'Sides, Drax cooks. I mean, not often? But he's pretty good. We got the food processor for him hopin' he'd cook some more, but he said he prefered the old-fashioned way. 'Least we know kitchen appliances can blow shit up, now. Thanks, Rocket.

[ For good measure, he places two bombs in the center of the wall, then steps back. ] Think we're good. You ready?

[ Well thanks to that, she's totally going to invite herself over for a gourmet meal courtesy of Drax someday. So enjoy.

She responds to his question with a nod and takes another step back just for good measure. ]

Hit it, Star-Lord.

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