RP:Probably The Closest Kree's Gotten To Being Killed, Ever

Immediately after the brawl in Larket, Kreekitaka found himself flying. And then not flying. This caused some problems. Fortunately, Rainbow was swift to the scene.

The RP!

Kreekitaka awoke to some very strange sensations, none of which was the pain. That’s not saying there wasn’t pain, that’s just saying that of the things he was feeling, the least strange was the pain. He was moving very, very fast, yet he could feel no mount beneath him and no ground under his feet. Was he flying? As his vision cleared, slowly, he discovered his predicament. He was, in fact, flying—but he wasn’t being carried by anything. It was as if he’d been thrown. “What happened?” he thought, shifting his paddles, attempting to adjust himself so that at least he was horizontal—maybe he’d be able to stall his landing a bit. Because even though he was, at present, still going up, he knew that soon he’d have to come back down. Memory started to return—the fire, the brawl. He’d been winning! And then—and then—something… fell on him, smashed into him—flung him away, he supposed. And here we are. He returned his attention to the present. The ground was very far away, but didn’t seem to be getting any farther away. For a moment, things were calm. Then his momentum started to shift, and he started to fall. Could anything survive a fall from this height? Doubtful. “Am I perishing here?” he asked, but the question was ripped away by the wind—and so, too, was the thought of dying. No. His time was not yet up. Kree flared his paddles as wide as they could go and felt his descent slowing—not by much, but maybe enough to help control the direction of his fall—he looked down and saw the thread of a river. That would be better than crashing into dirt, even if it was only marginally so, and thus he angled his body for that target. Now to find more ways to get more surface area. He went through his assets—he’d left his utility belt at home and had only his tanks and his kilt with him. The kilt… he could feel the kilt catching the wind. If it was wider… Kree grabbed it and ripped it off, then examined the tear. Yes, there was a loose thread. Now, for a needle… wincing, not liking his options but desperate, he used one of his facial crushers to pry a tooth loose from the other. “Aaaargh!” That -hurt- and his vision went red for a moment, but he powered through and grabbed the tooth with a tentacle. Fitting the thread into a notch in the tooth, he started to sew—rapidly turning the kilt into a disc rather than a ring, trying to stabilize it. He checked the ground—still far enough away, just barely, he felt. He tucked the garment-turned-maybe-parachute under his arm, then slipped a sash from his body and ripped the water tank off of it. Hopefully he could survive with just one. He felt his direction shift—now he was off-balance. Cursing, he put the sash back on and ripped off his other water tank. Maybe without that weight, he’d fall slower…? No, didn’t seem to be helping. Whatever. There were more loose threads and he needed to correct his course. Quickly, he lashed four “corners” of his disc to the sashes, and then let it fly. It didn’t help nearly as much as he’d hoped, but it did help. The river was getting very close, and still drifting away. Using his paddles and shoving with all his might, he turned back towards it—he could hear it roaring—the ground rushed up at him and he braced for impact—there was a sickening crunch—blackness.

Rainbow wasn't there when Kree hit the ground. Honestly, she only had a vague vision of where he'd landed from her vantage point, even with the fact that she'd had a very good view of the tavern as it... did what it was going to do. Rather violent, but honestly she was more interested in the crab-shaped comet that it had disgorged during what she could only assume was some kind of internal explosion of great force. She goes flying after him, mustering all the speed that her diminuative body can produce... not enough to keep up with Kree's meteoric flight, but enough to keep him in vision at least, and to see where about he landed into the forest, even if the large hole through several tree's branches hadn't tipped her off. The bastard was probably almost dead, after that, but hopefully... no. he wasn't dead. She dives down between the branches, reaching into one of her bandoliers to produce a small vial. As a rule, she didn't quite like alchemical things, they simply weren't the way she'd always done things, but they had the occasional use, and this was one of them. This one specifically was a potion of regeneration, different from the normal sort in that it spread its effects over a good portion of time, and still wouldn't be enough for Kree, but it would give her options. She popped the cork out of it and drank it, shivvering as it took effect, and then landed in the clearing that Kree had torn into the underbrush, running toward his broken body, her own quickly being surrounded by magic as she expanded to roughly the size of a human, though perhaps a little more diminuative. "No no no you stupid lobster you're not allowed... Hell's Bells..." She stumbles over to him, dropping down onto her knees at his side, continuing to swear loudly. He needed healing, and a lot of it. He wouldn't survive the trip to a nearby town, so that just left her. She quickly looks around, grabbing a couple of little shards of Kree's shells, one a jagged little bit and the other a little wider and rounder, something approximating a bowl. She swears, cutting one of her arms with the shard, trembling and holding it over the bowl, streamers of red liquid flowing into the bowl, filling it relatively quickly before the potion managed to seal the cuts and begin replacing her blood. Then, still kneeling in front of him, she'd dip a finger into the bowl of blood, rationalizing that the wetness on her face was due to the pain of cutting herself, and begin to draw intricate, swirling symbols on the surface of Kree's carapace, and to chant, intoning words that burned her throat and scratched at her lips as they were spoken.

Kreekitaka woke up, which in and of itself was a little surprising (and, as we're about to witness, was only the first in a rather long chain of several surprises). He'd barely felt the pain of landing--actually, he barely felt anything at all. That was the next surprising thing. What was a bit less surprising was the fact that he couldn't move his legs. ...Or his claws, for that matter. ...In fact, where -were- his limbs? He could still see them, and he had a vague notion that they might still be connected to his body, but it was as if some connection somewhere had severed. His paddles--a few of them--fluttered weakly. Another surprise: the voice. Only one person called him "stupid lobster" and got away with it. "Rrrrrr?" So much for a voice. A creaking sound is pretty much the best you're gonna get, Rainbow, at least for the moment. This led to yet another surprise--a bizarre mixture of emotions. First, he felt probably the most gratitude he'd ever felt in his life, that she cared enough about him to be present in what was possibly his final moments. Second, he felt a strange calm--as if having nothing whatsoever he could do and being forced to put his life in someone else's hands took a weight off his shoulders. But primarily, he felt an extreme annoyance. Was he seriously going to go out like this? Crushed on the ground after -winning- a fight, only to lose it to an -inanimate object-?! Without seeing half of his goals realized? This was probably the dumbest way to die, and he -hated- it. He was also annoyed with himself for allowing some part of him to accept his fate, annoyed with the gods to have toyed with him in such a manner... if someone could be more annoyed, anywhere, it would probably have to be Agrajag.

Rainbow continues to chant, seeming oblivious to Kree waking up, continuing to draw symbols upon him in her own blood, the liquid shimmering silver, matching tongues of flame issuing from her mouth with each syllable wrenched out of her lungs, tears of silver flame trickling down her cheeks, leaving burnt trails behind them. As her words reach their crescendo, she'd release the power, a tidal wave of Life pouring out of her and into the symbols that now covered most of the visible surface of Kree's body, causing them to flare brightly before sinking into him, leaving only burn marks behind as their magic takes effect, knitting back together muscles and organs, extracting obstructions and reconstructing his shell. It wouldn't get him to his normal level of functioning, far from it, but it'd keep him from dying, and it was probably all that Rainbow could do for now, her upper body going half-limp, supporting herself on her arms, hair falling about her face, hiding her eyes which had become an almost pure silver-white, temporarily blinded by the backlash of handling so much Life at once.

Kreekitaka shuddered and spasmed a little as the energies sunk into his body--strange crawling sensations working through his form as it was forced back together. The experience left him rather... well, breathless is a word. It didn't hurt exactly--nothing hurt, which was odd--but he felt like it really should have, rather like laying there smashed should have. The word "breathless" floated absently around his brain looking for something to connect with, and it was at that moment that he realized his gills were drying up. Shifting his body, testing a claw--yes, a bit of function was back. With the function came a spike of pain--and with the spike, a blinding wave of pain, as if the entire crash had been waiting for this moment to force itself on him. He made a grinding sound inside his mouth and tried to use the arm that was least mangled to try and rouse Rainbow. Burn scars on her face from the magic--that was rough. And what she'd done had obviously hurt her more than just that. But he still needed her. "Be--come... smao," he ordered slowly, forcing the words out syllable by syllable. "Fin'... ri--ver." She was obviously in no condition to carry him, and she used less energy when she was small, so maybe that would help her. And if he had a direction to crawl in, maybe he could get there before he drowned.

Rainbow doesn't argue against him when he tells her to become small. She just does, feeling her way up onto one of his shoulders, listening intently... There. The sound of rushing water, the smell of the river. "North..." Her voice is scratchy and raw, barely audible, though that was more due to her expenditure of energy than actual wounds... the regenerative potion would heal her physical wounds shortly, in any case. "Shouldn't... be far. Don't know what's... in the way, though. Sorry." She'd clutch to the side of one of his plates for support, wishing there was more she could do to get him there than just give directions.

Kreekitaka wouldn't have had a clue which direction north was had she not gestured in the direction she heard the river, and so off they went on a grand adventure--and by a grand adventure I mean crawling along the ground, Kree dragging his mostly-useless body behind him with about a claw and a half, leaving a trail of blue that wild animals were certain to happen upon eventually. Kree wasted no effort on speech, instead trying his best to bypass obstacles and just move as quickly as he could while conserving as much blood-oxygen as possible. It was a painful, slow process, and even when the water came into sight, Kree could feel his vision fading around the edges. Everything was getting very cold, for some reason... by the time he hit the water, he was mostly unconscious, and was only continuing to power forward mostly through sheer bullheadedness. He promptly sank to the bottom and lay there for a little while, just trying to regain his strength.

Rainbow would tumble off of his shoulder when he hits the river, thankfully landing close enough to the edge of the river that she can pull herself up onto the edge, curling up there in the grass, breathing heavily and staring out into the river, still not entirely sure whether she'd see Kree again. She'd stabilized him, but he'd still have a lot of recovery in front of him, and while he might be able to get himself back up to the surface, she'd have to prepare something... talk to his men, maybe. He probably wouldn't want knowledge of his being so wounded to become public until he's at at least healed enough to do something about it. But that required flying, and... that's probably not a good idea right now. She'd drift in and out of conciousness, perhaps having overextended herself, but... it was necessary, from what she saw.

Kreekitaka eventually, after several (quite a few) minutes, woke up and actually felt semi-normal. There was water all around him, he wasn't dying of thirst/suffocation (thirstocation?) and everything hurt. He could deal with everything hurting. He'd done that before. Carefully, because there were still broken paddles and he didn't entirely trust his body to propel himself through the current, he beached himself near Rainbow (presumably) and sat there, looking for her. "Rainbow?" he called, before noticing her curled up in the grass by the edge. "...HHHTHank you. I suspecTAH! if you were noTAH! here, I mighTAH! have noTAH! surviveDAH!." That's...quite the admission, coming from Kree, even as massively understated as it was. -Might- not have survived, Kree, seriously?

Rainbow groans. "No, really?" Still scratchy, still sounding like she'd been through hell. "You were some wolf's seafood dinner, you weakling. Can't even handle falling from a few miles up after getting launched out of a tavern? Come on..." Her heart just... doesn't seem to be in the vitreol today. "Just... don't do it again, jerk. Made me waste perfectly good Life."

Kreekitaka had to take a moment to consider his response. "I mean, if I haDAH! noTAH! hiTAH! HHHTHe groun' so harDAH!, I suspecTAH! HHHTHe experience mighTAH! have been fun. NeeDAH! yarger wings nex' TAH!ime." Speaking of which. "Where has my fabric gone?" Being naked out in the middle of the woods with someone of the opposite gender was pretty embarrassing, even if she was an entirely different species.

Rainbow shifts a little. "I dunno. I think you lost it when you landed, if it wasn't shredded by the trees on the way down. Also, yeah, flying is pretty great. Next time, with more control, yeah?" She honestly didn't even seem to think about him not having a kilt. She really sorta assumed he wore it as a fashion statement, really. Crabs didn't really have anything to cover up, at least as far as she was aware of.

Kreekitaka nodded slowly, shifting a little in place and propping himself up on his claw, flaring his facial crushers with the pain of it. "Aye." He allowed the conversation to pause for a moment while he focused on what to do next. After that moment, he realized that he wasn't coming up with anything. Maybe it was the pain, maybe the fact that his body still wasn't functioning properly, but... "Rainbow?" he asked, after a moment. "I have no iDAH!ea whaTAH! TAH!oo DAH!oo now." A simple, even more honest admission.

Rainbow nods. "Good. Then listen." She manages to push herself up to a sitting position, hair still covering her blind eyes. She's not... entirely sure why she wants to keep the fact she can't see from him, but... whatever. "Look... We need to get you somewhere you'll be safe for a while. With your people, probably. Somewhere where I can work on you without interruption or issues... and I don't know what I'll really be able to do since I'll need you at least mostly dry to heal wounds that bad... Regrowing limbs is -hard-." She pulls her legs up against her chest. "So, first objective, contacting your boys. They probably came after you shortly after you landed. I'd go back to try to find them, but..." She looks to the side. "Well, I can't be bothered." yes. that's why. It's not like you were worried about him and wanted to be there when he came back, or were worried you'd go off-course because you're freaking -blind- or anything.

Kreekitaka considered that. There had certainly been other uyeer watching the brawl, and -someone- must have noticed his flight path. So yes, she was right about that part. "HHHTHen sTAH!ay," he said, shrugging a shoulder and wincing slightly. "NoTAH! yike I can make you go. I yefTAH! a mess behin' me anyhow... HHHTHey'o trace iTAH! here." After a moment, he addressed her concers about healing. "We have some ways of heaying, aoso--if you are running ouTAH! of energy for now, pyease waiTAH! before treaTAH!ing me more. Io manage wiHHHTH whaTAH! we have in HHHTHe meanTAH!ime." Another slight pause. "HonesTAH!yee... iTAH! is enough TAH!oo have company here. Being ayone in HHHTHis conDAH!ition..." He shivered a little and shook his head. Not a pleasant thought.