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"Heads!"
Midnighter ducked just as a dark mass sailed over his head and exploded wetly against the wall in front of him. He flinched as thick, yellow puss splattered against his leathers.
"Sorry," Jack yelled with a grin as he tumbled past in a flashy leap. He grabbed two more of the creatures and slammed them into a building, which helpfully distorted to provide two impressive spikes. The impaled creatures squealed loudly, a supersonic chitter that made Midnighter's ears ring. Their many legs flailed briefly before falling still.
Midnighter snarled and flicked the ooze off his gloves, adjusting his grip on his staff. Another wave of creatures was approaching, their squealing like a wall of sound. He threw a glance at Jack, who had apparently noticed something more pressing (or more likely less nasty) elsewhere, as he slipped into the wall and disappeared. Bastard. But on one level Midnighter couldn't blame him. The oncoming horde of was probably most easily described as giant, malicious cockroaches. The beasts were man-sized, with large mandibles and vacant, compound eyes. Their giant heads were topped with long, mobile antennae which they moved incessantly; in close combat their chitinous sweep over Midnighter's leathers made him shudder. He watched them approach warily by his tactical computer barely ticking over. As opponents these things were mindless and repetitive, and disposing of them was drudgery. A strike to the head, behind the eyes, and they went down like wet newspaper. It took him only moments to dispatch this last bunch, their bodies littering the street with legs in the air and their carapaces grating one the ashphalt. Midnighter surveyed the scene distastefully, kicking one last writhing bug into oblivion.
Jenny chose that moment to come striding through the chaos, post-combat fag already lit and between her lips. "Right, you lot, job well done and all that." Her white trousers were stained around the cuffs and her hair was in disarray, but it looked like she'd escaped the worst of the battle. Jack appeared from somewhere, disgustingly clean.
Midnighter growled at them both. "Why exactly are we fighting these things?"
"You mean aside from the fact that they were tearing through New Jersey?" Jack asked smugly.
"No, why us? Isn't there someone else to deal with this crap? I thought we were the 'change the world' guys. Surely there's a 'stupid monsters' team."
"There might well be, but I want to put you guys through your paces before the shit really hits the fan. See what you can do."
"You mean you don't want Jeroen to piss himself on live TV again?" Midnighter replied.
"That too," Jenny smirked. " Couldn't find the bugger when this alert went up, worse luck."
"What are you whining for? I thought killing was your thing?" Jack added.
Midnighter was about to snap a reply - when movement caused his impants to roar into life. Suddenly, figures spilled around a corner behind them. Midnighter tensed and dropped into a combat stance as beside him Jack did the same. Jenny merely pulled her cigarette from her lips. But a second later the shapes resolved into a mob of news reporters, cameras and photographers in tow.
"Jesus Christ, not the paparazzi," Jenny sighed. "Door."
A shimmering blue portal opened up on Jenny's command between them and the approaching reporters. Jenny gratefully stepped through, with Jack right on her heels. Midnighter eyed the oncoming reporters with the same look he'd given the stinking pile of chitin at his feet. He followed the others through the Door and almost fell to his knees as all the air was taken from his lungs. He almost tripped over Jenny, who was kneeling just beyond on the floor of the Door Room, arms folded tightly against her body and fists held to her mouth. The Carrier was freezing.
"What the fuck..." Midnighter muttered, his breath condensing in the icy air immediately.
Jenny's fingers were already turning white. Midnighter could feel frost starting to form along the edges of his mask. Instinctively he reached down and pulled Jenny to her feet. When she failed to respond he picked her up and held her against his chest.
Jack was standing a metre away; by the expression on his face he was clearly arguing with someone via-
< Midnighter, the Carrier had some problems going through an ice dimension for the first time. Jack tells me Jenny's down?> The Engineer's voice was loud in his head, and still vaguely intrusive.
< Yes, I->
<Get her to the medlab on level four. It's warmer up here on the living decks.>
Midnighter nodded once before he remembered Angie couldn't see. <Done.>
He strode past Jack towards the exit.
"You got her?" Jack called at Midnighter's back.
"Yeah."
"Good. My balls are about to freeze off." Jack disappeared back through a Door, most likely to somewhere deliciously warm and sunny. El Paso. Rio. Athens.
Bastard.
It took Midnighter twice as long to get to the medlab than it should have. He didn't immediately feel the freezing cold, but his feet were slowly going numb and the biting cold was sapping his strength. But Angie was right, it was warmer the further up the ship he went and by the time he'd made it to level four he was starting to regain feeling in his fingers. Swift was waiting for him in the medlab and he handed Jenny over to her without a word and left, utterly not in the mood for Shen's optimistic view on the situation.
Living quarters were on the same floor as the medlab, so Midnighter turned and headed towards his own. By the time he made it halfway to his own door he'd defrosted enough to realise he'd gotten bug puss in his boots. His lip twisted in disgust as he stomped (or more accurately squelched) his way along the corridors. Just shy his quarters Midnighter's computer roared into life and spat a mountain of readings, probabilities and strategies at him. A heartbeat later, Jeroen turned the corner and walked towards him. The computer went ballistic and Midnighter held back a flinch. The Doctor could turn a crowd of people into a shower of rose petals with a thought. There was no way to counter or combat such a power and the sheer fact drove Midnighter's tactical implants insane.
"Where were you today?" Midnighter snarled, letting his frustration ebb into his tone.
"I... er-" The Doctor mumbled. Midnighter got a whiff of the sweet stench surrounding Jeroen and wrinkled it nose. That explained the Doctor's glassy eyes and vacant stare.
"Never mind." Midnighter barked, brushing pastt he smaller man, who recoiled nervously. The computer quietened down. It was seemingly the first thing that had gone Midnighter's way all day.
A few more steps and Midnighter was home. The door opened with a soft hiss and he stepped inside and headed straight for the bathroom, more than ready to get rid of his coating of arthropoid ooze.
"Hey, you're back."
Apollo. Apollo was here. Midnighter turned to the direction of his partner's voice, a smile pulling tugging at his lips, and froze once more.
"My God, what happened to you?" Apollo asked, more amused than concerned. He was sitting in one of the deep window bays, magazine resting on his folded legs. The glass of the window was fogged in patches from his proximity, a sign of how cold the room still was. Another sign was that Apollo was curled up happily in one of Midnighter's coats, the black leather startling against his own slinky white uniform. The tails of the coat were wrapped around his legs and the collar pulled up close. What breath Midnighter had was taken from him again, but this time he didn't mind at all.
"Are you okay? Angie told you about the cold, right? Some sort of ice... thing... Midnighter?" Apollo continued.
Midnighter took a step towards Apollo, then another, and suddenly he was on top of him in the small confines of the window, hands clutching and Apollo wriggling away.
"God, you smell like ass." Apollo laughed.
Midnighter's soiled gloves grabbed the lapels of the coat, stopping Apollo's retreat.
"Oh, yeah, I grabbed one of your spares. It was freezing in here. You don't mind do-"Apollo continued.
Midnighter swallowed Apollo's words, his lips roughly claiming. He pulled himself into Apollo's lap, straddling his thighs. Apollo hesitated for a fraction of a second before returning the kiss with a vengeance, grabbing hold of Midnighter's own coat and pulling him closer. Midnighter licked hungrily at Apollo's lips and his partner graciously parted them, letting Midnighter suck on his tongue. Midnighter's hands released their hold on the coat and moved to rest flat against the sleek material of Apollo's uniform. They started to slide lower, down over that broad chest and onto toned abs when Apollo's hands caught them and he broke this kiss.
"Ok, this is adorable. But you really do smell like a dumpster puked on you."Apollo said as he pulled away.
Midnighter darted in with a snarl, to press his lips to the underside of Apollo's jaw. Apollo laughed but kept his hold on Midnighter's hands firm.
"Seriously. Why don't we take this somewhere else?" The words sounded like a dismissal, but there was a light in Apollo's eye that told Midnighter otherwise. He let his partner slip out from underneath him then Apollo pulled Midnighter out of the window by his captured hands. Apollo grinned at him when they were standing face to face. He switched his hold on Midnighter's hands to grasp just the fingertips of his gloves, pulling them off simultaneously and discarding them over his shoulder. Apollo pulled Midnighter's naked hands up and dropped a kiss on each fingertip. Apollo's long fingers then danced up Midnighter's arms and across his collar bone, curling in under his coat and sliding it gracefully off his shoulders to fall with a wet thud behind him. Midnighter grinned, each touch of his lover's hands making him feel lighter. Next Apollo's hands went to his mask, finding the hidden catches and easing the leather away. Apollo leaned in to kiss the curve of Midnighter's chin, then all the way along the curve of his jaw to finish just behind his ear, then ruffled his hand through Midnighter's close-cropped hair with a laugh. Finally, he twisted his fists into Midnighter's tunic and pulled him towards the bathroom, Apollo walking backwards.
"Show off," Midnighter smirked.
"Shut up. Do you want some or not?"
Midnighter just grinned in reply and leaned in for another kiss. He toed off his boots as Apollo pulled him, almost stumbling in the process. Apollo let go of him at the doorway to the bathroom and went to go pull his own borrowed coat off.
"No," Midnighter stilled him with a touch of the hand, "leave it on for a bit."
A wide smile broke out across Apollo's face and Midnighter pushed him into the white tiled room, slamming the door shut behind them.
An hour later Jenny came in and hollered through the door at them for using all the hot water. They ignored her.