___________________________________....... |  Outside Soup Kitchen · Late Afternoon · In Collaboration with [&.Killamrix88]Outside Soup Kitchen · Late Afternoon · In Collaboration with @Killamrix88 _
“N-Nelu! I’ve got one over here!” A nearby voice called out.
A male in an RSF uniform approached slowly with a gun drawn and his hand over a radio on his shoulder. He seemed rather nervous, but it was hard to tell if it was because of the deteriorating situation unfolding around him, or if it was because he’d seen the younger man bend. Despite the screams of help coming from the blasted doors of the kitchen behind him, or the scrambling of those more seriously injured and in obvious need of help, all else was being ignored save for Weiyuan.
“D-don’t move!”
Weiyuan turned his head to look at the officer and felt his heart drop into his stomach. This was about the worst possible outcome. Honestly, he might have preferred his zombie-bully to this… though technically that hadn’t yet been ruled out, police or no.
Standing up didn’t seem like a good idea so instead he just stay where he was, laying on his back, and quickly put his hands up in the air in surrender. Thinking about it, maybe if he just stayed put, said bully would arrive and distract the officer. Yeah, that could get him out of this!
That was great to imagine and all, but he made one terrible miscalculation. He put his hands in the air a little too enthusiastically, causing two, short pillars of earth to shoot up around him in another unintentional display of bending. His eyes went wide in horror, his pupils shrinking to panicked pin-points as two shots rang out. One hit the pillar of earth dead center, removing a sizable chunk and kicking up dust. The second ricocheted off the pavement near Weiyuan’s head and punctured the tire of a nearby car causing it to rock violently as the tire flattened out.
The officer dove behind another vehicle with windows blasted. ”Fuckin’... Shots fired!” He yelled into his shoulder. ”Nelu! That’s an affirm on another bender! Earth! He’s resisting!”
”Circling back to you now.” A voice answered back. ”Vanguard’s on board. I’ll deploy before landing.”
”ETA!”
”Two minutes.”
”What do I do?!”
”Nothing stupid.”
The officer peeked over the hood of the car he was hiding behind at Weiyuan. ”D-don’t you fucking move!”
All he had to do was not move. If he made no sudden movements, surely he wouldn’t accidentally bend again. It was simple. Or it would have been if he wasn’t being shot at! Of course he flinched. Of course that was enough to set off his bending again.
And of course he couldn’t even attempt to explain himself because he was mute!
It really was the perfect storm of unfortunate events.
His arms retracted close to his body, hands balling into fists just trying to make himself smaller and keep his extremities away from the gunfire, but in the process the pillars of earth, what was left after the gunshots took a chunk out of one, effectively imploded. It was a violent display of cracking stone, and yet didn’t threaten the officer at all. The small pebbles that went flying didn’t even go far enough to touch the car the man hid behind.
If anything, the only one suffering was Weiyuan as the crushed stone showered him in dirt and dust, getting in his eyes and mouth.
He doubted the man would see it that way.
Now what? He’d just did the last thing he should have in that moment. Now what? Nowwhatnowwhatnowwhat? Nothing came to him. Nothing at all. His mind just went… blank.
Well if not moving just wasn’t working, then it was time to make a move that would get him out of this alive. It wasn’t a fun mess to wake up to, but then they never were. He knew he effectively existed only to deal with the specifically unfun bits.
Weiyuan suddenly just rolled over, swinging his arm to call the earth to come with him, flipping up a decently sized slab of earth to cover him.
”I said doN’T MO-...!” The officer rose from behind his own cover and squeezed off a few more rounds at the Bender, putting bullets into the dirt slab and the ground around him. The slab itself wasn’t tall enough to cover him if he stood up, so Weiyuan started crawling, looking for his exit. There… wasn’t really one, but there was that dumpster. He then pulled up another, much smaller, chunk of earth beneath his foot, like a runner’s starting block. He pushed off, going into a sprint and focusing one last time.
This one would be trickier, as the earth he needed was a little farther away.
All the way down here, the foundations of the buildings were still brick and concrete, unlike the ugly sheet metal and recycled plywood of the upper floors. In other words: earth. He pulled at the foundation of the nearby building with everything he had, causing a few chunks of stone to slam into the other side of the dumpster, shoving it into the middle of the street so he could drop into a slide to throw himself behind it, leaving it between him and the officer’s gun.
He pressed his back against it, panting and trying to just take even the smallest moment to get his bearings. Normally things weren’t THIS desperate when he woke up. Normally he had more than a split-second to figure out what was happening. Sure, as his other self grew more stressed their thoughts would start to bleed together a little, so he was never completely lost, but this was just… too much.
Why was he being shot at?! Why was his bending so unstable, yet powerful!? Where the hell was Chae-Won when he needed her?! And… and… why was there so much dirt in his mouth!?!?
Wait, no, that one was kinda coming back to him.
Not hitting what he wanted to, the officer quickly ditched the car and began swinging around in an attempt to outflank his quarry, keeping some distance from Weiyuan so as to preserve his perceived bubble of safety. However, before he could get around to find another angle, a metal pipe knocked the gun out of his hand and a second later, smashed into the side of his face. He hit the ground, crumpling to a defeated heap as his assailant began beating on him with the improvised weapon.
Weiyuan heard himself being rescued, though maybe he shouldn’t jump to conclusions too quickly, before he saw it. The sound of the metal pipe striking the gun reached him, and then the sound of the pipe hitting the officer followed. Repeatedly.
He stuck his head around the corner of the dumpster and watched the individual go to town on the poor man. He found it strange that he felt any pity for him, but… there it was.
Perhaps it just felt too familiar.
He stood up, mouth opened to protest, but of course nothing came out. The next time the pipe swung, Weiyuan moved almost without thinking. A swirl of dust shot up, surrounding his hand, forming a thin, earthen barrier that lessened the impact as his hand closed around the pipe to stop their swing.
He froze for a moment. If they hadn’t seen him before, they sure as hell knew he was there now… and they might not be so happy about him stopping their beating. And, of course it wasn’t like he could just explain himself! Had they even known he was there at all? Had they been there to help him, or did they just really, really not like the police?
Realizing he was just standing there like an idiot with his hand wrapped around their pipe, he quickly let go and backed away, unsure of what to do now.
Both the stranger and the RSF officer turned to look at Weiyuan, one through cloudy eyes and the other through a curtain of his own blood. Suddenly, the man dropped the pipe and lunged at Weiyuan, arms and hands out in an attempt to grab his throat.
Weiyuan was lucky in a way that a fear of retaliation had been quite literally beaten into him at a young age. He was still surprised by the nature of the attack, but not that it came. There was clearly something wrong with this person. Realistically speaking, he and the officer were on totally opposing sides, but this strange person didn’t like either of them!
That and the glazed over look in their eyes. Were they on something? It hardly mattered. He just needed to get out here.
And yet he couldn’t do it. If he left, they might just go back to beating the RSF officer to death. Even if he told himself that wasn’t his problem, even if he told himself the officer had tried to kill him, it just wouldn’t sit right with him.
Fine then. He’d just have to make this quick.
He jumped back away from another lunge from the mindless individual clawing at him. He then set his feet and charged back toward them. Right before he impacted them, he called on the earth under his feet and as he pushed off, the earth under his foot jutted out, launching him forward even faster.
Like a human missile, he crashed into them, tackling them to the ground with his full weight. They clawed at him of course, but that worked for him – he wanted their arms. He reared back and caught their wrists before their hands could find his throat.
It was a chore, but he once again used his full weight to pin their arms to the ground… and then into it. As their wrists impacted the street, he used his bending to make the ground crumble and sink their hands into it, solidifying it again as he pulled his own hands free.
It was a trick Chae-Won had used against him again and again during training. It had been the perfect training tool, really. It was a trick that only worked on him so long as he couldn’t bend his way back out of it, so he’d been forced to get better in order to nullify it.
He’d never had enough time to master it, but he’d figured if everything else was coming easier than normal, then this would as well.
He then quickly turned around and grabbed their ankles, sinking those into the ground as well, leaving all four limbs trapped. It would suck for them for a while, but at least they weren’t exactly hidden. Someone would dig them out sooner or later. Hopefully they’d be less rabid by then.
That just left the beaten and bloodied officer.
Dammit. He still couldn’t just leave. He took a breath and steeled himself to just do it and get this over with. Without any more hesitation, he went over to them and grabbed him under his arms, hauling him toward the dumpster. The bastard was heavy, or maybe he was just too small compared to him for it to be easy. With one last haul, suddenly it became too easy as the dirt and pebbles under the man suddenly came with them, allowing the man to slide across the ground as if on wheels.
BONG The back of Weiyuan’s head hit the side of the dumpster as all resistance suddenly disappeared. Fortunately his own body cushioned the impact for the battered officer. With one last heave, he pulled himself out from under the man and propped him up against the dumpster.
He rubbed his head sorely and then scanned the ground around him, finally spotting the man’s fallen gun. He picked it up and just stared at it for a moment… before depositing it on the officer’s lap, paying he’d either be too out of it, or too grateful to use it against him, but he’d need it if more strange, rabid people showed up.
That or he’d just pass out and none of this would matter.
Either way, Weiyuan knew he’d already been pushing his luck by staying in the street. All around him, in the neighboring streets, he could hear the commotion of countless other people dealing with the same shit he was. He was also vaguely cognizant of the fact that the officer had called for back-up. Yeah, it was definitely time to go, but not without Chae-Won.
He eyed the officer warily as he backed away, putting the dumpster between him and the man once more. Once safe, relatively speaking, he quickly looked around and saw the soup kitchen, door ajar and windows shattered. Was… that where he’d come from? Ugh, Chae-Won had never actually told him where she was going to take the other him today! |
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