you're in the jungle, baby / you gonna die

[lucetimods]

Who: All draftees
What: Fighting the Third Party... and perhaps the wildlife.
When: June 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. (Characters will be pulled out at 11:59 of the 6th.)
Where: An as-yet unmapped by the Malnosso tropical rainforest.
Summary: Here are your details. Try to stay alive, won't you?
Rating: Anywhere from PG to R.

No cut for you. Most of you will know how this works by now; if you don't, follow the lead of the others, or perhaps look to the last draft's fighting post for ideas. Don't forget to use your handy dandy character tags. Go forth and conquer thine enemies!

Comments

[all7seas]

Another arrow thudded into the wooden floor, just beside Jack's hand.

"Oh. Erm. Kennedy? Shall I tow you behind me like a great balloon, lad? Because we are going to have to run."

[simplestgift]

"Yes, yes, just a moment!" Kennedy scrambles to his feet, still a little off-balance.

[all7seas]

Unfortunately, as the renewed hail of arrows would suggest, the door was not going to be a Way Out. There WAS a window on the other side of the room, and upon inspection it was revealed to let out onto a sheer drop of fifty feet or more to the jungle floor.

"Right...I think we're going to need that powder off the floor, son. Eat as much as you can, savvy?"

[simplestgift]

"What?" He glanced at Jack. "Oh good--" A sigh. He fired his pistol and hit one of the grunts, but there was still an indeterminable number left. In a light tone of voice utterly contradicting his feelings, he said, "No one else hears of this, do you understand?"

[all7seas]

And Jack took out another one of the foot soldiers, but one swift glance out the door to assess their situation froze his blood.

It was him. The Elite who had killed him during the last conflict. Jack would recognize him anywhere.

...Kennedy could leave through the window. He had business, here.

"Aye," the pirate responded softy. "I won't tell a soul. Go. Quickly."

[simplestgift]

"What?" Archie looked up and saw. And promptly got an "oh shit" look on his face. "Jack, you can't be thinking of--!"

[all7seas]

"Kennedy! Out the window with you! Now! An order, eh?"

The pirate was busy reloading his pistol, then unslinging the rifle from his back and checking that as well. Revenge was what he wanted.

[simplestgift]

Gritting his teeth, Archie snatched a handful of the powder and flung it over Jack. Then he grabbed a fistful and crammed it into his mouth, making a grab for the pirate, intending to fling himself out the window with the other man in his own arms if he had to.

[all7seas]

This action took the pirate completely by surprise. "Kennedy, what...?!" He slung the rifle back over his shoulder, but the pistol was lost---dropped and kicked aside in the ensuing scuffle.

"Let go!"

And then? Then Jack was floating.

"BUGGER! NO!"

[simplestgift]

Kennedy kicked against a support beam to propel them both out the window.

[all7seas]

It was like falling in slow motion. The blue powder gave them just enough float to keep them in the air far longer than they had any right to be, but with a definite downward momentum. Jack flapped his wings, desperate to get back up to the platform and meet his murderer with a cold bullet to the brain.

"Kennedy? I am going to kill you. That...that was my chance!" he spat.

[simplestgift]

"Your chance to die again?" He didn't know the details of Jack's last death, but he knew that Jack had died while getting McCoy out. He also knew neither of them could take down an Elite--an Elite, which Jack Horner had barely managed to kill on his own last time.

[all7seas]

"No! My chance for revenge!"

[simplestgift]

They were still floating downward, and an arrow whizzed past Archie's ear. And yet the argument continued.

"Horner had to practically blast an Elite to pieces before it would stop fighting him. What makes you think you could make it so much as stop to think?"

[all7seas]

"I'd find a way, Kennedy. Could finish him instead of bloody floating down through the canopy with you. And don't talk to me about Horner, savvy? I'm sick of the idea of him."

Another arrow sang by, piercing a neat hole in the loose corner of Jack's coat but not injuring the pirate at all. In fact, he hardly noticed, so taken up was he with his own ill-fated cause.

[simplestgift]

He still doesn't catch on to the fact that this is the same Elite who killed Jack. To him, they all more or less look like a set of giant wings. If he can, he will grab the lapels of Jack's coat and shake him once, hard. "Take your revenge on some lesser soldier, then, but by God, I'm not losing you in a draft again, do you hear?"

[all7seas]

"Because a lesser soldier didn't murder me, whelp," the pirate hissed. He wanted so badly to punch Kennedy's face; to punish him for robbing the chance to pay back a debt of death. But something in the other sailor's words twisted him into silence. Instead of berating him or struggling further, Jack turned just enough to fire off a few accurate shots at the snipers who were arrowing for them. He watched as their bodies toppled from the walkway above and thudded on the jungle floor, but he felt no joy in it.

[simplestgift]

"And you think this Elite did?" He clearly did not believe it.

[all7seas]

Jack said nothing. The powder was losing steam, that much was sure. He grabbed a vine as they passed it and pressed it into the other man's hand before finding one for himself. Seconds later he felt all the weight of gravity bear down on him as the powder wore off. The vine provided a handy highway back down to the ground.

[simplestgift]

By the time Kennedy touched ground, he was suddenly quiet. He could remember feeling like he'd been cut loose from a weight pulling him deeper into the depths of the ocean, only to break surface and find himself adrift. Hearing about a death but not witnessing it, not feeling it with his own hands, not taking a life he'd fantasized about taking so many times but never could. It hadn't been the murder itself in the fantasies, but the regained control, that had been the draw. He knew that killing this Elite would not make Jack feel differently about what happened to him, but that regained control, not revenge, might give him closure.

This didn't feel right, and it was against everything he believed to seek out and murder anyone in cold blood, even if they were an enemy. It was the stupidest thing he could say, but he said it.

"We can go back. With a plan of action, this time, and quickly. Target the wings and get out. It would break every promise I made not to take foolish risks, but..."

But it would rid them of another Elite. That was what he had to tell himself.

[all7seas]

"We, Kennedy? I don't recall you bein' torn apart by that Elite."

But Sparrow's tone was soft, considering. He narrowed his eyes and considered the walkway above them. So high above, and winged enemies ready to descend upon them at any moment.

"Plan, you said?"

[simplestgift]

"We, Sparrow." He looked up at their enemies as well, squinting. "You'll make the killing blow."

Daisy had suggested something about putting spears in the ground, making it near-impossible to land safely. What else could use their flight against them? But he was already regretting making this suggestion. It didn't feel right.

[all7seas]

There would be no time for any fortifications. It would have to be a hit-and-run mission. Fortunately, Jack knew of a certain cliff top that could be leapt from in a pinch nearby.

He reloaded his weapons and eyed up the most likely-looking vine-pathway to the top. "Perhaps, Kennedy, you should run now; might be easier for one man."

[simplestgift]

"I can distract the others while you fight him. But Jack, it's a fool's errand and it won't serve any purpose."

[all7seas]

"It does me good. That bastard deserves no less, and I'll give it to him, now."

Without another word or discussion of any plan, Sparrow sprang up a nearby vine and climbed easily up the tree. A natural.