The Past Burns and Returns With Vengeance

Magma Heart || Damian & Tabitha || Flashback

It takes forever. Tabitha is not the sort to be patient in any sense of the word, and he’s getting fidgety and twitchy as they go; occasionally the prey looks at him, like he knows something’s strange, but he never says anything or does anything. Maybe he doesn’t know? Or maybe he believes too much in the story of Damian’s “sister” to do anything right now.

Either way, it’s his mistake. They stop near the woods, and Damian turns and smiles and gives the okay. Tabitha’s eyes brighten immediately, and the prey’s face—oh, his face—it splits into a grim shade of regret and then quickly into terror as he sees Damian going for his actual real sister. He tries to lunge, but Tabitha is quicker, and tackles into his midsection, taking both of them to the ground.

Tabitha’s hand quickly wraps around the prey’s neck, and with his other, he whips the shillelagh off his back and whacks the other boy upside the head with it, just so—a move he’s done many times in the field, perfected even, and the prey is without doubt incapacitated. Tabitha takes his time to search his person, to remove pokemon and anything of value he can find, and to grope experimentally at the boy’s flesh. Not as much meat as he would want, but not bad.

He hears Damian call his name and his head whips around, grin broad on his face, and he replies. “Lookin’ good, Dam,” he says, “so soft, like he ain’t spent a day in the field…. How bout’che? She errythin’ ye were hopin’ fer?” Returning the staff to his back, Tabitha stands and hoists the other boy over his shoulder with a grunt. “Shall we?”

#thatguywiththemightyena #magma heart

Damian grins a feral grin at Tabitha as he hoists the girl closer, thrilled at her soft curves, her soon to be terror. “She is good, and your catch looks downright fun too. Lemme check the girl for anything she could use to fight back and then I’ll have Zion cover our escape. She can make people ignore us, so we can get out to the forest. Wait till you see the spot I found, it’s perfect.”

Damian groped around on the girl, found two pokemon who were so terribly upset in their pokeballs, and brought out his paste to cover the seal. They wouldn’t be getting out from that anytime soon, it was something he had concocted himself.

He might have done a little extra groping, but hey, it was his prey, he was allowed to have his fun. It was more fun when they were squirming away in terror though. He hoisted her up onto his shoulder and looked over to Tabitha, gesturing with his hand to Zion to take point.

“Ready to head out?”

Brotherhood || Damian & Tabitha

Damian stops and is quiet and Tabitha is scared. The only thing that keeps him from going into a full-on panic attack is knowing that Damian knows he’s more than willing to tell him anything he wants. Zion teleports them outside, and Tabitha smells the ozone and feels the nausea in his gut, and he makes no move to, well, move, even after Damian has sat him down in the secret base.

Damian starts to reiterate what Tabitha has told him, starts to muse on what it meant and the signs he should have seen, and that’s when Tabitha knows he’s in trouble, that his punishment is coming. The manbun. Damian lets his hair down, and inwardly, Tabitha weeps for the future of the world. ….Actually, it looks fine down, too. How was Damian always so goddamn pretty???

“He knows,” Tab deadpans, a grim expression taking over his features, “he damn well knows.” Denied it like a blasphemer, he thought, but definitely knew. He doesn’t need telling twice when Damian asks for the details, because he’s been sitting on this for weeks, waiting to tell him.

“I went te Archer’s dorm te bum food off ‘im,” he says, “and she were there, so I thought I’d give ‘er a reminder who owned her, got me teeth inte her, an’ Archer comes back, forces me down, takes us both te the infirm so Lambda could patch ‘er up. An’ she glows and the Trickster—” Tabitha swallows heavily. “The Trickster spoke through her. Said… somethin’ about shards, an’ that’s why she ain’t been able te do shit ‘bout ye.” He’s had a lot of time to think about the encounter, a lot of time to wonder what it meant. He’d never learned anything about shards at the temple. “Her blood made me sick. She’s tainted.”

Damian continued to fiddle with his hair as he spoke, mostly to himself, partially at Tabitha. His disbelief was almost palpable in the air, his utter amount of unabilty to believe this. He looked straight at Tabitha after letting go of his hair, strands falling around his face. He really needed a haircut. His stare was mostly blank as he looked at the younger man, his voice was strained as he spoke.

“She glowed. She fuckin’ glowed like the priests say the vessels of olde did. Fuck. Fuckin’ hell. She’s a groudon-damned vessel an’ I had no fucking clue!” Damian practically leapt to his feet as he spoke, his voice growing louder and more agitated. “Shards. What could shards mea-” Damian stopped cold. He had been at the final battle, had seen what had happened. Shards. Motherfucker.

“The orbs were shattered after the battle. From what I know Sapphire and the boy had the orbs in them like Boss-- when the orbs shattered they must have found their way back into their bodies, fuckin’ hell--” Damian felt his face pale at the implications. “Tabitha, her blood’s made me sick before too, when I got too much in my mouth-- I never thought--” He stopped his pacing again, his back rigid. “She heals too fast. I never thought, just thought she was a quick heal, gods above. Tabs, if you had swallowed any more of her blood it could have killed you.”

Brotherhood || Damian & Tabitha

Tabitha watches idly as Damian fixes his hair—Groudon’s grace, it had gotten long, where had Damian been that he hadn’t been able to get a haircut and instead gotten an extremely sexy and glorious manbun? Tabitha wants to touch it. Tabitha wants to touch his hair. He frees one of his hands and reaches up to touch the manbun. Glorious.

It’s good to know Damian isn’t mad at him for taking shots at the bitch, though. Primarily, that had been what Tabitha had been worried about—that Damian would be mad he bit a chunk out of his favorite toy, that Tabitha would be in trouble, but instead Damian backs him up, and it’s a good feeling. “Ye make it look like such fun, mate,” he chuckles, “an’ ye know? All those beatin’s made ‘er tender. Teeth went right through her like tissue paper.”

They make it to another room. Everything looks the same to Tab—he doesn’t care where they head through as long as they end up in the nice, shady bit of woods Damian promised him. A small smile plays across his lips as he catches sight of Zion skulking around, and he braces himself for the sensation of teleporting that he hates so much but suddenly they’re stopped and Damian turns his head to whisper harshly at him, so close to his ear. Tabitha shivered, suddenly regretting saying anything. He could only hope Damian wouldn’t be mad at him.

“I mean,” he stumbles over his words, “I mean, mate—she, er….” He finds comfort in fingering the manbun. He swallows hard. “She’s tainted,” he finally manages to spit out, mouth twisting into a snarl at just the thought. “She let the Trickster inte her soul, Dam. I saw it with me own eyes, I saw it. The unholy beast…. It’s inner.”

No.

Damian stopped cold. He stayed still a second, taking in Tabitha’s words before gesturing for Zion to come out and teleport them. After the rush of ozone and bit of initial dizziness from the move, Damian looked around the confines of his secret base and moved over to a soft spot of ground to sit Tabitha up against.

He sat across from Tabitha, still thinking for a minute before speaking. “Tainted. You say she’s tainted. With the essence of the trickster.” Damian’s voice was hard, unbelieving. But it made a horrible kind of sense. “The quick healing, the halting when she would get so mad, nothing I did would kill her-- it makes sense--” Damian brought a hand up to fidget with his hair as she spoke, agitation making his manbun come undone.

“Shit, well this certainly makes things interesting. Do you think your bastard of a cousin knows?” Damian was going to have to do damage control, if Archer knew anything of this, if it was even true, then he would fight twice as hard to keep Sapphire from him. Leaving her there now was seeming like a very big miscalculation. “Tell me more. Tell me everything that happened.”

Magma Heart || Damian & Tabitha || Flashback

Tabitha’s practically vibrating with excitement as they head further into town. He’s never done drugs before, but he imagines this is what it would feel like, shaky and fueled with adrenaline and eager to jump at anything that came near them but just barely able to contain himself. Damian spots a crowd at a street performer and leads him over, and like a good boy, Tabitha follows.

He tries to do what Damian does, tries to eye the people around them and stake out a mark (it’s hard when no one’s wearing Aqua-blue) but he doesn’t need to pretend to bother for long, because Damian finds a couple of people—Tabitha has to hop to see over the crowd, unfortunately he hasn’t hit any drastic sort of growth spurt yet—and he can see they look incredibly alike. Related? Maybe?

Damian approaches them and Tabitha follows closely behind, ears perked as he maybe stares a bit too obviously at the boy of the pair. He looks nice. He looks… tender. But he keeps his mouth shut while Damian spins his tale about his “missing sister,” and though Tabitha doesn’t see anything, when the girl asks if that was her, he’s confident his brother must have had Zion standing by somewhere.

“Probably better to find her quickly,” the young man said as they went, “this is the way out of town, if she gets too far….” His brows knit in concern over his big, blue eyes as he leaves the sentence hanging. Tabitha says nothing during the entire goose chase, his eyes wide and flitting quickly from their prey to Damian, waiting for his signal to do the thing, the entire time his mind racing—were they far enough away, were they safe from prying eyes, how much further, how much further?? He’s not sure how long he can keep being good. Hopefully Damian gives the okay soon.

#magma heart #thatguywiththemightyena

Damian leads them down twisting alley after alley, leading the unsuspecting twins further away from the crowds and witnesses of the street fair. Zion keeps up the illusion of the small girl peeking around corners and giggling and when they reach a street near the opposite side of town, near the woods Damian stops.

He turns to Tabitha with a devilish grin, the two trapped between the two young Magma members. “Tabitha~ time for fun!” He whips himself over to the unsuspecting girl who lets out a screech as Damian descends on her, grabbing her around the waist and holding her flush to him. He leaves the young man to Tabitha’s whims, more focused on the nice smell, the soft flesh of the flailing girl he holds captive.

“Night, night sweetheart~” He pulls the syringe from his pocket and slips it into the exposed skin of her hip, her shirt pulled up slightly from her struggle. She lets out a soft wheeze of air before slumping in his arms, and Damian has time to admire his catch. Decent sized chest, nice hips, sweet smell-- he’d grabbed a good one today. She’d be a nice fuck, probably even more fun to torture with her brother in tow.

He turned then, back to his brother to see how he’d fared. Hopefully he’d already knocked his unconscious. “Tabitha! How is your prey?”

Brotherhood || Damian & Tabitha

Tabitha shifted as best he could to allow Damian access to the bindings, relaxing as he felt the pressure made by the motions and movements of the pick inside the lock. Damian says it had to have been a few weeks at least, and Tabitha believes it—now that he can see, his hair is longer than he thought it was, and he blows his bangs out of his face.

“Well, that explains it, then,” he says, “s’where I found her, all curled up on his couch. Thought she was tryin’ te git away from ye. Didn’t realize ye’d put ‘er there.” He sighs heavily and sits forward, shifting anxiously as he waits for his hands to be free, and when he finally felt the cuffs release he stretched his arms out and brought them around to his front for the first time in what seemed like forever. It ached, but it was a bit of a good ache, and he eyed the bruises and blisters on his wrists wearily, feeling the seeds of anger boil back up in him again.

If he’d been in any shape to, he’d have run off right then, gone on a rampage through the base—unfortunately, he didn’t think he could even stand on his own, but it seemed Damian was aware of the fact, because the next thing Tabitha knew, his brother was lifting him onto his back. He sluggishly lifted his arms to wrap them securely, yet loosely, around his brother’s neck, and he leaned into him and allowed himself to be carried. “Woods sounds nice,” he croaks, “peace and quiet sounds nice. Thanks, mate. Looks like I owe ye again, eh?” He laughs pathetically and and buries his face into Damian’s shoulder. It was comforting and warm like Groudon’s deserts. And speaking of Groudon….

“….It may not be useless,” he says after a long moment. “Uhm, Dam, mate—somethin’…. happened. Somethin’ not good. I, I, I… I think… ye need te be careful. ‘Round the girl, I mean. Careful.” He didn’t know how to explain it, but it had been scary. Even now he could hear the Trickster speaking through her, remembered the fire in his shoulder when her hand had brushed his scar. Damian was in danger.

Damian let a soft snarl escape through his teeth, he hadn’t planned for Archer to fucking take her in like a stray. He had to brush the hair from his face, tucking the longer strands that had escaped the confines of the quick bun he had pulled it up it before coming in. He had been busy recently, hadn’t had time to cut it. It was getting kind of annoying really.

“Trust me, him takin Sapphire was not in my plan, I don’t blame you for jumping her when you got the chance.” He looked down at Tabs, a dark grin on his face. “Sure as hell know I enjoy doing that.” He jostled Tabitha on to his shoulder, pulling the man firmly onto his back as he thought of a way to get them out of there. If he could just get three rooms down to where Zion laid in wait, they would be golden.

With Tabs settling onto his back, he started off, half listening to what the other man was mumbling into his shoulder until the mutterings turn more coherent. More scared. Damian made it the three doors down, and right before he gestured for Zion to teleport them out of the base he stopped. There was no one else around so he tilted his head back and whispered harshly, “What do you mean, careful around her? Tabitha, what the hell happened?”

If you could have a harem, would you? Who would be in it?

“Wellll--”

“Not to brag, but I did have plenty of girls in Magma more than thrilled to jump in to my bed on any given day. It was a fun way to indulge myself~”

“But I would certainly not be opposed to a harem. I wonder how much my dear little Sapphire would hate to be referred to as a harem slut, I bet she’d get so fired up. Maybe I’ll taunt her once I get her back out from under Archer’s thumb.”

Magma Heart || Damian & Tabitha || Flashback

“Oh… right,” Tabitha agreed, “yeah, overconfidence. That’s bad.” Or so he was told by pretty much anyone who he had taken on missions ever, especially after those few times his self-assuredness had gotten his squads into trouble with Aqua. He was sure even Boss had told him off for it once or twice.

His eyes widened curiously as Damian explained how the drugs would work, as he showed him the needle and wagged it back and forth. Tabitha had never used a needle, before—though, he recalled once upon a time his father having to fly out to participate in an intervention for a cousin of his who, apparently, used needles to do drugs, himself. So they were really just going to get people high, he concluded in his head. “Morphine,” he repeated, “like they use in the infirm sometimes when they stitch people back up. Aight, I think I understand.”

When Damian decides they’re going to have their fun deep in the woods, Tabitha perks up even more, if that were remotely possible; the woods were his favorite. When he didn’t want to sleep on-base—which was often, he didn’t like the stuffy inside air—he would just go camping out in the woods with his pokemon, and he knew it like the back of his hand. “I second yer motion!” he agrees easily, “mark our prey, an’ we set off!” The town was just as hippinin’ and hoppinin’ as he’d expected it would be—he can hear the hustle and bustle of the night life starting to emerge, and once they get close enough to end up on a sidewalk, he eyes the people coming and going almost greedily and licks his lips. “Aight, mate,” he says, “we got our pick!”

#magma heart #thatguywiththemightyena #WELL THIS GOT LONG

Damian couldn’t help but laugh as Tabitha agreed, the boy was nothing if not eager. He had been on squads where Tabitha’s overconfidence had caused more than one issue. He preferred his new position in the base anyway, thrilled that Maxie had given him the whole T&I unit to run.

The walk in the city is nice, lights and smells and people all converged in one place, the perfect setting for a grab-- so many unsuspecting victims, so many possibilities. He keeps an eye on Tabitha, gesturing for him to follow as he sees a street performer and a small crowd.

Perfect.

He quirks his head as signal to Tabitha, and sweeps his eyes over the crowd. No, no, no, wait-- there. Two people near the edge of the crowd. Both brunette, blue eyed, one young man, one young woman. About the same age as him and Tabitha, and if Damian’s intuition is right (he usually is about these things) then they have stumbled across a pair of twins. Perfect-- siblings are always fun to torture, always willing to try and protect the other.

He walks over, a panicked expression on his face, the game about to begin. “Excuse me, hey man, have you seen a little girl around here-- I can’t find my little sister, my friend and I have been looking but I can’t find her. She was right around here, any chance you tow could help us look?” He shot a panicked look back at Tabitha, the signal that the game was afoot. Zion had been released earlier, her illusions ready to help draw the pair off. The pair immediately looked concerned, the young woman already scanning the crowd. The image of a little girl, no more than seven years old, flashed around a nearby corner catching her eye.

“Was that her?” Concerned blue eyes peered at Damian as he gave a sharp nod, fake concern coloring his voice. “She loves to run and play games, could you tag along? She might come to you easier, she just wants to keep me and Nate here,” he gestured at Tabs, “--running all night.” the girl and her brother nodded, and Damian could hardly believe how lucky they were getting with these two. They started after her, and Damian slipped the syringe into his hand, with a nod to Tabitha.

The hunt was on.

Brotherhood || Damian & Tabitha

Tabitha felt his shoulders sag with relief as Damian’s familiar voice met his ears. Praise Groudon, he whispered in his head, someone he liked found him, praise Groudon. The blindfold was off, and thankfully, the light in his tiny cell dim; he blinked at him and whimpered around the muzzle, holding as still as he could as Damian took out a knife to free him.

“I dunno,” he croaked when he was finally free to speak once more, “I dunno, I been blinded this whole time—praise Groudon. Praise Groudon. Ye came. Praise Him.” It felt good to stretch his jaw and move his tongue, and he leaned forward to rest his forehead against Damian’s shoulder in a brief attempt to elicit comfort. “I didn’ think he had the balls, Dam. I don’—I don’ know how long I been here, I was scared nobody was gonna come—”

He yanked hard at the handcuffs, or as hard as he was able—it was clear his time spent restrained had taken a number on his leverage—and he sat back on his heels, peering ashamedly up at Damian as he tried not to cry. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, mate, she was there and ye hadn’t been ‘round fer a while so I thought I’d try an’ keep her in line, but…. I went too far. Too far, too far.” Vigorously, he shook his head. “Can… can ye git me out?”

#thatguywiththemightyena #brotherhood #i love how differnet both of our threads are hahahaha

Groudon, Tabs sounded bad, the whimper he let out causing Damian’s ire to rise in his chest once more. Archer had taken his pet, imprisoned his Magma brother- the man would pay. Oh, he would pay. Damian hurriedly pulled his lock picks from his pocket (he always kept them on his person, thank all that be) and began to work at the bindings on Tabitha’s hands.

“Of course I came, you dolt. I’m yer brother in arms, I’ve got to make sure you don’t get yerself into shit like this.” Damian shook his head and did some math in his head before responding. “It’s been at least a few weeks, I shoved Sapphire under Archer’s nose to keep him busy, piss him off-- wasn’t expecting him to take her in of course, bit of a wrench in my plans but this--”

He listened as Tabitha rambled on, the look in his eyes making even Damian feel a sliver of pity for the man. This was no place for his brother-in-arms, certainly not. “It’s alright, of course I’m here to git you out, I’ve got a small secret base near out in the woods, you’ll like it there, none of these city brat Rockets’ll be able to find it.” The portion about Sapphire perked his interest, he’d have to hear more about this later.

“I’m sure she deserved whatever you dished out on her, the little bitch has quite the mouth on her, even when she knows its useless. Her bravado can be cute until it’s fuckin annoying.” He kept talking as he slipped the bindings off of Tabitha’s hands and maneuvered to lift the man onto his back. There was no was Tabitha could walk out of her on his own power and not get them caught.

Magma Heart || Damian & Tabitha || Flashback

As soon as Damian was ready, Tabitha scurried out of the dorm and down the hall, pausing every so often to give himself a good stretch. “How many we gonna take?” he asks, “jes’ two? We got time, though, ain’t we? I wanna try it again, this time—take off the skin.” He shivered in anticipation. “Make ‘em watch each other while we do it. Imagine the looks on their bitch faces.”

Soon they’re outside, and he takes a moment to stop and stretch in the dying light of the sun, heaving a great, relaxed sigh. “Groudon’s blessin’ upon us!” he announced, “it’s been so clear all day! Maybe once we bleed the fuckers dry, we can hit a mud bath, I’m feelin’ good vibes from Him teday!” He reached up with one hand to grab Damian by the shoulder and give him a friendly little shake.

“So,” he continues, “how do these drugs work, then? Do we jes’…. force ‘em down their throats, er somethin’? Er is it like the movies, we jes’ put it over their mouth and they go out?” He couldn’t think of a time he’d done things like this—usually it was just a stiff smack up the back of the head and the prey was down, but Damian always seemed to have a new trick up his sleeve, and Tabitha was always more than ready to learn.

#magma heart #thatguywiththemightyena

“That’s the thing Tabs, we’re only gonna grab two to start so we can enjoy ourselves, we don’t want to get too overconfident. Might get ourselves caught that way.” He strolled along with Tabs, watching as the younger man expounded about the fun they were going to have.

“I feel ya man, it does feel we got him on our side today. And the drugs?” Damian let out a wicked grin as he pulled a syringe out of his shoulder bag, wagging it in front of Tabitha. “Once we find a crowded spot, we wait till our mark is distracted, and everyone else is too, then we just-” Damian let his mouth round and make a popping noise as he pretended to push the syringe. “It’s not chloroform, it’s a high dose of morphine, so we can wake them up when we get them to where we want them.”

The wicked grin was back as they made their way closer to the crowded town, the noise beginning to reach them. Damian let out a deep bellied laugh and tucked the syringe away so it would not be seen. “I say we take them deep into the near woods. Then we can have good fun with no distractions.”

Brotherhood || Damian & Tabitha

It had been days. Weeks, even. Maybe it had even been months. Tabitha wasn’t sure. It was hard to keep track of time down there, stripped of his sight, his mobility, his ability to even open his mouth and speak. Months of being starved out, beaten, treated like an animal, and all because Archer had caught him screwing with Damian’s toy. The only constant in his life besides the blindfold, the handcuffs, the muzzle, were the beatings, the waterboardings—and he was starting to wear down.

When they’d first taken him downstairs, he’d been certain he wouldn’t be down there for long. Someone would save him, whether it was someone he knew or someone he didn’t, and until then, he would need to bide his time and wait. It was a test, he would keep thinking, just a test. Groudon was testing his faith, pushing him to be a better worshiper, a better man, and so even when help didn’t come right away, he didn’t panic. He kept himself grounded, stoked the fiery faith in his heart and waited. Waited. Waited. He must have waited a while. He could feel his hair passing his ears again.

He continued to wait, kneeling on the hard concrete floor of wherever they were holding him with his hands cuffed securely behind his back and the muzzle and blindfold—well, they were one and the same, and with the odd wait at the back of his head, he had the feeling they were padlocked, an annoyance to consider on most days and downright maddening on the rest. He wanted it off—this was not a fun situation to be wearing it.

Suddenly a sound—a door opening. Tabitha froze, holding his breath as he strained to listen, to understand what was going on. It didn’t sound like anything of the usual. The men who came to beat him were usually much louder, much more obvious with their presence—this sound either meant something better or worse, and he wasn’t sure whether or not he wanted to know.

This was unacceptable.

He had been searching for weeks, ever since his little pet had been taken into temporary custody of that asshole Archer. He had been searching for where Archer had hidden her, but after a few weeks, he had noticed Tabitha had gone missing as well. He had heard whispers in the catacombs, about someone having been taken down, but he had found no paperwork for it. He heard many things, whispers, that someone had attacked someone in Archer’s room.

He had put the pieces together quickly.

It had taken some time, but he had sneaked past a group of the T&I members and made his way down into the very depths of the chambers, had opened the door and found this. Tabitha, blindfolded, muzzled-- Damian felt a hot rage bubble up in his chest, Archer had this done to him, and even if he didn’t understand familial connection-- this was fucking unacceptable.

He let out a sharp hiss as he rushed forward, knelt down and tugged the blindfold off with a muttered, “Fucking hell Tabs, what the fuck-- how long have they had you here, holy shit--” he pulled out a knife and cut off the muzzle, the blindfold following it. He let out a muttered curse as he saw the padlocked mess over Tabitha’s hands. “Groudon, fuck, Tabs-- I didn’ realize you were down here, I shoulda been here sooner, I’m so sorry--”

Magma Heart || Damian & Tabitha || Flashback

Tabitha laughed when Damian did, and followed his lead by removing his uniform hood, as well, struggling slightly to get it around his staff and belts. “Okay, but they can’t be stringy, like last time,” he replied, “that guy was hot, but he was like a fuckin’ squirrel, ain’t no meat on ‘im, an’ it was all tough.”

When they got to the dorm, he popped in briefly to change his boots and grab his ballcap, jamming it down over his messy hair. He waited patiently (or as patiently as he was capable) for Damian to change as well, practically vibrating by the door.

“Woods,” he agreed, nodding, “got it. An yer sure we ain’t gotta worry ‘bout the crowds? Like, what happens if someone sees us? Er follows? And we ain’t done, yet? I mean, I don’ wanna be a downer, this is, excitin’, but there’s only two o’ us?”

#thatguywiththemightyena #Magma Heart

Damian quickly shed the rest of his uniform and changed into his hunting clothes, a dark hoodie and jeans, and let out a gruff laugh at Tabitha’s grievances. “Fine, fine, we’ll find you a god one, with plenty o’ meat on ‘im.” Tabitha had gotten dressed quicker than him, and he hurriedly pulled on his boots.

Tabitha was practically vibrating at the door, and it made Damian pick up his pace. It was good to see his little pup so excited for a good ol’ hunt. “Yeah, and the crowds will help cover the grab. All those people clustered together, just waiting to be grabbed. We knock em, and make it look like we’re helping a friend fine a place to rest. I’ve got drugs that’ll daze em long enough to get em’ to the woods, till then they’ll just look really drunk.”

He finished suiting up and met Tabitha at the door, with Kess trailing behind. “The drugs’l wear off once we’re deep enough in the woods, and then we can have some real good fun. If anyone follows we’ll just lose em, or knock them. No need to kill anyone other then the prey, it’ll just draw attention.”

Magma Heart || Damian & Tabitha || Flashback

When he was younger, the sight of what Damian was doing to the traitor would have made Tabitha sick. Ever since the mudslide, though…. He waited patiently as Damian slit the traitor’s neck—no loss, there—and his grin, if possible, broadened.

“Yeah, mate!” he said, “some kinde festival er somethin, nothin’ with the Temple—music maybe? Carnival? Who knows? Gonna make it easy te blend it, Groudon, jes’ imagine it, pullin’ some dumb fuck right outta a crowd…..” He shivered with anticipation and took Damian by the wrist, tugging lightly in the direction of the door. “C’mon, Dam, ye gotta hurry, if ye take too long, there won’t be no one good te grab!”

Without another word, he shot off out the door, running ahead just enough and then pausing to look back and wait for Damian to catch up, looking for all the world an eager puppy ready for walkies. “I ain’t never hunted in a crowd, bifer,” he added when Damian was once again within earshot, “have ye? Will ye show me how te do it? It’s always been Aquas an’ shit, ye know, nothin’ anyone’d notice er care ‘bout.”

#Magma Heart #thatguywiththemightyena

“Nice! It’s always easier to grab in a crowd, nine times out a’ ten people tend to look the other way.” He let out a short laugh as he picked up the pace to match Tabitha, making sure he didn’t get pupped over by Tabs insistent tugging on his wrist. “I’ve done it plenty o’ times before, we’ll find you a nice lad and I’ll grab me a pretty piece of ass.”

He watched Tabitha dart forward and let out another laugh, louder this time and ran to catch up, pulling off his uniform hoodie as he did. He finally caught up with the overeager boy, and felt a smile tug at his lips. It was always so nice to have such an eager little peon to have around him, the boys willingness to kill was an even better bonus.

“I’ll grab ‘em, and you’ll help me drag them out to the woods. Deep enough in that no’one ‘ll stumble across us, and then we can have out fun. Jus’ point me out whomever you want, we’ll follow ‘em till we find a good opportunity to snag them. Then when we get them to the woods the fun begins!”

Magma Heart || Damian & Tabitha || Flashback

The Magma base was always buzzing with activity, for as long as Tabitha could remember staying there. It didn’t seem to matter the time or the day, everyone was always busy doing something, whether it was working or goofing off or other things, it never got boring. Well… maybe not never. It may have always been a buzzing, but it was a peaceful buzzing, like a happy vibrava dancing through the air. Sometimes, Tabitha thought, sometimes the peace could be stifling, and that was why he tried to keep as busy with missions outside as possible. It just so happened that, this week, there hadn’t been any, and he was going out of his mind.

Of course, boredom could easily be fixed. As usual, the boy found his steps—well, skips—leading him towards a very particular room, and he barely stopped to knock before poking his head in, grinning from ear to ear.

“Damian, mate, ye here?” he called, “It’s clock-out time~! I wanna go do somethin’ fun, c’mon, let’s go!” ‘Fun’, of course, was relative; Tabitha was pretty sure if Boss found out ever they’d get in trouble. On the other hand, the feeling of the heavy wooden shillelagh on his back, the metal, reinforced knuckles in his gloves, the old knife weighing in his pocket…. They had a special kind of fun of their own, one that it seemed only his friend could understand. “I hear there’s some kinde big night do downtown, might not make a diff’rence if someone jes’ goes missin’, ye dig?”

#Magma Heart #thatguywiththemightyena

Damian was quick to look up from his current project, an older magma grunt that had tried to go rogue on them. He had managed to keep most of the blood off of his clothes, but some had still made it’s way onto his face. But he didn’t care, there was only one soul brave enough to just pop into his interrogation room without knocking, and sure enough he saw Tabitha’s grinning face. Fun he said. He could do with some of their homebrew fun.

He swiped the knife clean across the man’s neck, listening to him gurgle as he bled out. “Wasn’t getting anything good from this one anyways. You said there’s something going on downtown? Lemme wash my face and grab a dark hoodie back at our bunk-- I haven’t had good fun in waaaaay too long mate.”

He rinsed off his knife before settling it down on his rack, knowing one of the grunts would clean up the mess he had made later. The joys of being higher echelon, he never tired of living this way. “Alright, let’s move, the night is young and there is prey to be had.” A dark grin settled onto his face as he walked over to where Tabitha stood.

Meeting || Open

Well, on the plus side, Damian didn’t yell at Shugo for snapping at him. On the minus side, Shugo did not, in any way, find himself comfortable at all with the look he was given, quite nearly taking a large step backwards and showing weakness, but stopping himself just short. A feeling of dread settled into his stomach as Damian led him down into the bowels of the base; it seemed to get darker the further they went, not to mention colder and creepier.

The room they ended up in didn’t make Shugo feel any better, of course. For a brief moment as they entered, he took in everything in the room he could, including what looked to be a man secured to a table with no way to run. Immediately, Shugo averted his gaze, trying to look anywhere but the prisoner; no, he wasn’t happy with this situation, not at all, his was already too much, and if it he wouldn’t lose points for doing it, he would turn around and run right back the way he came. Instead, he tried to focus on Damian, swallowing hard before he opened his mouth to reply.

“U-uhm—no, Shugo is fine,” he said, voice betraying his unease, “what, um, what are we…?” For a moment, he glanced back to the poor sod on the table. “I, I mean, Mr. Damian, what are we going to…..? Why is… is he…..?”

Damian gave a sigh internally. Gods, the kid was gonna be squeamish. He kept a patient smile on his face as he addressed the youngster. He had expected as much, not many young boys had the... enthusiasm he and Tabitha had back in Magma. He hoped the kid wasn’t someone important, he didn’t need him running back to mum or pops whining about how an interrogator traumatized him today.

“Alright then Shugo, this is the first lesson for today. But first I would like to know something.” Damian walked around to the table of sharp instruments next to the groggy man strapped up. He was a snitch, had tried to give away the location of one of the bases to the cops before he had been caught. Nothing had been let out, and the man was in for a very vigorous round of questioning.

“How... squeamish are you?”

#rocketborn #meeting

Bros In Crime || Damian & Tabitha

Tabitha pulled a face—’playing nice’, yeah, that was a laugh and a half. He didn’t even think his cousin would be capable of letting them do such a thing, at this point, and with Damian’s prey in the mix….. “He ain’t gonna let us, if he finds out ‘bout her, mate,” he said, “‘specially not if he finds out yer the one beatin’ her. Ye gonna keep it low-key, er ye gonna play the roulette on this one? ‘Cause I guarantee ye, ye git inte it with ‘im, he got strings te the whole system. I don’ wanna have te worry ‘bout wakin’ up te find out ye got put six feet under, ye hear?”

As soon as Tab realized what he’d just admitted to, he quickly slapped his hand over his own mouth, but the damage had been done, and he winced. “He… don’t really know,” he murmured, “but—but I mean, ye know, it ain’t like I don’t eat, I got plenty o’ pokefood, it gets ye through arright. Bodies turn up in the halls from time te time, too, but—c’mon, mate, I don’t need nothin’ special, ye cut a few bitches, we crack a few heads, we both get off, an’ there’s food righ’ there—sooner the better, eh?”

#thatguywiththemightyena #bros in crime

Damian had to suppress a grin at the antics of the younger man, he knew how much it peeved Tabs to have to behave like this. He rolled his eyes at the mention of Archer and let out a bemused chuckle. “About that--- he already knows about her, he found me roughin’ her up a little while back. He mighttttt be out for my blood already.” Damian did his best impression of a sheepish smile, but one with far too many teeth.

“I plan on playing the roulette with this one, but I’ve got backup plans if he tries to pull anything, don’t worry.” Damian gave a sharp grin to Tabs, before pulling the other man into a side grip to ruffle his hair once more. “In the meantime, we’ve got to git some food inta you, I can’t believe Archer is letting you go hungry here!” He spoke with mock sarcasm, it was no secret he despised Archer, but loved to fuck with him.

“I’ve got a bar nearby,” Damian stared, “And they know me well enough to know I pay well for them to look the other way. Let’s get you some good food, and some better booze.” He gave the younger man the closest thing he had to a real smile. “How bout it?”

Meeting || Open

Shugo hesitated for only a moment when the man motioned him in, taking small, unsure, shuffling steps as he slowly glanced around the small office. He’d never been downstairs, before, and he couldn’t think of anyone in his training group who had, but then once his dad had gotten in trouble and—again, he pushed the thought out of his mind, focusing in on what the man was saying to him, and that was when he heard what was ostensibly the worst four-letter word that could be thrown around between kids like him.

“I’m not a recruit,” he groused, unable to help but prickle up, “and I didn’t piss off anyone. I’m second generation, and I’d bet my nidoran I’ve been here longer than an outsider like you.” Good job, dolt, he found himself thinking, making friends with the mentor, A+, totally won’t lose any of his points for the afternoon. Immediately, he deflated, eyes falling to rest on his feet. “The aptitude exam is in a few months. They want us to have experience with a lot of the jobs so they have an easier time placing us into departmental trainings.”

Fidgeting, he looked back up, eyeing the man wearily. He looked—well, Shugo supposed he looked alright. He didn’t seem like the demented monster his dad had made interrogators out to be, but—but there was something, something that just seemed off, the same kind of something that felt wrong abut Mr. Petrel, but Shugo couldn’t quite place it. Thank Mew this was only for one day—still, he supposed he should be making an effort to behave himself, and with a sigh, he snapped off the salute he and his peers had been taught since they were old enough to begin training.

“Sorry,” he continued softly, “sorry, it’s just—there’s a lot of pressure on my class, right now. But I’m here and I’m ready to work. How shall I address you, Sir?”