[center][b][u]Sector Zero[/b][/u][/center] Ishigo wrapped the final bandage around his left palm. His arm had recovered quite quickly; Jin had explained how spirit was the number one regenerative agent, the more spirit one had, the quicker he or she healed. Ishigo still needed to wrap combat bandages around his upper arm. This time, he left his scarf and hood, wanting to make the most out of a minimized weight. He stretched his arm and sighed, [i]'We shouldn't waste any more time.'[/i] He departed from his room and headed towards the center of the sector, where the enrmous courtyard was located. On his way there, he was approached by Julian, who seemed in more a hurry than he was. "Hol' on, brothah, where yah headed now? Combat training's in about twenty minutes," he said as he approached Ishigo's side. Ishigo nodded, "Right, so get trained. I've got to find someone," he replied in a relaxed tone. Julian chuckled, "Listen, listen, if yah gon' head back out thea' lookin' like this, well... let me come with at least." Ishigo shook his head, "I've got Raeven; she'll be plenty of assistance." Julian shrugged, "Well, if that's what yah want... but I did hear some rumors over in the locker rooms. Somethin' about the ghost of a young lad hauntin' a nearby skymall." Ishigo stopped and then turned to Julian, "Who told you that?" he said sternly. Julian smiled, "It's been the talk of the mercs for a while now. They leave that skymall alone in their patrol for that very reason - it's one scary idea. A ghost? I mean, tell me that a year ago and it'd spook me, I assure yah, but now, we got people breathin' fiah' and turnin' to smoke! I don't have time to believe it's a 'ghost', brothah," he replied. Ishigo let out a small breath of amusement, as Julian's words were more effective than he could've imagined. "Alright then, meet me at the lift in five or you're staying here." --- Raeven leant against the wall next to the lift, watching the hustle and bustle of the Golden Mercenaries. On her way there she had passed Hector as he dealed with the new recruits, and two individuals who were planning on joining the Mercs. She had only waved as she walked past, smiling at him. She wondered if he liked running this whole corporation, with all of the duties and such. She didn't think that she could handle doing such a task. She was most comfortable doing smaller tasks. With a sigh, she rested her head back against the wall and looked up at the roof of the chasm, slightly bored as she waited for Ishigo to arrive. Ishigo entered the hallway and smiled as he saw Raeven patiently awaiting him. "Sorry if I took long," he said. He then looked behind him, noticing Julian approaching right on time. "We're gonna have a third person tag along," he said, almost as if to cue Julian. "Happy to be of service, brothah," Julian said before smiling at Raeven, "The name's Julian Drake. Don't think I've met you, yulie." Raeven pushed off of the wall and smiled at Ishigo, "You're completely fine." As Julian approached, she eyed him, trying to sum him up by the way he acted. "Raeven," she said, extending her hand towards him. "I just arrived here yesterday after a fun reunion with Ishigo." She smirked, remembering their little scuffle. Julian took her hand and gave it a gentle shake. "Glad to meet yah," he said warmly. Ishigo finished preparing his backpack and swung it over his shoulder so the single strap rested across his chest. "Let's go," he said as he activated the elevator. --- [center][b][u]Abandoned Skymall[/b][/u][/center] Yugeto had gotten an ever-so-pleasant rest after last night's events. The past week or two, Yugeto had been feasting off the Spirit of the silly low-energy hosts who had wandered into the Skymall in search of some sort of prize. [i]It's amazing what desperation does to people. Too bad I never ran into anyone that really filled me up good. I mean, I definitely got a shit-ton of Spirit, but yeesh, gimme a challenge![/i] Yugeto thought to himself, and whatever deity he was entertaining on this particular day of the week. It had been a simple week and an all-too-enjoyable life, one Yugeto would hate to give up. Still, the lack of a challenge and boredom from weaker hosts depressed him to an extent. [i]What I would do to run into shadow dude again...[/i] Yugeto daydreamed about his encounter with the mysterious man who managed to pin Yugeto and nearly kill him. He thought about it day and night. [i]I sure as hell don't regret underestimating him from the beginning, in hindsight. That would mean we could never tussle again, and what fun is that?[/i] --- "It shouldn't be much further," Julian said as he remerged from his smokeform. The three of them were crouched behind the cover of a generator on a roof. Ishigo peeked over and saw the top of a large structure which he assumed to be their target mall. "Alright then, let's go," he said as he jumped over the generator and broke into a dash towards the mall. Julian nodded and reverted to his smokeform, gliding across the ground behind Ishigo. Raeven warped the light around her and disappeared, running alongside Ishigo and Julian's smokeform. "Want me to look around inside to make sure it's clear?" She asked Ishigo mid-run. Ishigo nodded, "Julian," he said quietly with authority, "Take the high road and scout the insides up top." In response, Julian's smoke trail shot upwards and headed straight for the canopy of the tower. Raeven slowed as she reached an entrance to the mall. She quietly stepped inside, her feet barely making a noise as she sneaked through the mall, listening intently for anything. --- Yugeto sat inside the top floor of the Skymall, enjoying some Caliosa pastries, when he noticed something strange floating around the area. "That's...?" Yugeto stood up, throwing the pastry into his mouth, and walking towards the smoke. After finishing chewing and swallowing the dessert, Yugeto squinted and began to speak to the smoke as if it were sentient. "Spirit Energy and Smoke? What? This is a good ton of energy, too." Yugeto grinned; was this the challenge he had been waiting for, or just a false positive, another disappointment? Outside, Julian floated idly. [i]'Trust me, Senyuko, I could smell Caliosian Rumcakes from a mile away...[/i] [i][b]'You have a mission to do, Jules...[/i][/b]' Julian chuckled, his voice resonating from his smokeform, [i]'It'll only be a minute[/i]', he said within the recesses of his conscience before dashing forward and barging through a window. The glass shattered as the smoke crashed through the large frame; Julian's humanoid form began to take shape mid flight as he braked to a halt only a few feet from a counter. It was abandoned, the cash register torn apart, the glass display shattered. There was no sign of any delicacies that the signs which still remained spoke of. Julian smacked his lips, "I guess I was just a bit homesick..." he said softly to himself. Yugeto raised an eyebrow as he turned around back to the spot he was sitting at earlier to find a young man with dreadlocks shuffling through the counter. "Ay!" Yugeto called out. Julian jumped and prepared a defensive position when he heard the young man call out. However, upong seeing him, he instantly relaxed. He jogged towards the man with a friendly smile. "Dude, sorry. I kinda ate all the Calosian sweets. Shit was delicious. There's another pastry stand on the first floor way down, if you wanna head there." He explained. Julian raised a brow and smiled, tilting his head to the side. "You like Caliosian desserts?" he said warmly, "I haven't had one in ages... my mother used to make the best, I swear it," he said with a friendly chuckle. Yugeto nodded. "You kidding me dude? That shit is awesome. Never had 'em until this whole incident here, I've only ever eaten from the remnants of Caliosian stands. Not from around here, honestly." Yugeto said with a yawn. "Anyway, I saw your little smokey thing, and it's pretty clear you're from Caliosa from the whole dread-beanie thing you've got goin' on there alongside the tattoos. This might come off as racist, but I've seen plenty of the Caliosian posters hangin' around the rubble. You smoke?" Yugeto laughed unnecessarily loud at his own crappy joke, before continuing. "If you've got anything on you worth sharing, I'll throw a little gift your way, on my word." Julian smiled brightly, it was the first time anyone had been so aware of his culture. He momentarily forgot that he was here on duty, and instead, chuckled as he reached into a pouch on his hip. "You seem pretty knowledgable, brothah, and in fact..." He finally pulled out two joints and a small pocket lighter. "If yah got the time to spare, I mean..." he said with a smile. Yugeto grinned devilishly. "Brother, all I have is time. Bless you, bless you, bless you!" Yugeto chuckled. "It's my first time touching this shit, but I've heard it's prett-y wild." Yugeto gracefully held one of the two joints up to his mouth, and motioned kindly for Julian to light it. Julian chuckled, "It's the best you'll ever have, grown in the tropical solace of Caliosa," he said as he flicked the lighter with a snap of his fingers. He brought the flame close to the boy's joint and lit, pocketing the lighter right after. He then placed his own joint upon his lips and held his breath for a moment before letting out a small stream of burning, hot ash, lighting the joint. After a few jokes shared between the two, names exchanged, and a long conversation regarding the girls in the different provinces, Yugeto and Julian had finished and ashed their respective joints. "Good will and good people keeps the world spinning, Julian. You're a good guy, and I appreciate this gesture of kindness, my man. Lemme repay you, please. I insist." Yugeto put his hand on Julian's shoulder, and it began to glow a silvery white. "Trust me." Yugeto said calmly, removing his hand after about twenty seconds as the glow receded. Smoke could be seen being emitted off of Julian's body. "Well, Julian, lets just say you're gonna be able to light much bigger joints by now, brother." --- Raeven returned to the entrance of the mall, where Ishigo was waitng. "First floor is all clear. I heard a crash upstairs, though. I'm going to check it out," she said, no longer warping the light around her to save energy. Without another word she turned and headed for the stairs, hearing voices resonate from the upper floors. As she reached the floor where the voices were coming from, she recognized Julian's calm voice. Without trusting the other voice, she warped the light around her and quietly made her way towards the voices. Meanwhile, Ishigo began sprinting towards the wall of the tower. He jumped upwards and ran up a few feet before clutching onto various ledges and protrusions to scale the tower at a rapid pace. It wouldn't be long before he reached the floor on which Julian rested. --- Julian tensed at first, as the sight of the spirit confirmed his suspicion that this boy was more than an ordinary survivor. However, he also felt that he was in no immediate danger so he relaxed, partly due to the fact that he was under the herb's influence. "I don't know what you did, brothah, but it looks to me like you might be the ghost that the locals have been speaking of," he said with a soft chuckle. "You're like...Julian squared, dude." Yugeto let out a gentle stoner laugh. "So they're calling me a ghost? That's some stupid shit, I'm just a dude who likes to eat." Yugeto explained, stretching his arms. "So, go ahead and test out yer powers. Try to flex a "new" muscle or something. It's only like, my third time doing this but it should work fine. Go do your smoke thing, Caliosa-brah." Julian chuckled, "Sure thing...." he said as he got up. His mind was clear and his breathing was relaxed. He walked over to the center of the room and let his arms hover by his sides. He then took in a deep breath and focused. [i][b]'Whoa... you feel that, Jules?'[/i][/b] Senyuko said within Julian. Julian simply chuckled and nodded with closed eyes. Slowly, a spiral of smoke began to spin around Julian, growing until an entire vortex of black and crimson smoke spun at immense speeds. Julian frowned as he felt the slightest bit of strain, and his smoke began roaring to life. A flat tornado of thick, hellish smoke tore through each window as it raged in a circle around him, covering about a ten foot radius. Julian then let out his held breath, gasping as the smoke instantly dissipated. "Holy shit..." he said as he shook his head, staggering a bit. Yugeto smirked knowingly. "That...that's permanent. I'm sure you'll get control of it, but I can't help you with that since I don't know how your Kage and your Spirit interact. But, I hope you enjoy the new...assets to your arsenal, Julian. Least I can do for someone so willing to...introduce me to his culture." Yugeto said sleepily. "Man, this shit is getting to me." Raeven raised an eyebrow as Julian displayed his apparently new ability. She noticed that the boy knew something about spirit and wondered if he was the culprit behind Ishigo's incident. She stopped warping the light around her, leaning against the doorway to the Caliosan shop. "Interesting demonstration, Julian," she said, eyeing the two. "Is that marijuana, I smell?" Yugeto looked excitedly to the new woman who had approached the scene. "Why hello, beautiful..." Yugeto said coyly, leaning on a shelf that then toppled, causing Yugeto to nearly lose his balance and fall over. Yugeto quickly straightened himself. "Ah, fuck, this shit is just...ah, fuck." Yugeto giggled at himself. Julian couldn't help but laugh either, "I think this is the lad that made a mess out of Ish, actually..." he then smiled, "Can't believe how, though..." he said jokingly. Raeven frowned lightly, unimpressed by the boy. "Hm. Me neither," she said, her frown forming into a light smirk. "What is your name?" Yugeto bowed politely, and then shrugged, tossing his hands up in defeat. "Fuck it, dude. I'm a gentleman at heart, not in body. Wellll, not really so much at heart either." Yugeto's grin only grew wider. "I'm Yugeto. And if Ishigo is Mr. Shadow hands, then yeah, I had a little back and forth with the dude, but I wouldn't say I made a mess out of him. Underestimated the dude, honestly. He woulda died if I wasn't such a jokester, and I woulda died if I wasn't such a jokester, either." Yugeto explained cryptically. "So yeah dude, are you guys here to try and kill me and kick my ass or some shit? Cause I mean, Julian's the homie but if that's what you gotta do I'm totally hungry for some Spirit." He said teasingly, with a venomous undertone. Raeve frowned, her eyes narrowing as she listened. She knew that this little shit would have been an easy kill if he didnt have his kage. "I never planned to kill you," Ishigo said from behind the group, dusting himself off and pulling out a small shard of glass from his forearm. He stepped out of the broken window frame and over the glass that lay below. "It's a good thing you didn't kill me either. It would've been foolish for either one of us to kill the other, really." Yugeto shrugged. "Dude, you have a shit-ton of spirit. Like, a SHIT-ton of spirit. I was going to kill the fuck out of you, but I can't bring myself to do that now. If that happens, I can't fight you more." Julian smiled and relaxed even more as Ishigo arrived. He then turned to Yugeto, "Why the killing, hm? Greed? Hatred? I've even heard some conduits go the whole 'it's mercy, they're dead anyway'-route." Yugeto raised an eyebrow at Julian. "Dude, you should know me pretty well by now! I don't have any negativity towards anyone. I'm just a hungry dude. I guess you could call it greed. Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit." Yugeto recited yet another quote to his new friend Julian. "See, basically you hosts have got Spirit, and a lot of it. And I have a lot more of it, more than you three combined. But there's no end to how much Spirit I want. Don't know why, I guess it's instinctual, but Spirit is what I want and Spirit is what I take." Ishigo nodded and looked to Yugeto, "With all that power, you'd probably have an easier time learning a few combat tricks instead of making an enemy out of yourself, even if you do it out of 'hunger.'" Ishigo sighed and walked over to Yugeto, "I don't know who or [i]what[/i] you are... but I can tell you'd make one hell of an ally. I doubt you have much experience being a team player, but hey. People change," Ishigo said as he held out a hand. Raeven listened, interested in what Yugeto could bring to the Golden Mercenaries, no doubt what he could do to the military. Yugeto shook hands with Ishigo, retracting his hand afterward. "Listen dude, I'm not making an enemy out of anyone. I just like to fight, I like to take Spirit, and I'm always bored. So I'll help you with your shit out of respect for you and my main man Julian here, but I want to fight. A lot. With you, too. And I can see you're out looking for people with high Spirit, recruiting them or whatever for whatever the hell you've got goin' on. And I can tell the three of you are chock full of Spirit. Now, I won't try to absorb any of your allies' spirit, but I can guarantee you if I run into a host when I'm hungry before you've got him on your side, or if you've got any strays not willing to join you, they're gonna be well-acquainted with me." Yugeto explained. Ishigo looked at Yugeto and then at Julian. He took a moment to think to himself and then nodded back at Yugeto, "If you like to fight, then we've found you at the perfect time. Come with us, I promise you it'll be worth your while." Julian smiled at Yugeto and pat him on the shoulder as Ishigo turned away to scout the area he had come from. "Look brothah, I'm not saying what you're doing is right, or what you're doing is wrong. I mean, hell, we've gotta murder plenty of people just to get out of here alive, so essentially, we're all on the same boat. We do what we must to survive. But sometimes you gotta give yourself more of a purpose than mere survival. Otherwise you're just a tick in th'machine, 'nah mean?" Julian looked over to Ishigo and then back at Yugeto, "I know a guy. Just your type. If you wanna fight, you'll get your fights. Just... try to play it cool around the shelter, right?" Raeven took a deep breath. "I can only warn that if you step out of line, you'll have us and a lot of others, host or human, to set you straight," she said, watching Yugeto. "Otherwise, I'm excited to see what you can do." Julian chuckled under his breath and winked at Yugeto non homo-ly while gesturing for him to not worry. "You'll be fine, brothah," he said as he began walking towards Ishigo. Yugeto smiled genuinely. "Listen dudes, I won't fuck with your friends. But I'm still gonna go after hosts. And toss me your strays, for sure." He coughed a little as a result from the smoking. "I'll come with you dudes and fight with whoever's down for a spar or whatever. Maybe take the nice little lady over here out or something." Yugeto walked towards Ishigo alongside Julian. "Lets bounce?" Raeven smirked. "As long as you return what spirit you take while fighting," she teased before looking to Ishigo.