Julienne peered over the top of the seats, noting how many guards were standing nearby that would notice that both of them left. The rest were on opposite sides of the stadium or too far away to notice anything. She sat back down, looking over at Davian. "There's only three. If you can knock them out, we should be able to get to the exits. We have to be really quiet about it though. Just hit them in the head with something and let's go."
The plan itself was crazy, but it had to work if she was going to get out of here. "Think you can manage that?"
Davian smirked at Julienne. "Manage it? Oh, I think I'll find the strength to handle it." He undid the drawstring on his left hip pouch and pulled out the remaining Omni-Orb, then pulled both of his hands away from it and each other in smooth motions until it became a small baton. "Stay close enough to react if something goes wrong, but far enough that they won't hear you or hit you if I screw up okay?" Julienne nodded in response.
He only waited long enough for her to nod before creeping forward, he chose the guard further to the left for a smooth start. He straightened his back just enough to reach above the man's head before bringing the baton down right on the back of his skull, there was only a dull thud before he slumped to the floor.
Good thing these guys were trying ot blend in, if he was wearing a helment of any kind that would've been loud. After factoring in the possibility that the remaining guards might have heard the noise or actually seen it, Davian acted fast for the second step. He made a ninety-degree turn and sprinted at the other two. Once he was closer, he jumped and kicked the further one in the face, rebounding off of him to get in another little jump and bring the baton down on the last one's nose.
Julienne jumped up from where she was hiding and swiftly ran over to him. "Wow, impressive. If you had fought Angelique, it certainly would've been interesting. Let's move." She dropped back down and began to crawl her way through the stands, keeping her head below the tops of the seats in front of her.
Davian wasted no time getting down to the floor and following Julienne...for the
most part he managed to avoid enjoying the view. "Let me know as soon as you see something, the sight lines are a bit narrow back here.
Julienne scowled. "My butt isn't
that big, okay? I know I've been putting on weight. Sheesh... guys are so insensitive some times." She continued to crawl forward, her elbows starting to hurt.
Holding in the chuckles fighting for dominance of his body, Davian continued on silently behind Julienne. Eventually, they made it to the end of that row, which dropped off down to the floor that led to the exit. Two guards were standing by the door, facing forward and actually
doing their job. "Okay... there's two guards. They're both facing forward, so you might have to take them out long distance. Can you do that from where you're at?"
Once they stopped, he tried to get a good view of the guards at the exit. "Ugh... this would be a lot easier if I had a crossbow. I doubt I can throw accurately from this far." His face was momentarily overtaken by a mischeivous smile. "And just so you know, I was talking about the seats getting in my way. But by all means, talk about your butt more if you want. It's not bad at all."
"I can kick you in the face from here."
"Fair point."
Julienne looked back out to the guards. Guess it was her turn. "Well, I can do something. I'm going to distract them. When I do, you attack them. Okay? Just don't hit me if you throw something."
"Hit a lady? Me? I shudder at the thought, so no worries."
Julienne nodded before she coughed loudly, making sure to add in a realistic hacking noise. She crawled forward, lowering herself down on the floor, which caused the guards to jump to attention. She continued her coughing, holding her stomach and walking slowly towards them. "*cough* *cough* Yo, I'm really sick. *cough* *cough* I think I'm gonna throw up. *cough* Can you take me to the *cough* bathroom?"
The guards looked at each other, contemplating what to do. They weren't supposed to let anyone leave, but they really didn't want this girl to blow chunks all over the place and then get in trouble for it. "Eh... can you just throw up over the railing instead? We're not supposed to let you leave."
"I -" Julienne fell down on her knees in a fake coughing fit, making both the guards go over to her and see if she was alright. From behind her back, she motioned for Davian to make his move. The guards were almost perfectly in line with the row they were in.
Dammit, those guys are a bit too far apart... Oh! It looks like I'm not gonna need the daggers at this point. He reached into his shirt and his boot sheath to pull out the daggers when Julienne first started talking to them. Davian then re-liquefied the daggers and added them to the baton to make it almost a full staff before aligning himself to the drop. He braced himself and took off, running as hard as he could from across a different section of seats. "Thank whatever gods I'm still in shape!" He leapt as far as he could and reached as far forward as possible with the staff, bringing it down on both guards' at the same time.
Julienne stood up as both the guards fell down beside her. "Not bad." She commented, looking at them both. "Coulda just thrown something at them, but that works too. Now then." She began to walk towards the exit that lead back into part of the lobby.
"Woah woah woah, hold on. The lobby is one of the most likely paths escapees would take. It's probably guarded well too." Davian whispered to Julienne as he sidled up to her.
She stopped as Davian suddenly appeared next to her. But, he was right. She sighed, crossing her arms as she thought. "Well, I guess you're right. But where are we supposed to go? I mean, it's not like this place has some kind of escape tunn- AAAAH!"
Suddenly, a gloved hand grabbed Julienne from behind, sending electric shocks through her body that made her scream out in pain. Davian turned quickly as it happened. "Juli-" But before he could react, another guard came from nowhere and struck him in the stomach, kicking him into the wall. After a minute of shocking, the guard let go of Julienne, who immediately fell to the ground as she groaned in pain. Both guards turned towards Davian. The one who shocked Julienne spoke first. "Whoops, did we hurt your girlfriend? Sorry 'bout that. Guess you're next."
Davian gritted his teeth in pain and had to use all of his willpower not to grab his ribs. "I gotta say, I'm disappointed. I was beginning to think you guys were pretty smart... but then you decided a good hit to the gut was enough to stop me." He moved to sweep one of the guards' legs with his staff, but the man's reflexes were pretty sharp after all. He grabbed the staff with his gauntleted hand and thought he had one, but Davian was ready before he could think up a cocky retort. "Sorry pal, this metal doesn't conduct electricity. It's cellular structure -"
Before Davian could continue his explanation, the other guard came from the side and delivered a rough punch to his face. "No one asked for an explanation." He then proceeded to kick Davian down on the floor, pulling the staff from his grip and throwing it behind him.
"Learn some manners. I was speaking!" Davian made a few quick gestures with his hands, ending with a sweep towards himself. The staff seemed to change it's mind on the whole "being thrown" thing and proceeded to fly directly into the back of the mouthy guard's head. As soon as he was off balance, Davian used him as leverage to pull himself up. As soon as he had his balance, but before getting all the way up he backhanded the guy with one of his spiked bracelets.
The other guard took the opportunity given through his fallen partner to deliver a spinning kick right to Davian's face before stomping hard on the ground and kicking him in the same spot Davian had gotten kicked in the first time, sending him to the ground once again. Before Davian could do anything, the guard came over and stomped down on his wrist, grabbing Davian's shirt with the metal glove. "That's quite enough. You lose, son."
Davian kept his arrogant smirk on while he looked the guard in the face. "Hate to break it to you, but a smart man always has a back-uuuuuuuuuuuuuup -" The last bit of his sentence was drawn out by the electrical current that began to flow freely into Davian from the glove.
"Heh, that should shut you up." The guard stood back up, stepping off of Davian's wrist. "Now then, for the girl."
As the guard turned around, however, he was met with a terrible fate. Julienne had gotten up during the small fight and jumped right at the guard, the dagger gripped tightly in her hand. Before the guard could get a hold on her, she landed on him, pushing him to the ground and driving the dagger into his chest. The guard screamed as the metal entered his body, piercing him in the lungs Julienne held it in place for a few moments before angrily ripping it out, throwing it to the side. The guard made a few nasty choking sounds before he finally stopped moving and, well, died.
Julienne immediately jumped over away from the guard, realizing exactly what she had just done. She looked at her hands, hoping not to see any blood on them, and was relieved to find that they were clean. She shuddered slightly when she looked back over at the dagger before crawling over to Davian. "Dude, get up. We don't have time for this. Come on." She gave him a gentle slap across the face.
The beat-up Metal Bender blinked absently a few times before his eyes really shot open and he shook his head. "Easy for you to say. A cracked rib and a gajillion volts of electricity slows a guy down." He coughed hard a few times and was pleased to see no blood came out.
Julienne decided against reminding Davian that she had gotten shocked too and helped him sit up, being careful not to hurt his ribs more than they already were. "Right. Sorry. Okay, so... now what? Where are we supposed to go, and how are we supposed to defend ourselves while we get there? You aren't exactly in prime fighting condition, and I'm... I'm not touching that dagger."
Davian sat up and patted Julienne's shoulder. "Well for what it's worth, thank you. Don't feel too bad; you did what you had to. Speaking of which, I'm done trying to be a good human being and just knock these guys out." He stood the rest of the way up and grabbed the dagger off of the floor. He separated the staff and the dagger back into two orbs before concentrating and giving them new shapes. Both orbs formed into long swords with cutlass handguards and blades like a straight katana. "We're going to have to hope there is a better path out, because they've definitely got some guys who actually know how to fight."
"W-W-Whoa now, hold on!" Julienne was extremely frightened by the fact that Davian was literally planning to go on some kind of morbid killing spree. "We don't need to kill anyone! I... I have a weak stomach, and I don't think I can hold that fried chicken down if I see any of that. Besides, killing people is wrong, and they weren't trying to kill us! Let's just..." She gently pushed the blades away from her. "... not do that."
Davian pivoted and held the swords upright away from Julienne. "Listen to me; I'm not gonna go looking for trouble. If I can avoid violence, I will, but that whole ordeal right there just proved that if any of these guys are strong enough to power through one of my hits I might not win."
Julienne didn't take too kindly to this suggestion. "Dude, you can't do that. Killing people is wrong, okay? It's just... you can't do that."
"We can sit here and argue about morals or we can try to get out. Those guys may not be out to kill
us right
now, but they're looking an awful lot like equalists. And if that's true, you'll probably be fine. But since it's not very likely they have someone who can take bending away, what do you think will happen to me if we get caught?" Davian paused to let the last sentence sink in.
Julienne was silent for a moment, and then she stomped her foot down. "Ugh! I can't believe this is even happening..." She muttered, crossing her arms and looking away. "Why do we have to kill people? I can't bring myself to d..." She stopped when she realized that she literally just did. "... do it again."
"You don't have to." Davian tried to make his voice sound reassuring. "I don't expect you to fight anymore. Besides, I've already made my peace with killing in a situation like this..." He didn't elaborate. "I think I know a path that might not be so heavily guarded. They took out the pro benders right away before anyone else, I think."
"You mean... the training rooms?" She asked. "Are you sure that's completely safe? Because... that's really not logical. If anything, that's probably worse than the lobby."
"Exactly, it's not logical. The actual competition platform is a good distance away from the stands so normal people couldn't just jump down. And if they've already got all the pro benders, why would they expect anyone to leave through either of the training rooms?"
"... I'm not following."
"It basically just comes down to 'they shouldn't expect anyone to leave that way' so we can either try to get out through the training rooms or push through the lobby. If you can think of something better, I'm all ears."
Julienne pondered both possibilities. Okay, the lobby didn't sound too safe, and with the Training Rooms already raided, it'd probably be easier to get out that way. Of course, there was no guarantee that they were safe, but it seemed better than just standing here and waiting for another attack. "Okay... that works. But how are we gonna get down to the platform?"
Davian put his hand to his chin. "That's a good question. Do you have any gloves?"
"Nope. Nothing but the clothes on my back."
"Well then, I guess I'll just have to make some and hope the friction isn't enough to burn the nerves off of my poor little hands. Here you go." He reached into his bag and pulled out a pair of fairly thick leather gloves and handed them to Julienne.
She loooked at the gloves questioningly. "Uh... what exactly did you have in mind to get us down there that would involve... burning the nerves in our hands?"
"Well." Davian began, taking one of his Omni-Orbs and stretching it bit by bit. "I'm thinking I can make a metal chord that will get us down to the platform from the edge of the stands. Hence the gloves, althought i don't think the metal ones I'm gonna have to make myself will protect or grip too well."
"Um... well, what if I just hung onto you while we slide down so you can use the gloves? That way we can both get down without risking, y'know, falling in the water. Or nerve damage. Or both."
Davian scratched his chin a bit. "Y'know, if I was better looking I'd think that was just an excuse. But it's a good idea. Do you think you can hold onto me tight enough to stay on your own or should I hold onto you? I'll only have one free hand so it would be hard to keep my positioning... appropriate."
She bit her lip slightly in hopes of clearing the awkward. "Well, um... I'm pretty sure I can hold onto you. No big deal. And if I fall, well... I can swim, so I'll take a platform up to one of those balconies and be right in the training room."
"Good thing you made the suggestion, I just realized I can't make gloves and make the chord long enough." Davian added the second orb to the chord and kept lengthening it while he spoke. "Alright, I think this'll do; you ready?"
Julienne gulped, handing the gloves to Davian. "I guess so. Just know that none of this is intentionally sexual. Don't get any funny ideas."
Davian slipped the gloves on and smiled. "Not intentionally, but I can't help ideas. I've got self control." He made his way towards the stands again. "C'mon, don't worry. I won't tell your friend we had any physical contact. And I don't let my hands wander."
I should tell her that the only physical contact was my fist in your face. Julienne thought angrily as she followed Davian to the stands. "Okay then. So, did you think about how to do this discreetly? Because I think people might notice two people sliding down a metal bar onto the platform."
He coiled the chord a couple of time and slipped it over his shoulder. "Another wise question... seems to me like we'll either have to hope our original seats are still fairly clear of guards after knocking those guys out.- wait, those guys!" He looked towards the lobby entrance and, sure enough, the two guards he had knocked out with his mini-staff were still there. "Maybe if we each put one of their fancy gauntlets on, anybody who sees us will think we're chasing down an escaping bender or something."
"Well... that is a good idea, but from the looks of it, these people aren't really benders. If you did put those things on, you probably shouldn't metalbend in them. Besides, we never know what they can do. They might be set to be specifically for one person and will electrocute anyone who isn't them that tries to wear them. They could also be locked onto their wrists and only be taken off with a passcode."
"Maybe for the higher ups and such, but I'm sure enough of these guys are just regular jerks who believe in the cause. There's no way they could afford to put all the time and effort to make each gauntlet special. They must have a basic mass-produced version for the grunts. We'll just have to hope that's the case with some of the guys we've already taken out."
"... I guess it's a better defense than a hastily-made metal dagger. No offense." Julienne climbed up into the row above Davian so she could walk along towards the three unconscious guys they had knocked out before.
Davian hoisted himself up beside her and knelt beside one of the guards. "Let me try first just in case I'm wrong, I may be a jerk but I'm not watching you get hurt again if I can help it."
"Okay, I get it. You can ease up on the nobleman act now. I'm not
completely useless." She crossed her arms. "Dude just caught me by surprise is all."
"I'm not criticizing; did it look like I was prepared for them? I'm just saying there's no way to be prepared if it
is booby-trapped and I'd rather not see it happen to you. Don't be so defensive. You've saved my butt twice, I'm not gonna underestimate you." He reached for the guard's right arm and after a few good pulls, the gauntlet came off. "So far so good." He slipped the guantlent onto his own right hand and flexed his fingers a few times. "Looks like we're in business."
"Great." She reached down and grabbed one, slipping it on as well. "Ooh, I like these. It's so weird how they're made of metal but still so flexible. You should totally learn how to do this. Can you make something like this with metalbending?"
"Well... I made an almost living metal that can switch between solid and liquid states with a bit of bending, so I don't see why not. After all, there are flying machines and moving pictures. Tell you what, if we ever meet again after this remind me." He stood back up and crept over to the railing. "You ready?"
"Yup. let's do this." She put her hands on the railing, looking down over the water. "Quick question though: did you test your bending in the gloves yet like I said before?"
"Good idea, let's see." He held the chord in his left hand and swept his fingers back and forth with the right. After a few moments the chord remained still but Davian's right hand jerked over his shoulder and then back in front of him. "Well... that's a bit of a downer, but I can still bend with my left hand just fine. As long as neither of us slips and I don't have to catch you, we should be good. If worse comes to worse, I can use some bending to make the chord move the way we want it to."
"Yeah, try not to move it while we're sliding down unless it involves stopping us from crashing into something." She added. "So, you ready? Because once we get down there, it's action mode. Probably."
"Ready? I'm looking forward to it; sliding down a metal chord towards impending doom with a lady sounds fun no matter how she feels about me. Just get a good grip on me however you think would be easiest to hold on and let's go. I'd say don't
you get any ideas, but girls are a bit more subtle than that when they want something."
"Just shut up and get on the cord before I push you off the stands." She rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, yeah." Davian tied the cord around the railing tightly and stepped up to get the angle right. "Okay, step on up and let me be a hero for once." He teased with a light chuckle.
She rolled her eyes but gently stepped up, placing a hand on his shoulder to keep her balance. "Alright... so how am I gonna do this while we're standing up here without falling off the rail?"
He almost slammed the palm of his hand onto his temple right then and there. "Well that's an impressively idiotic lapse of judgement on my part, although it does help that you're already up here. Makes for less climbing." He hopped off the railing and turned away from Julienne, putting his hands palm up behind him in case she needed help. "Here you go, all aboard the metal jerkward express."
She grabbed his hands, almost losing her balance as he jumped down. After a momentary pause, she jumped onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, somewhat awkwardly. "Er... alright, I guess this'll work. Somewhat."
When Julienne almost put him in a stranglehold, Davian's neck muscles tensed as he tried to keep his breathing steady. "I was just expecting an arm on my shoulder and one around my waste, but whatever. There's nothing that would make this awkward for me."
"Yeah... right. Sorry." Julienne felt extremely uncomfortable on Davian's back, but couldn't really do anything about it because it was two certain things causing the discomfort.
Times like this makes me wish I didn't have breasts.
Davia stepped back onto the railing and then over, setting both gloved hands on the metal cord. It was the jarring of landing that made Davian finally realize what the two points of extra pressure on his back were. "Here we go. I'll try to go softly."
Julienne honestly wasn't even listening to him. As soon as the two bounced during the landing, her already intense grip grew worse, to the point where she could probably squeeze Davian's heart out if she were stronger. "ohmygodhoymgodjustgoogogogogogogo-"
Julienn's rambling was interrupted by a shifting in their gravity and a, "Your wish is my command." When Davian stepped off of the edge and they began to slide downward. His neck muscles tensed harder in an attempt to keep air circulating through him; he was slowly failing. "I... ack... might not be able to hold on tight enough if I can't breathe."
Julienne, who was adorning the most painful looking face nodded somewhat. "S-Sorry... I'll try to slide down a bit..." Although the idea seemed great in theory, the minute Julienne let go of Davian's neck, she slid down
too far, causing her to deliver her intense deathgrip to Davian's, well... waist. "ohmygodohmygodohmygofasterpleasegofastergetmeoffofthisthingohmygod."
"Agh!" Davian's hold on the cord loosened dangerously when Julienne slid downward and their progress became considerably faster... and more dangerous, his voice had also been raised an octave or so. "I just meant to loosen up a bit! Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap." When they got close to the bottom, Davian was finally able to hold on tightly again, slowing them down and making a loud scraping noise thanks to the metal in the equalist glove. The cord began to sway hazardously back and forth.
Julienne squealed each time she felt herself swaying, her grip getting worse with each one. "GETMEOFFOFTHISTHINGOHMYGOD PLEASAERGET ME OFF OH MY GOD EEEEEEEE." Her words became a jumbled, incoherent mess as each minute passed, and her grip would make any man in Davian's situation feel rather feminine afterwards considering the damage being dealt.
Right now I'm really wishing I could make a certain place metal. This is not how it's supposed to happen when a guy and girl are alone. "Alright that's enough! I'd rather kiss the platform than this, and I don't care if I piss you off!" Davian used a quick bet of bending with his left hand to make the cord swing towards the platform. Once he was satisfied with the way they were moving, he grabbed Julienne's shoulder, hiked her up and put an arm under her legs. He didn't care where it was he gripped her; he just had to end this. Once he had her secure he leapt towards the platform and angled himself so Julienne was directly on the other side of him, opposite from the platform. The positioning elicited quite a loud, "Oof!" and an even louder scream of terror when they landed, once that more than likely brought every guard in the arena to attention.
"The lobby... sounds... like heaven right now... berry protecting heaven..." Davian muttered in his stupor of pain and fatigue.
Julienne immediately released Davian's grip on her legs with a smack to his hand before she crawled forward and immediately began kissing the ground. "Oh sweet ground, baby, don't you ever leave me again. Oh good god I missed you so much." After her ground worshipping was over, she immediately turned to Davian, her face very red and angry-looking. "What the hell was that? What the hell was
that? Why did you sling me over your shoulder like that? Huh? What if I fell? Do you think I would have survived a fall like that?! What if I hit my head off the platform when I fell? And just so you know, you almost grabbed me in the crotch. You're lucky I have long legs or I would be bashing your damn face in right now!"
When Davian finally felt he could stand up, he just looked Julienne absently in the face while she yelled at him.
Why does she look so much hotter than I remember right now? I think I have a problem. "You're going to give me crap about where
my hand went? I guess the fact that I shielded you with my face doesn't count for much in light of what a pervert I am."
She squinted her eyes angrily. "Frankly, I hope it hurts. For a long,
long time."
"I guess I should have left you up there since I'm
such a jerk. You'd probably be better off without the likes of me." He was really beginning to wish Julienne's evaluation of him was true so he wouldn't have a reason to care. "Besides, did you really have to squeeze me like that? These gauntlets work just fine for sliding; maybe I'm not the one with grabbing issues. Now let's go before whoever heard your scream gets here."
She opened her mouth to protest against his lewd statements, but immediately she shut up when she realized that she probably could have and most definitely should have slid down the cord herself. How that didn't occur to her, she didn't know. "... Whatever. So how do we get to the training rooms from here, genius?"
Davian liquefied the cord and reconstituted the orbs in his hands before putting them back in their pouches. "Easy, we walk. Maybe you were too unfocused too notice while we plummeting here, but they never finished closing everything up before this attack started. The entry walkways are still connected to the platform. We need to go
now and I'm not leaving you at this point, whatever you think of me."
"Fine then, we'll go now." She mocked, making rather childish "meh" sounds afterwards. "Don't wait up." She immediately stormed ahead of him angrily, her hair bouncing in synchronization as she stomped across the platform with gusto."Frickin' metalbenders..." she mumbled.
He watched her stomp towards the training rooms and let out a huge sigh. "I guess I'm not doing this for thanks. But would it kill her to appreciate that I'm not even angry at her for nearly sabotaging us?" He shrugged and followed her.
However, as he stepped on the platform and she stepped off, there was an almighty humming, which caused both of them to stop. Before they could react, the walkways began to slowly retract back into the platform on both sides. Julienne hastily looked around. "Dude, what's going on? Come on, you need to hurry over here and - look out!"
From behind Davian came a random guard, hand electrified and ready to attack.
Davian decided he had kept the stupid gauntlet long enough and pegged the guard right in the face with it. Once it hit its target, he clenched his fist and the gauntlet released its payload as if he were still wearing it. While Davian turned back to cross the walkway he shouted. "Keep going! Don't wait for me!"
"Dude, I'm not leaving you behind! I don't care how rude you are, I still need - ah!" A guard from behind grabbed Julienne, holding her to where she could only struggle and kick her legs. "Let go of me you creep!" Despite the force of her struggling, he slowly began to inch his way over to the edge of the platform, probably planning to throw her off.
"It'll be easier to cross if you're not in the - no!" Various obscenities left Davian's lips as he sprinted towards the pair across the retracting walkway.
Why is nothing ever simple with women?! He was halfway to the other side when he noticed the guard was dragging Julienne towards the edge. "You're looking for benders, right? Then try this on for size, YOU COWARD!" In one fluid movement Davian took the Omni-Orbs out of their pouches and, in a miracle of emergency, formed them into the blades from earlier. When he reached the edge of the walkway, he realized there was no other choice. He jumped in complete defiance of how badly his most sensitive area hurt and how hard his legs tried to ignore him. After a few moments of sailing through the air, Davian realized with horror that he wasn't going to make it.
No... no. I can't watch somebody die again! He thrust the right sword forward with adrenaline's precision and buried it in the guards shoulder. Immediately afterwards gravity took hold of him again and only his left sword getting caught on a gap in the floor kept him up a few moments longer.
As soon as the guard was stabbed, Julienne forced herself from his grip. She immediately turned around and delivered a sharp punch right to his face, making him stumble backwards into the railing. She followed up with a nice cheap shot with her foot, using the force of the kick to push the guard over the edge. She wasted no time and dove over, grabbing Davian's hand as the sword came loose and fell down towards the water. Her other hand held onto the railing desperately as she tried not to drop him. "Ah... this is really bad... I don't know if I'm strong enough to pull you up."
Davian was incoherent with relief for a moment. "You're alive... thank god."
"Well, yeah, great. How am I supposed to get you up here without tearing my arm to pieces?" She looked around, hoping for some kind of thing he could grab onto. That railing... "Okay... I'll try to pull you up somewhat. When you think you can reach it, grab the railing and get up here. Think you can do it?"
"Can't lose to fate now. I'm getting up there if I have to let go and climb up from the water by hand later, so give it a shot!"
"Okay. I hope those workout videos pay off!" She grunted painfully and began slowly pulling Davian up with all her might, clenching her face in extreme pain as she did so.
WHAT DOES THIS KID EAT?! JEEZ! "C-C'mon, grab the stupid thing!"
As soon as Davian felt himself lifted a few inches higher he swung his right arm as hard as he could at the railing. His first attempt was a failure, but the second time his fingers wrapped around the railing and he started pulling as hard as he could until he felt himself moving upwards. Only a few seconds after his right hand started working it's magic his left hand lost his grip on Julienne's. He hadn't realized it in the haze of adrenaline and determination, but when his sword caught in the floor the wrenching had dislocated his wrist. Luckily Davian had done plenty of pull-ups and he could make it one-handed, however slowly.
As soon as Davian's feet touched the balcony floor, Julienne ran over from her kneeling spot and hugged him tightly - not tightly enough to kill him. "
Don't scare me like that ever again! I seriously thought you were a goner, dude!"
Before Davian realized he was really safe or thought much of anything he found himself hugging Julienne back. "Why couldn't you just go? I thought you were gonna die!" For a second, an image of a handsome young firebender looking at him with empty eyes flashed through Davian's mind and his vision blurred a bit when his eyes moistened.
"Dude, I thought
you were gonna die! I couldn't just let that happpen. I wouldn't want to deal with that kind of guilt." She commented back, just now noticing that he was hugging her back too. "I was fine until freakshow showed up. Thanks for bailing me out though. I kinda needed it."
Davian stopped the skipping record that was his head from repeating
she's alive she's alive I didn't have to watch anyone die. He let go of Julienne. "I really hope he was the last guy between us and the exit... I'm not feeling so tough right now." He shook his left arm with its useless hand a bit.
Julienne leaned to the side a bit, looking behind Davian and then turning her head to the side to look out at the stands. "As long as those twenty guys in the stands can't get down here, I'm sure we're good." She tried to ignore the nagging feeling that she kind of enjoyed Davian's hugs and didn't want to let him go, trying to keep a cool demeanor like Angelique would.
She would be so much better at stuff like this... She wouldn't need bailed out like that... and Davian would probably be happy to hug her over me... ugh why am I even thinking that? Does it matter? Stupid thoughts...
"I, uh... er... I'm sorry I squeezed you like that. I don't know what came over me."
"... Well... considering that I accidentally destroyed your pelvis, I think we can just call it even, m'kay? Besides, all you did was grab my thigh. Nothing too serious about that."
Davian scratched the back of his head.
Why am I getting all worked up about this? Am I really that messed up? I feel like a child, Getting all emotional. He stood up, realizing that Julienne hadn't let go of him yet.
As soon as Davian stood up, Julienne realized that she was
still hugging him. She immediately let go, her hands flying behind her head. "Haha, right, yeah. Let's, um... we should keep moving."
Oh God I'm such a blonde...
He only smiled at her. "Just a second." He grabbed his left wrist and jerked it one way, and then the other, causing Julienne to wince. Once it finally snapped into place he grimaced and shook it a bit. "There, now I can use it... no matter how bad it hurts." Without a thought he patted Julienne's shoulder once. "Alright, it's about time we finished our daring escape... I can't wait to tell the story of how some random girl saved my life. I make a better damsel in distress than I would've thought."
"... Oh wow, I just felt some of the chicken from earlier come back up." She turned tail and walked towards the training rooms slowly, trying not to let the overwhelming sickness caused by Davian's wrist repair hinder her.
"Oh my... sorry!" Davian called after her while he moved towards the training rooms, suddenly feeling embarrassed.
Quite a day... isn't it, Bouho?