Snipe Hunt

[Samantha McManus]

"GAZE IN ASTONISHMENT AS YOU SEE THIS GUTLESS WONDER BECOME A REAL BOY!" Sam shouts to the crowd as she picks up the pint.

"Open wide," she hisses to Will, preparing to pour the whole thing in.

[Will Stanton]

"Gutless wonder?" Will asked, looking up at her, but opening wide obediently.

The crowd chortled some, and leaned in to watch what Sam had in mind.

[Samantha McManus]

Pouring the whole pint into Will, she lifts the empty mug and upends it, showing the crowd it's fully drained.

"Now I hear you tell me 'why Morrigan, any child can handle a pint.' So why don't we make things interesting?"

"Who here would like to wager the price of a drink this thirsty boy can't handle something stronger?"

[Will Stanton]

Will gave a slight, embarrassed belch as he chugged the stein.

One of the bartenders -- who looked a hell of a lot like Tereza, only with a pair of wolf ears sticking out atop her head, grinned. "I'll take that wager, Red. I'll be he breaks before you're through."

[Samantha McManus]

"Then we have a wager! Go on, don't let his throat go dry here. Give him a better challenge!"

[Will Stanton]

'Tereza' smiled.

"Bring out the big keg!" she said, as a line formed behind Will, with patrons splashing the remainders of their drinks into the waiting Will.


"Ackkpklllfff," was the X-Man's meaningful and deep response.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam keeps a close eye on Will as he's brigaded, looking for signs that he's growing bigger and stronger.

[Will Stanton]

Will reached out one hand to take Sam's in his own, squeezing it for strength? Reassurance? Sam could ask, but Will was probably not going to be very communicative at the moment, what with bottles and tankards and flasks being variously emptied.


At first, nothing seemed to happen. But, slowly and surely, color started reappearing in Will's face, and his grip got that much stronger. His breathing became a bit less shallow and his eyes...well, they stayed a bit bloodshot, but maybe that was because of the drinking and less because of the weakness.

He was also getting a little more corpulent; a wee bit of a beer belly forming and the rest of him pudging out a little bit, as well. This was likely only get worse, as a keg easily half again the size of Sam was rolled out onto the floor, bringing with it a roar of approval from the patrons.

[Samantha McManus]

"Now you agree, if he takes the whole keg down, the wager's won, aye?"

[Will Stanton]

"Agreed," the bartender smiled. "Do you have a preference for what you're drinking, just in case the boy can take it?"

The assembled crew squeezed both of Will's cheeks, forcing him to pucker up, and then began screwing in a line from the keg to his mouth, which conveniently shifted with a thread to accommodate the nozzle. His eyes bulged just a little bit.

[Samantha McManus]

"I have nothing but confidence in this lad here. I've seen him face down far scarier than a keg."

As Sam is saying this, more ribbons snake down from her feet surreptitiously, wrapping up around Will at strategic spots to try to mold this new girth into something more heroic, combined with memories Sam has of Will's bravery in the face of overwhelming odds. Will facing down a dinosaur on the deck of an aircraft carrier plays more than a small role in those memories.

"So I'll be grinning at you across the rim of a glass of whiskey when we win."

[Will Stanton]

"I think we might have something, old and aged, that you might enjoy," 'Tereza' said, with a barking laugh.

"Boyfriend?" she asked.



Sam's ribbons wrapped themselves around Will and squeezed, sinking into the clay as it tried to reshape him on the fly. It wasn't an easy battle, as more and more of the keg was emptied into him, but it also wasn't ineffective. More barrel-chested than pot-bellied; not a ton of definition but at least looking a little more like he was just burly, and not bloated.

[Samantha McManus]

"Not a boyfriend but an old friend. Some of you might find him a bit familiar, though..."

[Will Stanton]

A cheer arose as the last of the keg was finished. The X-Man had taken it all! Somehow!

He was helped to his feet by a couple of the patrons. He was definitely larger than when he started, but Sam's ribboning had kept him, you know, somewhat fit. More Andre the Giant (...Andre the normal sized man?) than Arnold Schwarzenegger, but hey, it'll work. He lifted up both his arms in triumph, and them stumbled backwards a bit.

Just a little bit soused, mind you. He might smell like alcohol for a week, but he was back on his feet!


Laughing, the bartender poured and slide a glass of whiskey across the bar to Sam. "You win, Red. Not a bad little champion you have there. Slowplaying us with the gutless wonder bit, hmm?"

[Samantha McManus]

"People like a story. Sometimes you have to tell them one they want to hear. Zero to hero's a good one, aye?"

[Narrator]

"Depends on the zero and the hero. But you weave a good tale, traveler. You've earned your drink. "

[Samantha McManus]

Since it's certainly best for a Celtic myth to not refuse hospitality, Sam drinks her whiskey as she watches Will catch his breath.

[Narrator]

Will started to make his way back over to the bar, getting pats on the back as he did so.

The whiskey was good -- dry and firm, with some subtle orangey and spicy notes to it, finshing off with a...

_____________________________________

Sam soared through the air at the peak of a parabola, rapidly coming down towards the roof of a building. She shifted into a large rubber ball, bouncing off the top of the building and keeping her momentum. Shifting back to humanoid form, she stretched her arms out to grab two passing chimneys to shoot herself forward even further.

She couldn't see them, but she knew the flock was surrounding her, supporting her, guiding her as she leapt from rooftop to rooftop, the wind whistling through her hair as she traveled, faster, faster now, over the still-awakening city.

**Two blocks east and one more north, Will** the Morrigan's voice echoed in her mind, and she twisted her body around to refine her arc. Cocky and excited, she flung herself around a lamppost, wrapping one arm around it to swing herself 180 degrees, smashing through the window of a warehouse with a sharp kick, sending shards of glass tumbling to the floor alongside her, as she did one of those stereotypical superhero-type landings.

"Hello boys," she said to the startled HYDRA operatives, waiting inside. "Quite rude of you to start without me, wasn't it?"

Dodging an arc of gunfire, she shot herself towards the operatives, a wave of rapidly shifting fists and legs, rarely even landing on the ground as she shot from mook to mook, taking them out quickly and efficiently...

__________________________________________________________________


...strong feeling of satisfaction as she finished her glass?

A memory, that's what it was -- one of Will from the old days. That must be what the bartender meant when she said this whiskey was well-aged; this wasn't the dazed Will she had first met, or the sullen one from post-box opening, or either of the Wills Miriam created. This was a memory of another time and another place, and now it was Sam's, as well.

[Samantha McManus]

"Well, that was certainly..." She blinks, as she processes the memory.

"...useful."

She looks to Will.

"I'm guessing you're not feeling overly mobile, aye?"

[Will Stanton]

"If you need me, I can fight my way through it," the X-Man said, slurring his words a little bit. "Left to my own devices, though, I think I'd have a bit of a sit-down."

[Samantha McManus]

"How would you like to get some of your moves back?"

[Will Stanton]

"Confused but intrigued as to what you had in mind?"

[Samantha McManus]

"I think I can put enough spring in your step that I won't have to haul you over to the other half of town myself."

"But we're going to have to do it outside."

[Will Stanton]

"Lead on, MacDuff," the X-Man smiled, gesturing towards the door. "And don't be a stranger in here!" he added, waving a little woozily at the rest of the bar's patrons.

[Samantha McManus]

"Alright," she says as she steps outside, "you're at least not dying anymore."

"But not dying isn't exactly living, aye? Plus, both halves of your town seem to have a police force that doesn't like what we're doing here."

"So we need you to be able to evade them until they recognize you're the boss again, and we've taken a bunch from this half so we probably need to balance you out by switching sides again."

She gives a leap and a flip, landing on a rooftop.

"Thankfully the bartender gave us just the thing..."

She calls the flock down and they begin wrapping black threads around Will, woven from the memory she just sampled. Soon, they take shape into a tactical harness strapped snugly around his torso.

[Will Stanton]

The X-Man tugged at the harness a little bit.

"Are we going to be storming a castle, here?" he grinned lopsidedly, not putting two and two together quite yet.

[Samantha McManus]

"Well, if the memories in that harness are starting to feel familiar, I think you can jump up here to join me."

[Will Stanton]

"Oh! Oh, right, of course!" The X-Man said, shaking his head to loosen some of the cobwebs. "I get you now."


He took a few steps back, to give himself a bit of a running start, and lept through the air, reaching out his arms to grab on to the chimneys of the town above to propel himself forward, past the point where gravity flipped and flopped and onto the roof where Sam was standing.

He did not, however, rotate himself in midair very nicely, and ended up landing face first and Sam's feet. Well, baby steps, I suppose.

"Blerf..." he said, very little the worse for wear.

[Samantha McManus]

"...work in progress, I suppose."

"What's something from this half of town that you think might lighten your load?"

[Will Stanton]

"You suggesting I need to work off a little of the pudge from your alcoholic escapades?" Will grinned, slowly getting to his feet. "Or are you looking for dessert to cap the day off?"

[Samantha McManus]

"You're both halves of this city, and what you represent is more... nimble. You're plenty strong from the drink I imagine, but the trouserless one would catch up to you in the woods in an eyeblink."

"So we need to balance you out before we begin negotiations, aye?"

[Will Stanton]

"He's pretty good at catching people no matter what shape they're in; if you're going in after him, you'll likely be in for a fight.

But your point is taken," he said, slapping his barrel-chested torso. "Wouldn't be the end of the world to work off a little bit of water weight, or sweat it out. Sober me up some, too."

[Samantha McManus]

"Know a good spot for that, or should I just lead you on a merry rooftop chase across this half of town?" She smirks.

[Will Stanton]

"I'm sure the Morrigan is always up for a little chase around the grounds. I wish you and the Pack would do that with me sometimes, when we're back up and about.

However, if you'd prefer to a bit pampered before going off on a wild Will chase, I believe there's an excellent gym-and-spa on this side of town. Up to you, of course."

[Samantha McManus]

"Since you said the clock's running with your daughter..."

She turns and gets a running start before jumping to the next rooftop.

"...we'll just cut to the chase here."

[Will Stanton]

"Right!" the X-Man said, leaping after her.

The first leap was uncoordinated, coming down hard on the rooftop after her, but he was gradually picking up steam as he tried to close the gap.

[Samantha McManus]

For the moment, Sam is genuinely playing with him a bit. Looping around, trying to make sure he doesn't wind up too far behind.

"Come on, this should be just like old times for you..."

[Will Stanton]

"Old times were so long ago, though," Will laughed, through labored breaths. "And the context was different."

He shot out one arm, stretching it out and trying to wrap it around the dancing Morrigan's calf as Sam looped around.

[Samantha McManus]

He's almost there, which Sam notices as she evades his grasp.

"Ah good, you're shifting again. You'll need to if we're going to go after the other two, because they're very fluid... in their particular ways."

Sam starts to get out ahead of him finally, now that she's assured he's moving better.

"Feels good, aye? Being back in action?"

[Will Stanton]

"It DOES. It really does. It's been too long, cooped up and split up."

He shot out an arm again -- but this time, rather than trying to catch Sam, he snatched a weathervane behind her, in an attempt to rocket forward and past her fast enough to tackle where she was going, not where she currently was.