[Eventually, the gunshots stop. Chris' little friend is about to fall, after all - too far a jump onto too narrow a ledge, and the rock crumbles beneath the impact of her landing. If she drops, she has nowhere to go; it's then that Chris decides he's going to do something.
And because absolutely no one pays Chris to think, he decides he's going to punch a boulder.
You know that you shouldn't stop to watch this, but the fact remains that you do; Chris decides he's going to move an entire boulder by himself, and he proceeds to right-hook it into submission and send it careening into the lava flow. Somehow.
...It's about then that you have to legitimately take a moment to try to figure out if your vision is just that bad, if Uroboros is fucking with you somehow, or if Chris literally just punched a fucking boulder; it's another thing that doesn't really matter in the scheme of things, but Chris is a normal person, Chris can't stand punching you and you know it, so how in fuck's name-
You know what, fine, fuck it, that's just what tonight looks like. The girl lets herself drop and darts across the pathway caused by the goddamn boulder to join up with Chris again, but that's likewise fine. Puts both of them in the same place, makes them easier to handle, makes it easier to follow them up onto the high ground again.
So you do. "The human race requires judgement!"
Chris is quick to retort - "And you're going to judge us? Do you get all your ideas from comic book villains?" - but it's worth noting that he's running like hell as he says it; all bravado as usual, then; it isn't worth being fazed by. It doesn't sting, it doesn't cut, it just adds to the cold, driving sense of hatred pulsing through your veins. And you're laughing when you manage to catch Chris with the massive tendrils that have overtaken your left arm, laughing as they wrap around his neck and drag him off the ground (it isn't the first time you've choked him like that, it isn't the second or the third either), and you manipulate that shrapnel in your right and prepare to pierce him with it and then suddenly he's kicking you in the face to get you off of him a bit. It sort of hurts - he's going for your eyes, one of his heels actually hits target and that is not a particularly nice experience, your left eye has been slightly more sensitive to that sort of thing since the incident in Antarctica - but mostly it's just surprising, the pain is gone quickly enough but so is your grip, and Chris drops to the ground.
And that's when you decide to tear the ground up beneath them.
It's something that you're aware of doing but in the end Uroboros decides how it's going to be done, and when you strike the ground you aren't altogether sure what happens - just that Chris and his little friend are suddenly a good distance away from you and you're straightening up again and everything is seeming very hazy but whatever you just did has caused Uroboros to shift a bit on your body.
They notice it too, and when Chris shoots you the pain is literally blinding.
You don't know what they hit at first but it's soon obvious that it was the disturbance caused by Uroboros at your chest; there's a core there that you were vaguely aware of before but are intensely aware of now, glowing and writhing against the mass of tentacles over your chest, bulbous and pulsating and exposed, and as you will Uroboros to shield it Chris immediately jumps on you before you can, using his weight to drag you back and off-balance and hold you in place.
You scream at him, hoarse and sudden. "I can't lose - not to you!"
Chris ignores you. "Sheva, shoot him!" is the most you register before feeling that same sharp pain in your chest that implies that core is being punctured.
"I can't - not without hitting you!"
"Then shoot through me!"
The next several seconds are...difficult to register; you're aware of the girl - Sheva? - leaping forward, something sharp and glittering in her hand just before she plunges it into that core, stabbing you again and again and it feels like something in you is dying every single time she does it, you can feel your control slipping along with your general grasp on what's happening, and when she finally jumps off of you it's so Chris can drive his own blade directly into the core over your spine.
It's like that time in the labs, being pierced straight through and left to die, only things aren't going dark yet - you can feel your consciousness slipping, but you aren't going to die, not here, not yet, you fucking can't, and it takes everything you've got to stagger back away from them, putting some distance between them and you.]
no subject
And because absolutely no one pays Chris to think, he decides he's going to punch a boulder.
You know that you shouldn't stop to watch this, but the fact remains that you do; Chris decides he's going to move an entire boulder by himself, and he proceeds to right-hook it into submission and send it careening into the lava flow. Somehow.
...It's about then that you have to legitimately take a moment to try to figure out if your vision is just that bad, if Uroboros is fucking with you somehow, or if Chris literally just punched a fucking boulder; it's another thing that doesn't really matter in the scheme of things, but Chris is a normal person, Chris can't stand punching you and you know it, so how in fuck's name-
You know what, fine, fuck it, that's just what tonight looks like. The girl lets herself drop and darts across the pathway caused by the goddamn boulder to join up with Chris again, but that's likewise fine. Puts both of them in the same place, makes them easier to handle, makes it easier to follow them up onto the high ground again.
So you do. "The human race requires judgement!"
Chris is quick to retort - "And you're going to judge us? Do you get all your ideas from comic book villains?" - but it's worth noting that he's running like hell as he says it; all bravado as usual, then; it isn't worth being fazed by. It doesn't sting, it doesn't cut, it just adds to the cold, driving sense of hatred pulsing through your veins. And you're laughing when you manage to catch Chris with the massive tendrils that have overtaken your left arm, laughing as they wrap around his neck and drag him off the ground (it isn't the first time you've choked him like that, it isn't the second or the third either), and you manipulate that shrapnel in your right and prepare to pierce him with it and then suddenly he's kicking you in the face to get you off of him a bit. It sort of hurts - he's going for your eyes, one of his heels actually hits target and that is not a particularly nice experience, your left eye has been slightly more sensitive to that sort of thing since the incident in Antarctica - but mostly it's just surprising, the pain is gone quickly enough but so is your grip, and Chris drops to the ground.
And that's when you decide to tear the ground up beneath them.
It's something that you're aware of doing but in the end Uroboros decides how it's going to be done, and when you strike the ground you aren't altogether sure what happens - just that Chris and his little friend are suddenly a good distance away from you and you're straightening up again and everything is seeming very hazy but whatever you just did has caused Uroboros to shift a bit on your body.
They notice it too, and when Chris shoots you the pain is literally blinding.
You don't know what they hit at first but it's soon obvious that it was the disturbance caused by Uroboros at your chest; there's a core there that you were vaguely aware of before but are intensely aware of now, glowing and writhing against the mass of tentacles over your chest, bulbous and pulsating and exposed, and as you will Uroboros to shield it Chris immediately jumps on you before you can, using his weight to drag you back and off-balance and hold you in place.
You scream at him, hoarse and sudden. "I can't lose - not to you!"
Chris ignores you. "Sheva, shoot him!" is the most you register before feeling that same sharp pain in your chest that implies that core is being punctured.
"I can't - not without hitting you!"
"Then shoot through me!"
The next several seconds are...difficult to register; you're aware of the girl - Sheva? - leaping forward, something sharp and glittering in her hand just before she plunges it into that core, stabbing you again and again and it feels like something in you is dying every single time she does it, you can feel your control slipping along with your general grasp on what's happening, and when she finally jumps off of you it's so Chris can drive his own blade directly into the core over your spine.
It's like that time in the labs, being pierced straight through and left to die, only things aren't going dark yet - you can feel your consciousness slipping, but you aren't going to die, not here, not yet, you fucking can't, and it takes everything you've got to stagger back away from them, putting some distance between them and you.]