xp_logs | Something Slender (and Awful) - Sticks and Stones (Reply)

Billy and Clint find each other. Billy tries to summon his stick and gets a hammer instead. Write your own phallic jokes here.

Billy landed on the fire escape, not exactly the most graceful of leaps or landings, but landed all the same. He crouched there a moment, heart pounding with exhilaration, looking back down where he'd been standing a moment ago. "It worked. I can't believe it." His marvel was short-lived, though, as the smoke and ashes in the air brought him back to reality. He quickly contemplated the choices, between the roof and trying to get inside one of the apartments, and decided on the latter. He hurried over to the nearest window, trying to slide it open even though he was almost certain it would be locked. It was, and he leaned back, readying himself to attempt to magic it open, when he realized there was someone inside. Like a real someone. That looked strangely like..."Clint!" he shouted, banging on the glass to try to get his attention.

Clint had gone into 'his' room to pack his things after the encounter with his foster fathers but, after getting Maddie's message, he'd stopped angrily packing and gone to look out into the hallway, frustration quickly giving way to slight bewilderment as he realized that the oddness he'd been seeing meant this wasn't really New York. He held to that belief even as he heard the banging at his window and turned.

Oddly, Billy seemed made of something more solid than everything else - he wasn't distorted in any way, not fuzzy around the edges like Steve and Andre had been. He stood out in sharp relief through the window and Clint found himself moving toward his friend without really thinking, trusting his eyesight and his instincts more than what his brain was telling him. Unlatching the window, he shoved it open and wrinkled his nose at the scent of something burning even as he gestured for Billy to get inside. "Quick, quick," he muttered, glancing back toward his door to make sure his foster fathers hadn't chosen that moment to reappear.

Billy didn't need much encouraging. He scrambled inside, closing and locking the window behind him. Not that locks had seemed to slow the Slendermen at all, but it still just felt safer. "I don't know how I got here, but man, I'm glad to see you. Wait, it is you, right?" he leaned back, scrutinizing Clint. "What's your favorite color?"

Clint gave Billy an incredulous look that morphed into rolled eyes despite his best efforts. "Gray," he said. "You look real... more real than anything else. So I'm gonna go with you not being fake and creepy. Dude, my foster dads are like. They're." He waved a hand toward his door. "They're kicking me out. But I think they're fake." He hoped they were fake. Based on what Maddie'd said, they were fake and he was going with that because anything else was just... he didn't want to think about it.

"Ok, it is you," Billy sounded relieved. "But that does not sound like your dads. They'd never do that. It's gotta be fake. Heck, this might all be fake, but we still probably want to get out of here," he suggested, pointedly looking toward the window. "So you probably don't need a change of underwear, but if you've got a flamethrower stashed here somewhere, that might be helpful."

"Uh, no flamethrowers," Clint said, checking out the window just in time to see a creepy guy jump onto the fire escape. He looked sort of singed. "Crap." Pulling the curtains, Clint looked around the room and then made a dash for his closet. "I got nothing - nothing good - no baseball bats, no golf clubs - I really need to take up sports with accessories. Can you like - magic something up? Bring your stick here? The real one, not the metaphorical one. Is that possible?"

"I can try." Billy said, closing his eyes to try to picture the staff lying on the floor back in his room. "I want my stick to appear. I want my stick to appear," He started to chant, a faint blue glow appeared around him. He continued the mantra, until a loud pop outside reminded them of the fires still burning. "...sticks. He broke off his chanting and the light vanished as he looked to the to the window. "Sorry," he muttered, trying to regain his focus as he turned the attention back to the room...where his gaze landed on a pile of campfire wood that had appeared, with a giant hammer neatly laid across the sticks. "Really?!? REALLY!?!?" he called up at the ceiling, before turning to Clint with an exasperated, "Take your pick."

Reaching for the hammer, Clint picked it up and considered it for a moment, turning halfway to make a comment about the time Billy had tried to conjure a hammer, only he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and whipped back around just in time to see Steve opening the door. "Crap," he said, squinting just a little as Steve seemed to bend, distort, then start growing. Clint's eye's widened and, almost instinctively, chucked the hammer at the creature that no longer looked like his foster father.

The hammer connected with Not-Steve, smacking him hard in the shoulder before clattering to the ground, and Billy had a moment's disappointment that it didn't come flying back toward them. The morphing shape of the Slenderman quickly chased that away. "I want the hammer back, I want the hammer back, he chanted, picturing the hammer flying back toward him. The weapon quivered, then leaped up, zooming toward him, catching the creature in the back of the knee and knocking it to the ground. "Yes! Take that--" Billy started to taunt, when the realization hit that there was a still a giant hammer flying at him. He ducked, and the thing zoomed overhead, hitting the window behind with a crash before vanishing into the blaze. He looked back at Clint, sheepishly... "So....yeah..."

Clint blinked, then slapped his palm against his forehead and groaned, "Seriously?" He didn't wait for an answer, just leaned down and scooped up a pair of sticks from the pile. They were each about a foot and a half long and had some heft, so that was nice. "Let's go before that fire finished up the building," he said, already heading for the door as smoke billowed in past the curtains from the broken window.

Billy followed in Clint's wake, sliding carefully past the stunned Slenderman on the ground. Once he was past, he turned back and gave it one long zap for good measure, then rushed down the hall after Clint. "Yeah, let's get out of here."

Molly Hayes is a self-rescueing Princess, and like all Princesses of Power, she does her best to help her friends when they're in trouble.

The world was all topsy turvy. Molly had tried to get out but all the doors were gone and it was just a room with no exit. But that was okay. Cause she had her fists. She could make a door! She didn't really get to do that a lot to REAL things so secretly it was kinda awesome.

So she punched the wall with both hands, one two, like it were a punchy bag in the gym except she didn't hold back. It made a fist-sized hole so she punched again, and again, until the bricks got dusty and the wall fell apart and fell down.

Clenching her fists together, she stepped through the hole, checking to see if any suit men were there.

Tandy was curled up in a ball with a slenderman over her- hiding her face so it wouldn't lick her again. "Goawaygoawaygoawaygoaway." She repeated through her sobs as she felt the Slenderman touching her. She heard a loud noise but she didn't look up, it was too close.

The other-worldly entity leaned over the terrified teen, reaching one set of too long fingers out, wrapping around her arm, pulling. It reached out with another hand, curling all the fingers in except one, which it brushed along the Tandy's side, just barely touching her, tracing her outline. With a third hand, it brushed its fingers over the bare skin of her knuckles.

It paid no mind to the little blonde who had burst through the wall. It had no interest in her. Not when it had a girl brimming and radiating fear at its very fingertips.

"Hey! EW!" Molly yelled, curling her nose as she grabbed one of the bricks and hurled it at the dude as hard as she could (making sure it wouldn't hit Tandy accidentally of course).

"Stop that!"

The blow of the brick only served to temporarily hinder the Slenderman. The projectile bounced off its head with such force that it actually stumbled back a step, losing its contact with Tandy.

"Molly..?" Tandy whispered and looked up when the Slenderman stopped touching her. The blonde looked up at the slenderman before she forced herself to move, turning she started to crawl away as fast as she could.

The Slenderman wasn't entirely certain what had happened. But it did know one thing - its meal was getting away from it. It straightened up, standing impossibly tall, looking as if it was a reflection in a funhouse mirror. It stretched all four of its long arms out to either side - the universal "who, me?" gesture - and continuously curled and uncurled its long fingers as it stepped closer to the girls, looming it over them.

Narrowing her eyes, Molly stepped in front of Tandy and the really gross bad guy and put up her fists. One was better than lots. She could take him. Probably.

"Get back! Or...or...you'll regret it!" she said. Maybe he was stretchy, like Mr. Angelo. She could launch him like a rubber band!

But the Slenderman paid no heed to Molly's words, and began to move toward the girls. The brick being thrown at its head had hurt, but it was only a slight pain - the little one could throw as many bricks as she wanted, they would only hinder the Slenderman for moments. Nothing would stop it from getting what it wanted.

Billy and Clint find Molly and Tandy. There is licking. And not the fun kind.

The Slenderman continued its slow approach toward the girls, reaching out one long arm, its fingers hovering just inches from its fear-filled meal as it closed the space between them. The little one had gotten in the way, but no matter. It would finish with this and get that one next.

And nothing would get in the way.

"Gross," Billy complained, wiping some mayonnaise from his hand onto his jeans, silently hoping it was only mayonnaise. The dumpster had seemed like a good idea and it had momentarily shaken some of the Slendermen off his and Clint's trail. They made their way through the streets, so far, successfully avoiding any others. His head jerked up as Molly's shout carried toward them, and he looked over at Clint. "That sounded like..." Not waiting for a response, he broke into a run, rounding the corner at break-neck speed. It took just a second to take in the situation, and without any further warning, sparks of electricity formed around him, with bolt arcing toward the Slenderman with a deafening CRACK.

If asked later, Clint wouldn't really be able to describe the feeling of chill anger that raced through him when he realized the person on the ground was Tandy. He didn't know what had been going on, he just knew it needed to stop. Now.

"Don't electrocute me," he said to Billy as he darted past his friend, the air on his arms standing on end from the charge in the air around the other boy. Ozone, he thought, a voice in the back of his mind telling him things he probably didn't need to know. It did smell like ozone, though. "Molly, get another brick!" He called, sliding into the space between the slenderman and Tandy, sticks raised defensively.

The Slenderman was knocked back by the force of the electrical blow, sizzling as it burned and the blistered "skin" popped. It recovered jerkily, drawing itself up to its full height once more, though its limbs continued to shake and tremble. More children. More interference.

Plucking a brick from the ground, Molly swung it around like a pitcher at a baseball game, hurling it at the evil man's head. She normally didn't like to aim for that area but there seemed to be no other way.

"Leave us alone!"

Tandy covered her head again when she saw the arc of electricity flashing towards the Slenderman - just in case it fell towards her. She only moved her hands so she can see Clint when she heard his voice in front of her. "Make it go away...I don't want it to lick me again."

"It licked you?" Clint didn't bother with waiting for an answer as the Slenderman stumbled under the onslaught on both Billy's electricity and Molly's bricks. It recovered, of course, and reached for both Tandy and him, but he smacked its hands with his sticks - it had four of them and he was suddenly reminded of playing Whack-A-Mole at the arcade down the corner from his house. "Tandy,can you get up? I won't let it lick you again, but Billy could probably use some help and your daggers might work?"

"Yea..I can still feel it." She squirmed at the thought and wiped her cheeks off with her jacket. "I think so." Tandy got up, her crescent moon around her right eye glowing. With the Slenderman distracted, Tandy was starting to think clearly again. "Molly, there are some street lamps nearby, can you grab one and I will make a hole in his side with my daggers and then we can make it like a giant lightning rod. Maybe Billy do hocus pocus and blow it up." The blonde lifted up both of her hands as she stepped to the side of Clint and unleashed her daggers at the Slenderman - not waiting for a response from the others.

Molly nodded. "Okay!" she said with a broadening smile. Rubbing her hands together, she dashed over to one of the street lamps and ripped it out of the ground. Waiting for a signal, she swung it at the bad guy, then let go.

That sounded as good a plan as any to Billy. He kept his distance from the creature and the flying street lamp, arms extended and waiting for the post to clear the space between them before sending lightning chasing after it. The metal burst into a glow of heat and energy as the charge hit it, and he held the current steady as the electrified object flew toward the creature.

The Slenderman stumbled back further under the assault of Tandy's daggers, and the pole drove itself straight through the creature's chest while it was distracted, sending the volts of electricity coursing through its elongated body. It jerked and seized as it was repeatedly zapped, and after only a few moments it exploded, sending white, goopy chunks flying in all directions.

Clint made a low sound of protest when the Slenderman exploded and shifted to the side in an effort to keep the egg-like goo from hitting Tandy. He was only partially successful. "Oh, that's just gross," he said, then spat on the ground when some of the goo slid too close to his mouth. "Eugh - try and aim somewhere else next time, Elvis."

"Sure, and next time I know we're going to get stuck in some crazy fake New York with exploding stalker-dudes, I'll remind you to wear your old shoes too," Billy said, making his way toward the other three, carefully sidestepping the puddles of ooze left behind. "Sooooo....anyone have any ideas which way we should head?

"Ew." Tandy looked at the goo that had landed on her, even if Clint had taken most of the hit . "I guess that could have been worse." Kicking on of the chucks of Slendy away from her before she was feeling more like herself. It the fear was gone for now. "Um...I am not sure. Maybe we should find the others and try not to get separated again."

"It smells like bad eggs," Molly said, curling her nose as she waved her hands, trying to get the bits of bad guy off.

"Maybe...we should follow some bad guys? If the bad guys are after us wouldn't they be after the others too so they'd know where to go cause they have evil bad guy locating powers?"

That made sense in her head.

"Unless they knew we were following them and then tried to fight us so....maybe...not. Or something." She shrugged, sniffing, and nudged the discarded necktie of the bad guy with her shoe.

"No, that's a good idea," Clint said, nodding to Molly even as he attempted to get some of the goo off his shirt and out of his hair. Resisting the urge to toss the handful he'd gotten off himself at Billy, he let it drop to the ground. "We'll just need to keep an eye out to make sure that they're not cornering us. I mean, I don't have a better idea and we have to find the others." Shifting so he had a stick in both hands again, he nodded down the street. "Just... Molly, grab Tandy's beltloop or something. I don't like how they can pop out of nowhere and just whoosh people away. We need to try and keep in contact or something as we move."

"If they try to fight us again, we can do exactly what we just did to Mister Licky over there." Her skin faintly glowing as she was actively replenishing her life force that she had just lost with her light daggers. Looking down at her hands that were still shaking from earlier, "Well, we are in their world right? There has to be others lurking around."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Billy agreed. He took a moment to get his bearings again. "If it's like our New York, Broadway should be that way, and we're bound to run into some on the way. Just keep your eyes open. Want to make sure we see them before they see us."

At that, Clint actually smiled again. "Dude, that's what I'm here for." He pointed to his eyes, then raised his eyebrows. "Let's head out."