route_1065 | COVERED IN BEEEEEEEEEES!

Current Mood: creative
Current Location: Route 30

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COVERED IN BEEEEEEEEEES!

Who: Heather and Zack
Where: Route 30-- not TOO far from Cherrygrove.
When: Slightly backdated-- a little before noon.
Summary: Heather was a little miffed to learn that there was a raging swarm of angry mutant bees preventing her from making a safe start to her journey to Violet City. Until she remembered that where there are regular household appliances, there are solutions. To everything. And then Zack had to go and encourage her.
This will either end really well, or horribly bad.
Rating: PG for extremely destructive behavior. Potentially R if things go south, because Heather has the mouth of an angry tatoo'd motorcyclist and she will use it.

Log:

Even in the shade of the forest, the sun beat down through the leaves mercilessly. It was hot. Really hot.

And if that wasn't bad enough, all around, there was the growing hum of many, many insectoid wings. Anyone who's been on the receiving end of multiple stings will remember that humming sound forever.

Heather Mason was no exception.

"Okay. So."

Wiping her dusty hands off on her pants like a clean person, she gestured to the small array of cleaning materials and containers they had amassed.

"When you combine bleach and detergent, it makes this nasty gas. I've gotten rid of big biting bug swarms with it before. The problem is that it's corrosive, and if it gets on you... well, yeah. SO."

Throwing a few coils of rope down onto the ground, she put her hands on her hips.

"We gotta get creative."

...... Oh no.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He held the chemicals in his hands just as carefully as if he'd been handed two vials of plutonium, examining the ammonia in amazement. This stuff was lethal? Who knew?

In any case, the bottle of bleach seemed lighter than the ammonia, so he carefully started to pour the ammonia bottle in first. The bleach had a wider mouth; He would be able to dump that in a lot quicker, so that came second.

He already had maneuvered himself into a crouching position when he was halfway through the second bottle. And when the last drop filled the bucket, he shut his eyes and scrambled out of the way!

The sheer destructive capacity of the contents of an average under-the-sink cupboard was honestly kind of surprising. Heather had paid enough attention in chemistry class to have picked up a few tricks. Reckless as this little venture was, stunts like this had saved Heather's ass in a pinch.

Holding the lid with both pink-gloved hands, Heather crouched at the ready. As soon as Zack was clear, she slammed the lid down firmly over the top. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to entirely avoid stinging eyes, so it was with a muffled squeal and flaily pained gestures that she threw herself away from the bucket. No burns, but it hurt to be around that stuff.

"GAH!"

But the lid was on! They were victorious! ... SO FAR.

Zack, too was walking off the pungent affects of two materials that were offensive enough on their own, making a colorful array of disgusted faces under the cover of that ski mask and shaking off his gloved hands.

"Man!! That is rancid. Gross." Shielding his eyes with his arm, he wheezed and averted his gaze.

"Is it covered? Did I do it right?"

"Rancid and corrosive. That stuff'll BURN if you get too close to it." Eyes watering, she looks over her shoulder from a safe distance. In the open air, she's pretty sure it'll disperse relatively quickly. But better safe than sorry.

Wiping her gloves in the dirt just to be sure (though she's pretty sure that none of it got on them), she gave Zack a hearty thump on the shoulder.

"Yeah! You did awesome! So far, so good. ... Actually, I probably shouldn'ta said that, it's what people always say before something blows up in their face..." Brushing herself off, she looked back at the bucket. She could hear the horrible stuff fizzling away in there. "It's covered so it should be safe to pick up in a minute. As long as the cap doesn't come off."

Coughing a bit, he chuckled and bumped his shoulder against hers proudly. This girl right here? Genius. And there was no reason he could fathom that this plan wouldn't be a 100% success. ... if they could get close enough to the bees, anyway. He could always smack 'em away with the tree branch if push came to shove (which it probably would), but he probably wouldn't be able to get them all. Not without getting himself seriously hurt.

"Alrighty... let's give it a minute."

Flopping back down into a sitting position in the grass and waving the stench away form his face with his hand, he gestured for her to have a seat as well.

"So, Heather... Are you a chemist or somethin'? Where'd you get the idea? We could probably get into serious trouble if we hurt some of those bees."

... Not that that was much of a repellent for Zack.

Heather laughed a bit herself, flopping down on the ground as well.

"Heck, nah... I just paid attention in chem class. And did a lot of chores and stuff involving cleaning fluids. I'm no scientist." As both the science geeks who emphatically warned her against doing this when she transmitted a video proclaiming her grand idea would say. "And as for where I got the idea... well, that's kinda a long story, but this one time I had to get through this tiny little corridor that was blocked by a bunch of dangerous biting bugs... had to get past 'em somehow, and I'd picked up some bleach and detergent along the way..."

Oh, life in Silent Hill. That godforsaken town was not a friendly place, and especially in Heather's case, it forced you to be resourceful.

"Anyway, I'm not scared of trouble... to be totally honest, I don't think it'll actually kill these things... have you seen 'em? They're like ... bees on steroids."

Lucky for Heather, Zack was no scientist, either. And he was still of the opinion that this was a downright grand idea.

"Haven't seen a Beedrill yet myself, but I'm sure it's nothing I can't handle." ... What with the Behemoths and the demi-god summons. Then again, he had no Buster... no materia.

"We oughtta be fine. Hell, if things go sour, we could always just... run away."

But running away was for wusses and suckers. He'd definitely have to get in a few good hits (since he promised Rise he'd do it) before retreating like a pansy.

"I looked 'em up on the Dex thing. They're pretty big, but I've fought stuff kinda like them before." Not, you know, exactly like them, but Heather's got more than a little experience with monsters. She's pretty confident. "And yeah, that's the spirit!"

She was all about running away if she had to. Sometimes it was just your only choice.

Standing up with a slight grunt, Heather dusted off the seat of her pants and cautiously approached the bucket.

"I think it's okay to go over there now... wanna grab that rope? Let's find a good branch to suspend it from!"

And she's a fighter too? Sweet!

"Gotcha!" Perking up again, he picked up the rope and curled it over his arm, skittering back over to the bucket like the excited puppy he was.

"It sure looks ready. I bet it's super... corrosive in there."
Why yes, Zack did learn a new word today.

"The buzzing's coming from deeper down the Route. If you wanna carry the bucket... I'll cover you." He nodded toward the branch he was still lugging around proudly.

Very much so. Not quite in the same sense that Zack is-- Heather's just a tough kid with street smarts and the know-how to fire a gun. .... Well, that, and she's the (unwilling) holy figure of a twisted cult and the mother of an aborted demon god. Y'know, nothing special.

"Application of vocabulary, two bonus points," Heather commented on his clever use of the new (and relevant!) word. "I'm pretty sure it IS super corrosive."

She leaned down to scoop the unneeded materials into her pack before gripping the bucket's handle carefully and lifting it up.

"Good plan-- uhnf. Keep an eye out for a decent branch. We've got plenty of rope so that won't be an issue."

Now, if she had told Zack all of that, he might have been a little skeptical. He laughed when he was awarded those ~bonus points~ and walked beside her thoughtfully.

"I wonder what'll draw 'em to sting the bucket. Should we put... honey on the lid, or something?"

Yeeeah. That'd be why she didn't talk about that stuff to anybody. She'd admit to fighting monsters but that whole 'mother of god' thing was something she kind of wanted to pretend hadn't happened.

"Well, I don't have any honey... but I bet that if we make the rope long enough, we could swing it at 'em... Ever push someone on a swingset before? Could kinda work like that. Bees are dumb. If they're already coming at us, they'll probably just attack whatever's moving."

She was absolutely right. Bees were dumb. As long as they weren't gonna be dealing with some kinda genetically enhanced superintelligent mega-bees, the plan would work as is.

As they were proceeding, the angry sound of buzzing only got louder and louder... and he paused to give the area a thorough examination.

"We could use one of the taller trees up ahead." The taller the tree, the wider the swing, he figured.

Yeah, and considering they're just chilling around in the wild, she's pretty sure they're not mad genius mega factory-produced bees.

"Good plan! All we have to do is make sure the bucket won't touch the ground and just like, fall over."

Uncoiling the rope from around her shoulder, she set the bucket down briefly to tie one end around the handle.

Getting busy himself, he took the other end of the rope and gave it some slack before looping it loosely around his back and got to work climbing one of the more imposing trees, humming quietly under the sound of the buzz.

Of course, he'd need both hands to climb the tree... which meant he had to leave his makeshift club down at the bottom.

Heather would have offered to climb, but hey, why not let the big strawng man do it?

The buzzing sounds were getting a little closer-- not a very good sign. But Heather didn't seem too nervous yet. She did lower her voice a little, though.

"Make sure it's tied real tight!"

She was already making double-knots on the bucket handle. It wouldn't do to have it give way with the bucket in midair.

He had to judge the amount of slack very carefully... A few inches too short and the thing would just drag the ground and probably spill all over the place when they swung it. A few feet too short and there wouldn't be much swinging going on at all.

Either way, he did his best to eyeball it before getting everything secure at the branch and carefully maneuvering his way down a bit before dropping to the ground.

"Got everything taken care of topside." Now... to wait for the bees to come to them, or to attract their attention somehow?

He trusted Heather's judgment.

Craning her head back to watch Zack, Heather waited until it looked like the line was secure before letting go of the bucket, holding her breathe.

... It held! The bucket swayed back and forth gently, its contents still fizzling angrily.

"Awesome! We're aaaaaalmost ready."

Taking hold of the bucket with both hands she carefully walked backwards, seeing just how far the rope would go. Hm... little bit shorter than she'd been hoping for, but eh. They could work with it.

"Okay. Now we gotta decide who does what. From what I've heard, those things will attack anyone they see. So... someone needs to hold this thing, and give it a big ol' push when they show up, and someone needs to get their attention. ... I'm cool with either."

Getting chased by giant killer bees? ... OKAY WITH HEATHER.

Furrowing his eyebrows and cradling his masked chin pensively, he considered the given options. He was trying to evaluate which half of that mission would involve the least amount of danger... but both seemed equally risky. Yeah, the 'bee-runner' would have to get their attention and draw 'em over to the trap, but the 'bucket-pusher' had to wait around long enough to aim and swing the bucket when the swarm caught up.

There really wasn't a right answer, was there? ... Sorta made him wish he could do both jobs himself.
"...Heather, I don't know. I don't want you getting hurt. What're you more comfortable doing?"

Raising a brow, Heather gave Zack a bit of a look.

"If you were super worried about me getting hurt, you prooobably shouldn't have encouraged me."

She did have a point.

But then, giving Zack a friendly nudge, she waved a hand casually.

"I'll do the running-- I did track in highschool. Served me pretty well so far. You hang onto the bucket."

At that, he shrugged his shoulders and laughed heartily -- perhaps a bit too heartily, as the buzzing only got louder.

Zack abruptly stopped, slapping a hand over his big mouth. And then... in a much gentler voice:
"Fine, fine. You get their attention..."

Stepping deftly over to the hanging bucket, he took a careful hold of it and got in the proper position.

"... I'll let 'em have it. Ready when you are."

"All right!" Grinning widely behind the ski mask, Heather gave Zack a thumbs-up. "Just make sure I'm out of the way before you swing it. But when you DO swing it, you gotta really huck it."

And with that final cryptic instruction, Heather turned and disappeared through the brush.

Into BEE KINGDOM.

"Right... huck it."

He knew how to huck things. He was a regular hucking professional! He'd huck their brains out!

Zack adjusted his position a bit ... just in case he was blocking his escape route. No other tree branches would impede his view when the time came to take a careful aim.

"Good luck, Heather," he muttered under his breath, keeping the bucket steady. He might have been a derp, but he wasn't stupid enough to shout that to her at the last minute.

Heather had been sort of planning to make a bunch of noise in the process of attracting the bees.

You know, yell some witty remarks, whack some brush with a branch...

Unfortunately, she didn't get the chance. All she had to do was show her scruffy blond head.

The buzzing upped in intensity from 'low hum' to 'demonic weedwhacker'.

"Shit!"

Heather came tearing back through the bush at an impressive speed-- she hadn't been lying when she said she was fast. Good thing, too-- because by the time she'd reached Zack, the Beedrill had already arrived at the edge of the little clearing.

And they were pissed.

Skidding straight past Zack, Heather hollered over her shoulder.

"Throw it! Throw it throw it throw it!"

"Shit, shit, shit, shit..."

He could hear the commotion coming long before he was given the command to give the big push... The sound of the insectoid wings was so deafening it made his teeth chatter involuntarily.

When she finally did whiz by after what seemed like an eternity, Heather definitely didn't have to tell him to chunk that thing twice!

And.... Holy. Shit.

Those things were huge.

Eyes widening, Zack gave a feral shout, took aim at the biggest and the closest, and hurled that fucking bucket just as hard as he could -- which was pretty hard. The second the bucket left his hands, he grabbed up that big stick he had been saving for the occasion.

And then Zack ran. Did he look back? Absolutely not. But he did get a well-positioned, barbed sting right in the middle of his back for his trouble, which induced a roar of rage.

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HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIT BEES