Azalea's outfit:
Chapter Ninety-Nine
⚔ Broken Glass ⚔
Scott and Azalea laid in bed until Scott slowly woke up. He glanced over at Azalea before gently moving her arm and getting up. He walked down stairs and a minute later Azalea walked up to him and grabbed his hand making him look at her.
"We doing this?" Azalea asked and Scott nodded while squeezing her hand, "Yeah, we are." He said and she sucked in a deep breath and nodded. "A lot of things could go wrong." She said and he smiled softly at her, "We got this." He said making her look at him in amusement.
"You're too confident sometimes." She said and he raised his eyebrows at her, "Says the most confident person I know." He said making her chuckle and roll her eyes slightly. "We're gonna do this and we're gonna win." Scott said with determination and Azalea looked at him with a small smile before nodding and pulling him down into a kiss.
⚔
Scott and Azalea walked into a shipyard full of large steel shipping containers and illuminated by large overhead lights. Unbeknownst to either of them, Deucalion was standing on one of the tallest stacks of containers, cane in hand.
Just as the two look at each other, Deucalion slams the tip of his cane onto the roof of the container causing a ripple of sound waves in their direction. Scott and Azalea, hearing the sound as it moves in their direction, turn to find Deucalion staring down at them.
"Do either of you know the term for what I'm doing?" Deucalion asked and Scott nodded, "Echolocation." He said making Azalea look at him impressed. "Someone did their homework." She said and Scott shrugged slightly as he glanced at her , "I looked a few things up." He said.
"I know you think you can learn in just one day what took me years to master." Deucalion said and Azalea shook her head slightly, "We were hoping for maybe a few highlights." She said and Scott nodded. "Or anything that can help us fight the Anuk-ite without looking at it." He said.
"Fighting blind is one thing- you haven't even learned to walk yet. An orientation in mobility training specialists has to practice blindfolded with a white cane for at least one hundred and twenty hours before becoming certified!" Deucalion said making Azalea and Scott glance at each other, "I can't teach you to walk and fight in less than twenty-four." Deucalion said.
"Look, we know the odds are bad, but Gerard's got an army. There's a creature that can scare ordinary people into becoming killers." Scott said and Deucalion sighed, "A creature now capable of killing you with just a look. You saw them, didn't you?" He asked and Azalea sighed.
"We saw people turned to stone." She said making Deucalion look at her, "So why aren't all of you running for your lives?" He asked and Scott almost looked offended. "Because we don't run!" He said making Deucalion and Azalea smile proudly, "Now that sounds like an Alpha. Let's get started." Deucalion said.
A few minutes later Deucalion now stood on the ground in front of Scott and Azalea. "Unfortunately, there's one crucial difference to teaching you how to fight blind." Deucalion said and Scott nodded slightly, "We're not really blind." He said and Azalea furrowed her brows.
"Why does that matter?" She asked as Deucalion started to walk around slightly, "Unless you spend the next few days walking around with a blindfold, all the Anuk-ite has to do is get you to open your eyes." Deucalion said and Azalea shrugged.
"So we keep our eyes shut." She said and Deucalion raised his eyebrows, "You think it's that easy? What happens to your eyes when you're afraid?" He asked. "They open wide." Scott said and Deucalion nodded as he turned to them, "To gather more light and send more data to the brain so you can better handle whatever threat lies in front of you." He said.
"I lived through two world wars and then some. Closing your eyes can sometimes be the more comforting option... I think I can keep my eyes closed." Azalea said making Deucalion glance at her in amusement, "Well, go ahead. Close them." Deucalion said. Azalea shrugged slightly and closed her eyes like Deucalion said.
Deucalion quietly picks up a large stone on the ground before lobbing it at the shipping container behind Azalea. The stone makes a clanging noise when it hits the corrugated steel but Azalea kept her eyes close. After a second she opened them and looked over at Deucalion. "And... You're dead." Deucalion said making Azalea scoff, "I kept my eyes close!" She said.
"Not long enough. All the Anuk-ite needs is to linger for a moment until you think he's gone." He said and she sighed and nodded, "Okay, I get it. It's gonna be a lot harder than I thought." She said. "But not impossible. What's next?" Scott asked and Deucalion reaches into his pocket and pulls out two pieces of long black material as he walks toward them. "In schools for the blind, it's called sleep-shade training. We'll use regular blindfolds." Deucalion.
"We'll start with echolocation." Deucalion said and Scott nodded, "Sound." He said and Deucalion nodded. "Then I'll show you how to use thermoception." He said, "Heat." Azalea said and he nodded. "Equilibrioception." Deucalion said and Azalea spoke up before Scott could, "Balance." She said and her and Scott looked at each other. "And proprioception." Deucalion said and Azalea nodded to Scott slightly, "Pressure." Scott said and she smiled at him.
"Go ahead." Deucalion said and Azalea gave Scott a look before the two cover their eyes with the blindfolds and tie them behind their heads. "Normal humans use echolocation by creating sounds, like clicking the tongue against the roof of the mouth. Since your hearing is a hundred times more powerful, you can pick up natural reflected sounds." Deucalion explained
Deucalion hits a nearby shipping container with his cane, causing a loud clang to echo toward Scott and Azalea making them both flinch when they hear it. Afterward, Deucalion deliberately moves to stand somewhere else, "I definitely heard that." Scott said.
"But does it tell you where I am?" Deucalion asked and Scott's head turns back and forth in an attempt to track Deucalion's voice. Azalea stood still, trying to focus on nothing but her hearing. "Don't listen for me. Listen for the echo, the sound reflections. Use it to find me." Deucalion said and then once again slams the end of his cane against the shipping container behind him.
This time, Scott and Azalea are more prepared for the sound, and they listen carefully to the sound waves echoing back and forth against all the different shipping containers as Deucalion circles around them. "You both have superior hearing." Deucalion said making them spin around ti face them, "You need to focus it, like a weapon!" Deucalion said in a like whisper at the end before turning around and hitting the shipping container with his cane again before he turned he corner, leading Scott and Azalea into the maze of the shipyard.
Deucalion slowly makes his way through the maze as the others attempt to find him. He hits the nearby shipping container with his cane, and Scott and Azalea spin around in an effort to keep up with him. "Find me..." He said before hitting the container again, "Come at me!" He whispered.
Deucalion then begins to drag the tip of his cane along the corrugated metal shipping containers. Scott manages to more or less keep up with him by feeling the walls, with Azalea a short distance behind him. Deucalion leads them out into the parking lot, "Find me!" Deucalion said
Scott and Azalea successfully make their way out, but by the time they make it to the catwalk between the shipping container maze and the parking lot, Deucalion appears out of the shadows and hits both of them in the shins with his cane using so much force they are both knocked flat on their backs.
They both groan and take off their blind folds and looked up at Deucalion. "How dead are we now?" Azalea asked and Deucalion gives her a pointed look, "Quite." He said making them sigh.
Scott and Azalea put their blindfolds back on and are standing in front of Deucalion under the catwalk outside of the shipyard. "In humans, thermoception is done mainly through the skin. You have temperature receptors that pick up the change in heat and cold. The eyes of Werewolves are particularly effective in picking up heat." Deucalion explained.
Deucalion closed his eyes for a short moment before then opening them to reveal his bright red glowing irises. Their vision takes on a reddish-orange hue as they look at Scott and Azalea, still standing back-to-back and blindfolded.
"What do we do without our eyes?" Scott asked, "Focus on your skin- the minute temperature changes. Turn and face each other and focus." Deucalion said and the two do as they're told. Scott's vision takes on a purple and yellow tint as he senses the heat around him to make up a kind of thermal image of what is in front of him.
"Azalea? Try to hit Scott." Deucalion said and Azalea turned slightly as though she's trying to look at her in disbelief through the blindfold. "Seriously?" She said and Deucalion hummed and nodded slightly, "Completely. You came here to learn to fight- kick his ass!" Deucalion said and Azalea turns back to face Scott, who looks very unsure about this plan.
Before Scott can protest further, Azalea rears back her fist and throws a punch at Scott, who she can also see through her newly-developing thermoception sense, and who she hits in the gut. When Scott doubles over in pain, Azalea, proud of herself, laughed happily.
"What am I supposed to do now?" Scott groaned making Deucalion roll his eyes, "Defend yourself." He said. Scott stood up straight just in time for Azalea to throw another punch, which he barely blocks with the back of his arm.
However, when Scott goes to a punch of his own, Azalea is able to duck to avoid it before suckerpunching him in the face. Scott staggers backward and leans against the nearby support column, groaning in pain as Deucalion sighs and looks down at the ground. Azalea cringed slightly but still had a smile on her face, "Sorry." She said.
"Don't be sorry! Hit him again!"
Azalea backs up a couple steps and holds up her fists up slightly as Scott recovers from the blow and does the same. This time, Scott anticipates her attack and ducks, causing her to punch the support column hard enough to crack the stone making her groan in pain.
Scott reflexively pulls off his blindfold to check on her, and Azalea does the same before the two turn to Deucalion groans in secondhand embarrassment. "Yeah, I didn't think it was possible, but I'm actually starting to wish I was blind again." Deucalion said while Scott and Azalea look at him with sheepish expressions.
A little while later, Scott, with his blindfold back on, is slowly walking under the catwalk as Deucalion circles around him. "Stop looking for me. Listen. Sense the rise and fall of temperature. Feel the pressure beneath your feet." He said and Scott digs the balls of his feet into the cement floor as Deucalion moves around to face him.
"Know with absolute certainty my location. My speed. Even my method of attack." Deucalion said but before Scott can process this, Deucalion kicks him in the stomach, knocking him backward onto his bottom while Azalea, who has been watching from the sidelines, sighed at the sight of Scott groaning in pain.
As Scott recovers, Deucalion walks over and kneels in front of him, "And... you're dead. Again." He said and Scott sighs as he lifts the blindfold from his eyes. As Azalea helps pull Scott to his feet, Scott goes to put his blindfold back on, eager to prove himself.
"Alright, come on. Let's go again." Scott said and Azalea sighed, "Scott...maybe we should try something else." She said and Scott shook his head. "No, there is nothing else. I can't beat Gerard when he's got an entire army behind him." He said as he took his blindfold off and looked at her, "They're still afraid of us." Azalea said.
"That's the problem! They don't know us. They don't want us here. They don't even want to look at us. But I still don't think that that fear is real." He said and Deucalion raised his eyebrows at him. "What if it's not just the Anuk-ite? What if this is what people are really like? I mean, could it be that all this creature really does is give people permission to act one whatever awful truth lies within them?" He asked and Scott shook his head.
"I can't believe that. I don't want to." He said and Azalea, looking determined, steps up so that she is standing right at Scott's right side. "Neither do I." She said as she grabbed his hand and Deucalion seemed to have an idea. "Lose the blindfold, Scott." He said and Scott looked at him confused before reluctantly reaches up and removes the blindfold. "Close your eyes. We're going to try this again, but this time, I'm not going to hold back." Deucalion said.
"I'm gonna come at you for real. You asked me here because you think I know how to fight? I don't." Deucalion said and when he turns around to face him, his eyes are blazing red, and his voice has taken on a deeper undertone, "I know how to kill people." He said. Deucalion glares at Scott, who closes his eyes just as he's told and cracks his neck in preparation for a battle. After a moment, Deucalion roars at him with his fangs out before lunging toward Scott.
Deucalion has the upper-hand and has gotten quite a few lashes in on Scott with his cane. Scott goaned in pain, particularly after the third blow, which hit him behind the knees and knocked him onto the ground. Azalea, hating the sight of Scott being defeated by Deucalion, whispers to her boyfriend under her breath, "Hit him."
Scott's palms flatten against the concrete ground beneath him, and the vibrations he feels of Deucalion moving toward him allow him to identify where he is standing and dodge the next cane strike, barely missing getting hit in the face with it. In one fluid motion, Scott reaches out, grabs the cane in his hands, uses to pull himself to his feet as well as pulling Deucalion to him so he can flip him onto his back on the ground. Rain starts to fall as Scott stands over Deucalion, who chuckles, clearly impressed by his student's quick work.
"You might just survive this." Deucalion said, smiling proudly as Azalea and Scott goes to help Deucalion to his feet when suddenly, Lydia, Malia, Stefan, Anya and Peter frantically run toward them. "Scott! Scott!" Lydia yelled making them look at her in concern as the group joined them under the catwalk.
"None of us are going to survive this!" She said making them glance at each other alarmed, "What? Why? What are you guys doing here?" Scott asked and Peter shook his head. "They're coming! Monroe and more- and they have heavy firepower." He said.
No one in the group has time to process this news before a hail of gunfire is shot toward them. At least a half dozen of them hit Deucalion in the chest and abdomen from behind.
The others look over to find a wall of Hunters in front of them, many of which move to reveal that Monroe is standing behind them. The army opens fire yet again as they all went to hide behind anything they could find. Monroe lifted a black and gun and aimed it before pulling the trigger.