Chapter Text
"Does it hurt?" He drags them over behind a large rock as they wrap a wound tightly with a bandage from his bag.
"I'll live." They answered stoically, turning their head to the side to listen for anyone approaching
"Not what I asked." He mutters with a huff as they check the tightness of the bandage. The sound of gunfire continues to repeat over and over with seemingly no end in sight after brief pauses.
"Remind me again why we can't just... y'know... bring them to madness or something? Just one peak at the true form and poof! Problem solved."
"Did you forget the whole 'background influence' ordeal? Not a trace of your presence? I swear, at this point you're trying to make yourself a permanent resident in hell." They raise a brow with an irked expression before they take out a lighter to cauterize a wound, the usual orange-yellow flame burning a blinding blue as they close the wound closes with eyes firmly shut and their grip on the small patch of grass below him tightening before relaxing when it's dealt with.
"Well you make a good incentive..." He gives a wink with a small smirk before helping them up. A grenade falls next to them before he grabs it to throw it back at the offenders. It explodes with a loud bang as the disguised angel moves quickly to another large stone tablet, closing the distance between him and one of the shooters. As soon as the barrage pauses momentarily, he moves quickly to knock down one of them with a yank of their hair and a bashes onto the ground before moving them to be used as a makeshift shield before being discarded onto the ground. His partner is not far behind and takes a more direct approach by gunning them down himself. He grabs some of the extra magazines from the unconscious man, pocketing them in his backpack.
The two of them finish the last of the lot and take what they can when the tension finally lessons, taking a moment to regroup by: checking for injuries, discussing what to bring and leave behind, investigating the area for where their tricky treasure hunter had gone by looking through a small crashed plane that seemed to be related to the torn parachute they had found stuck in the trees an hour or so prior. As they look through the unstable plane they find the plane's documentation and a manual tucked away in a drawer inside the cockpit. Hadiel pockets the book and papers in his bag with a light shrug as the both of them continue looking for whatever is useful.
"Hadiel." Samuel starts with a raised brow. "What?" The angel tilts his head with gentle bemusement. "The plane is beyond repair and the inner workings for one small plane won't count for every model. It's dead weight." They clarify and let out a small sigh, holding out his hand to take the manual in a way not unlike a parent telling their child to take their hand out of a cookie jar.
"It could be useful..." The angel mutters with a protective hand over his bag. "Oh? Pray tell on how that could be." He asked with half amusement. "It's thin paper so it could be a good fire starter in a pinch." He reasons with a smirk unbeknownst of the next fact turns his argument almost useless. Okay- pretty much useless. "I'm good enough of a 'fire starter' to the point that it would not be necessary, so do try again." He crosses his arms, waiting for the next point the angel would continue with.
It had not been their first childish disagreement since beginning this mission, but Samuel had learned to just go with it or Hadiel would annoy him for hours which, have to say, isn't very enjoyable when people are actively hunting anyone going after the treasure to get it for themselves. That isn't even their goal in the end, but of course, who would believe them? Still, Samuel had never been the conversational type and if violence was the language of these humans, he would communicate.
Hadiel's voice cuts their train of thought from going any further, (and for the sake of less exposition), proposes his next point. "It's one tiny book. You won't even be carrying it." He remarks, gesturing to his backpack. "So you mean to tell me that you won't decide to take 30 more 'tiny' objects that you happen to find neat?" There's a brief pause before a look of amusement returns to Hadiel's face. "Fair, but here's a compromise- if I find a different trinket, I'll just swap it out. Deal?" Hadiel holds out his hand with a bright grin. Samuel lets out a small sigh before shaking his hand. "I don't understand why you want that thing, but fine. I suppose... I can concede to those terms."
He lets out a small chuckle. "Did you really have to look so constipated when you agreed already?" Before Samuel could open his mouth to respond, a small glint of peculiar metal caught in Hadiel's eyes from a stray sunray that shined through the holes and scratches above them from the plane being caught by the tall trees, branches poking through a few of the openings. He tilts his head slightly in curiosity before making his way over, pausing when he feels a rumble from the instability near the back.
"Not a good noise at all..." He murmurs to himself as he, despite his words, continues with a beeline for the metal box, furrowing his brows in concentration before quickly snatching the hidden box in one swift movement. Samuel watches him curiously while he keeps near the front to even out the added weight on the back. "Hope whatever is in there is worth it. Are you sure you're not some kind of albino crow? You like trinkets far too much, birdie."
Samuel lets out another sigh, but takes his arm to pull him to the more stable section in the front caught firmly in the trees. "Be more careful next time, yeah?" He mutters quietly as Hadiel makes quick work of the box, opening the latch to see a file with a decent amount of pictures. "More plane documents?" He muses as Hadiel opens the file to flip through them. "No... this is something else... looks like scans of a journal I suppose? Also, birdie? Where did that come from exactly?"
He tilts his head to look over his shoulder at the writing and drawings printed inside with a low chuckle. "You have the wings for it, so what's the issue? Take it as a sort of payback for your own atrocious nicknames for me." He mutters with a softer expression before refocusing on the task at hand. "That's the puzzle from the entrance, wasn't it? I remember those symbols." Samuel comments as they continue flipping through them with different texts, notes, a logbook of some sort and finally some more relevant information for that moment. "Looks like it. Same symbol on the skeleton's uniform from the old ship too, so it seems like we're dealing with humans who know at least mentions of the curse."
"More so that they know enough about the treasure to ignore it." Hadiel lets out a small sigh at the very probably true comment, shaking his head lightly before taking a camera from his bag to take pictures of the documents.
"Best to assume that if there's scans of this journal, whoever we encounter has most of this information already." Hadiel continues as he continues snapping photos before pocketing the camera again. "Good point, but let's keep the documents away from prying eyes either way in case a certain group wants to fill in some gaps by any means necessary." They move away to stretch their back before taking a last look around the plane for any more hidden compartments or useful items before sitting at the edge of the door. "We should probably get moving before they raid the area again." Samuel moves to grab hold of the rope, looping his boot around it to keep a steady pace and climb back down to the ground safely. "Coming!" Hadiel quickly stashes the documents into his bag's hidden pocket before joining him on the ground again.