Naturally, several of the Thieves were a part of the pileup that was now happening at the other end of the portal. Trish, meanwhile, had been in the back of the group, so she just kinda stepped backward and watched as people stopped making it in. She glances over at Breen.
"This what I think it is?"
Breen was now busy typing on his laptop. "If you mean "He's deliberately only allowing some people through the portal", then yes."
"Can you fix it?"
"Doubtful. You could try to go through again, but I wouldn't risk it if I were you."
"Right. Alright, everyone take stock of who's not here. Let's figure out who made it through."
As the thieves slowly got up, they looked around at one another, and noticed one face missing.
"So Joker's the only one who got in." Makoto said.
"Typical." Ryuji said as he shook his head in annoyance.
"He's the most well equipped to be on his own." Makoto pointed out as she pulled a phone out of her pocket and speed dialed a number. She shook her head and put it away a moment later.
"No luck."
Breen snorted. "You thought a cell phone signal was going to get through? Are you mad?"
"No one asked you."
"Kid."
Behind Reisen, Dante slowly walked up, sword slung over his shoulder.
"Time and place. This ain't the time, or the place."
Then he looked around.
"Think this asshole's watched one too many movies. Let's get-"
"Wait!"
Suddenly, from behind a building, a witch's hat flew, being blown by the wind. It was followed a few seconds later by a paticular girl
running after it. But it was clear at once this wasen't the same girl from the Velvet Room, what with the dark aura around her and the weird reverb to her voice that made it sound like 10 other people were yelling along with her as she chased the hat. Then she jumped, caught the hat, and held it up in triumph.
Only to instantly faceplant into the hard concrete. Ouch, that looked like it frigging hurt. She laid there for a second, then jumped up, her fully yellow eyes visible now.
"I'm ok, I'm ok, I got the hat, I'm on my way to-"
She only then saw the group standing about 30 feet away from her, and gasped.
"They're here! Why didn't anyone tell me!? You don't think communication is important!?"
Then she took a single step forward.
"Ok, well I'll show all of you guys! You just watch, I'll cast the most powerful spell you've ever seen!"
Funny enough, she doesen't seem to actually be talking to your characters, rather the open air.
"Hocus Pocus, let the flames of creation gather and smite evil, Meteor!"
She quick draws her wand with a flourish, and......
PFFFFFFFT
Bubbles start coming out the end of it.
"WHAT?!"
Shadow Akko looks at her wand and wacks it with the backside of one hand.
"Come on, come on, I need you to work, this is my big moment!"
Nether the walls nor the floor shifts or otherwise tries to ambush you.
You open the door to one of the most generic looking reception rooms you've ever seen. The most standout feature is how clean it is. Not one spec of dust, not one chair even an inch out of place. At the desk next to the door, a dark , featureless, person shaped blob is standing there.
"Please sign in."
She motions to a book with a pen next to it. It's at about this point that Nero enters, and he lifts his giant fucking revolver, pointing it at the blob's head and pulling the hammer back to make a click noise.
"Here's your signature. How about you tell us how to get the hell out of here?"
"Please sign in."
Further attempts to question her will only result in the same line and motion being repeated. There's a large set of double doors at the opposite end of the room, but they are sealed, and literally nothing you do to them will break them down or cause the lock to give way.
But as you look around, you notice someone else in the room, in the corner. No doubt the source of the crying, they're a dark, shadowy figure in a hood, surrounded by a dark aura. There's a reverb to their crying, now that you're closer, that's making it difficult to place the voice, but......doesn't that outfit look very similar to a certain Unmovable Lord who's standing nearby?
Alas, the sign doesn't change when the witch attempts to change it.
V slowly steps up next to Trevor, nodding as the vampire hunter imparts good advice and calms the boy down.
"He knew we were coming. Knew enough to prepare multiple layers of defenses, designed to attack us not just physically, but mentally. We will need to keep a close eye on them, to ensure they do not do anything rash and put themselves in danger.
Then, as the crowd continued to shift, Leo would feel a presence behind him.
"Fools, all of them, aren't they?"
It sounded like Leo's voice, but had a sort of reverb effect that made it sound like several other people were also saying it at the same time as he was. If he tried to turn around to face the dark shadow, the shadow would move as he did, remaining behind Leo as his voice dropped to a whisper that the others couldn't hear.
"What's worse, these fools will, somewhere down the line, become your enemies. Idealistic as they are, they'll look at your country and deem it their enemy, once they learn of what it's done. If you were wise, you'd look for opportunities. No one will be shocked if a few of them die along the way in a mission as dangerous as this."
It's probably around this time that the other members of the group, including Joker, took notice of Shadow Leo.
"A shadow." Joker said as he drew his dagger, looking directly at Leo. Shadow Leo stepped back, away from Leo, raising his hands as he turned to face Joker, smirking, his fully yellow eyes visible now.
"Ahhhh. The show off."
Joker starts approaching Shadow Leo, and he raises his hands in the air. "Peace. Peace. I come not to battle, not here, but to extend an invention. The Mistress wishes to speak with you, and she's asked that I come to collect you and bring you to her."
Netherworld Skies: Looks Toasty!
For Majora, the evening had flown by much faster than the one before...but then again, pretty much anything would feel faster than just lying on a mountain top with nothing to do but stare at the sky and wait for your body (mask?) to stop feeling gross. That said, unlike the ungodly amount of radiation the mask had endured and brushed off after a night's rest, the gash in its left eye had yet to heal. Indeed, it had doubts that cut would ever go away, such was the power of that little "present" given to that murderer.
He'd been there. He'd been right there. Practically the instant Goht was brought back to life, that monster was knocking on the door to kill its friend all over again! He had to die. He had to die now, before he could gather half this wretched planet together and hunt all three of them down!
...but these thoughts weren't very productive right now. So in an attempt to distract itself (and realizing that Koishi needed a distraction just as much as it did), Majora spent the night and the following morning trying to have what fun it could. Trying to waddle on its spikes as it hummed a little tune of "Doo de doo de doo!" Encouraging Goht and Koishi to play a game of Frisbee with its mask. Then, when it had recovered enough magic energy to create another husk, Majora flew through the sky doing as many tricks as it could think of: dive bombs, somersaults, loop-de-loops, like a demonic Peter Pan guiding his Wendy to Neverland.
Sorry, Netherworld. Easy mix up.
When Koishi asked if Majora recognized this Land of the Dead, the mask crossed its arms and legs and slowly rotated upside-down, humming all the while.
"It looks like...Clock Town...the Ikana Canyon...and Snowhead Mountain all rolled in one! Though there's a lot more lava here than in the Snowhead Temple. Think they need blankets with such a toasty home? Hehehehehe~"
Taking a closer (right-side up) look at the castle and its surroundings, one issue came to mind: unlike Goht and itself, Koishi had one of those fancy shmantsy "mouths" and "digestive systems" that needed constant fuel and maintenance. Mortals had a habit of celebrating a new day with food, so perhaps Adventure #1 should involve acquiring one of those fast breakers.
"I say we storm the castle!" Majora cheered with both fists in the air. "But we can't do that on empty bellies, so let's try to find somewhere with food. A market place? Or that room in houses where they keep food? What're those called again?"
Majora would continue to hum in thought until either Koishi or Goht offered an answer—right or wrong—and then cheer that they should go find one of those!
PANDORA, Outside Screening Area: Great Institutions Think Alike!
Nishijima listened patiently to Professor Pavelko's explanation, and only shifted from his polite smile for one noticeable moment: the sight of the green orb brought a studious (or was that skeptical) wince around the Research Director's eyes, as if he didn't quite believe this ball held such power; or rather, it held such power without a considerable catch.
"I believe the Zone and what lies beyond Hell's Gate can be comparable, but from your summary I wouldn't go so far as to call them one and the same. This facility surrounds an area that has become flooded with particles that exhibit unusual—and often physics-defying—phenomena, the which our world's history has never seen. The simple fact that you and your team can even venture into the Zone and emerge unscathed is an indication that our fields of research bear different risks."
He held out his palms as if to measure the weight of each area's danger, starting with the "lighter" Zone and moving to the "heavier" Hell's Gate.
"Simply put, Professor Pavelko: what lies beyond Hell's Gate holds no abominations, no mutated husks of human beings, and certainly no demons of Levantine mythos wandering amok...because it cannot support such advanced organic life. Every manned expedition into the quarantine zone involves high casualty risks, not because of some man or monster ambushing the researchers, but because of the sheer fluidity of the environment. Given the fact that Hell's Gate encompasses what was once the administrative districts—the heart of this nation's government, including the Imperial Palace—you can imagine how many lives were lost when this area first emerged. And it remains no less hazardous now."
The smile inched wider as a flicker of pride flashed in Nishijima's eyes. "Which is why our research here at PANDORA is of the utmost importance. Our staff houses the best and brightest physicists, biologists, and quantum engineers of our world, and is backed by the United Nations as one of the most well-funded and politically autonomous facilities on Earth. It's our job to protect the residents of Tokyo—the tragically-dubbed 'Hell's Gate Tokyo' as you may know it—while also striving to uncover the secrets of what lies beyond Hell's Gate. We strive to explain the inexplicable; an aspiration I'm sure you can relate to, Professor."
The Ruined City: A Wild Shadow Appeared!
The little hero's dagger-like ears twitched, and he turned just in time to see the shadowy figure of someone leap into view...only to faceplant into the asphalt. Link cringed, and made a step towards to help the poor girl back to her feet, but his fairy ordered him to get his weapons ready.
"That's the enemy." Tatl declared.
Stowing his pen and notepad with a nod, Link unsheathed his Razor Sword and Mirror Shield and prepared for battle. When the witch began channeling a spell, the little hero sprung into action and slid in front of an ally (Constanze, as it turned out) in an attempt to protect them both with the Mirror Shield. If this monster wanted to play with magical fire, then he'd use the same tactic he used against Twinrova, and bounce their magic right back at them!
...but it seemed that Shadow Akko was less Koume and Kotake, and more...well, Akko. As the sound of bubbles popping harmlessly reached his ears, the little hero peeked over his shield and blinked in disbelief.
"...That's the enemy?" Tatl asked. Turning to the Shadow, Tatl raised her voice and shouted:
"You uhhh...know you're hopelessly outnumbered, right? If you wanna surrender, now would be a pretty good time!"
The Nightclub: Is This A Trap? It Looks Like A Trap.
By sheer chance, Maki's incessant scanning of the dance floor earned him an early glimpse of the general's Evil Twin. Without even thinking about warning the others, the Huntsman-in-training switched his weapon into its crossbow form and fumbled through the pouch on his belt for a bolt. His hesitance and inexperience probably saved Leo from finding a bolt in his back; fortunately, the Phantom Thief guy spotted their apparent enemy and the Shadow insisted he didn't come to fight.
Not here, at least; Maki's mismatched eyes leered at the words. While he didn't immediately start to follow the Shadow, nor stopped the others from doing so, he trained Rupture Truss at the figure and refused to lower his weapon. Perhaps the others found this foolish, or about as threatening as a child with a pop gun aiming it at a stranger, but right now it was the greatest source of security the boy could cling to.
Edited by TheodoreHastings on Mar 5th 2020 at 9:52:58 AM
Josuke and Okuyasu - Morgue Good news, there was no immediate danger. Bad news, the reception was as naturally empty as the hospital except for the blob stuck on a broken record. Josuke watched Nero trying to threaten her before saying the obvious.
"Don't bother, she's probably just part of the decor. Seem like that freak like his atmosphere." With that said, Josuke want to one of the doors and tried to open it. It didn't budge.
"Crazy Diamond!" And with that, Josuke summoned his Stand, who proceeded to batter the closed door with its fists. Only for it to do nothing.
As for Okuyasu, he started to look around the room and happened to notice the odd figure surrounded by some sort of dark energy. He was pretty sure this was nothing good, so he summoned The Hand and approached the mysterious person. He didn't feel good about attacking a crying person, so his stand just back as the teenager asked a question. "Uh, you okay?"
Yukako - Nightclub
Great, some of the younger people were panicking. At least the girl dressed as a witch managed to calm them down somewhat. This didn't improve Yukako's mood as she replied to Etna. "Those are supposed to be clothes? I've seen underwear that covered mo-"
She was interrupted by seeing a copy of a dark-skinned man within the group. Right, she heard that the monster could create doubles of people. The teenage scoffed at the shadow's words. [[grey:"Your mistress? Cut the crap. We all know you're working with Nyarlatoteph."]] Whoever he was talking about was probably just another one of the monster's creation. Yukako's hair moved in an intimidating fashion, fully ready to fight.
Isooc and Metalshark - Imperial Palace of Vector
Of course, the two reploids followed the guards until they stood before the ruler of Vector himself.
Inwardly, Isooc was very amused upon seeing Gestahl. An elderly man who sought to control all with the help of his extravagant army? This was all so nostalgic. But on the outside, he remained the perfect picture of dignity as he and Metalshark bowed respectfully.
"We bid you our most profound respect, Emperor Gestahl. We are from the Nightmare Investigators and are amongst the most recent arrival brought here by our shared captor. We have come to ask you for employment as it were." Isooc stood up and moved his hands as if he was showcasing himself.
"As you can see, we are both examples of technology that I presume is far beyond anything from your world. And several amongst us share the knowledge to make many more like ourselves. What we lack are enough resources to sustain production. Without that, we are at the mercy of whatever nefarious faction who would wish to destroy us. I assume this country has plenty of resources, doesn't it? We would like to work to bring to this glorious land the fruits of our intellect in exchange for protection and material for us to work with."
Edited by Alecoene on Mar 5th 2020 at 1:10:22 AM
Velvet Room to ??? - Day 6
Any inkling that any of the Magical Girls had about what to expect when they went through the portal by drawing from their prior experiences entering Witches’ Labyrinths went out the window when the lights went out. All of them held their nerve and readied their Magical Girl forms when Nyarthalotep greeted them — it would take more than theatrics to stop them now.
Mami: Ruined City
When Mami regained her bearings, she looked around at the scene around her...and took a sharp inhale at it. She had seen this already, not a week ago. It was not Mitakihara, but the endless blocks of ruins, the smell of sulfur and ash — it was disconcertingly familiar. She looked around only to find neither of her fellow Magical Girls nor their small critter guide. Summoning her Soul Gem didn't reveal their signatures anywhere nearby either — only an odd, yet familiar reaction of Despair that they got from Witch activity. Just that it was everywhere, all at once and at levels so high perhaps only Walpurgisnacht could have matched it. Yesterday's encounter with the Witch at the hospital had warned her of that possibility, but without her usual, if unusually surly, companions...
Minako's taking charge had drawn Mami and the apparent survivors around to her. Well, that was one question answered. "For the sake of completeness, my name is Mami Tomoe. I am a Magical Girl of Mitakihara — my main weapons are rifled muskets and ribbons. I am also able to sense magical signatures to some extent ” — she turned to Minako specifically for the next part — “I do not know for sure if the threats from your worlds and ours are of the exact same nature, but if Nyarly is powered by humankind's negativity then it might be close enough. As it is, my Soul Gem has already sensed...well, 'everywhere' is the best way to describe it, really…"
"And I understand now why you had been insistent on terminology before," Mami added, looking at Sypha. "I will try to avoid the term around you, though there isn't a suitable alternative to use to describe the beings we were contracted to fight against. Once, another Magical Girl asked why they aren't called 'Demons' for instance — Kyubey said that that risked attributing characteristics that weren't justified, like the ability to reason with them."
Through the commotion of others congregating and almost immediately arguing over what to do, the appearance of someone else whom Mami briefly recalled seeing enter back at the Velvet Room even later than them drew her attention. Although even if she didn't have her Soul Gem to realize that something was off about her, it would still be obvious from the dark aura and echoing voice. "Am I right to assume that she is one of those Shadows you had mentioned before, Arisato-san?" The answer to the question itself wasn't really what Mami was going for here, so much as what Minako's instinctive reaction would be — it was generally a lot more difficult to try for a peaceful solution if the first impression was aggression, but given the stakes now perhaps that was but a pipe dream.
Sayaka: Nightclub
God, it was loud! Sayaka had followed the only path available to the club itself, hands covering her ears in a vain attempt to block the noise. She looked among the shadowy figures for any of her allies, noticing a group gathered around what seemed a twin of theirs. An evil twin who served the “Mistress” of this place, if what she had heard from his mouth was right. Some of them looked ready to fight, something which Sayaka herself could sympathize a little bit with. But even though she was ready to throw down with this whole place, something told her it might be worth trying to at least see what this “Mistress” was looking for. If there was any time to prove to Transfer Student that she could improve and not be the liability she knew she saw her as...
The music was still loud, though, and she was several meters away from the rest of the group and the dark liaison. Likely too far for her voice to carry, but telepathy didn’t need to rely on that. So she sent a message so that both the group and the dark twin would be able to pick it up: <Wait!> Sayaka stepped forward into a convenient empty spot on the dance floor lit up by a couple of the spotlights so that they would be able to see who was talking to them. Her eyes would go from the group to Shadow Leo, steeled for something likely far beyond her current competency, but dammit, what had she to lose now? <What’s your mistress want with us exactly?> The glint of metal from a cutlass in her right hand, pointed down and away from everyone for the moment, would accompany the question.
Don’t immediately jump into a fight if you don’t understand what’s going on yet, right? That was something both Transfer Student and Mami had said to her before.
Homura (+1): Morgue
He really knew how to get to someone, didn’t he?
For a few moments, only her footsteps would accompany Homura as she strode carefully down the only path available to her, her eyes darting around waiting for an ambush. She said nothing as she approached the rest of the group from behind, reaching Hei first just as a faint pitter-patter from behind caught her ear. Homura would turn her head just enough to catch the white fur of Kyubey following her, at once sickeningly clean and off-puttingly bright; her stoic facial expression turning ever so subtly towards disdain as she looked back at the rest of the group that had gathered.
Kyubey hopped through to the center of the room, looking around at the gathered group. <In light of what Mitsuru Kirijou had said before, is there anyone here who had any profound negative experience with hospitals or morgues?> Homura’s silent expression of suspicious disbelief lingered on him — even she knew such a question was too blunt to ask, and given how much that rat always seemed to know even when never saying a damn word about it anyone else she couldn’t help but wonder whether his wording was purposefully or accidentally allowing the little loophole she had seen in it. Whatever, that question would have to wait — Homura glanced around and took the precious moments she would probably have now to recheck her inventory:
- Glock 19, 15-round magazine. Emergency only, just 3 clips on hand
- Walther PPK, 8-round
- Winchester 1300 shotgun (but no ammo for it)
- FN F2000 (w/ 10 magazines)
- Dragunov SVU, 10-round (4 rounds left)
- M249 LMG, 200-round belt-fed (168 rounds left)
- FN Minimi Para light machine gun, 200-round belt-feed as well
- Howa Type 89 assault rifle (less two magazines)
- RG-6 with 1 grenade round
- Several boxes’ worth of fragmentation grenades and flashbangs (1 box of each partially used)
- Mini-flamethrower disguised as a perfume bottle
- The “ghetto blaster” missile launcher
- Several futuristic-looking laser blasters from that interstellar empire attack a few days ago
- The portable teleporter from The Cure (though whether that would work here, who knows)
- 2 homemade Pipe Bombs
- 1 magic mana-refill potion of 3 uses
Curse the disappearance of Bond and his agency. Could have really used the top-off of ammunition, at least. For now, she’ll have to go with one of the laser blasters — hopefully the batteries or whatever powers them were still good.
Kyubey, meanwhile, walked over towards Okuyasu as he approached the crouched figure, his attention on the humanoid stand standing guard behind him as Okuyasu seemed ready to start something. <I would advise against such a reckless move.>
Eternal Princess
Reisen was ready to move on. Get back to networking and all that. But it seemed the brat with a rifle apparently still had more to say to her. If the kid's face was thunderous, Reisen's was one of total disinterest. Sitting somewhere between being unimpressed and verging on feeling embarrassed for the kid.
Ah...she found an annoying human didn't she. He offers nothing of value during the meeting then spends the few seconds since arriving lecturing others on how to survive, all based on a misconception that their opponent would use human methods for fighting. She was sure the kid was some hot shot hero where he came from, and when he went back he would go back to being a hot shot hero. But right here right now, he was kind of just a mouthy brat.
Alfred got about as far I know you are but what am I, before Reisen decided to simply tune him out, physically. While maintaining her glazed eye expression, her eyes took a similar red sheen as before. The sound waves that made his words became gabled and muted. His voice was starting to grate on her nerves and she was trying to think.
She didn't hit him that hard did she? No, she would have felt it in her hand too if she actually hit him with any real amount of force. She guessed its easy to get hurt when you apparently have as fragile an ego as this kid. No, no, she shouldn't think like that. They were supposed to keep sound happy thoughts. But this kid was really annoying. She didn't have time to argue with him right now. Even if she did, she just kind of written the kid off as a lost cause, one of those kind of humans.
As she thought about it...maybe she should just alter his brain waves. Nothing serious, just little something to make working with him a bit more palpable. But if she couldn't get it all back to the way it was before, she would feel kinda bad about having lobotomized the little human. Maybe she should just keep him on mute? She'll keep that option in her back pocket. Noticing the facial expression of the boy changed, she stopped altering the sound waves around him so he could be heard again.
"Ah, sorry, I wasn't really listening."
But the blase tone of her voice probably clued the kid in what she actually was saying, I don't really care what you had to say.
Around then the white haired guy stepped in. She saw him around during the meeting but this was the first time she got a good look at him. As she turned to see him, her face suddenly froze, as if she was trying her hardest to stifle a laughter.
"pfft...snort....M-Mannosuke..."
There was only one man in Gensokyo. Well not really, but it seemed like anyone who was anyone was a girl. The only guy her circle of friends even kind of associated with on a regular basis was Rinnosuke
◊. A mild mannered glasses wearing shop keeper. Not really impressive stuff. So a joke started circling of what would Rinnosuke be like if he was actually manly and cool
. Only for her to run into the very image of that fantasy version. The only thing needed was a pair of glasses and a Fundoshi, and he would totally be MA Nnosuke right? Right? She covered her mouth to keep from laughing at seemingly nothing and keep from looking like a crazy person.
She didn't have much time though as Nyarthotep gave them their first obstacle. Reisen floated lightly, her toes just touching the ground, as she turned to face the shadow. She watched intently as shadow Akko did her thing. After the bubbles popped harmlessly into nothing, Reisen suddenly fell to her hands and knees in defeat.
"T-to think our enemy would actually be so clever and devious...How are we suppose to win now!? That display was so pitiful that defeating her would just feel like we are bunch of bullies!"
While Reisen complained loudly to the others, Constanze meanwhile was near the sign when a boy and his fairy walked up. Being unable but to overhear the little conversation, she took it on her self to correct the little numerical error. Typing something onto the screen, she would tap his shoulder to get his attention and show him the number of zeros that trailed that particular number.
15,000,000,000
But whether the boy would notice or even have time to see the number was debatable, as trouble came walking in. A trouble Constanze was all too familiar with. As the boy went to shield her, Constanze took the opportunity to pull out her camera and hold it high to get a good angle. An evil Akko. Cool.
Click
It was a really good replica, capturing even her level of magic. But in the end, it wasn't Akko, but a minion of Nyarthotep. But, even if it wasn't really her, could she really fight Akko. Even if Akko got on her nerves sometimes, they were still friends. Yes, even if Akko was annoying, she was always there to help her...help her
◊...now she remembered...Determination filled Constanze eyes as her device transformed in to a pump-action shotgun. With a loud cocking of the weapon, Constanze was ready to take out some pent up aggression she had for the real Akko out on her shadow.
She pointed the weapon at Shadow Akko and with two grunts motion for the girl to stick her hands up. It wasn't the first time she pointed a gun at Akko, and admittedly probably wouldn't be the last. Even so, Constanze didn't want the image of a dead Akko, real or not, staining her memories, so capture was preferable. She wasn't quite sure what to do after that. Could she keep Shadow Akko as a pet? Then would she even want two Akkos running around?
Whatever the case, just to be safe, she changed the setting on her guns to only give an output comparable to a rubber bullet. Enough to bruise her butt, but not enough to break bones or the such.
How do you kill that which has no life?
Vampire Hunter
Sypha, The Ruined City
"It is fine if that is the best way to describe them," Sypha frowned as she wondered why Kyubey would insist on calling them Witches. "I already know very different beings have the same name in other worlds. It is just... confusing."
It was then that Shadow Akko appeared in front of them. Sypha glanced at Constanze to get a read of what she was thinking. She decided to shoot her.
Sypha just sighed and facepalmed, as if this fight was kind of embarrassing, "Minako, could you clarify what a Shadow is for everyone."
Morrigan, The Morgue
"Well, that isn't working," Morrigan snarks as she looks down at Josuke trying to brute force his way through before pointing to the pen and stating the obvious solution. "Maybe we should just sign in."
Wizard Needs Food Badly
Flonne, Ruined City
Flonne didn’t like the conflict that was brewing within the team – or at least between a couple members of it. She was often called a silly person by the demons and many of the angels for believing everyone should be friends, but that was important to her.
“Come on guys,” she pouted. “I’m sure any disagreements we have can be worked out later-”
She then noticed a Shadow appear – their apparent enemy according to Minako.
“So this is a Shadow? Hm… do we really need to fight? I mean, I won’t hesitate to defend myself if you truly seek to destroy us, but is all this really necessary?”
Laharl, Morgue
Laharl watched as the Jojo Jentlemen worked their punch ghost magic on the door to apparently no avail. Meanwhile the receptionist kept asking them to sign in like a broken record. Laharl, with his innate understanding of the world (video game logic), understood this was something called an “event flag” that they would have to check before proceeding further.
“The lascivious succubus is right,” he admitted. “For now, it seems we’ll have to play by the rules of this world if we want to proceed.”
With that, he signed his name on the paper in front of him – hoping this wasn’t a trap.
Etna, Nightclub
All of a sudden, one of those “Shadows” had appeared. Etna readied her spear, fully prepared to gore him and end this as quickly as possible, but his offer gave her pause.
“What exactly does this mistress of yours want?”
I have a plan.
The Nightclub - General Leo Christophe
Naturally, when he heard a whisper coming from behind him, General Leo Christophe's natural reaction was to turn and try and find the source of the unnatural voice.
When he realized Joker was looking right at him with a dagger pointed, Leo drew his own blade and had it pointed towards Joker's throat. Before he could threaten the masked man in the clownish costume, he realized the presence behind him moved into his peripheral vision, and he lowered his weapon.
So, nobody else heard what the shadow said?
General Christophe's started to squint as he looked over the other people gathered in the nightclub.
The shadow had raised a decent point.
There were an awfully large amount of pretend soldiers and unruly civilians in the building. Accidents and casualties would be inevitable here, and, it's not like the Emperor gave the order that these people had to survive. He just had to get rid of Nyarlathotep.
The general placed his crystalline sword back in its equally ornate scabbard, and showed his palms to the shadow as a gesture of non-hostility.
"Bring us to the Mistress, doppelgänger. I seek not a fight, only a resolution to this unfortunate situation."
Imperial Palace of Vector - His Majesty Gestahl
Gestahl placed his palms together as he listened to Isooc's humble offer. It was a little strange seeing a machine act so lifelike, but he and his friend both knew of basic courtesy. It was an admirable gesture.
"For starters, Vector's supply of lumber, steel, coal, and petroleum is near-infinite. These may be a little basic by your standards, but I am willing to share Vector's natural bounty with those who know how to utilize it for the benefit of all people living on this world we share. As you no doubt saw upon your initial visit, Vector is home to hundreds of manufactures creating all manner of goods. We even have a facility dedicated to the research of cutting-edge robotics. Unfortunately, our research facility is undergoing repairs after an unfortunate incident that occurred yesterday."
The Emperor looked aside to Kefka for a moment, and seemed to smile back at the jester, then returned his steely gaze to his visitors.
"I will offer you a home here, and free access to our fuels, metals, blueprints, whatever your research requires. Would you be interested in speaking with our chief scientist, Cid Del Norte Marquez? He is busy doing some maintenance work at our aforementioned research facility, but I think he'd enjoy a break from all of that. He knows far more about the manner of machinery than I do."
Gestahl resumed petting the little white cat on his lap. "This is enough, yes?"
Rookie Village - Shadow
If Shadow had any sort of reaction to the panic that stirred up when he and Strelok arrived to the Rookie Village, it sure wasn't evident on his face. He stepped ahead of Strelok, getting a little close to Pietro and Wolf.
"You can call me Shadow. I've agreed to help Strelok return home, but I see his problem with the military here involves more than I thought. I'd like some answers here. What's this helicopter that's got you all so worried? Perhaps I can get rid of it."
"@[=g3,8d]&fbb=-q]/hk%fg"
Glory to Arachnos
Wolf nodded at Shadow. "I guess you're new here, hm? Let's just say that the Ukrainian Military isn't exactly that happy for us Stalkers to barge in illegaly to the Zone, while we don't exactly like how they use us as target practice and are scummy assholes. As for the helicopter..."
Pietro would take out his PDA, clicking a few buttons, before showing him a picture of a helicopter the military uses.
"This is a Hind-D, a attack helicopter they usually field in exploration and combat. As you can see, most of us don't have a rocket launcher or anything with a oomph close to it to take one of it down if it comes here. Crow, where did you said you saw one land nearby?" Wolf informed to Shadow, before glancing over to one of the experienced stalkers, who then spoke.
"While looking for artifacts in anomalies, we noticed a helicopter having landed near the destroyed bridge close to the mill that's in the north. We imagine they're currently refueling the vehicle and stocking up for a bit. If you can make sure they don't do anything for a while, we would really appreciate it and reward you." Crow told Shadow.
Kruglov listened to Nishijima's explanation and was quite interested. Atleast with protection from the large amounts of radiation, guards from the mutants or bandits and detectors to be aware of anomalies and not suffer a horrible death, expeditions could be successful, and wildlife thrived in the Zone, but heavily mutated. But what exactly can it be that could make this Hells Gate completely hostile and dangerous.
"I see. We certainly have the same motivations as you, I believe. Despite what some people believe of it, and wishing it to be completely destroyed, The extent to which humanity's knowledge could be increased through the study of the Zone is unfathomable. But I must say, atleast we are lucky that The Zone itself manifested on Chernobyl instead of Kiev. I fear we might had lost as many people just like you folk due to the blowout. And it seems like the inside of this Hells Gate resembles a Space Anomaly of the Zone, a miniature wormholes that not only distort time and space but trap people in a time loop."
Looking back at his fellow ecologists, he then cleared his throat.
"If you are fine with it, Mister Nishijima, we would certainly like to see your and your team's discoveries so far of this Hells Gate. Would be great to not only meet like-minded scientists from another country, but to also show the potential of the artifacts of the Zone, and share what we know too."
-Spider Lizard Noises-
The Morgue: Signing In Under Wrong Names
Bringing up the rear of the party, Hei was the last to enter the reception area. The walls hadn't melted or garnered spikes to impale them all, so at least they could freely walk from one room to another and not die in transit. That was a start.
Noting the huddled lump of a weeping woman and the doors that refused to move, the Black Reaper followed Morrigan and Laharl's lead and studied the reception desk.
"It's not the morgue or hospital that's the problem." Hei answered the bizarre ferret-like creature. "It's the dead and dying who're in them. Not sure how many of you had a chance to fight this bastard head-on, but when I did, it wouldn't stop talking about someone I believed to be dead; was a broken record about it, actually. Better brace yourselves for that."
He took the pen from the Overlord, when it became clear that signing your name on the paper didn't result in immediate death. He wasn't eager to follow this thing's guidelines, but the one way forward refused to budge. They didn't have a ton of options, here.
Hei was about to write one of his pseudonyms (Hei, Lee Shengshun, BK-201) when he decided on another name. A real name, and one that this thing would be quite familiar with...just not his name.
Carmine
PANDORA, Outside Screening Area: Want A Library Card for the New Library of Alexandria?
Despite his polite formality, the more insightful Ecologists would spot excitement shine through Nishijima's eyes.
"It would be my pleasure, Professor Pavelko. While some facilities are highly classified, I can guide you and your team through some of our more public areas. Please follow me."
The Research Director hadn't taken a dozen steps before abruptly coming to a halt.
"In fact...perhaps there is something else I can show you. Something that relates directly with your mission."
Nishijima turned his head to reveal half of a proud smile. "You're not the only ones to think of documenting Battleworld's many cultures and technologies. Over the past week, I have partnered with six states past and present, along with several independent organizations residing in the Commons Corridor. I have collected samples of their work as part of an...aspiring project of mine."
He fully turned around to speak with the Ecologists face-to-proud face.
"Assuming our histories derive from the same root, you have no doubt heard of the Library of Alexandria: the legendary structure said to have possessed all the knowledge of the ancient world. Much like you, I find this planet to be not a prison in which to rot, but an opportunity to study and explore the plethora of possibilities across the multiverse. To that end, I aim to gather as much information as I can on Battleworld's many states and store them here in PANDORA, as a new Library of Alexandria."
Nishijima raised a hand, as if to deter any leaps of imagination. "The collection is still small, but holds the last remnants of three states that have come and gone. In exchange for your findings on Battleworld's states, and perhaps the artifact you have in your possession, I would be delighted to show you the Library. Consider it a mutual donation to each other's mission."
Storming the castle...storming...
Honestly, Koishi didn't have much preference in the matter. Visiting a castle sounds nice; maybe they have ones out here that are half as grand as Chireiden. Maybe they have some nice pictures to look at, too.
The big distracting issue here was that Koishi was suddenly reminded that she hadn't eaten in...you know, how long had it been? Probably since before this whole Fightingearth issue started. Definitely not yesterday. The terror of her stomach and its overriding desire to be filled with sweet things and fried shrimp was washing away the fear and shame of last night.
"...Pantries," she said back to Majora, her mind already elsewhere in search of food. "Pantries filled with things and stuff..."
Her senses kicked into overdrive.
"I have something you two don't~" she said, regaining a little bit of her playful tone.
"Oh? What's that?"
"A nose~"
"A what?"
"A..."
She pointed at the bumpy thing on her face. "This thing. You smell things with it."
"...OH, a nose! I must've just gotten distracted," Goht said, bouncing pensively in the air. "I knew what that was."
"Well good...because I know how to use mine. Nobody ever hides birthday dinners from me. Every year, I know they're making one because I can smell it ahead of time." She turned her nose upward, and sniffed...oh, there was already something here. Something very food-smelling. Wordlessly, her head hanging upward as if being dragged by a hook, Koishi began to float towards whatever was the nicest, tastiest smelling place in the Netherworld.
With everyone shuffling in, dragging their feet over to the desk and signing in like obedient sheep, Ozen stared at this other her silently. It was surreal to see yourself at the other end of the room, bawling your eyes out like a newborn kid. Just interesting enough for her to not immediately deal with it.
The other Lord continued to wail without end. Carefully, cautiously as even something as pitiful as this could be a trap, Ozen stepped over in front of it. Then, with a snap of her leg, she attempted to both kick off the false Ozen's wide-brimmed hat and pin her to the ground with a boot on her neck.
Presuming she wasn't dead yet, Ozen would say this: "I'm not a fan of your impression. Do you have anything to say before we move on?"
Vampire Hunter
Trevor, Nightclub
Trevor smiled slightly as Akko used her magic to calm down Mono and Maki. When Shadow Leo appeared the rest of the crowd kept their guard up even as he invited them to meet the Mistress. Trevor meanwhile just shifted from holding the Vampire Killer to holding one of his Axes. He seemed contemplative as he looked at General Leo.
"Yes, take us to your Mistress then," Trevor replied to Shadow Leo, having a hunch on who this Mistress is. After all, the person they were looking to save from this realm was a lady.
Wizard Needs Food Badly
The Morgue - Mirajane
"Hnng. What sort of a trap makes you sign into it?" Mirajane scoffed from behind Morrigan. "A bit on the nose. Speaking of which...."
She raised an eyebrow as she saw Ozen approach her doppelganger and... of course she kicked her. She raised up one hand, ready to gather energy and fire it if needed, but for the time being she was going to see how it reacted to Ozen.
Besides, Ozen was a tough girl. Her pride was what would be injured if the... creature... struck.
Probably.
Common Room - Lucy and Happy
"Holy crap, he just killed them all? But I like the guards we have in the Zone, I was this close to having them all eating out of the palm of my hand...." Lucy shook her head.
"Aye... sir?" Happy said, half-confused, and likewise only half-raising his arm.
"But wait, what the hell are we doing here? We can't let that happen to them or else half of what we did yesterday is lost... I mean... those guys might get themselves killed! We have to go back and make sure they're okay!"
She started marching towards the portal, taking a key out in the process and changing her attire to look like some sort of cowgirl.
"You coming?" she asked.
Chireiden - Maeve and Ryuuou
"No, I don't think I'll stop thinking about food," Ryuuou said plainly with a small smirk as she nibbled her next piece of mochi. "But if you're offering ice cream...."
"What do you mean the one day?" Maeve asked. "Wasn't that your name inscribed in the white room? The one declaring you the absolute ruler of this territory, and whom the big red man speaks to?"
"Meeeaaaaoooooow!" the cat on Maeve's shoulder purred at the new arrival and started to curl up, getting into a leaping posture....
"No! Behave!" Maeve shifted her arms, slinging Ryuuou over her left shoulder in order to free up a hand, and then using her right hand to quickly snap up and grab the cat by the scruff of its neck - gently, but firmly - in order to make sure it was on its best behavior.
"Forceful today, aren't you?" Ryuuou chuckled, not letting the posture change alter her mochi consumption in the slightest.
"I meant the cat," Maeve groaned. She blinked and looked at Satori again. "So... you have... birds, do you? Those are nice. Yes. Nice indeed. And about this whole powerless thing....?"
Sakura Dungeon Inn - Delfi's Safe Space
"Hmmm, I don't know about special or powerful...." The wolf said thoughtfully. "More rare than anything else. Most monsters could go decades without seeing a human, maybe centuries. And the humans we do see are always so suspicious of monsters, they think we want to eat them or something. Some of the really dumb ones even think we want to burn down their cities like it's ten thousand years ago or something. And I read that some believe monsters want to kidnap their men in order to make more monsters - that doesn't even make sense, don't they understand biology?"
She started to scooch the wheelchair on outta there.
"Clothes... oh, yeah, I noticed your armor felt so weak, I bet it must be really broken, huh? The innkeeper is very good at making new outfits, I'm sure she'd be able to make you something. Or at least find something in your size. And there's the shop next door too, they might have something you'd like. Though I don't know if I have that many mana shards. Maybe she'd let you work for it somehow, or pay part up-front and loan you the rest?"
She pushed the chair into the main room of the inn where dozens of monsters were already seated all over the place, enjoying their breakfasts while striking up all sorts of conversations. And over by the counter, Isabella was pouring out mimosas like a workhorse while a few monstergirls were scurrying in and out of the kitchen with plate after plate of food.
"Oh, it's you," the Innkeeper smiled at Delfi as she got wheeled in, then waved back into the kitchen. "I wasn't sure what sort of things you like to eat in your homeland, so I had the girls get a little bit of everything ready for you."
A catgirl maid skipped out of the kitchen with an enormous plate and set it down at an empty table. It was loaded up with eggs, bacon, sausages, waffles, pancakes, hash browns, toast, three types of muffin, a croissant, a bowl of oatmeal topped with sliced fruits, little metal bowls of syrups and jams and cream and butter. Alongside it she set down utensils, orange juice, coffee, and milk.
"Enjoy nyaaa!" she then hurried back to the kitchen to get back to her duties.
Vampire Hunter
Grant, Common Room to Zone Portal
"Yeah, yeah..." Grant nodded to Lucy. "Besides, we oughta salvage this plan before it falls completely apart."
Grant followed Lucy into the portal to the Zone. Once they got through, Grant looked at Lucy. "Well, this is your mission... Now what?"
Edited by GameGuruGG on Mar 11th 2020 at 3:11:21 AM
Wizard Needs Food Badly
Glory to Arachnos
As Grant and Lucy entered, they would see the base was....in chaos. The surviving grunts were being yelled at by a beret wearing lieutenant, while a soldier with a red cross patch on his right arm was desperately trying to keep a soldier who was bleeding out alive near the corpse of a fellow soldier who wasn't treated in time and a headshotted soldier, they could see he held a blue colored medkit
.
Meanwhile, they could see the Spetsnaz Operators standing in formation, as the Spetsnaz officer who seemed to lead the squad
◊ was speaking to them. They could see he had a small bandage on his left arm where he was shot.
"Listen up men, we dealt with worse crap than this in afghanistan! We will sneak in, wipe out the hostiles and bomb the damn place to the ground if we have to! The stalkers want to fight? We'll give it to them alright! The Mayor's attempt at peace won't work if those criminals aren't receptive about it!"
"Any Mission, Any Time, Any Place!" The Spetsnaz in formation yelled out what seemed to the motto of the special forces.
"We'll move out in 5 minutes. Make sure you are fully stocked and ready. Dismissed!" With that, the soldiers quickly moved to the barracks to stock for the mission. Meanwhile, the officer pulled out his radio and seemed to speak something on it, not having noticed the presence of Lucy and Grant.
Kruglov listened to Nishijima's offer in interest. The chance of being able to discover and read about the past civilizations that disappeared here would be a waste to throw away, even if it's just a few documented ones. A equal trade would be beneficial with this band of fellow scientists.
Besides, with all the artifacts they're being given for study by the factions of the Zone, and the stalkers possibly coming to their base to give some right now, giving away 5 of them as a sign of thanks to PANDORA isn't much to worry about.
Looking at his colleagues, they simply nodded in agreement, as the professor gave his response. "We believe that your terms are more than agreeable, Mister Nishijima." He smiled and nodded in agreement. "We accept your offer. I am glad we will be able to work together with fellow men of science."
-Spider Lizard Noises-
Anti-Gnosis Weapon
The Ruined City of Crossroads, Minako
"Understood!" Spider-Man chuckled at the fairy's excusing her partner's silence, taking the scratchiness of the little soldier boy across the way in stride, "Good to meet you, Link and Tatl!"
Sadly, that was about as far as he got before the easily-distracted pair from Termina were flitting between one distraction and the next. "I'm Spider-Man. I do Spider Things," he said to the request for information, "Close-range melee combatant, long-range crowd control... Mitsuru gave you an overview, right?"
"Yup!" the SEES Leader confirmed.
The webslinger found himself drawn to the boy and fairy duo again as they puzzled over the sign. "One billion is one thousand thousand thousands, or one thousand times one thousand times one thousand," he explained helpfully, pointing at Constanze's transliteration, "See? Take it from Little Miss Witch here. Fifteen billion is a lot. Where I'm from, the entire planet has less than eight billion people on it. So if this city actually had fifteen billion people at any point - and I'm doubting that, for the record; this is probably just a big scare tactic by Nyarly - the city'd have to be nearly the size of an entire planet, probably!"
Minako nodded gratefully to those who chose to explain their powers and roles, then watched with slight amusement as Alfred's words seemed to devolve into gibberish, and then slight concern followed by further amusement as Akko's double appeared, faceplanted, and tried and failed to summon a meteor on top of their heads.
"Well... we don't actually know what a Shadow is!" she admitted, shrugging widely at Mami and Sypha, "Investigating what they are is part of SEES' mission back home, but all we managed to figure out was that their activity became more intense as full moons approached. There used to be a lot of research on them by the Kirijou Group, but it was destroyed in a disaster at their laboratories, and all but one of their scientists died. Based on the fact that Nyarly has the same energy signature as a Shadow and the fact that he can summon hordes of lesser Shadows, and taking into account what he's said about himself, we can hypothesize that they're related to negative human emotions, but that's about all we know."
"So," she continued, fixing the yellow-eyed Akko with a sunny smile and tapping her foot and reverse-gripped spear against the ground in rhythm to an unheard beat, as she usually did when already in combat, "how about it? Are you a Shadow? Do you live here? Why do you look so much like Akko? Do you know Nyarly? Why did you try to attack us? If you're an enemy, you should probably surrender before you get hurt! Like the fairy said, you're totally outnumbered, you know?"
As if to emphasize that last point in the Persona User's barrage of questions, Spider-Man had also dropped into a fighting stance, ready to spring into action and preparing to web up the doppelganger witch girl if she tried anything else funny - like trying another attack or running away.
Memento Mori Nightclub
Aigis was already tense from the adversary's prior speech, music that made her bolts vibrate, the crying children, and the hordes of dark, featureless silhouettes surrounding them, but what Leo and Shadow Leo said were the last straws. "He is a Shadow: the enemy! We cannot trust him!" she protested, holding up her arm and uncapping her finger-guns in a clear threat at said abomination, "Taking us to this 'Mistress' obviously means leading us straight into a trap! How can you not see that?! And what do you mean, you seek not a fight, General Christophe?! We came here to fight!"
Edited by darksidevoid on Mar 16th 2020 at 8:06:10 AM
GM of AGOG S4: Frontiers RP; Sub-GM of TABA, SOTR, & UUA RPs
PANDORA, The Battleworld Library: Walking Tour
We accept your offer—four words that could always bring a smile to Eric's face. Getting what one wants simply tastes sweeter when both sides are content with the trade.
"In that case, please follow me." the Research Director said as he turned and started walking.
The journey was longer than perhaps any of the Ecologists could have expected it to be, spanning a five minute walk to a high-speed train station, a twelve minute ride to a different station, a six minute walk to a security checkpoint (this deep in the facility?), and a minute of moving each researcher and merc through the screening, during which the artifacts on the Ecologists' person were located. After a short explanation from Nishijima about what these things were, the security guards politely asked Kruglev and the others to leave these irradiated objects here at the checkpoint, where they would be returned once they left the facility; no doubt at least some of the visitors were experiencing some déjà vû.
Throughout the trek, Nishijima filled the time with questions about the Zone of Alienation: its history, its inhabitants, its social structure (if one even existed), its technology beyond the use of artifacts, and whether or not the Ecologists knew of a man called "Strelok." If they did not, the Research Director would proceed with some more general questions about Battleworld: did they know that the Cure grants the wishes of a state's delegate, had they made contact with Strelok over the past few days, and if so have they advised him on how to use these wishes responsibly. While he remained calm and polite the entire time, Nishijima was absolutely flooding the air with questions. However, whenever the occasional counter-question arose regarding the facility or the highly-advanced technology at PANDORA's disposal, Nishijima would either give the briefest response possible, or (regarding the Synths) simply encourage the Ecologists to be patient; they would be explained in The Library.
So assuming the Ecologists and their mercs had no objections with parting with the artifacts (for a little while, at least), they would all be granted access to the area beyond. They walked down a short hallway to a large and heavily-plated steel door, one which was only opened when Nishijima punched a passcode into a console beside it. With a green light blinking to life, the door unlocked, and Nishijima opened it to reveal...
A big empty room. Well, not completely empty. There were glass cases scattered around that contained peculiar items within, and several rows of bookshelves that weren't comically bare. Seems Nishijima wasn't kidding about his little project still being small.
"This room was built to house an environmentally-sensitive experiment that has long since ended." Said the Research Director, suspecting what the Ecologists might think at this admittedly pathetic sight. "The collection is growing steadily, and we have no way of knowing if or when Tokyo will leave Battleworld; I thought it would be better to err on the side of caution, and base my Library somewhere...open. Allow me to show you around."
Ignoring the bookshelves for the moment, Nishijima guided the Ecologists to the first set of glass cases, which were by far the largest present. Inside, they held two figures the visitors would be familiar with: a rudimentary collection of metal pipes and circuits that looked like it was spawned straight from a nightmare,
◊ and a more palatable, fleshier model with a synthetic covering to act as skin.
◊
"You entered Tokyo through our portal, correct? Then you must have crossed paths with our newest security force. These mechanical marvels are originally from a state known only to Battleworld as The Institute. In their history, a cataclysmic war between China and the United States brought about a nuclear holocaust in the later twenty-first century. Some of the survivors had taken shelter underneath the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and over the next two hundred years their descendants developed technology to reestablish order and civilization to the dog-eat-radioactive-dog world on the surface. Among The Institute's greatest accomplishments are machines that talk and act like human beings: the Synths.
"PANDORA has been blessed with employing some of the brightest and most ingenious minds of our world, so when The Institute's delegate sought to shelter his subordinates in the aftermath of the Galactic Empire's planet-wide invasion, how was I to say no? While The Institute and its delegate 'Father' have fallen from the face of Battleworld, the men and women who lived there did not—they are now employed here, replicating as much of their hard work as they can. The second generation of Synths are in mass production now—by tomorrow, the third generation should be on the assembly line."
Leading the group onward, Nishijima stopped at a small case with a variety
of
different
medicines that ranged from edibles to injections to bags of intravenous fluid.
"In addition to Synths, our former-Institute staff have managed to replicate a range of medicines native to the post-apocalypse Commonwealth. Use of these 'chems' can clean wounds and speed the body's natural healing process, release a massive amount of endorphins to temporarily boost one's strength and endurance, mitigate pain receptors for a short time, and even cure radiation poisoning. While the Institute staff deserve praise for reinventing these miraculous drugs, credit for their mass production must go to our partners in Mitakihara. Without their medical facilities, we would never manufacture enough to make them a feasible good to trade."
Next, Nishijima guided the group to a case containing an intricate scroll depicting a range of techniques resulting in orange flames jetting out of the figure's limbs.
"The Fire Nation was a promising partner for us, but vanished before the seeds of our trade could bear fruit. While their technology was considerably inferior to the planet's supposed standard—closer to Boxer Rebellion China rather than somewhere between the late twentieth and early twenty-first century of the Common Era—it compensated with techniques that bent the elements to one's will, hence the emergence of the art of 'fire-bending.'"
Nishijima paused to sigh. "I was on amiable terms with the Fire Nation's heiress. Despite her arrogance and overbearing personality, I sensed that Princess Azula was destined for great things on this planet—unlike her war-mongering father, she could spare a moment and listen to someone else's opinion. Historically, it's leaders who seek and follow the advice of others that stand the test of time. Such a shame nothing came from our partnership but that scroll."
Moving on to the next glass case, Nishijima waited for the Ecologists to study what appeared to be a case of empty test tubes.
"You may not know this, but Tokyo has had not one, but three Cure-appointed delegates over our time on Battleworld. This case contained the contents of a wish made by our latest delegate, Misaki Kirihara. Two days ago, the state of Genosha unleashed a powerful bioweapon on the planet: a gas that activated a dormant mutation-altering gene known simply as the X-Gene. As Genosha's Eastern neighbor, Tokyo took much of that blow, thus making a cure for the condition absolutely necessary. Miss Kirihara wished for a solution to the plague, and the Cure granted her this single crate of medicine. It seemed like a waste of a wish at the time, but through long hours of hard work and ingenuity, PANDORA staff managed to find a way to turn the liquid in those tubes into a gas, and douse the entire city in its golden fog. As of 8:00 PM last night, not a single case of Mutation had been reported in the city."
Next came a smaller case with a collection of different colored stones.
"The Archadian Empire boasts an impressive blend of magic and technology, to the point that their vehicles surpass many of our own. These stones are native to Archades' world, and contain magic concentrated in mineral form; they are a natural source of fuel and power called magicite. Doctor Cidolfus Demen Bunasa, the Lead Scientist of Archades' Draklor Laboratories, is stationed here in PANDORA as our magicite consultant. With his insight, we have made great strides in perfecting the manufacture of airships and transports. We will be making the maiden voyage of our first finished ships today."
Before he moved on to the next glass case, Nishijima took a moment to stop the tour and turn specifically to Kruglov:
"Lord Vayne Carudas Solidor is an avid lover of knowledge and exploration—and like Princess Azula once was, I believe his ambition and resourcefulness will lead him to a position of great power on Battleworld. Just yesterday, his dear father passed away so unexpectedly. He must be wearing the Emperor's crown with a heavy heart indeed."
If the Ecologists didn't spot a warning when they heard one, then they probably deserved whatever punishment awaited them down the road.
Finally, there was one last case to see, one that the Ecologists might've spotted well before now: a bright blue cube the size of one's torso, radiating almost as much light as the high-power lamps on the ceiling.
"I do not recommend looking directly at this object, gentlemen." Nishijima advised, even as he stepped close to it. "You could damage your eyes."
Gesturing to the cube while facing his visitors, a stronger smile grew on the Research Director's face.
"This cube is the first multiversal item PANDORA acquired: a concentrated source of pure energy, known simply as energon. It is a power source for our first allies on this planet, the Autobots of Iacon—a race of large, highly-intelligent synthetic beings from a world known as Cybertron. According to our archives of Common Room footage, there have been at least two other groups of Cybertronians on Battleworld over the past six days, but only Iacon appears to hold any amiable feelings for organic life. In exchange for a bolstered defense along trade lines, and this cube—which could supposedly power the entire city's needs for months—we agreed to establish a sort of energon farm within the walls of Hell's Gate. It would have been an excellent chance to map out the area with minimal risk, since the Autobots are naturally far more resilient than any human."
Another lamenting sigh, and Nishijima walked away from the glass case. "Unfortunately, Iacon vanished after the Death Star's destruction, which leads me to believe the Autobots were defeated by the Galactic Empire. Since Tokyo's power has no present need for an emergency battery, this cube stands as a memorial to PANDORA's first friends on Battleworld. May they rest in peace, if they have perished; may they live life to the fullest, if they have not."
With the tour essentially over, Nishijima walked over back to the case containing the Synth models, and invited the Ecologists to ask whatever questions they still had.
Shadow Akko jumped in triumph as Reisen fell to the ground in surrender.
"Ha! Yes, victory! They can't tell me I'm a screw up now, I-"
And then she made a "Eeeeep!" sound as Constanze pulled a shotgun on her, and raised her hands in the air.
"No no no no no don't shoot me!"
Then she started crying.
"I can't believe this. How could you pull a gun on me, Constanze? I thought we were friends!"
Then Minako started bombarding her with questions, and she shook her head.
"Oh, no! They warned me about this, said that you might try to interrogate me if I was captured! No, I won't give in! I won't say anything about how we're amalgamations of your subconscious feelings, about how we're the parts of your minds and feelings that you deny, that there's one of us for most of you, ignoring like, the non-humans, and I totally, absolutely won't tell you about how Nyarly promised us that any shadow who can kill their own counterpart will be given a real body and allowed to take the real one's place in the real world! You can't make me talk about that!"
She looks really really determined to follow through on this promise that she already fucked up.
With absolultly no resistance put up, Shadow Ozen is pinned to the floor, and she hardly seems to have noticed she's been attacked for a moment. Then, she sniffles again, and opens her mouth.
".....Lyza.....Lyza, I......."
She takes a long moment to sniffle again, before yelling loudly enough for the whole room to hear it.
"Why did you have to leave me! I loved you, Lyza! I loved you with all of my heart! Why did you have to abandon me! Why couldn't you see!? What did I do wrong!?"
Meanwhile, over by the desk, a paticular snarky contractor would, as he signed the name, have a really, really funny feeling in his body. In his head, he and he alone would hear a dark chuckle as Nyarly's voice sounded within it.
If that is what you wish to be, then I do believe we can arrange for that.
Huh. That's funny. Was he shorter now? It sure felt like it. And something about the way his clothing sat on his body had shifted. And why did his chest feel heavier all of a sudden?
Then the receptionist would hand him a visitor's badge. One with Carmine written on it, with a generic as shit looking picture of her on it. In the reflection of the metal that cliped onto his shirt, he'd be able to see his face. Or rather, not his face.
Carmine's face.
Leo stared, uncaring as various people objected and claimed it was probably a trap. He sighed.
"Come now, if we were going to go out of our way to trap you, do you really think we'd make it so obvious? I don't care what you-"
Whatever he was going to say died before it was spoken as Aigis pointed her finger guns at him and started yelling. His hands sprang to the air so fast you coulden't even see them move, and now there was real fear in those yellow eyes.
"I know you just want a fight, robot, ok, I, I've had the misfortune of running across your shadow in the past, and barely managed to escape with my life. I know what you are, what you hide within you. Trust me when I say you're the last person I want to piss off."
"Leo."
Then another person walked onto the floor, who might look familiar to some but not to others. So far as anyone was concerned, Amber was not part of this operation. But that sure as shit looked like a shadow in her form walking toward you, and Leo ran over, kneeling down in front of her as she came to a stop.
"Mistress! I'm terribly sorry, I-"
"Your incompetence forced me to come all the way down here. Now I'm tired. Correct this."
She pointed at the ground, and Leo eagerly got down on his hands and knees. Then Amber got up on top of him and used him as a seat, placing her feet on his head like a footrest as she leaned back on top of him.
"Now then. You're all very worried about us, so I see, thinking that we're the enemy, here to destroy you. But your understanding of the situation is, shall we say, limited. Tell me, do any of you actually know what it is we are?"
Joker nodded. "A shadow. A dark, twisted reflection of someone. They show what a person really is, the feelings they hide in their normal lives."
She nods. "A simplistic response that is not quite accurate, but close enough. We are, in most respects, you. Whenever or not you realize it. Not the you that you want people to see yourself as, but the you that you suppress. The you that you refuse to accept."
She shifts her feet on Leo's head, and he grunts in pain.
"All of that said, there is one thing that you must understand, before you all make fools of yourselves. The one who controls this world controls us no more then he controls you. Yes, he created us, created the environments we lurk in, has given us instructions, promises, incentives to do as he says. But we have our own motivations, objectives unique to each of us. We are nothing but obstacles. And there is no need to blow up every obstacle in your path."
She's giving Aigis, in particular, a look as she says this last line.
"You need to remember who the enemy is here."
She looks around the room, at the faces of everyone in the group.
"Of course, some of you won't be satisfied by logic. So go on. Ask me questions. I'll offer you what information I can, as a show of good faith."
Edited by Meanken on Mar 17th 2020 at 5:37:03 AM
The Ruined City: Shadow Akko's Audition for This Show
note
Link's jaw dropped at the sight of the decimal form of 15 billion. How could a number even have that many zeroes?! It's not like anybody could count that high!
Then Mr. Spider-Man swung by to try putting the number in perspective...emphasis on "try." For someone born into a globalist world, where the other side of the planet is less than a day's journey away, the idea of 7-8 billion people in the world might make some sense. For a little boy who grew up in a village with less than twenty people, who traveled to a town surrounding the king's castle and felt convinced it had to be the center of the civilization (what with the hundreds of people living there!), it was enough to make the little hero feel dizzy!
"Uhh...w-well, ahem, yeah. If you're uhh...counting the way your world does." the fairy replied to those correcting her, forgetting for a minute that they probably came from different worlds. "Back in Termina, we use billions differently, that's all. I've seen farmers plant billions of cabbages, banks hold billions of rupees, Gorons eat billions of rocks during their big feasts. It's just not that big of a number for us, that's all!"
Tatl leaped at the web-slinger's skepticism about the Crossroads' population. "See? Now wouldn't it make a little more sense if we were counting with Terminan billions? They could live here and have all the elbow room they wanted! So maybe we're both right in our own way, and...well great. Now look what you've done!"
The terse tone in Tatl's words were referring to the sorry state of her partner:
15,000,000,000
Fifteen thousand THOUSAND thousands
Fifteen thousand times fifteen thousand times fifteen thousand...?
Link swayed back and forth, applying his—in the most generous terms—"hands-on" education in arithmetic, and running as much of his brain as he could through it; that was the best he could do to understand just what a number that big could look like. It couldn't be all the stars in the sky. It couldn't be all the leaves in the Kokiri Forest. It couldn't be all the breaths someone takes in their life. It couldn't be...It couldn't be...It couldn't be...
"Eehhhheeheeeeee."
It wouldn't be hard for someone to picture spirals where the little hero's eyes used to be as he swayed in mental exhaustion and hopeless confusion. Fortunately, even if his conscious brain was short-circuiting, his ears worked just fine, and he turned around to spot the emerging Shadow without any trouble.
"Easily-distracted" was right.
note
"Hmm?"
Link glanced over his shoulder to see the witch girl he was shielding raise a strange metal pipe towards the Shadow; a device that seemed to make the Shadow quake with fear. Strange, he didn't see anything scary about it at all. It didn't even have any sharp edges!
Even though he stood his ground, hearing Minako toss 15 billion questions at the Shadow made Link giggle. She was doing what he did to her yesterday! When she came to visit Fairy Tail after he'd eaten all those cookies!
...but he was not happy to hear such a rapid fire reply, especially one with so many big words. In Terro Gate? Alga May Shun? Sub Conshee—Sun Conshuh...
The little hero winced and looked to Tatl with a faint whimper. He didn't want to start thinking really really hard again! That made him dizzy!
Tatl's wings fluttered faster with a huff. "They're all your bad feelings and what you don't like about yourself balled into one enemy. And if they kill you, they get to leave this crazy place and wander Battleworld pretending to be you. But that doesn't matter because that's never ever ever ever going to happen, so stay focused!...and try not to think so hard again!"
Link nodded, and turned his eyes back to Shadow Akko.
Tatl, meanwhile, had picked up on a little detail the enemy had dropped. Well, she'd dropped a lot of "little details" just now, but at least she hadn't blubbered this one out loud. No, this tidbit had come when the Shadow faced the faintest bit of resistance...from someone she knew.
"Oh, we're gonna In Terro Gate you, alright!" Tatl sneered, despite the fact that (like her young partner) she didn't quite grasp the meaning of the word. "Now tell us how we get the heck out of here, or your good pal Constanze here's gonna give you a niiiiiiiiiiiiice introduction to her GUN!"
Again, if she fully knew what a gun was and what it could do to someone, maaaaaybe Tatl would've taken a less...bloodthirsty, approach. As things stood, the little light bulb with wings was starting to sound like the most heartless member of this group—with her oblivious partner pulling into second place as he cheered at the proposal!
The Morgue: You Must Be This Small to Ride
Hei whirled around at the sound of the shapeshifter's voice. He raised his dagger in a defensive stance, even as his body began to twitch and writhe in what must've been an invisible strike. When he finally felt like he could move freely again, the mask designed to perfectly fit his face dropped to the floor, and a small, sickly-thin woman
◊ stared at the others with wide jade-colored eyes.
"What...the hell...?"
Hei (Carmine? Havoc? Heivoc?) stared at the hands, heard the alto voice, and turned to the young Thundercore Captain who hadn't been quite that tall a minute ago. Then the Contractor stared at the visitor's badge and the face reflected in the metal clip.
Heivoc clenched his teeth. "Tch. The bastard's got nothing else on me, so he resorts to tricks like this? Fine. Last time I was this tall, I was halfway to my Black Reaper reputation anyway."
The Contractor began rolling up his sleeves, and turned to the others with an especially sour look.
"If it isn't obvious yet: sign your own name on that sheet of paper. For whatever reason, this thing's being a stickler about that."
The Red-Black Giant Reaper hoisted his pants up and adjusted his belt to its tightest loop. All he had to do now was roll up his trousers, and he'd be good to go.
"Josuke, afraid I might need a favor to ask you." The Contractor said as he walked towards an empty seat. "It's possible this little prank our enemy's played on me is just physical, but if it's swapped my Contractor powers as well, then I'll have to pay Havoc's price as well. Not sure I ever mentioned it, but..."
Heivoc's jade eyes turned sternly to the Stand User. "It's blood. Havoc has to drink blood each time she uses her power...and I'm not talking about just a few drops. It'll be a risk for anyone if I'm forced to use her ability, but at least you can seal your wounds with that Stand of yours, while Okuyasu provides cover."
Without waiting for an answer, the Contractor pulled a foot onto the seat and began rolling up one trouser leg, and then the other.
"You make one sentimental move, and it turns you into a joke."
The Nightclub: NANIIIIIII?!?!
Rupture Truss all but fell from Maki's hands.
"A—Amber?" he muttered, wide-eyed red and green eyes staring straight into those glowing gold ones.
"I...I don't understand." murmured the Huntsman-in-training. "Amber's..."
The open invitation for questions couldn't have come at a better time. Maki reverted his crossbow into its kite shield form again, and stowed it securely on his back. He then rushed to the front of the group, pushing his way past V, Trevor, and even General Christophe on his way to the figure enthroned before them.
"Amber!" he cried, not knowing what else to call this Not-Amber. Realizing that he'd just hopped to the front of the "questions" line, Maki blushed and thanked the poor lighting for masking his embarrassment, then asked a question most of them were probably thinking:
"If you're Amber's Shadow, then why are you here? She's got nothing to do with this fight!"
I have a plan.
Rookie Village - Shadow
Shadow leaned over Pietro's strange electronic device curiously for a moment, but he quickly adjusted to this new technological wonder, as it was obvious Pietro was more interested in describing the helicopter itself.
"I can't promise I can scrap such a device on my own, but I can ensure it won't fly again. Hopefully, you won't mind forking over something I need after this is all said and done..."
Shadow glanced at Interceptor, which was enough of a command for the canine to keep by its owner's side again.
"What do you say, Strelok? I'd appreciate a hand."
The Nightclub - General Leo Christophe
General Leo's dark gaze met Aigis' eyes. Oh, great. Now the machine wanted to say her piece!
"Fighting is best suited for civilians and children. I'm a general. I've overseen the fates of not only the city of Vector proper, but of the nation of Albrook, the nation of Tzen, and even the nation of Miranda. That was all accomplished with something a bit more involved than fighting. You really ought to stick to what you're programmed to do, you know, your little fights, and leave the actual thinking and speaking to me."
General Christophe wasn't too bothered when Maki. At that point, he saw his own Shadow prostrating itself before the shadow of Amber? Who was Amber?
...Why was his own Shadow allowing this complete stranger to use him like an ottoman?
Leo looked around the nightclub. Scanning everyone else's reactions. Then he looked back at his Shadow.
"Why are you letting some woman use you? If you're really meant to be me... You've served the military all your life, you don't take orders from her!"
Edited by TailsDoll on Mar 21st 2020 at 11:27:20 AM
"@[=g3,8d]&fbb=-q]/hk%fg"
Vampire Hunter
Sypha, The Ruined City
"You two do not know what a gun is yet, do you?" Sypha turned to Tatl and Link. "I'm willing to trust the more... futuristic members of the group when they say a city cannot hold 15... thousand million..."
Sypha seemed to have trouble conceptualizing needing a word to describe a billion, but quickly got over it.
"...Someone tie her up," Sypha sighed as if more annoyed at having to ask. She was Akko, alright. "Besides, Akko is not with us."
"She has told us everything already," Sypha stated, frowning. She really did not want to treat even a dark villainous Akko like this.
Morrigan, The Morgue
Morrigan stared at the newly changed Black Reaper for a bit, "Okay, I will admit that is rather funny."
"Okay then, sign with your own name," Morrigan said as she signed in with her own name before the Shadow Ozen made her presence known.
Trevor, The Nightclub
"If there was a trap, we are all already in it, so we may as well play it out," Trevor actually agreed with General Leo. It was then that the Mistress had made her appearance known. He looked surprised at the fact that the Mistress was Shadow Amber and not Lady. Trevor listened to what Amber had to say. Maki and Leo both got questions out.
"If you exist in this world despite Amber not joining us, then does that mean others who have not joined exist in this world as well," Trevor asked Shadow Amber. "For example, does Grant's Shadow exist in this world?"
Edited by GameGuruGG on Apr 2nd 2020 at 2:13:57 PM
Wizard Needs Food Badly
The Netherworld, Mushagoni’s
As Koishi and Majora sniffed for the tastiest place in the Netherworld, they’d be alerted to the scent of something saucy. Something cheesy. Something… with the distinct flavor profile of “mama mia”, That’s right, there was a beautiful Italian restaurant close by called Mushagoni’s. Adoring the roof was a picture of a happy looking mushroom stuffing his face with pizza.
And as you make your way closer, it becomes clear why. All of the restaurant's workers appear to be mushroom people
. The cooks gleefully tossed dough into the air, made their Spicy Meatballs, and enthusiastically made hand gestures at each other. Truly, you had reached the apex of demon culture.
A cheerful looking mushroom called out to the Touhous and Majora. “Hello there! You nice-a people want a tasty meal? We got plenty of seats just for you, amicos!”
Eternal Princess
If the water works and appeal to friendship was supposed to have any effect on Constanze, she didn't show it. Her stern face remained as frozen as ever. Holding at gun point was pretty par the course for their relationship, even for the real Akko.
◊ If any thing, she made sure to do another loud cocking of the shotgun in timing with the little fairy's threat. She didn't really want to hurt this shadow Akko, but that didn't mean she would hesitate if it came to it.
Though, no matter how she looked at it, this shadow really was Akko. Not even a reverse evil beard wearing Akko. This Shadow was more a replica then a twisted reflection. She supposed that made sense. If these things were manifestations of thoughts and emotions that the original didn't want to admit, then Akko's would be accepting that she was the way she was rather then the way she imagined her self to be.
As she kept her gun trained on the Shadow Akko, Constanze let out a hum. Like the motors in her head were running. These Shadows seemed to be showcasing intelligence and self awareness. Well, self awareness at least. They were even driven by motivation that extended beyond merely following orders. Considering she was expecting mindless unspeakable horrors, killing shadows primarily motivated by the chance to live life muddled the morality of their situation. Regardless, their objective remained unchanged.
However, this development may have opened options. The status of these Shadows as enemies may be conditional rather then absolute. If their Primary objective is obtaining a body and being aloud to live, then they themselves could probably make that arrangement. While a bit out side her expertise, it should be hypothetically possible. Summoning and anchoring them to the real world before tethering them to an acceptable shell. Obtaining original bodies to be used may be tricky, but should be doable. If they don't mind ones of mechanical make, she could create them herself. Just thinking about it, she couldn't help but imagine the image of Mecha Shadow Akko. Cool.
The point was, these Shadows wanted something that they themselves could possibly provide. They could hypothetically buy out these Shadows loyalties, bolstering their own forces while removing opposition. She turned to the others to make the suggestion, but...how was she supposed to communicate this? It wasn't really something she could pantomime. With Stanbot being needed in gun form, she couldn't quite make use of its tablet form to write something out either. The struggle showed on her face as she tried to come up with ways to communicate with the others, only to come up with nothing. Her thick eye brows slowly furrowed as her cheeks puffed into a pout. Frustrated, she turned back toward the shadow, apparently doubling down on the lets shoot Akko option since diplomacy was something of a difficulty for her.
Meanwhile, Reisen's face remained the same throughout as Shadow Akko spilled everything. A sense of disbelief that silently said Are you serious? After processing what she had just seen, the bunny girl let out a small sigh, stood up, and brushed her self off. She raised her hands into a "T", signaling for a time out as she walked forward. After she reached the front of the group and stood beside Shadow Akko, she turned around to face the group. With a hand she scratched the back of her head, seeming rather embarrassed about the situation.
"Ah...sorry about this...I was hoping to remain undercover a bit longer than this...but it seems one of my comrades have already gotten her self caught, and I would feel responsible if something were to happen to her. Sorry for deceiving you all."
If anyone else was confused by what the bunny girl was saying, Constanze was right there with them. Tilting her head perplexed, as if the slanted angle would give her a new perspective on what was going on. To add to the confusion, Reisen suddenly turned to Shadow Akko. She would attempt to grab the Shadow by the collar and shake her back and forth furiously.
"You Idiot! Look at the situation we are in thanks to you! Didn't the others tell you that I was planted in the group?! Of course they didn't! Why would they tell you something secret like that with your loud mouth! Now we are out numbered! Don't we have back up!? Where are the others!? Hurry! Tell me so we can get to them before they shoot us!"
She wondered; was this performance a little too forceful? It wasn't really believable was it? She wasn't much of an actor really. Despite rabbits being known tricksters in legend, she wasn't a great liar her self. She wouldn't be able to lie her way with anyone but someone this gullible. Even then, she was relying more on getting the girl confused and anxious to get an answer.
There was probably a bit more information they could squeeze from the girl. Nyarthotep couldn't have sent her all by herself. She kept mentioning others. More then that though, the reason she was going this far for with a ruse was because she wanted to let this shadow go. Not out of some sense of mercy. They had no idea where to go and this empty destroyed city didn't really give them much in the way of clues. Throwing this small fry back and seeing where she scurries off to was sure to turn up something. If she goes for back up, she will lead them right to where these other shadows are hiding. She might even lead them back to Nyarthotep. Buts its not like they could do that if the Shadow thinks they let her go on purpose.
She would just have to see how this plays out.
Akko couldn't help but show a bit of concern with this Mistress talk. W-was this one of those kinds of clubs? She was sure it was a dancing club, but it is really dark, so it was hard to say. Its not like she has ever been to one of those other kind of clubs to actually know what they looked on the inside! Clutching her wand, she peered back and forth in the darkness, looking for anything she might have to magically censor for the little kids.
The emotional outburst from the robot girl gave Akko a jump and yelp out a little eep!. It was kind of scary. Not just because of how sudden it came, or even because of how passionate the Anti-shadow was in her call for violence, but because she was right. They did all come here looking to fight. Before coming here, Akko was all ready to go and put Naruto-tip...Nyan-no-thep...the bad guy in his place! But if confronted like this on whether she would prefer to fight or seek other methods, she had to admit, she would rather not see anyone hurt. Maybe that made her naive.
Ofcourse any moral conundrum the little witch was facing disappeared as General Leo opened his mouth. While there were uncertainties ahead for the girl, but she could be sure of this, that guy was a jerk!
"Huh? What us with that attitude? Who wants to follow a general who is stuck up like that?"
Of course things changed as they were joined by the mistress. Maki seemed to know the girl, which may have made this all the worse. She couldn't help but echo something the masked Phantom Theif said.
"...the feelings they hide..."
Slowly she turned to general Leo, a look of horror on her face. It was a face of someone who just discovered a pervert in their midst. That girl, Amber, she had to be her age! No, probably even younger! Yet his shadow and hers were...what was this Mistress business all about!? Grabbing Mono's shoulders, she would try to pull the kid away from the general.
"Mono, if that man ever approaches you and offers candy, go and find an adult right away!"
She may have misinterpreted the situation.
Edited by ImmortalNeet on Apr 2nd 2020 at 4:46:47 AM
How do you kill that which has no life?
Despite what the rabbit girl seemed to believe, Alfred cared little about what she thought or how she acted. Her ignorance and arrogance was unimportant in the grand scheme of things, and just from their brief interaction and the way she acted when an enemy appeared, it was clear she wasn't going to learn anytime soon. The fact she didn't even realize how close she'd come to being shot was a minor issue at most right then. He had a job to do, and more competent people to do it with. Years of training and experienced allowed the teen to take a tight reign of his annoyance and get rid of it, turning his focus towards the Shadow. At least in part.
There were others to keep focus on the copy-cat, but while they were all just standing around still the girl's companions could be anywhere. As he scanned the surrounding area visually, looking for anything out of place or signs of movement, Alfred kept half an ear on the unfolding situation. The rabbit-eared girl was doing something stupid again, taking a big risk leaving herself exposed and in easy reach of the apparently dangerous foe, but if it worked it could be a boon.
It seemed that the surprises never ended in the Battleworld, though from what he heard even this place was beyond that now. But a look of genuine surprise and shock crossed Tatsu's face as he watched the dark-haired guy suddenly shift into a red-head girl after apparently writing a different name. He stared back at the guy... girl? He stared back at the person in mute surprise as they turned to look at him, before tapping his foot once. "That's... interesting."
The young captain was immediately thinking. Writing a different name turned you into a different person? That had possible uses. For a single moment, Tatsu wondered what would happen if he wrote Atlas' name down. The one time he'd met the men, even with the distance spanning between them, he'd known that whatever the man was, he was beyond deadly. Could he use that, here and now?
But then the moment passed, and the idea faded. It wasn't worth the risk, in several ways. And he didn't think trusting this thing was a smart idea in the slightest. Stepping up to the sheet, Tatsu took the pen and began to slowly and carefully write down a wonky and slightly incorrectly spelt version of Tatsu Frampt.
Having now decided that she was the best chance of protection, or maybe just something that made him feel safe, Mono was sticking close to Akko the entire time. So it didn't take much effort for her to grab hold of him and begin dragging him away. He jolted in surprise and flailed slightly, looking about for danger before turning to look at the girl directly; His pale eyes wide in confusion. "O-okay? Um, w-why? And... what is candy?"
"I see." Delfi said after the explanation, getting caught up internally for a moment on the biology comment before deciding it was another thing she didn't really want to look into; For fear of learning more than she wanted to. Instead she looked back at the wolf woman over her shoulder strangely. "Armour? I'm not wearing armour. This is a dress. Why would I need armour?"
It took the young woman a moment to catch on to what mana shards were, and the realization that money was in fact something that existed. She'd spent so many years without even needing to think about it, that it had entirely slipped her mind. She wondered if she was going to have to pay for staying at this place, which sent a cold chill through her. "M-maybe..."
As they arrived in the main area, mortification joined her worry as she spotted the Innkeeper; Remembering the previous night. Her cheeks were flushed and she couldn't look directly at the woman as she said, "Oh, thank you."
The arrival of the plate caught Delfi by surprise, her eyes boggling at the sheer amount and variety of food stacked onto it. There was things she didn't even recognize, and the scent was intoxicating. She hadn't been starved in captivity, the opposite really, but it still hadn't been like this. Yet as her stomach growled at the sight, she couldn't help but now wonder how much it might cost.
Edited by Alleydodger on Apr 4th 2020 at 4:21:17 AM
"It doesn't matter, just don't get hit by them!" Strelok yelled over the sound of gunfire as the trio struggled to escape, the Stalker quickly turned around to fire a few shots at the soldiers. He managed to get a few hits in on some, as one of them got hit in the chest and was knocked down to the ground, though still alive due to his body armor, while one was hit in his right arm, making him drop his rifle in pain. They would eventually manage to escape from the view of the Ukrainian Military, the surviving soldiers moving on to increase the defenses and check on their wounded comrades.
Motioning at Shadow and Interceptor to follow him, they would quickly find himself near a small village...yet for some reason it seemed abandoned. Strelok thought to himself that Wolf and his band of experienced stalkers told the rookies to wait in the buildings for their safety. Suddenly, a gas masked stalker came out of nowhere from the cover of a box, aiming a SPAS-12 at them...but then stopped aiming his rifle as he noticed Strelok, lowering it.
"Marked One?" Crow asked. "What the hell is going on? Why is the alarm in the pig's base sounding and whats up with the gunfire?"
"It's a long story, but are the rookies safe for now?" Strelok asked.
"Yeah. They are in some of the house, ready to shoot inside there but way safer than us with more experience."
Coming from the cover of the fence was Wolf along with two other experienced stalkers, if Shadow paid attention, he could also see a few rookie stalkers peeking out of the windows of the ruined houses.
"Marked One, I didn't thought you would come back to the Cordon ever again after meeting with Guide. But I seriously hope any of you two can tell us what the fuck is this." Wolf asked, also eyeing Shadow and Interceptor. "Having a helicopter raining down on us is not going to be good for any of us. At all."
"Goddamnit man, we saved those rookies in the parking lot just for all of us to die? This sucks..." Pietro grumbled to himself.
Edited by Darkomega245 on Mar 2nd 2020 at 8:58:52 AM
-Spider Lizard Noises-