Weakfish (Catherine,Doku)

He wasn't exactly sure why she was so mad at him for shooting, he was expecting the Hollow to feel pain, but with each shot, he heard it scream and finally stop, he thought it was dead, slowly lowering his gun, it was still squirming, but he thought it would die soon. He passed and watched, closely, despite lowering his gun, he kept it tightly in his grip.

Two of them?! Damnit, he felt bad causing Catherine to get hurt, but then again he was hurting the Hollow, at least it was weak... Doku went to aim but the creature already snuck into the woods, regardless he would pull the trigger, firing a few shots as it fled, hoping to strike it. As Catherine rose, he looked at her wound.

As she spoke up to him he would look over at her. "I was! That thing has thick skin, I was hoping I'd pierce its head and just kill it..." He grumbled and looked at her. "We need a plan against these things." He raised his gun, spinning the cylinder.

"Calm down and communicate..." He spoke briefly looking at her.

"DON'T TELL ME TO GODDAMN CALM DOWN, FISCHER!" She'd snap back at him, eyes widened with adrenaline fury, jabbing a finger at his chest, "This isn't a fucking game, get this through your damn head; The HEAD," She'd point at her own for emphasis, "Is the WORST place to put your shots into. Hollow masks are HARD. You need CONSIDERABLE power to punch through that, and your dinky ass unfocused bullets might as well be peashots on steel. There is no goddamn plan on the field, only common sense; I don't have any damn time to give you a damn mission briefing-"

She quickly searched the surroundings; they were probably being circled, "Briefing, when we're being HUNTED. Use your damn head, clear out all your fear because I can SMELL it on your dumb ass. You weren't thinking, you were reacting, shittily at that. Don't fucking do that. Get ready."

Catherine certainly was a crazy one, but she did have a point, Doku didn't know much about Hollow, usually, his bullets pierced through the Hollow, but this one was tougher. He was always used to the fodder hollow, the ones who crumbled to his attacks, guess it made sense Catherine went after the tougher ones. He needed to step up and show Catherine he wasn't the weakfish she thought he was!

Fear. Well she got that right, he was scared, he might have signed up for a tougher fight than he expected. "Right," A deep breath escaped from him, raising the shield given to him once again. He felt kinda useless right now, he couldn't SEE them so how was he supposed to shoot, Catherine had her spear, so maybe he'd need to punch. Guess he'd need to focus on his portals and Bringer Light if he could lure the Hollow in and portal them to Catherine, she'd be able to slice it up.

He'd move quickly, using his Bringer Light to move forward quickly, putting about 10 feet between him and Catherine, enough so that he could still see her, suddenly he would start to release his Reiatsu, trying to bait the Hollows to pounce on him, that being said he made sure to stay alert, focusing on all the sounds near him... hopefully, Doku's gamble would pay off.

Where are they, where are...

A flourishing of Reiatsu burned her senses, immediately whipping her head around to look at--

"Doku--!"

Bringer Light pulsed around her being as she sped, right as the two avian Hollows descended upon him within blurs of speed and feathers, winged arms outstretched to carve him into meaty ribbons. Every step felt like a walk through mud, her senses in overdrive as her mind went faster than her body. Would this location be covered enough for her Fullbring to work? It had to be. It did. It did. It. Did.

She took in the environment, how closed it felt, how claustrophobic the trees were. Bunched up, closing in on her, those dark leafy tops roaring toward her...

And, as she crashed into Doku... The immediate area filled with a sudden gush of water, perfectly aligning with the treeline and canopy. Her breath was quickly held as she'd put a hand over his own mouth to remind him, the two floating to the ground as the two hollows thrashed and unceremoniously fell to each of their sides.

It was cold. Dark. Quiet. The brightest thing was her red locks in this freezing swirl.

Doku's plan was a risky one, but what was life without some risk? He had to step up and make a show. His play seemed to have worked! With a blink, he shouted out as he finally got a glance at the two Hollow pounce towards him. All he needed was to see them, keeping the portal made earlier open, he was fully ready to send them slamming into the ground, he wanted to use their momentum against them, creating a portal as they jumped, sending them straight to Catherine.

"I gotcha!!"

This is where his plan would come into play! However, before he could even open a portal Catherine moved faster. It all happened so quickly, as soon as he blinked he felt the redhead slamming into him as she used her fullbring, he vaguely knew what it did from casual conversations they had but this was his first time seeing it in full.

As he felt the woman cover his mouth he would also hold his breath, a bit confused about the entire situation. Sure she was trying to protect him, guess that was what friends were for right? Though he was curious, once this water subsided, what Catherine was he going to get? The one that'll give him a mouthful for putting himself in a dangerous situation, one that'll be happy he was okay, or maybe a compliment for his plan? It was impossible to tell so he tried to read her expression as he stood so close to her, he decided to just let her take the lead for now.

The two forms thrashed in an uncoordinated frenzy before the two, that trinket clenched tightly in her left boot, far out of sight or mind - every time she used her fullbring she had to remember the brunt of all it's associations... Yet she couldn't breathe. This had to be quick - while she could handle herself underwater just fine, she knew with full certainty her companion had no such experience with water. Ugh, why was he just dawdling?!

She squeezed his shoulder, and jabbed a finger to one of them, briefly tapping her neck with her fingers in a gun shape to signify instruction; the necks were likely the weakest part of the body, his bullets could penetrate them and force the thing to bleed out. She herself? Approached the other with a spear in hand, weighted footsteps unhindered with experience and confidence as a foot would come down unto her choice of beast's chest, both of them appearing to have nearly lost all strength and breath from the mindless thrashing they engaged with, bubbles that were once numerous now reduced to merely an occasional string lapping off their masked faces.

A sharp, dulled slicing noise reverberated in the swirl of her sinking, eyes widened with frustration and determination to kill. This. Stupid. Fucking. BIRD! Grinding, scraping, squealching... She didn't bother to look at Doku's own progress - she expected him to have even a little killing instinct here, at least before the rough minute of breath time he had left was up.

With what little air Doku had he decided to take action. Catherine's motions were understood. Shooting underwater was going to be a challenge, he knew the water would cause there to be a lot more resistance, so he took advantage of his fullbring, creating a portal just above his head and a second behind the Hollow's head. The distance was close, only around two feet between Doku, the portal, and the hollow.

Squeezing the trigger Doku just prayed the barrel and cylinder weren't filled with water. He aimed and fired, three shots in rapid succession. As they escaped the barrel they would launch forward eventually traveling through the portal and towards the struggling Hollow's neck. Thank god it worked. The bullets met their mark, leaving three holes in the Hollow's neck, it screeched out as it gushed out blood.

Despite that, his gun disappeared, as he would do a follow-up attack after the bullets. Light green energy gathered around Doku's feet, using his bringerlight to launch himself forward, going for a kick directly on the Hollow's neck, using the previously made portal to hopefully land a clean strike. As his foot connected, it caused the Hollow to spike into the ground as its neck snapped, causing it to screech in pain though its sounds were suppressed by the water. If finally would stop moving. Doku wanted to exhale in relief, but that kind of wasn't an option right now.

He would turn to face Catherine who seemed to have her Hollow under control. He would quickly begin making his way over to her, hoping she could kill the Hollow and let him breath again.

That testing water fell as soon as the other hollow's signals died down, the redhead releasing a breath as she ground that spear deep into the creature's neck, blood pooling underneath her as the arteries' rupturing sprayed that foul substance. That was it, both of them were dead, the night had gone quiet.

Even so, something boiled in Catherine as she saw Doku approaching her from the corner of her eye. A hand shook, curling into a fist as she'd suddenly give him a painful jab to the face that'd be enough to knock him over, her heart leaping before her head as she'd catch him by the collar,

"Are you stupid? Are you a brainless dodo doddering about with no killing instinct?" She snapped at him, fierce eyes boring into his, her heart beating out of her chest as she restrained herself from punching again, "Why did I have to tell you to do anything?! You don't sit around waiting for instructions, you MOVE. You take your goddamn opportunity even if it's by the skin of your teeth!"

She threw him to the ground, an intense sensation in her veins, "The hell was the point'a bringin' ya if you're this useless?!"

...

Oh. No. Oh no, no...

Her expression quickly shifted from anger, to shock, to a quiet and unreadable look as she averted her eyes with a sense of regret, that tight fist falling to her side,
"...You could've died, you idiot. What if you were in as bad a situation without me?"

As soon as he could feel the air again Doku would take a deep breath, refilling his lungs. A few heavy breaths escaped. As he approached his red-headed friend, his revolver would disapear, thank God. Approaching Catherine he went to speak. “You oka-” His conversation was cut off by a clean punch from her, causing him to bleed from his nose a bit, before he knew it she was holding him.

After her bombardment he found himself on the ground, landing directly on his ass. She was right, but he still retaliated, quickly getting back up she would find his index pointing at her as he fired back. “Well sorry, we can’t all be killing machines like you. I’m a fucking bartender Catherine!” His left hand would ball up when thinking about it, he was a failure as a Quincy, and he couldn’t even hold his own in a fight like this. His plan was a simple one, bait out the hollow, portal them away, and shoot them from a distance. “Sorry, I can make a bow or shoot ceros!” A bit of his insecurities manifesting.

Seeing Catherine’s look change would cause him to freeze. His hand loosened, both of them returning to his side “No. You’re right” He stepped closer and shook his head. “Look, Catherine. I'm... gonna get stronger" Trying to think about her question, he just didn’t know how to answer, so he didn’t he, stood there quietly for a bit.

“Thanks. For uh. Saving me-”

Silently, her hand balled into a fist. She didn't want to think about this. She didn't want to acknowledge this. Looking Doku's way briefly, she'd let out a huff as she'd rummage through her coat, before tossing a small box - a medkit for any injuries.

From there, she'd part and pop her phone open, putting in a quick call as she walked about the clearing and delivered a mean kick to one of the creature's necks - the sound it made was certainly not savory..

"Yeah. Bounty's dead. By the way, you owe me double. Yeah, there was two. No, no you didn't advertise two, do I need to pull the request back up on you again? Double or i'm suing you for breach of contract, you know you aren't winning that. Yeah? Yeah. Yep. Throw that on top. Bye."

She'd look to Doku, a tired expression on her face, "You get a fifteen percent cut. Grats. Hope that fixes things up for you for the next two months."