matchbreaker | Recollé Overflow Post

[Nose wrinkle intensifies]

Oh no, but I ... know some people who would.

[And there's a silent prayer for half her friends who are poor enough to test their luck. Sakura picks her away around the train cart otherwise, dragging a finger over all the packaging she doesn't recognize (which is most of it, though on occasion she finds a Japanese branded item, which is just. mystifying).

Eventually she'll wander over to Elda's side, peering over the woman's shoulder]

Did you find something?

Yes. I think so? It's more it doesn't make sense.

[ Because this is a Freshens branded carton of eggs, specially a six-pack, and right here in the carton as she's opening it, the eggs don't look bad or anything. Some are cracked which is kidna ... not good. But four of them look perfectly fine, albeit in a room temperature train which isn't a good thing.

But that's odd, right? Most of these are old? Old and a lot of it is rotting to some extent or another.

She offers the girl the carton to examine, and Elda - well, she's taken enough with this she doesn't hear something else rolling down the tracks. ]

[... Mm, yes. Sakura immediately understands why Elda's so taken with the presence of the egg carton. It'd be one thing if the eggs were as old as the other batches of food, but these are fresh (or as fresh as you'll get in an underground subway train at room temp.]

Do you think maybe someone brought them down here?

[She doesn't sound convinced; it's not really a statement that holds up to scrutiny. And thoroughly distracted by her thoughts, well... she doesn't hear anything outside their train car, either.]

Those workers who left the project, perhaps? But then why raw eggs?

[ ... You know this isn't a good thing given that there is a train car coming down the tracks opposite of the way they came onto this one. It's coming in at speed and ... look it just generally is going to be a bad time, probably, as they are in the food cart. Next tag, that is, to prolong the inevitable. ]

[NO PAIN NO GAIN, LADIES.

And speaking of that --

Elda and Sakura will have a couple of seconds to realize that whatever that noise is, it's getting louder, and hey, maybe chatting about raw eggs in this fragile train cart isn't the best idea.

Sakura has certainly stilled in confusion as her ears continue to ring]

Wha...?

[ that sounds like a moving subway car. That's...

That's not good. They're on a track right now, and so Elda hurried makes to grab Sakura, sort of hauling her onto her (much smaller) shoulders like a sac of potatoes so that she can run her way the length of this cart and get out onto the tracks going the other way from that noise. She's just going at a very agile version of human speeds to start, largely because she's not mastered running proper. But -

... That's.

The sound of screeching is giving way now, it gives way to a loud, explosive, deafening in the enclosed space Crunch. A moving train car has slammed into the immobile one they were just in, and sends it hurtling after them but perhaps more importantly, behind that one (which Sakura might see) is one of the #5 ones which look like skeletons of a real cart and only got more damaged and shredded from that impact - but also has large, mechanical arms, reaching out to try to rip apart the car between them and over take it.

... It's a bad time?? ]

[Sakura is a lady with a mind as pure as snow, but what in the actual fuck--

She manages a squeak of surprise when Elda all but hefts her over her shoulders, and then it's just a blur of movement from then on as she scrambles to hold on. One moment they're in the train car, then they're out of it, and then she watches in rapt horror when train car they were just in squeals after them like a bullet.

It takes her a moment to realize she's babbling in Japanese -- something about 魔が差しいる列車！！and such nonsense. Who cares if Elda understands what she's screaming about, they are going to die if the other woman slows her pace]

[ I mean, Elda does actually understand that, for better or worse. She's regained her fluency in Japanese and French! But it's immaterial at the moment, because at the moment, yes... right now they need to outright the train bullet and then the big monster arms trying to rip through its own bullet.

The smaller woman groans and then wills more strength into her leg muscles. She doesn't like the idea of doing this in an enclosed space but then, she didn't do that Ninja Warrior thing for nothing, it was training for times like this. ]

< Hold on tight, girl! >

[ Elda figures giving the command in Sakura's native language will make it easier to follow in a split second, which his good, as Elda -- Is intending to leap ahead sixty or so feet down the tunnel wit ha running jump the uses all the muscles of her super strength concentrated on her legs. ]

[Considering the circumstances? Yeah, "hold on tight" is a fair command. Sakura will obey, clinging to any part of Elda that she can, but still nearly bites her tongue off when the two of them are suddenly airborne.

O-oh, oh, is Elda going to turn into a giant bat and fly them down the tunnel and-- and no, she just jumped really fast and really long, that's also impressive but Sakura suddenly doesn't know what she expected from all of this--

That move of hers at least buys them a few more precious seconds of space. The phantom train seems to roar, a noise of scrapping metal and screeching otherworldliness, but it's mechanical arms can't reach them, either.]

< Again! >

[ And she jumps a second time, the better to try to give them more distance. On the plus side, the phantom train has now ripped apart that other car, so there isn't a bullet of a train after them, just the one who wants to kill them with the arms so that's...

Good?

Maybe? ]

[It's good in the sense they'll likely die from being ripped to shreds as opposed to being killed from a stray projectile--!]

Marker-san, it's gaining--

[They've made good progress, it's just that without the other car in the way, the murder train is free to pursue them unhindered, and Sakura watches wide-eyed as it keeps coming for them. Her bow's still strapped to her back, a useless prop against something like that. All she can do is depend on Elda]

Is there a tunnel we can hide in?!

I don't know, you keep your eyes open!

[ Back to English, she shouts. Elda's got sharp eyes and she can see in the dark, so she does have something of an advantage... but she's got to leap and focus on said leaping. It's hard to see much further than the tunnel in front of her when she knows that she's going to be run over or grabbed or ... whatever that thing'll do if she doesn't keep up this escape. Hell, she doesn't even know where this tunnel is going-

Oh, it's sloping up slightly. that'll help. ]

[it is dark as hell and on top of that, the world's flying by in a blur of motion. Sakura doesn't know how she's going to see anything besides the immediate doom still chasing after them, but--

She looks up then, on the lookout for a miracle. Doesn't find one, of course, but as they're running, her eyes trail back to that monster train, taking in its size and shape. It's tall, but not so tall it's touching the ceiling, there's actually quite a bit of space.

As the tunnel slopes (thankfully, that'll buy more time), Sakura blurts out the dumbest idea she's had all day:]

C-could you jump over it?

[Please no don't listen to her, she's desperate]

... What, are you crazy, girl?! That's got a really small margin of error!

[ But all the same, she's... mmm. they need to get away, if this is slopping up a little, it might go down - hell, it's a subway so it won't be a sharp incline either way, and she needs to get Sakura to safety. Still, if the girl's proposing it...

... No, no. They need- ]

The next platform it goes to! We can leap up on the platform.

[ That's got to be safer. Right? And there will be lights for that... right? Maybe a few. ]

I know, Nee-san would kill me--!

[And that's after her mother and father would have a go. Sakura can literally feel her entire family having a heart attack in spirit at her suggestion.

She'll latch onto the platform suggestion, however, with a series of sharp, nervous nods that Elda will feel. Can the woman keep up the pace until then? There's little choice regardless, because Sakura can't run and her arrows will only serve to piss the thing off, she bets]

[ Oh she can! ... Mostly. The train does start to gain on them especially as they get to that promised incline. Honestly, the snapping metal hands of the train are cornering them even as there is a light up ahead. Elda sees it though, and with one great leap she's sure is going to give her a charlie horse after all this from the strain on her muscles, she lands... towards the base of it. Sakura is shoved up onto the platform (well, shoved/thrown) and- ]

Get clear, I'll be right up!

[ And...

Well, she might be? But the train catches up to her in that moment to yanks Elda back in its arms by her leg. Upp!! ]

[--What]

Marker-san--!

[Scrambling to her feet with a screech. She's steps away from the platform and it's stupid, she knows it, but she's making ready to undo the older woman's hard work by tossing herself back on the train tracks.

Elda she never told you this but you're not allowed to die, do not do this to her--]

I told you to get clear!

[ Oh do not go on the tracks that would be dumb, largely because the train is pulling into station here, skidding to a burning hulk of a stop here, as if it can't move anymore, damaged as it is. Despite that, the arms are very much alive, holding Elda aloft and in the moment it's pulling in, threatening to hit her into a wall as she's struggling to get herself out of the grip of it.

It's got her leg. ]

[She's not really a girl to run on logic, less so when she's panicked and half-convinced she's going to witness someone's murder. The only reason she doesn't jump off the platform is there's no room to do so, and so she scrambles back a few half-steps with her arms frozen in front.

Her bow-- where's her bow? It's not in her hands, not on her back either, probably dislodged from when Elda threw her, and that's enough to get her moving into a mad scramble for it.

Though even when she nocks an arrow, aims, thankfully doesn't hit Elda, a wooden arrow isn't going to accomplish much but confuse the train demon and make it wonder what the hell is throwing it at its main body.]

Put her down right now!

Why are you agitating a train?!

[ Okay now she has even more reason to keep up what she was doing, which is trying to pry these mechanical grabby hands off her leg and thus free herself. That said ow, this is metal. She is ending up with some lacerations and that's really, really not cool ow, ow. ]

It won't put you down!!

[Which means surprise, Sakura's not going to stop, and looks to both Elda and the train in a fury. If the thing takes a slash at her, good, all the more reason it might let Elda go.

Another arrow is nocked, aimed, and sorry Elda, you better hurry with that escape. What parts of the train not focused on the vampire lady are beginning to reach out and search for whatever is lobbing projectiles at it.]

Yes, but I'm the adult and -- and I'm strong, let me use it!

[ Sakura's an adult too. Okay she's-

She's bleeding a lot from her leg and she's glad she has her tetanus shots, but she manages to get out of the grip of the arm, bending the metal claws back at a weird angle and allowing her to drop down. It's a bit of a fall, but Elda lands on one foot and both arms, deftly leaping back up but wincing for it. ]

[Oh thank god she's free--

And probably hurt, Sakura watched her land on one foot, but any fussing will have to wait. She lowers her bow and will rush over to wherever the woman stands]

S-ssseee, told you.

[ She's grinning! Grinning but she's wincing a lot and she needs to get off this leg, this hurts a lot, holy shit. Ow. It's worse looking than it is, though. ]

B-but you're--

[Didn't she just tell herself she wouldn't fuss? That's apparently behind Sakura's abilities as she immediately goes to support Elda's weight against her own. It's a little difficult seeing the wound on Elda's leg in this lighting, but she can at least catch the metallic whiff of blood.]

We need to get you out of here.

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matchbreaker - 2018-02-09 02:03 (UTC) - Expand