Hunting Slenderman

[dont_turn_around]

In the mist and fog and silence, there is a cave. There is darkness within darkness there and nothing more and the faint whiff of something ... not right.

But there's a drawing stuck to the rocks that frame the opening, a childish grouping of trees and a tall, thin man, with the words TAMAN SHUD.

Here is the end.

"I think we should go here," says Jack.

Comments

[dont_turn_around]

CHILDREN.

He whirls to the newcomers, tentacles poised as if to snatch, hands already reaching for the tasty morsels young people and the little rabbit.

[jack_inthegreen]

"NO!" shouts Jack, stretching out his hand.

The cave quakes. There is a flash of green light.

And then there is someone in the cave who is like Jack, but isn't Jack--someone fierce and wild and old, containing so much energy that the air in the cave seems to dance like trees in the wind or wild colts on the plains.

Herne the Hunter has made his presence known.

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

Steve drapes his body over the Bucky-shaped slab to protect him from falling debris, all the while staring in wonder at Jack's new form.

[zodiac_rabbit]

Momiji, still in rabbit form, shrinks back as the dark being reaches towards him. Then, his eyes are drawn to the man's change and quivering walls.

The question- Who was that?!

[a1enzo]

Enzo—sparing a gape for Jack's transformation—dances back, extruding the claws from the Ghost Gauntlets' fingertips.

[ambriel]

Steve's shield did not work, so Ambriel takes no chances. It fades away.

Then as the air in the cave shimmers with energy, Ambriel vanishes as well, reappearing directly in front of the Slenderman with a crack of displaced air. The circle of radiance moves with the angel, flooding the altar and the area around it with light.

Ambriel grabs for the Slenderman's outstretched arms, faster than the human eye can see.

[dont_turn_around]

Faster than that, he is on the other side of the cave.

Sneering, it would seem.

[zodiac_rabbit]

Momiji has fallen behind his two rescuers, and back into the darkness of the cave he just came from. Not too far, because there are flame throwers that way, but far enough he's not in the main cavern.

Which is good, for as the darkness envelops him, his time as a rabbit suddenly comes to an end. In a light puff of white smoke a naked young boy appears again.

"Ah, crap." A single white arm reaches out and snags his shorts. Naked during a fight against evil? That's just wrong.

[ambriel]

All right, fine. Since Steve has Bucky covered, Ambriel vanishes once again, this time reappearing in front of the entrance to the cavern.

The circle of light moves again, and grows even brighter.

"Jack?"

[jack_inthegreen]

"I am here.."

More or less.

His hand still outstretched, he moves closer to where the Slenderman is now standing, as if his hand would hold the creature still.

[dont_turn_around]

RAGE.

.

[mix_it_up]

Asami whipped around when Slenderman moved, but any kind of physical attack would seem pointless.

Instead, she follows Jack. His new form may be more... intimidating, but it's also somehow much more familiar. And about the only part of this that feels that way.

She flashes the light directly at him, and asks, "Is this the part where we destroy it?"

Whether her calm voice is true or feigned - well, it'd be nearly impossible for anyone else to tell.

[dont_turn_around]

He hisses at her.

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

"Please let it be that part," Steve mutters, still draped over Bucky.

[jack_inthegreen]

Jack(Herne) says, in a voice like the wind through pines, "You have tarried here too long, tree man."

In the distance, there's a sound.

Like a hunter's horn, summoning the riders to their mounts.

[dont_turn_around]

 


Funny how his stare and silence are no longer so menacing.

[jack_inthegreen]

"Do you hear them?" Jack says softly. "They're coming. They're coming for you."

Now is the baying of hounds.

Now is the thunder of hoofbeats.

Now is the hue and cry of hunters in the moonlight, on the night when the veil between worlds is most thin.

Now comes the Wild Hunt.

[zodiac_rabbit]

Momiji edges back into the light of the cavern, and out from behind his two rescuers.

His eyes flick between the super-powerful-individuals-not-near-him-and-doing-way-too-scary-stuff, and the people in the middle of the room. Feeling useless, he decides to move towards the seemingly-less-powerful-people-near-the-chocolate-person in the middle of the room. Maybe he can help them.

He sneaks there and kneels next to Steve. "Can I help?"

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

Steve just shakes his head, eyes on the Green Man. "When this is over."

[zodiac_rabbit]

Momiji nods, and watches.

[a1enzo]

There are... a lot of noises he did not expect to hear in a cave.

"Dani?" he whispers. Is this anything in her realm of experience?

[ami_imperfect]

"I have no idea what's going on," she replies under her breath.

[ambriel]

Ambriel stays frozen, watching with wide eyes.

Waiting.

[jack_inthegreen]

Anyone in the tunnel to the cave will feel the heat of horses and stags, hear the call of voices and rich, hearty laughter. They will see lights like torches, maybe even glimpse something of the Hunt--creatures made of magic, the kind that laughs as it rides into battle and fights for glory and honor.

They sweep into the cave, more sound than vision, and surround the Slenderman.

He can do nothing against their combined strength, their combined ferocity, their combined joy.

As quickly, as noisily, as raucously as they came, hunters, mounts and hounds leave the cave, the Slenderman in their midst.


He will not be seen in these parts again.



Jack slowly lowers his hand.

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

Steve scrabbles at the chocolate covering Bucky's face.