Untouchable

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Kelly had been trying to keep as busy as possible in the days following the big reveal. She knew that she would have to sit and consider what it meant for her at some point, but not yet. She'd cleaned her armor, taking hours to get the olive drab metal to shine again. She'd modified her combat knives, installing High Frequency sonic generators to vibrate the blades and enhance their cutting power.

She's helped as much as she could with cleanup. But she was unavoidably running out of things to do. So when she'd woken up today, she'd decided to go for a run. It was the best way to keep her mind off things. Whenever she ran, it felt like everything fell away. There was no need to think, no need to worry, nothing to worry about. It was just the pounding of her feet on the ground in her ears, the steady rhythm of her heart. It was like a world of her own. A world where things weren't complicated.

So she started to run. Just slowly at first, but as her muscles warmed, she picked up the pace. Soon she was practically flying along the corridors, legs pumping as she loped along, lost in the rhythm of the run. She loved this feeling. It was almost intoxicating.

For anyone else? They had better stay out of the way, if she hit them at this speed? Well...that wouldn't be fun. For them.

Comments

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Sherry had turned the corner, looking down at her omnicom with a huge frown on her features. Wheeeeeen were classes going to start again? She could feel herself getting dumber by the minute.

And that thought scared her half to death.

So she didn't immediately look up when she should have, and as Kelly (quickly) closed the distance between the little girl and herself, Sherry finally took notice of the tmp-tmp-tmp of feet coming in her direction. She screamed and threw herself out of the way.

No, this was not a way to start her morning. Not at all.

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Kelly had thankfully seen the little girl step around the corner. That being said, at the speed she was going, stopping just wasn't an option. So she did the one thing she could do. Driving her leading heel as deep into the floor as possible to cut her momentum, she bent her knee, then quickly straightened it, hurling herself into the air.

Tucking herself into a ball, she finished the turn and uncurled, landing squarely on the balls of her feet. In an eyeblink, she turned around and was kneeling next to the girl she'd nearly just run over.

"Hey, I'm sorry about that. Are you alright?"

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Sherry groaned and rolled over onto her back to look up at the speeding bullet Spartan with a tired, annoyed frown. All these people that were faster than she was.

Where, Sherry wanted to know, was the justice in this place? "I'm fine," the little girl grumped and sat up. Her stitches were hurting less (Good!), but dive bombing the floor as an escape plan would probably do them even less good (Bad!) than running halfway across the Basilica had. "I should've looked where I was going." Except that she hadn't expected speed demons to come out of nowhere.

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Noting the girl's frown, Kelly decided against picking her up. She didn't seem to be hurt, which was good. But she looked worn out.

Really, if the place was about justice then there wouldn't be any baseline's on it. Or there wouldn't be any metas. Well at least the girl seemed to be okay, though she was favouring her right side slightly. From her body language though, it didn't look like she'd been hurt by the fall. "So should I. Are you sure you're alright?" Just like how Kelly hadn't expected little girl's to come out of nowhere.

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure," Sherry nodded and stood up. She looked Kelly over with a practiced eye and tried to place where she'd seen her before, if she'd seen her before. When the little girl didn't come up with a name to match her face, she squared her shoulders and offered Kelly her hand, "I'm Sherry Redfield-Kennedy."


Then she added, without missing a beat, and her lips thinning into a line, "Who're you?"

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Kelly stood up too, painfully aware of how much she towered over the girl. She never had a problem with her height, but sometimes, it wasn't the best thing when meeting new people. Kelly took the offered hand, shaking firmly and offering the girl a small smile. "I'm Kelly Preston. It nice to meet you. Circumstances aside." A pause.

"Redfield-Kennedy? Any relation to Leon Kennedy?" This girl seemed to be a little too serious for her age. But then, when Kelly had been the same age she'd probably been just as intense. Age had a way of... mellowing people.

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Lucky for Kelly, Sherry was still used to looking up at adults. Of course, considering that Kelly was nearly a foot taller than her father, it just meant that that little girl had to crane her neck a little more.

"I'm his daughter," Sherry replied without preamble. Very cut and dry (but most people called it 'blunt'), but that just made it easier to her point across to adults. Especially since a lot of them thought she had the intelligence roughly higher than split-pea soup. Sherry crossed her arms and added, "How do you know him?"

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Sherry had that effect on a lot of people. She was about the kneel down when she decided against it. With a child as serious at this one, she would probably take it as a condescending gesture. Hn. Interacting with civilians was so different.

A pause. Daughter? She didn't look a thing like him. Adopted? Probably. She nodded. "I can see him in you." As if the lineface wasn't enough of a clue. This girl was sharp, and Kelly liked it. It was so good to meet a child who didn't behave like they belonged in a zoo. Sherry reminded her a little of herself at that age. "We're acquaintances. I beat him in a game of Tetris once. And he helped me get my weapons from Stacy before the last battle. Seems a good sort."

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

"He is," Sherry replied with a conviction only someone's child could give. She didn't care what the rest of the ship thought of her father. He did what he thought was right, that a lot of them were too...

Well, that a lot of them seemed to be self-important, entitled jerks hadn't escaped Sherry's notice. Kelly, however, seemed to be more along her father's lines. Well, good. Maybe she was like Doctor Sera that way. "You haven't happened to see him yet, have you? I wanted to say good morning before he got too busy..."

[madeofwyn.livejournal.com]

The Media Library needed more books about programming languages Wyn was familiar with. Wyn was on her way back to her room from a relatively fruitless search of the Media Library (although in this case, 'relatively fruitless' means 'arms full of the datapads Stacy used for book storage'), muttering quietly about useless information.

She's a little preoccupied with juggling the massive amount of stuff in her arms, so she's not likely to notice anyone, say... running towards her extremely quickly.

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Spotting the girl stepping out into the hallway long before she's anywhere near there, Kelly manages to gradually slow her pace to avoid crashing into Wyn. And by gradually slow, she meant digging a heel into the fleshy floor in front of her with bone-jarring force to cut her momentum by half.

This girl is familiar. They'd met before hadn't they? What was her name again? Falling into step beside her, Kelly looked at the pile of things in her arms and raised a brow. Why was she carrying so much stuff? If she wasn't careful she'd walk into something and hurt herself.

"You want some help with that?"

[madeofwyn.livejournal.com]

"A bhidse!" Wyn squeaks as she finally notices the Spartan hurtling towards her-- albeit at a greatly reduced pace. She recognized the woman running towards her, but she couldn't quite remember her name...

"Do you mind?" she asks hopefully. Yes, help would be the best thing ever at this point, thanks for asking!

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Thankfully, Kelly had managed to slow to a stop. She wasn't evenn breathing hard, which was something that irked her. She hadn't gotten enough of a workout. But it was alright, building relationships with other crewmembers was important, right?

"Not at all. Here." Reaching out, she scooped two thirds of the pile into her arms, easily carrying the stuff, heck, she even managed to keep one arm reasonably free. "I know we've met. But I'm sorry, I can't remember your name. I'm Kelly." She offered her free hand.

[madeofwyn.livejournal.com]

Well, the hours right after podpop is a little traumatic, even for the best of the crew. "It was a while ago, yeah. I'm Wyn, nice to meet you." Wyn says, managing to shake Kelly's hand around the pile of datapads.

"Sorry for getting in your way back there," she continues, heading for the crew's quarters.

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

They were at that. Kelly hadn't exactly been very happy about the whole situation. She returned the handshake warmly enough, offering a slight smile and she did. "Good to meet you again, Wyn."

Falling into step beside her, Kelly actually had to slow herself down to keep from outstripping the girl. "It's no problem. The hallways probably aren't the best place for that kind of running come to think of it."

[madeofwyn.livejournal.com]

Wyn's short. She automatically has to take about two steps for one of Kelly's. "Well, there's really nowhere else to run, save the City, which is kind of... empty and creepy."

A small floating robot suddenly zooms over Kelly's head and flips around to fly backwards, clearly deciding that inspecting Kelly was more important than potentially running into things. "Well, look who decided to show up again." Wyn says, giving the tiny scoutbot a very unimpressed look. "I thought one of the conditions of you coming with me was that you'd keep up?"

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Kelly noticed and tried to slow down a little. But really, there was only so much she could do. She was almost seven feet tall after all. "Well, if it helps me not run people over, I suppose the City would be a better option. I'd rather not have to deal with speeding tickets for morning exercises." Was that a joke?

Kelly started when the robot flew out of nowhere. Her first instinct was to swipe at it. In her experience, things that moved like that weren't friendly. But Wyn seemed to know it? So she let it be for the moment. Though she didn't like it hovering in her face like that. "Do you...know this thing?"

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Lafiel jogged in the opposite direction. She hoped for cold to mist her breath and give some break from the oppressive humidity, but as always there was no such luck.

She was saved for the umpteenth time by her froce. The Abh space-sensory-organ provided her just the right tickle, the right feeling of something much larger than her that as Kelly rounded the corner, she could throw herself into a roll away from the onrushing Spartan. She end up awkwardly half finished with her roll against the other wall. Hardly a pose for an empress. She thought as she got up.

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

What was it with her and nearly running into people today? Actually, running through the hallways was probably a bad idea in and of itself. Which was probably why she kept nearly running into people. That being said, she saw the Abh as she flashed past and quickly corrected her pace, turning to face the opposite way and jogging back to Lafiel.

Reaching the other woman, she offered her hand to help her up. "I'm sorry about that. You okay?"

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Ever tsundere, Lafiel pushed herself up from the ground instead. The Spartan looked as if she could pick Lafiel up and shot-put her but she looked at her as if they were the same height.

"I am fine...Oh, hello Petty Officer Preston."

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Well, she had lifted the Abh before. And she was very very strong. Noting the look the Abh gave her, Kelly couldn't help a momentary smile. It was so reminiscent of John.

"Hello Empress. I hope I didn't startle you too much."

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

"Don't call me-" It's a reflexive exclamation, a defense against those who would call her the product of nepotism in the star forces. "Oh. Sorry. That was force of habit. Have you started your training for today then?"

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

There was a momentary pause when the Abh snapped, but Kelly relaxed again when she apologized. She knew what it was like. "This? Oh no. I was just running. It helps me think."

Or not think as the case may be.

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

"Oh, well as long as we're both here, would you like to start our training early today?" A small, hopeful question. Totally moe' Empress.

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

"Of course. If you're sure it isn't breaking your routine?" The woman had been jogging after all. At that look though, Kelly had to blink, before her expression softened and she smiled. "I wouldn't mind in the slightest."