Theresa ot an Bol'hjar, Benedict Kaspin
"Shit's pretty fucked!" Ben shouted to Theresa, not daring to peek his head out to look at her.
"Can you see where it's coming from?"
"I... I think it's from that clocktower!""Any ideas?"
"I could try climbing but I'd be shot more than once. Not gonna risk it!""...I have an idea!"
"What?""Meet me inside!"
"Theresa I'm around the corner!""Ben you're about
ten feet tall, just go through the wall!"
The resulting crash of splintering wood and stone told Theresa that it was her turn to move. The Pale Horse was right behind her, and she could... hopefully make a mad dash for the bar before the sniper could get a good shot. She turned, clutching Potato to her chest protectively, and dashed in a serpentine pattern towards the bar. Another shot rang out, and the bullet grazed off of her arm, cutting and burning her exposed upper arm in a straight line. She'd never had a scar like this before. She busted through the door, and Benedict was standing in the middle of the room a little panicked, a lot concerned, and entirely useless as of that moment.
"Are you okay?" Was his first question. Potato wriggled out of her grasp and ran up to the much larger draconic man seeking some form of comfort.
"I'm fine. I have a plan."
"What?" Ben said, picking up their latest and smallest companion, who clung to his cloak and shivered- utterly terrified.
"What's the plan?""I need a sugary median... like caramel, saltpeter, and a stockpot."
"Saltpeter?""Sea salt, Ben."
"...You find that. Potato and I will find... everything else." Ben said. Theresa nodded and moved off, moving to the cabinets to search for the sea salt. Ben on the other hand set Potato dont on the ground and got as low as he could comfortably to instruct the cybernetic organism.
"Okay, Potato," Ben began.
"I need you to find me a large metal... cylinder with handles and.... a lid." he instructed. Potato made a whirring sound and made some motion with his arms before running off into the back kitchen, hopefully to find an item similar to what Ben requested. The sound of crashing metal suggested that Potato was already at work finding such an object. Now it was Ben's turn- to find a... sugary median.
He looked up at the faded chalk menu and read it over. His eyes naturally led him to the drinks, and he noticed something he'd never seen before. Jack and Coke. Specifically, something referred to as Cola. Invented by... Nessa. That woman's corpse he had found earlier outside. He turned to the kitchen and followed directly after Potato, who had not only completed his task with perfect accuracy despite his generic description, but had exposed a few steel vats of brown liquid in the process.
"Good job, Potato." Ben said, grabbing the handle of the stockpot and pulled it up, lifting Potato with it and setting his small friend on his shoulder. Ben approached the vats and craned his neck over them to try an identify the liquid. He took a deep whiff, and was immediately hit with the smell that was not alcohol, but of
sugar. Lots and LOTS of sugar.
"Theresa!" Ben called, summoning the red haired woman into the kitchen. She was all mussed up, but was clutching a whole
bag of sea salt to her body with both arms- obviously struggling to carry it without spilling any. Ben's look must've been incredulous, because Theresa simply shrugged and set it down next to Ben.
"Says Tier I collected," she said, looking over to the brown vat of liquid Ben found and then up at him. "What'd you find?"
"I... have no idea. Smells really strongly of sugar." Ben said, using his strength to pull the large vat out of it's storage, and placing it on the floor.
"Boil it."
"What? Why? How?""We used to get sweet tea where I'm from. If you put too much sugar in it, we'd boil the water to get it all out. It's why rain tastes pure- water leaves everything behind as a gas." Theresa explained. She looked Ben up and down and took a deep breath in, puffing up her chest and letting it out. Ben glared at her mocking, but got the message.
"Stand back." Ben stated, taking a huge breath and releasing another stream of
supa hot fiya directly at the bottom of the vat. Immediately the vat began bubbling and hissing loudly.
It didn't smell... all the way right, but it seemed to be working. Theresa and Potato cheered Ben on as he spewed fire onto the barrel for as long as he could without hurting himself. The result was... disgusting.
"It looks like semi-liquid poop." Theresa commented, peering over the lip of the vat to see the steaming and molten concentrate. Most of the water had evaporated out, and now it just looked like shit brown syrup.
Ben was haunched over, breathing in and out heavily, but otherwise okay. He gasped a few times before he finally had the breath to speak.
"Will... it work?""I think so." Theresa commented. She was already dumping all the salt she had into the vat, and she quickly ran out of the room dragging another bag, as well as a large wooden paddle. As Ben recovered she dumped and mixed away at the substance- being careful not to burn herself on the still incredibly hot metal exterior.
"Alright Ben, help me carry this." She said, pulling the paddle out of the mix and throwing it off to the side. Ben groaned, but did as he was told and heaved the cauldron sized vat onto his shoulder. Theresa led him and Potato to the entrance of The Pale Horse and had Ben set the vat down just in front of the door.
"Alright Ben. I need one more fireball from you. Think you can do it?"
Ben groaned and coughed up smoke. He hit his chest a few times and weak red built up in his throat- which resulted in him coughing up a weak napalm like fireball, which fall into the cauldron. Immediately the mixture began to fizz and smoke.
"Push it outside! As far as you can!" Theresa yelled, her voice so panicked that Ben threw open the door and just about shoved the vat outside. He ducked away from the wall, expecting there to be an explosion of some kind, but all that resulted was a continuous loud hiss.
Several shots rang out before it fell silent once again (besides the continuous, and strange hiss). Theresa ran to Ben and grabbed his hand, pulling him.
"We gotta go! We gotta go NOW."
Ben followed running outside despite his desire not to be shot and found that most of the road had been shrouded in a foul smelling smoke that was still spewing from the vat.
So that was Theresa's plan.
That cheeky bitch.
