A/N: A little ficlet, possibly AU, set after Virus in the Machine (a Protocreed fic by Dark Ice Dragon). The basic idea is that Desmond(HADES) has gone from human to viral, and is hanging out with Alex.
Walk in the Park
Corporal Ray Person, USMC (United States Marine Fucking Core), irreverent bastard and all around loud-mouth, leaned back against the stone railing behind him. He'd say it was good to be home again, but New York under an Outbreak could be even more fucked up than the crispy-fried ass-end of nowhere a.k.a. Iraq. They'd all heard snippets about the first Outbreak, and had breathed a collective sigh of relief when it had been declared clean.
And then Bravo-Two had come back from tour, looking forward to actual showers, real food, and a complete lack of sand in places where sand really, really had no business being. And nobody fucking shooting at him, no IED's lurking like evil little demons under the road, and no shit rolling downhill to Bravo-Two from the brass.
And then the second Outbreak kicked off and suddenly leave was canceled and they were commandeered for active duty right there in fucking New York City.
Ray sighed and shifted his M16 rifle a bit. He missed his squad. They were all stationed through this section of Central Park, but Brad had read him the riot act – liberally peppered with straight-faced, slightly off-center profanities – for using their comms with no real purpose. They weren't in a Red Zone, so there probably wouldn't be any shuffling undead to lift his boredom, either. Instead, they were supposed to be 'reassuring' the civvies that there was some kind of protection for them on this fucked up island, which was a bald-faced lie. And keeping an eye out for ZEUS and HADES, with orders to shoot on sight, which was bullshit. He'd seen the training vids and the youtube clips – if ZEUS and HADES wanted you dead, you weren't even a smear on the fucking pavement, and nothing short of RPGs would even dent the germy assholes. In fact, the more experienced teams had strongly suggested he accidentally-on-purpose miss his targets and stay the fuck out of the way. The two germs apparently had a hate-on for Blackwatch and the Infected, but were indifferent about inconvenient Marines, and wouldn't actively hunt you unless provoked. Usually.
Movement caught his eyes. Off in the not-so-distance, two guys were navigating stairs, water fountains, trees, and anything else in their way with a truly epic display of freerunning. As they came closer, they intersected with the path Ray was on and veered to follow it, one on each side, taking the road less traveled over benches and rocks and- holy shit!
He wasn't sure if he recognized the outfits first, or if the impossible twin jumps from a boulder and a water fountain to the top of two facing light poles twigged it for him, but the way HADES – white hoodie and blue jeans – missed the light and fell onto the grassy earth with an 'oof!' then popped right back up confirmed it for him.
ZEUS, actual motherfucking ZEUS, stood on top of his own light pole where he'd stuck the landing, turned to HADES and gave a muted bark of laughter. And Ray was close enough – no more than twenty feet away – to be able to hear that it didn't sound creepy or murderous, just… amused. What the fuck?
HADES finished dusting himself off and ambled into the middle of the path. Crossing his arms over his chest, one of the two most dangerous monsters in New York looked up at the other most dangerous monster and… oh Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick, HADES couldn't actually be pouting, could he?
"Nobody human could have made that jump and you know it," HADES said up to ZEUS, but there was laughter under the reprimand.
Huhn. Neither of them had been using any weird germy shit, Ray realized. It was like… they were playing? He probably should be more worried, he suddenly thought. But, it didn't seem like the terror twins wanted to make trouble. Fear for his own life wouldn't prevent Ray from starting anything, but he glanced around at the oblivious civvies ambling along other paths, debated sounding the alarm, and held off for the moment.
ZEUS shrugged and stepped out onto the arm of the light, then leaned down and.. did some weird improbable twisting acrobatic thing that had him curling and spinning around the metal spar with the lazy grace of a trained Olympic athlete. "The human body is capable of amazing things."
"Showoff," HADES laughed.
ZEUS did a flip and a twist and only created a modest indent when he impacted with the ground. "We have an audience."
"Huh?"
Ray blinked as the two monsters looked at him. He should probably be freaking out, but he'd been in motherfucking Iraq, and (moments of PTSD notwithstanding) he liked to think he had a pretty good bead on when a situation was about to go FUBAR and when it was on an even keel. This? Didn't feel like trouble.
The terror twins walked easily, slowly down the path. They didn't look antagonistic. Ray stood his ground. He'd seen some very clear examples of how easily these guys could take down a fucking tank, nevermind a lone marine. If they'd wanted him dead, he already would be.
And now they weren't walking, they were sauntering, easy and loose. ZEUS smirked, all teeth and provocation, but not in earnest. Teasing. Ray groaned. "Oh come on," he lamented as they drew even with him, but he could hear the grin under his own protest. ZEUS' smirk grew larger, and HADES was grinning now too.
They passed him, and HADES angled towards the stone railing behind him, hopping up on it and balancing there nonchalantly. The two weapons of mass destruction, who could bring the entire island to its knees if they wanted, ambled down to the end of the bridge's railing, about ten feet away. And then turned around and start back his way. Oh no way. The fuckers were messing with him.
Ray heaved an overly exaggerated sigh as they reached him again, HADES hopping off the railing with a little flip.
"Seriously?" Ray asked, giving them a longsuffering look.
"Oh, hello, we didn't see you there," HADES grinned.
Ray gave another exaggerated sigh and pulled out his radio. "Oh no," he said sarcastically, hamming it up, "I have spotted ZEUS and HADES, and have to report it." And he technically was supposed to, no matter how calm they were being. "And then I will have to shoot at them, " he said with a meaningful, exasperated look, "because I kind of have standing orders to do that."
The sound of wheels on the path made all three of them fall silent until the cyclist had passed by, huffing and sweating on her bike.
"'Person?'" ZEUS asked.
Huh? How did they know his- oh. His nametag on his front pocket.
"Your name is 'Person'?" HADES elaborated, looking amused under the ubiquitous white hoodie, gold eyes relaxed.
"Yeah, Ray Person, badass marine extraordinaire, and don't you forget it, homes," Ray scowled, pointing the radio at HADES.
HADES nodded. "See you around Person," he said, giving a wave as he and ZEUS headed off at a jog, picking up speed as they went, using trees and lampposts to get altitude and now they were using freaky germy powers, leaping and gliding and running up the sides of fucking buildings until Ray lost sight of them.
"Man," Ray lamented, suddenly aware of the tragic lack of his cellphone or anything else to take pictures with, "the guys are never gonna believe this."