Know The World Is Waiting There For Me

[Ryn]

Ryn comes back up just in time to notice the quills and pulls up her shoulder and arm to shield herself. The projectiles bite into her arm and when she lowers it she's smiling. Not even grinning maliciously, she just seems to be enjoying herself. She grips the quills with one hand and yanks them free, letting the blood-tipped spines drop to the ground and Leo could swear for a moment he could see the sleeve of Ryn's top tighten itself around her injury. It's hard to be certain though because suddenly she's moving again, dashing right at Leo.

Two steps away she plants one foot down but instead of skidding she spins around and into a crouch, ducking beneath where Leo's arms might have blocked her path and in the same motion coming back up and unfurling like a swirl of air. One hand flows along with it and plants a punch on one of Leo's armored scales near his shoulder. The blow hammers home like no force someone this small should be able to bring to bear. The air itself seems to burst at the impact that sends the manticore flying back several feet.

It might take a moment to register, what with having been slammed backwards, but it's almost as if Ryn aimed her punch directly at an armored spot rather than somewhere more vulnerable. Sam can probably feel that this is far from a life or death fight and part of her can almost recognize it as a strange way of taking each other's measure. Heart hammering in her chest and bright sparks of pain peppering her arm Ryn is relishing this moment as much as calmly soaking in her environment moments before; perhaps even more-so.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam's hair pales to white as she lands on her back, then as Ryn is already moving she grits her teeth and her locks darken to coal black. With a kick of her legs she's on her feet again and narrows her eyes as she watches Ryn in action.

"Well okay, maybe you are my kind of weirdo," she mutters as the red returns to her hair.

Ryn can feel the kick coming easily, without even needing to turn around. The trouble comes with the fact that it feels like the kick is coming from three separate, contradictory directions.

[Ryn]

Without even looking Ryn glides into a low stance to avoid one kick, bringing her arms to block and deflect the blow with one hand at an angle that wrenches the knee from it's socket and sends the astral assailant spinning around their axis before hitting the ground. She assumes the blow that is 'in the flesh' to be the slowest and thus last but she catches a glimpse of the real Sam having already missed her with the first of the three and she's too slow to avoid the third. She manages to rise enough to avoid a blow to the head but takes a kick to the chest that sends her sprawling.

Her back hits the ground with a thud that rattles her lungs but manages to roll backwards with the momentum and half flip, half tumble into a low crouch. "Morrigan." she growls with acknowledgement. This feels familiar in ways that few things do. It doesn't matter she's in human lands, in a realm not her own full of things she understands even less than what little she's learned of Katarina's world. In any other moment that thought probably would have startled her. When did she begin to think of it as that and with a certain fondness that has crept in along with it? But there's no time to dwell on that. In this moment there is only her and the truth of what she is right now, clashing with gods and monsters.

[Leo Eskandari]

Leo was angry now. He rose with purpose, undoing his shirt and removing it before tossing it onto a large rock. "Oh you've done it now. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get new clothes for this body?" He snarled as he stepped towards Ryn, though something about the sound was excited. "I don't care if you really are Interpol, you made a mistake picking a fight with the X-Men."

He smoothly dropped to all fours mid-stride and, with a running start, pounced for their assailant.

[Ryn]

Ryn has just about enough time to spin around and brace herself when the giant manticore slams into her. They sail through the air for a moment before slamming into the ground. Ryn's head bounces off the hardened dirt and rings, something pops out of place in her back but snaps back into place as she tenses her shoulders. They're still sliding across the ground as Ryn's feet find Leo's chest and her whole body flexes. Her shoulders against the ground she hefts Leo's considerable bulk and throws him off along their trajectory, flipping him over his head and sending him flying at Sam.

As if she'd just kicked herself off the ground without the added bulk of three or four times her own body-weight she follows through on her movement and pops onto the balls of her feet. Though she acts the part, she didn't get away entirely unscathed, her head is still swimming a little and her shoulders rolls just a bit awkwardly.

[Samantha McManus]

As surprised as Sam is when the fury launches the manticore, she's moving fairly quickly.

"Sorry about this, Leo. I'm buying you a beer later," Sam grunts as she scrabbles up the large mutant and vaults toward Ryn in a tackle.

This time Ryn can feel it coming from two directions, a third presence somewhere off to the side but not attacking.

[Ryn]

Ryn still isn't entirely sure how the 'real' Sam differs from her astral counterparts. They, like her flock, are more spirit-phantom than flesh but she has no time to really muse on this because they're certainly tangible to her. She throws herself forward and gets her hand on Sam's head, pushing her down at the same time she she twists herself up into the air and over her. She's still turning in mid-air when the second assailant tackles her out of the air and slams her into a nearby tree hard enough the maybe span-thick trunk cracks a little.

Briefly pinned against the splintered bark Ryn brings up one knee hard against the phantom's chest to create some space and bring it's head high enough for her to head-butt it hard enough to send it off of her. She keeps hanging two feet or so up against the tree, one hand grasping the bark with her fingernails to hold her up. In the blink she spiders up the tree and runs along one of the branches that has no earthly right to support even her weight. She leaps and flips forward to bring the heel of her foot down on Leo (who presumably has picked himself up from serving as Sam's launchpad).

[Leo Eskandari]

This time, Leo was ready. He braced for the impact and grew a nest of spines at the exact location on his back he positioned to take the hit. Hoping the pain threw off her concentration, he also made to grab her before she could leap away and slam her to the ground. He knew he couldn't rely on his bulk to pin her, but maybe it would stun her long enough for Sam to do something clever.

[Ryn]

Ryn slams the axe kick home with enough force to almost break Leo's brace. The spines spear through her leg and though she does her best to ignore the pain, it means she can't immediately pull her leg free. By the time she does Leo has already grabbed her arm and swung her off his back and into the ground with enough force to crack the loosely compacted ground of the dirt path. This drives the air out of her lungs and probably cracks a still healing rib or two and she's slow to try and pull herself back up. The odd wrap top she's wearing over her button-down has frayed and come loose in places and in the settling dust cloud Leo could once again swear he can spot some of the strands and threads float and move in ways they really shouldn't. For some reason it brings the image of writhing snakes to mind.

[Samantha McManus]

All three of the presences Ryn senses converge and overlap, as Sam leaps to try to pin the kindly one down, reinforcing physical weight with metaphorical.

"We could keep this up," she grunts, "if you feel your partner hasn't had enough fun at the bloody water park yet."

[Ryn]

Ryn grins up at Sam from behind her glasses that somehow defied physics by staying perched on her nose.

"I won't let the Battle-Crow's shadow fall on her. It always bodes ill."

She could keep fighting. In fact part of her wants nothing more. But she reckons she has bought Katarina enough time to blend in with the town and she doesn't really want to hurt Sam and Leo. Still, being pinned down by the Morrigan bristles and stings as much as the Manticore's spines.

"She brings no malice to your shores other than me."

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm not trying to do her any harm, I was just finding her when you jumped me."

[Leo Eskandari]

"We aren't going to hurt her, dipshit!" Leo huffed at the same time from his position helping to hold her down, though instinct was telling him to stay back. "We're the good guys!"

[Ryn]

"And I stopped you." At least she hopes she did. How much of herself would a mortal Morrigan have to spare for a fight? Maybe she should have fought harder...

"Never trust a god. The manticore's soul is... surprisingly free of rot." she concedes.

[Leo Eskandari]

"Wait, you think I'm an actual manticore? Like, man-eating and everything?" Leo asked, unable to hide the baggage that stirred up. "Hate to burst your bubble but this body came from science, not magic. I'm still human inside."

[Samantha McManus]

"We were literally about to try and fill you two in when your friend decided to ditch us."

[Ryn]

"If you carried the stench of death on you I would not have left you standing." Ryn says with her eyes fixed on Leo. It really shouldn't feel like such a statement of fact from someone pinned to the ground. "And mired in mortal flesh you may be, a god is a god." she says, turning her head back to Sam. "Katarina is clever. She will find the truth she needs. The only truth I understand I have shown you and you me." Ryn is not good with words, but she hopes at least Sam will know her meaning. Explanations she won't understand serve Ryn little but she's taken their mettle and stayed her hand where it could have felled, it's as close to diplomatic relations as the Fury of Old can manage.

[Samantha McManus]

With a sigh, Sam lets Ryn up.

"...I really did a bloody number on you, didn't I? Back then."

[Leo Eskandari]

An involuntary shudder passed through him as Ryn's eyes fixed on him. He still didn't understand the feeling of primal terror she instilled in the beastly part of his mind. Before he knew it, he had jerked away as if she might bite him.

"We... We can trust you want attack us unprovoked again? Right?"

[Ryn]

"There was an accord." she says as she stands. "Those too old and marked by chaos deemed unwelcome. But humans are wily. By accident they brought me back." she grins. "And once more I hunt monsters."

"I promise no such thing." she adds to Leo. "But you are no monster."

[Samantha McManus]

"You don't want to dabble in promises with supernatural beings, Leo."

[Leo Eskandari]

Leo grunted, giving Ryn a look of begrudging respect from one predator to another. "That's good enough for me, anyway."

[Ryn]

Ryn briefly wonders if Sam is capable of breaking an oath. She seems to straddle the line and if that is possible maybe there is some way to stop Katarina from fully becoming a monster.

"How?" she asks a seeming non-sequitur. "You're a human twisted into this." she says and that she can sort of follow. Asura can warp flesh and still be driven out with great enough effort and humans master the strangest things with their clever-thoughts. "But a mortal god?"

[Samantha McManus]

"...how much do you know about the Sidhe?" Sam asks.

[Ryn]

"Some. They tied their fates to mankind for glory or amusement..." she trails off, knowing there are probably other motivations she can't specifically think of. "And like others lost much when humans ordered history."

[Leo Eskandari]

"You're tellin' me historians have that kind of power?" Leo was mildly incredulous; no way it that easy to weaken gods.

Although it makes the major I'm considerin' feel less nerdy.

[Samantha McManus]

"You're thinking further down the line," she says to Ryn. "A people, named by a consequence."

"But no, I'm not of the Daoine Sidhe. I made that choice. To not retreat into the hidden hills. To not go from goddess to 'fairy' and be named for my hiding place."

[Ryn]

"Humans have that kind of power." Ryn shrugs. She doesn't truly know how, but somewhere along the line they had made one history out of many by sheer stubbornness and much had fallen by the wayside.

"Some faded away, many fled. Others changed." she says, looking at Sam. Humans are obsessed with truth-explanations, probably one way they denied things their way of having happened many ways and many times over. But to her what Sam said suffices. She'd remained and thus become what she is and what she is is now at least a little bit mortal. A little bit human. They simply are and there is no questioning that. She may as well ask why the sun shines. Which, of course, humans have done because they are infinitely stupid.

"But here you do not know me." she says and something that seems obvious in retrospect falls into places. She glances back in the direction of the lighthouse, now obscured by trees. "When they ordered the world, things that were cut away weren't lost. This is one of the things that happened." she realizes, turning back to Sam and Leo. "It split!"

[Leo Eskandari]

" I'd argue, but that makes just as much sense as the scientific explanation. Both seem to give humans too much credit to me, not to mention not accounting for people on other planets. But what do I know." He shrugged.

"Besides, we need to stop your friend before she mistakes some innocent mutant for a monster."

[Ryn]

Ryn turns her head towards Leo and tilts it.

"Katarina is not like me; she learns and clever-talks. I have sworn to protect her. If you wish to hunt her I will stop you." she says and almost immediately regrets giving away something so important. Especially with Sam having shown she understands the importance of such a thing. It does explain some of her reaction to Sam's crow seeking her out.

[Samantha McManus]

"Then maybe you'll keep us honest if you come with us to find her."

[Leo Eskandari]

"I have zero intention of harming her. I only attacked you when you went after Sam, for all that accomplished." It clearly bothered him to be so outmatched, but he laughed it off. "Seriously. Buuut you already know how little a chance I had if you hadn't been holding back."

[Ryn]

"Hrmph." Ryn manages a grunt that could, conceivably, be taken as assent. She doesn't really believe the two to be a threat, though Ryn is keenly aware they are, on some level, human and thus capable of lies and deceit. She'd feel better if she disabled them and went to look for Katarina herself but it's an unfamiliar city in, apparently, an unfamiliar world. "Fine." she adds.

[Samantha McManus]

"If you still feel like you need to take something out on me when we're done, there's better places to do that," she says as she leads the way.

[Ryn]

So the Morrigan does want to fight, just not here? "Perhaps if you stop holding back." she grins.

[Samantha McManus]

"Don't threaten me with a good time," she smirks and keeps walking.

[Leo Eskandari]

Leo could feel it deep within that he was caught between two incredibly dangerous forces and that if they were to clash with all their power he didn't want to be anywhere near them. As strong as he was physically, he still might as well be a child. Hell, compared to their true natures he was a baby.

"Just... please warn us mortals before you throw down. I'd rather stay out of round two."

[Ryn]

Ryn simply nods. Apparently the Morrigan has some kind of arena, which doesn't surprise her. She might be mortal, but in the old days when gods fought valleys were born and the fallen became mountains. She'd never sought those kinds of fights, gods holds grudges well and fighting one inadvertently aligned oneself with rivals and before too long you're expected to take a side.

"Are there any other gods around?"

[Samantha McManus]

"...sort of? Not so many that you'd stumble upon them, but Thor's an Avenger."

[Ryn]

"Hah!" she barks out a laugh. "Not so forgotten then. But not here? This is your demesne?" Not that she's ever cared much for respecting those, but they're here to gather information, right?