CSI: Jump City (Titans/HIVE)

It was comfortable in her bed. The pink haired Titan was almost asleep just as the distress signal for a communicator rang in her ears. She instantly sat up and grabbed it, looking at where it was coming from and who sent it. Her eyes went wide and she jumped out of bed. Toji!? At the docks!? And then the signal was gone. Like, something had happened to the communicator itself. He must have been in bad bad trouble.

Racing against the clock, she didn't think to see if anyone else had heard the signal or not. She simply put on the first pair of pants she found and a top. That happened to be just black leggings and a black hoodie.

Out the window she went, flying high above the skyline of the city, straight to the docks, praying that she was in time. What she did not expect to see, was a knocked out Toji being stuffed into the back of some Russian's car. Her eyes went wide, but she decided it would be best to stay out of sight for the time being. If they had taken out Toji, then she had no chance.

The girl tucked her hair into her hoodie and followed the car to wherever it might lead. She had seen the sparkle of blue on the docks and hoped Toji was okay, but she couldn't be sure. All she could do was stay in the shadows of buildings until they came to the shore. Where were they going now?

Bow watched as the car disappeared into a tunnel that almost instantly closed behind him. She went wide eyed and tried to swoop in behind him, but was too slow. Though the driver might have seen her if he looked into his rearview mirror. A pink haired female staring at the entrance with terrified violet orbs.

Her fists slammed against the door when she figured out it was locked. "DANGIT!!" She took a few steps back and unloaded a barrage of fire balls the size of beach balls at the door, screaming as tears fell down her face. After a couple minutes, she gave up that hope and slid down the door, sitting down outside. She didn't know what to do. She opened her communicator and spoke helplessly. "I don't know where I am... But Toji was kidnapped and taken inside... I need help... Please..."

The first response on the line crackled to life, "You want us to drag our a'words out of the Tower when it's snowing? Ugh. Some people got no choice whether they wanna help ya! You really don't care about anybody but yourself." There was an awkward pause over the line, "We'll be right there."

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Grabbing a scarf and rudely awakening Scrawny - Kishi made his own approach to Bow's location. If he could have fobbed this duty off on anyone else he would have. Though in truth - the news Toji had been kidnapped had cheered the brothers up somewhat. So it was with a more optimistic outlook the demon arrived. As usual the falcon thrust him off its back without warning, but Onyekachi was used to this by now and landed neatly. He breathed warm air into his clasped hands before speaking.

"Give me good news. How likely are they to kill him?"

Bow was still sitting down, trying to think of someway to get in. She was kind of hoping that the first sound she would hear over the communicator would be Hotwire or Yang. Someone who could hack their way into the system. Somehow. Instead though she got the one person she wasn't entirely fond of. A sigh escaped her lips as she awaited his arrival.

When he got there, she growled at him right off that bat and crossed her arms, trying to look intimidating, but then just fell. "I-I don't know... And I know you'd rather me say very. But god I hope not." She knew he didn't want to be here. And, in all honesty, she wasn't even sure he could help right now. She bit her lip and looked him over though. "I-is there anyway you could get us inside? Or maybe know where this leads? Or anything useful that could help me get in if you don't want to come?? I'm sure I can handle it once inside... I just need to get in there first..."

As far as she knew, Toji was now a prisoner of war. Held captive by the Russian army. The longer they stood out here, the farther away he may be getting. The thought made her stomach sick. She growled and began unloading a heavy stream of fire at the door again. If it was anything less than steel, or steel, it. Would. Break.

"Inside what? That wall? I suggest you find a door." Onyekachi saw where Bow had referenced, but to him it looked like an ordinary piece of architecture. No reason to suppose a hidden passageway was lurking in its recesses. Still, he wasn't an idiot. The Kishi surmised a little of what she meant by asking him the question, "If you want us to break it down then you ought to know that we Kishi ain't allowed to damage another person's property. You also ought to know that I got no choice but to follow you since ya clearly need the help. If you weren't looking so f'wording pathetic all the time I would think you were able to handle the situation and could go home already."

Onyekachi hugged his shoulders as an icy breeze cut through him. The brothers were born in a warm climate, almost equatorial. They didn't do snow gladly. One of the brothers used their central core of warmth and transferred it to the main body to help regulate temperature. He stopped shivering, and colour returned to his fingers, "Choice is a liberty I don't have much of. Not that you heroes give a fluffy duck. So come up with a way through that wall already or give up. We're freezing our a'words off." It's a good thing he showed up. Kishi was tons of help.

Bow growled and directed her attention to Kishi for a moment. Her eyes were crimson as the passion that fueled her fire just moments before flooded through her veins. She took a step towards him, with both hands still ablaze. ”Would you shut. UP!?” Go home if you don’t want to be here!! I can handle it all by myself! I don’t want you around if you don’t want to be here!! I’m giving you permission to do whatever the hell you want!!” She turned around and, with the rage now filling her soul with the passion, she obliterated the wall.

Blinking, she turned back to him. ”On second thought… I do need you. You help me ignite a flame…” The girl giggled and smiled at him, not thinking for one moment before entering the tunnel. Though she was sure to be careful.

"Well that's one way to beat the cold."

"She could give Kale a run for his money."

"What use is that kinda power if ya gotta lose yourself to anger for it?"

"Heh. Fancy that. A girl getting stronger on PMS."

The voices in his head snickered as Onyekachi followed Bow inside. He'd had people screaming at him before. It was the ugly side of human nature that demons encouraged, even revelled in. It was nothing to take personally. Although now the Kishi was wondering what had peed her off enough to do similar against Cheshire back when the Titans were attacked. Then again, that assassin had infuriated him to no end, so manybe it wasn't such a mystery after all.

The pair first came down a ramp into a dingy, undusted crevice of a room garnished with sparse furniture and sporting a fully equipped auto shop. There was even a mechanic's pit to park your car over while you worked beneath it. A tarmacked surface led down from the ramp, made a right angle turn, and continued on into the tunnel. It was a roadway that stretched on into oblivion. There were no lights on the route forward. Onyekachi at least found a dangling cord to turn the bulb on for the first room.

Or at least he thought it was a bulb.

As soon as the demon had pulled the line, a metallic clink sounded overhead. The cord and the bulb both fell onto the ground followed by a pin. Onyekachi's eyes widened. It wasn't a bulb. It was a shrapnel grenade.

"Do we really have to-"

"Yeah."

"Flip..."

Kishi barrelled into Bow as the blast went off behind them. Bone plating covered his back to better protect him against the projectiles. At least one piece of exploding death sliced into his unprotected tail, but otherwise the brothers could tell they had escaped unharmed. One piece of good news. With any luck they had failed to sufficiently shield the more fragile human. Or at the very least the percussion from the blast might have allowed them to break something of hers. And through no fault of their own! Wouldn't that be something.

Bow was the first inside the tunnel. The girl was looking down, trying to find any signs of the car she had seen disappear into here. But with every step she took, dust continued to flicker up and infiltrated her nostrils. She sneezed and a small flame escaped her lips. "Ugh..." Then she looked around for Kishi and found that he was ahead of her, moving along swiftly. Did he want to find Toji that bad? No, he was just happy to get out of the cold. Sighing, she followed him down further into the tunnel.

When they turned the corner, Bow realized there was no light and was about to create an orb of light when it seemed that Kishi had found something! The girl was glad too, because she wasn't really happy right now and keeping an orb of light going would have been difficult. She was about to clap and say something when she heard the cling and watched as the bulb fell to the ground. The pink haired female was not trained in the ways of war and blinked, curious. Taking a step forward she asked. "What's th-AHHH!!" The girl gripped around his neck and tucked into a ball, praying that he wasn't hurt.

As she hit the wall though, the impact did indeed break something. Her ankle was now sprained and a stray piece of debris gashed her side. She winced as she got up, but smiled, pretending nothing was wrong. Both the ankle and the gash were already beginning to heal as the blue aura enveloped her, casting a soft light on the area. "A-are you okay?" She then saw his tail and smiled, reaching out to heal him. The pain he was feeling was now hers and she coughed harshly.

"T-time to keep going..." She limped ahead of him, not wanting to slow down at all, knowing now not to pull on anything. She held her hand out and light shined around them. "This time... Follow me."

That wasn't a good idea either. Just a few feet away, she stepped on a trip wire and fell down on her face. That wire had ignited and she looked up, seeing the spikes that were about to fall. She flew up and covered him this time. "MOVE!!" Two spikes rammed into her back, barely missing anything vital and she screamed.

Taking his cue from Bow the Kishi moved. A Crown of Thorns might have worked for God's kid but Onyekachi didn't want any bristles skewering his skull. The demon skidded to a halt several paces ahead of the hazard and looked back with futile recollection. He wasn't allowed to save his own skin at the potential cost of someone else. From the tip of his tail another emerged, and from the tip of that - one more. This three link tail rope wrapped around Bow's leg and yanked her clear of the trap. The jagged rain stopped falling almost instantly, leaving behind a pin-cushioned zone of inherent danger. Even turning back at this stage would be fraught with peril.

The tug involved hadn't been light, she had already been pinioned (a regular Bow-Kabob); that sight spurring the demon on to greater haste. And so she hit the tarmacked ground hard, probably not hard enough to jar some sense into her though. Onyekachi felt the familiar pang of a headache which brought the brothers to their knees. He didn't know what rule he had broken this time. Was it because he had initially left Bow for dead? Was it because this type of accidental harm against someone who hadn't harmed him first was inexcusable? Only his Parole Officer knew for sure. The brothers just suffered the consequences. Something inside Onyekachi snapped.

Bow would find the tail still knotted at her ankle begin to wind back like a quick-line. Three tails had returned to one, leaving the heroine dangling upside-down ahead of the demon. But she wasn't greeted with his usual rakish good looks. Instead Onyekachi's head had been replaced with something altogether more hellish in appearance.

Spoiler:

A hand went to curl around her throat. It didn't tighten, it didn't dare. “If you wanna kill yourself Rain then all power to ya, but when your suicidal tendencies endanger us four that's where we draw the line! Its bad enough you think a scrub like Toji is worth taking a grenade for but where the f'wording heck do you get off trying to save our lives? We don't have the luxury of leaving you to die! We don't even have the luxury of leaving your corpse to rot! When you martyr yourself you put us in a very difficult position! Okay?!”

Spots of blood from Bow's wounds began to drip down on them. It occurred to Kishi that this could be life threatening. Then again, she had that healing thing now. Like as much she'd want to keep going. Onyekachi would go to put his team-mate down very gently. He had a migraine to nurse.

((OOC: All relevant permissions acquired.))

With a tug of a rope, the girl was lifted off the ground and into safety. Well, kind of. When she hit her head the lights in her mind went out for a moment and she awoke facing a demon like she had never seen before. The girl was about to scream until she heard that all too familiar voice coming from the wicked face.

All she could do was listen to him, his hand wrapped around her slender neck. Her eyes trained on him in fear, confusion, and regret. She turned to face away from him as he continued his little monologue, biting her lip as a feeling gathered in the pit of her stomach.

When he finally put her down, she sighed, and then the pain hit her all at once. With her new power, she could definitely heal herself quicker. Problem was, with each wound that she healed, the pain that it held was quadrupled. As he went to nurse his migraine, she doubled over on the ground and puked. She growled lightly and spat to try and get rid of the putrid taste before looking back at him.

The girl bit her lip and went to hug him, but stopped just inches from his skin. Sighing, she hung her head and wrapped her arms around herself instead. "Listen... I know you don't like me. And for good reason. We're like yin and yang down here. Complete opposites, but... We need each other if we ever want to see the outside world again, okay? I'm sorry, but I'm not going to stop trying to protect my team mate. And you can't stop trying to protect me... And I am truly sorry for that. I know that if you had it your way, you'd kill me right here and now..." The thought sent a shiver down Bow's spine.

She looked ahead of them and behind them, not knowing which would be the better route to take. Then she sat down next to Kishi and smiled gently at him. "So, what would you like to do, Kishi? Just sit here? Keep going? ...Or do you want to go back? We can. I'll go back and find another route and you can go home if that's what you want... All I need is for us to get out of here... Then I won't need your help anymore and you can go home and go to sleep, okay?" She was trying to make him feel a little better, but she knew she was probably only going to ever make it worse with him.

Onyekachi felt Bow's healing touch. He may have wanted to put his hand into her chest and rip out her heart right now, but he was never going to shake off an escape from pain, let the useless human try to make amends. It certainly didn't hurt him to stand still for a moment while his headache evaporated into the ether. Wait... what? Without having done anything to earn it the brothers were suddenly headache free.

No way. Did that b'word just... take away the headache?

How is that even possible? It's a curse. It's f'wording magic.

What? And you think she's healing people with science there?

...good point.

The demon was honestly a little astounded. He watched her throw up without concern but with a cold calculation of how this could benefit him. If Bow took away the pain without them having to resort to demeaning acts of heroics every time, then it was surely worth having her around. It didn't solve his problem ultimately, but hey, anything that made life cushier was welcome. Finally a human besides Kale that Kishi had a reason to tolerate. Even if she did lead him into a death-trap.

Nuh-uh. Kale led us into that scrap maze thing.

S-word. Why are all the humans worth knowing magnets for trouble?

These thoughts aside, Bow was right Kishi would rather kill her. Young females always tasted the best. But the four remaining brothers had long learned that this simply wasn't an option for them anymore. They had adapted to survive. Onyekachi listened to the rest of her thoughts without interruption. This girl was unbelievably sappy, "Oh stop it. Nobody's that delightful. You're such a phoney."

Annoying she may be, but if she was worth having around then the brothers knew she was worth appeasing. How long could this tunnel be anyway? "We've had enough of your charity. Unless you're still bleeding to death, then get back up and start walking. I thought you wanted to save the blue-haired freak. He's this way." Onyekachi's head was looking human again, he continued down the tunnel.

Bow sighed in sweet relief when he said that she needed to keep walking. A smile spread across her face and the lit a small orb of light in front of them. "This time let's take it a little slower so maybe we can see the next trap..." *giggle* The simple fact that he was continuing this journey with her meant the world to Bow.

The rest of the walk went by without any complications. It seemed to Bow that the first few traps were just meant to ward people off. Maybe they didn't think anyone was stupid enough to keep going after that. And, to be honest, most sane people would have turned around and went home after almost being skewered. Unfortunately for Kishi though, Bow was not one of those people.

Just as she thought they may actually make it, the tunnel came to a dead end. Rain went wide eyed and ran to feel the wall for any signs of entry. "No no no no no!! This can't be! What is going on!? I saw them come this way!!!" Tears started to fill her eyes as passion burned in her soul. She stepped back and was about to torch the wall, but then thought about where they were. At the bottom of the ocean.

As if on cue, an iron wall dropped right behind them and holes appeared in the ceiling, pouring down the salty sea water into their narrow space. Bow gasped and looked around. "W-what do we do!? I don't want to knock down that wall! What if they have another trap just waiting for us!?!?" She didn't have much time to think though. The water was filling up fast. The poor pink haired fire bender had no flame. It had been quenched by the flooding water that had poured on top of her.

Now it was up to Kishi. She had no use. Her strength wasn't going to do anything against an iron wall and she had no other way of getting out of this alive. Her eyes were wide as she looked at Kishi for an answer. The water was on the rise and soon it would be too late for anything. Once the container was filled to the top, that was it. For the both of them.

When he saw tears in Bow's eyes his own began to roll. Onyekachi was just glad they'd seen this death-trap through to the end. Now they could all agree that Toji was beyond their reach and forget about him. As he was thinking that, however, the sound of a mechanism echoed down the cavern. The brothers turned in time to see an iron curtain appear that sealed them off.

Aw f'word. Wrong decision, guys.

They expected the walls to start compacting them into goo. Mercifully that was not logistically possible. Instead two torrents of water cascaded down from above. Onyekachi laughed when one soaked Bow. It was funny for about five seconds, until he realised that she was out of fire-power. Then the severity of the situation began to sink in.

The Kishi stepped forward and punched at the rock wall ahead of them. An outer layer crumbled away to reveal more iron. The demon swore viciously, "Those motherflipping bar stewards." And doubled back on the wall to their rear, "There's no guarantee there's even a space back there to break into." Onyekachi went to work on the rear wall. With a three ton punch he succeeded in making a sizable dent. Then he stopped. His head was pounding, "Grief. I can't punch through that before the headache kills me." The water was now up to their knees and rising fast. If she wasn't flying already Kishi would attempt to hold Bow above the water line by her arm, "If you dry off you can turn these walls to slag. Can't you... use flight to spin dry or summin, I dunno!"

Bow was indeed flying to stay above the water level, but that wouldn't work for long. There wasn't much space between them and the ceiling above them. Then Kishi spoke as if relying on her and her eyes lit up Crimson in passion. If he needed her, then they must be in a very dire situation for the both of them. She had hoped that it would only be her that wouldn't live through it, but obviously demons were no exception to the rule of drowning.

The girl bit her lip and tried what he suggested, spinning above the water as fast as she possibly could to dry off. Unfortunately, as soon as she felt dry enough to conquer the wall, the trap had other plans. Two more torrents opened up from the roof and one pelted her right in the back, sending her down for a baptism of sea water. When she stood back up, it was already to her waist. Her eyes were wide and she shook her head, gasping. "I-it's no use! I can't get dry! I can't use fire! I can't do anything! I'm useless!" She growled and didn't know what to do anymore. She couldn't let him die. But she didn't know how to save him.

Snickering continued between the brothers as Bow took another plunge. This slapstick routine was made all the funnier knowing her failure doomed her to death. Unfortunately knowing it also doomed him to death was the sobering thought that destroyed their humour. Onyekachi gave Bow a blank glare, "Is this where I'm s'pose to disagree with ya?"

All she needed to do was get dry! Did he need to tell a grown human how to do that? "You know what dries faster than clothes? Bare skin. Take off those damp rags, get naked, do it again, and maybe this time you can finish the job before the next waterfall dunks-" The demon paused as if listening to whispering in his head. He continued from where he left off, "That's it. I've just thought of something that can help with that."

The water was nearing his belly-button. There was no time to lose. Onyekachi held his arms overhead as thin strands of skin hung between his fingers. It was like working a marionette. The brothers coordinated their efforts and slowly the skin gelled together and began to take form. It was a thin layer resembling a cloak and hood. By the time they were finished the water was at chest level, "Skin cowl! Coated in natural water-proofing oils." They announced triumphantly, "Put it on."

The girl watched as her team mate began to weave together something made out of... what looked like skin. She prayed it wasn't what it looked like. He made a good point though. The pink haired titan stripped down into just her underwear, not even thinking about the fact that Kishi was a boy. To her he was just... Kishi.

When he was finished with his project, her bosom was already covered with water and she was staring at him, wondering what that was. Then he spoke. That first word made her turn green. But at this point, she couldn't argue.

She put it on and tried not to gag. When it was on, she again flew up, got horizontal, and spun to shake the water off. Being very careful not to get into one of the torrents, she put her arms out and her eyes glowed crimson. Bow screamed as she unleashed her power at full force. It only took mere moments before the wall buckled, thanks to Kishi's punches, and crumbled.

As it did, she fell into the water and was washed out of the small room, gasping for breath. She was almost at her limit. But as they settled on the ground, she smiled at Kishi. "W-we did it... Talk about team work, huh?" She giggled, but that didn't last long. She stood up slowly and walked back to the end of the tunnel, placing her hand on the wall gently as tears began to roll down her cheeks. "H-how do we save him?..." She was mostly talking to herself, thinking that at any moment, Kishi would run off.