| DC/Marvel: Age of Infinite Heroes | ||||||||||
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They had buried the bodies of the pilots and gathered what supplies they can at the time. Captain America had located them a cave they could use as shelter as they tried to figure out where in the savage land they were. The GPS and all electrical equipment refused to work. They had yet to run into any of the natives friendly or hostile yet. So that meant no Ka-zar or Shanna. Steve had took to fishing and gathering to help supplement their food supply. That was were the good Captain was at the moment. He was knee deep in a stream that with his chest bare as he tries to catch swimming trout with his hands.
C.A.T. removed her wig, but kept her mask on as if it was a comfort thing even if it was a little uncomfortable. In either case, she did not like wandering far from the cave once they found one. She was unusually jumpy and nervous, though it has settled down for the few does they have prepared for survival. Hunger is a companion, though the sharp edge of it has been dulled by hard work on Captain America's side. C.A.T. has listened to orders, but is not has quick or speedy, nor as lucky as she normally is. Right now, she sits on top of a large boulder, keeping a look-out, and sometimes watching Captain America fishing. She is actually carrying a real gun on her for once, rather than just her sleeping dart gun.
Captain America catches a fish and flips it up on the bank. "You sure you don't want to come down and help. I can show you how to do it." He says as he looks up over his shoulder at C.A.T. He then move to try to catch another fish, "You have to be on guard here but if your taking this to a whole new level. Your going to burn out and miss something."
For days, C.A.T. have long moments of silence, but slowly she would start opening up. "You know...that my powers haven't been acting right lately. My responses are off. I'll be more useful as a look out just in case." She rather be safe than sorry.
Captain America looks up at C.A.T., Well you don't have to have powers to do this. They help but you don't have to have superhuman reflexes. I always wondered about that, but I didn't know you had powers until recently." He looks around for a moment as if listening. Then shakes his head, "Besides we haven't ran into anybody yet and I can hear most the predators coming."
C.A.T. eyes the water, "What about snakes and.../things/." She is such a city girl, it's not funny. Snakes in Water! The newest B-rated classic movie! "And I don't generally talk about any of my powers," as if she has more than one, "Because they give me an edge in cause of an emergency and cannot so easily be used against me. I've just been...on edge last six months or so." The invasion of the Skrull have done its number on C.A.T. and though she has done better since returning home, she would still sometimes wake up due to nightmares (though certainly not every night by far). So far, only two of the three nights has she woke up with nightmares and those were the first two nights. "So...dinosaurs." That is a common saying for her so far. "Right, all of them? Aren't there smaller ones?"
Captain America nods, "Yeah, I have better sight, sharper smell, taste, touch, than a normal person. Hearing too, Its part of a package." He says as he throws another fish on the shore. "You never told me. I've always wondered didn't ask. I've tried to give you your privacy. But you know you can talk to me right?" He looks at her. "And as for the water it's a clear stream that's shallow. You can see anything coming up it."
She rolls her eyes, "You just want to get me /wet/." And C.A.T. totally dodges the talk about being able to speak to you. She finally moves to leap down from the boulder though, and goes to clean off a flat stone in the river before taking it over toward the fish. She then pulls out her knife and makes a face, "Alright, you said to scrape off the scales and then cut off the head and tail, and split in half from there, right?" Her gloves were rinsed off in the stream, but she keeps them on for this...she rather have to rinse off her gloves than bare fingers and not get the smell out of her flesh of dead, raw fish.
Captain America nods, "Yeah we don't have salt and pepper." He shakes his head, "I don't think I'm ever going to get use to you talking crude or women of your generation completely." He sighs, "Yeah we'll skewer them and cook them over the fire in the cave." He shrugs, "You did and saw a lot during the Skrull invasion didn't you?" He says as he moves to leave the water and back towards her. Where his equipment is at. He comes to a pause, "We're not alone."
"But still cut in half, to remove guts right?" Cuts down on bitterness. "And I can be worse, only because I was recruited by Mother Russia was I likely not selling my body on the street when I got old enough." It's a simple fact to C.A.T. and doesn't bother her in the least. She starts to wield the knife effectively. "And I...saw enough." Enough death. But her back stiffens and she pauses before slipping the first fish in half lengthwise to remove the cuts. "What kind?"
Captain America frowns, "I'm not Logan." He says as he moves towards her slowly. "Removing the guts for sure." That's when he hears the sound of of darts flying towards them. Then Captain America is on the run then moving to grab tackle C.A.T. darts hitting the rocks behind her where he'd just been.
C.A.T. almost accidentally stabs Captain America, and lets out a soft cry when she hits the ground hard, grunting as it is a rocky beach. Her flight rather than her fight instict is already activated, as it has been since the two of you crash landed here. Her eyes dart and she tries to struggle away from you for freedom of movement once she manages to get her first breath back.
Captain America rolls away letting C.A.T. up and toward his shield. Captain America is many ways the Alpha male and that means his fist instinct is always to fight. That's when they appear a large group of Neanderthals, seven on the other side of the creek with dart guns loading another supply and taking aim at the pair. Cap bringing his shield up just in time to swat away from the darts. As C.A.T runs she runs towards another three armed with clubs and spears. A bestial grunt of a war cry coming from the leader as the they charge C.A.T.
Instinct at that point, like when C.A.T. normally lets her precognition control her, in this cause it is the desire to live. Still, she pulls out her sleeping dart gun first and there is a PUFF sound as it releases a sleeping dart toward one of the Neanderthals, and she then runs toward them as well, but rather than attack further she leaps up into the air and folds her arms about herself as she flips and spins into the air to land on the ground behind them.
The sleeping dart strikes one one of brutes as she'd planned but it only staggers him not puts him down. She gets over the remaining two and they quickly turn, they were more agile they look and take off chasing her. They seem to be herding her if she don't realize it. That's when another pair of the Cave men appear and blow darts at her striking her where the numbing agent would go to work on her quickly. She'd get a funny sensation in her body and then it would give out. Nothing lethal or life threatening but she wouldn't be able to do much then watch and mumble.
Captain America was fighting the other men who had changed to spears. Four of them had broke bones and were out of the fight, there had been close calls with the spears and Cap was cut and scratched in a few places. But he was outnumbered when he takes a cub to the back that knocks him to the ground and gets filled with several darts knocking him out.
C.A.T. is quick, but she's also smart, and she knows what is happening without her precognition which is not working right now. When it comes her body twists and she tries to back flip out of the way, and she almost dodges all of them from sheer experience. However, without her precog she cannot dodge them all, and doesn't quite finish her last back flip before she hits the ground hard, her dart gun slipping from her fingers.
The next thing Kat sees is really, really confusing. As a pair of the cave men show up with a litter made of black fur two bamboo poles. She's carefully lifted onto the litter and laid on it. A middle aged man with a head dress and the most trinkets on carrying Steve's Shield and a club comes to look her over. He says something and raises the club into the sky the rest of the tribe joins the chant. It's then Kat might notice they're all wearing black fur and cat claw necklaces. Well that's the common theme. Steve doesn't get as good of treatment. He's suspended under a single pole. His hands and feet tied to the pole. That's when the hunting party start to move through the Savage Land.
C.A.T. groans or is that growl? It hurts, her head, and she feels a bit dizz. She tries to look about when no one seems about to attack her, noticing the trouble Steve is in, and that her mask is strangely still in place. Hopefully she isn't going to be sacrificed or something! But she still feels too out of it to fight properly, so she tries to clear her head and observe.
Cap and C.A.T are carried through the jungle for the rest of the day, until the party come upon a village with a large wooden fence around it with a volcano in the back drop against it to protect it from the back. The gates open and the hunting party lead the two through the main 'street' of the village. The people of the village on their knees bowing and muttering in reverence as C.A.T passes through the village. Cap? Well young boys and men run up punching him counting coo.
Right up the volcano and right in she goes. Not really, they lead her to a hut that looks to be one of the nicest one of the village it's all relative. An old cave woman wearing a black panther mask a bit similar to hers comes in and has them lay Kat on bed of furs. She comes over to the young spy and whispers something pleasant sounding to her and forces a drink down her throat. KAT slips off into a drug induced deep sleep having all types of dreams of being the Earthly envoy of an ancient cat goddess.
No weapons, though she has some lock picks hidden still, not that it will help too much. The drug has fully worn off from whatever they shot her with, so as she tries to push the old woman's hand away saying, "No," and growling in displeasure, she is forced to take the drink, choking on it a bit. Panic. She wants to scream, she wants to cry, she wants to go comatose. Losing control over her life is terrifying for her, a deep seeded fear, and why she hates S.H.I.E.L.D. and Fury so much. But she is quickly out cold, with confusing dreams where she is living in terror, and living in joy with her fascination of cats. She doesn't want responsibility, she doesn't want to lead anyone, especially after all she experienced. The dreams are far from pleasant for her overall.
Kat would find her clothing and her mask removed but she was alone in the hut well for humans. There's a large black panther cub curled up asleep on her chests. It's purring happily with her under the blankets. After it's shooed off she'll find her boots and well the primitive furs and cat mask like the old woman was wearing before she passed out. There's a bowl of cool clean water that doesn't not appear to be drugged. Along with dried fruits and smoked meats for her to eat.
No wonder she couldn't breathe. Big...big...FUCKING CAT?! Her eyes get really wide and her heart beats rapidly. She very carefully works to slip away from the cub that is about the size of her torso and paws as big as her own hand almost, and is if the claws were out. She actually has the grace to blush at her now nudity, before she goes to fetch the things. The cat is making a soft sound at losing its extra warmth, but curls up into the warm spot left behind on the furs.
C.A.T. gets dressed as best she can once she figure out how these undergarment-like furs work, and get her boots on. The food she starts to eat after taste testing them, and she knows she should purify the water...getting sick on 3rd world country water with unknown parasites...ah shit, she will just deal with the runs later if she has to. She goes to drink it, and eat more before checking out the mask curiously.
The sounds of cheering and fighting can be heard outside her hut in the distance.. the other side of the village. The little panther cub stretches out and wonders up brushing up against her legs then over to eat some of the smoke meat. It was a fat little cub and acted like an over active house cat. Kat would noticed she'd been washed and perfumed. She smelled like ripe sweet fruit. Guess they the village saw her as a holy woman or something. They hadn't sacrificed her yet. There's another sound of cheering from the outside of her tent.
"Great, no one better eat me," she grumbles to herself, then eyes the little panther cub. She knows how moody felines can be and the cub has bigger claws than Catty. Catty..., and C.A.T. swallows hard, separated from her cat again. But she finally leans down to scratch behind the cub's ears. She finally sighs, C.A.T. knows what she is going to find outside isn't going to make her happy. She moves to put the mask on over her face. She then snaps her fingers to make sure she has the cub's attention before she moves to head outside to see if the cub will follow her and hopefully reinforce her false image of power and control.
The cub follows her and it pounces at her feet missing. It is a cub after all. It's tail waving behind it. Kat would be right she wouldn't like what she saw as she finds the village standing around a corral with Steve and with the remains of a Raptor dead at his feet. His pants shredded and he's covered in little cuts and scratches. A few more of the tribe's warriors are hurt. But Steve's got his shield back and a spear now as a sabertooth tiger stalks him around the circle. Cap keeping his shield between him and the cat the the whole time.
A gritting of her teeth, and C.A.T. feels terror welling up inside her. It almost blinds her, but it's like when she thought that Winter Soldier has killed him and she moved blindly and instinctively as her emotions guided her rather than instinct. She starts to run then, and as she runs she reaches out for one of those spears to also 'pickpocket' it right from a warrior's hand, as she weaves and dodges beneath people with fighter trained reflexes, a growl coming from deep within her throat. She's almost to the fence, which she entirely plans to leap and flip/jump over, to join her lover. Something she would never have normally attempted without her precognition, but the thought never even crosses her mind. All she can think of is that she is going to go home with Steve! And no other result is permitted!
Captain America looks over his shoulder, "Kat?" He asks as he rolls out of the way of a swipe of the sabertooth tiger. The villagers are in an uproar as they new priestess had join the celebration for her founding. "I was worried about you. I think we've been out for over a day. They've been having me fight in gladiatorial arena style." The cat takes another swipe at Steve his shield coming up to block the claws.
"They what?!" C.A.T. looks /pissed/! Her mouth is pressed into a thin line, and she eyes the sabretooth. She keeps moving to try and get behind the cat, "I.../hate/ killing things. So...where do I stab?" She doesn't want to torture the thing. "And who do I kill for starting this?"
Captain America shakes his head, "Mostly been waiting for a chance to get to you." He says as he smashes his shield in the cats face hitting the sensitive nose of the cat. It going blind for a moment. "Just hold on that Spear and run. That direction." He makes a gesture with his spear. Then he takes off at a run leaping for the side of the corral with the least amount of the people. "To the hut tops. We make a run for the walls." With that Cap lands on the ground on the other side. Then he start to run towards a the roof of a hut. The cave people yelling in anger!
And C.A.T. is after him! She takes off running, not as powerful as Cap, but the fences aren't high - it was how she got in. She flips up into the air and lands over the fence, the cub soon at her feet. She grins, "Coming along Vicious?" She then takes off running after Captain America, the cub not old enough to leap onto the hut roof with them.
The kitten doesn't make the leap but it runs along next to the hut as best as it can. Cap looks back at C.A.T. "Making friends or you talking to me? I don't have a real good plan other than fighting or running. I figure if we can make it to the gates and maybe find a way to trap 'em in we can get rid of them. Problem is..." That's when a spear goes flying past his head just missing him, "Is that. You got any ideas?"
"It has apparently adopted me, for...now!" C.A.T. looks in a panic within the new mask which shadows her eyes when the spear gets close to you. "Let's run faster! Or I throw this damn spear back at them! I had one nasty LSD trip, and I don't look forward to another one."
Captain America shrugs, "We can fight. But I prefer shield over spears. Use your agility and they're quicker and faster than you think." He drops down to the end of one of the huts and instead of continuing to run. He stops turning and bring his shield up. As the cavemen come around the corner. The come face to Face with Captain America who throws his shield at the lead warrior. The shield striking the man knocking him to the ground and out like a light as shield returns to his hands.
C.A.T. leaps down and lands on her feet, spinning and kicking out one foot as she holds the spear off tot he side. Her eyes narrow at those she faces, long ago having lost her contacts, so they are their natural blue, her purple tipped pieces of hair peeking above the ears of the panther mask, and both her ears are pierced. She may not appear as out of place here as some may assume at first, well, except for the purple tips of her hair.
The cub scurries between the men's legs, and almost barrels into C.A.T. who has to half catch the cub with her free hand. But she doesn't look away from the Savage Land natives, her demeanor protective of the man with the shield.
And protect the man with the shield she will have to be. They move to flank Cap, whose driving into the group. He's fighting hard lashing out with his fist, his feet, and his shield. A man going down with almost every blow but he's outnumbered and these warriors are smart for a cave man. So a pair move to try to attack Cap's un protected back with spears.
And C.A.T. darts in. Even without her precognition she is still a skilled combatant. Her spear lashes out to slice open an arm of a man moving for Cap's back before she spins it like a staff to beat another one aside the head. "Back off from my man!" Well, how about that! First time she has really called Steve HER man. Progress, progress. Maybe one day she will use the term boyfriend or lover.
These warriors are tough but they back away at C.A.T's attack knowing they're keeping her at distance. The warrior begin to go down from Steve's fighting. The warriors begin to back away Captain America holding them off, "Alright... You seeing a way out of here? I'm a bit busy at the moment." They were back to the wall around the village and it was a short strait run for the gate. Where there was only a single guard, a large man, large for a cave man with a giant stone ax stood.
C.A.T. doesn't know exactly how to fight like Nightwing or Robin with a staff, but she knows weapons well enough. She makes liberal use of the spear's pointed end and as a staff, but never a killing blow. It's too instinctive for her not to take one. She almost trips over the cub more than once, which wouldn't have happened if she had her precognition. She is sweating a bit and breathing a little heavily. "This is crazy. That guy is huge, and even if you get lucky and knock him out with your shield, you only have me to cover you."
Captain America grins at C.A.T, "Tell you what, I'll handle him. Trust me on this." The village was in the middle of lowering the gate, "Think you can get under the gate and turn to throw a spear at the vine on that counter wait. It would lock them in and give us a chance to escape." It would be in C.A.T's realm but it would take a bit of work. But it would be easier with Cap distracting the large warrior.
A hard swallow, "I...don't have my precognition...," meaning it will be harder than usual, and she can't make promises. But looking at the situation, looking at the panther cub yeowling about her unhappily and angry, hissing at the men. Why did the thing attach to her anyway?! "Alright. On a count of...just do it now!" She's already moving, barking a sharp, "Come!" She is even snapping her fingers for the cub that runs after her as if chasing her mother's tail.
This had to be timed perfectly as C.A.T yells now, Steve charges ahead of her and at full speed the large cave man spreads his legs and gets ready to bring his axe up, he's going to use it to crush the smaller man. Everyone's eyes on Steve and the giant of a man. It gives C.A.T. a chance to make her escape with the cub and make the shot. As Steve charges the the giant, the giant brings his axe down with a fearsome war cry and the axe meets nothing as Steve goes sliding between the guys legs looking like he's stealing home and going right under the closing gate.
Even though C.A.T. made the shot, she will have nightmares from it for time to come...failing Steve. She never felt like this before. But she's there when Rogers regains his feet, but this time she picks up the panther cub and winces when sharp claws draw some blood. She holds the cub carefully in her arms and shhhes the crying feline. "Let's hurry," the cub will slow them down, but apparently C.A.T. doesn't want to leave it behind.
Captain America looks back to the village. They would be trapped in for a while. "You're right, lets make some ground. You got a new friend there and a new look? When you get a chance to go clothes shopping?" He teases her as they move.
"They stole my uniform!" She sounds annoyed of course, and she keeps running, "And the soles aren't as thick in these stupid furry leather shoes! And it's going to be cold at night." C.A.T. is pouting and complaining, and she complains for a while until she gets bored with repeating herself for the third time. She hasn't mentioned the LSD trip a second time however, nor does she talk about the panther cub that she has no idea what she is going to do with.
Steve keeps quite but she might notice he doesn't have a shirt nor shoes. His pants were also getting quite destroyed but he's working on finding them a safe place.