"Hey, you seem to be a little tired–"

Swivelling around on one foot, Makoto swung her sheathed shinken to the person's left ear. If she hadn't realised what she was about to hit was indeed flesh and bone sooner, then this boy's head would have been splattered across the sandy path in disgusting chunks. Makoto was still a bit flustered and uneasy from the previous fight, so beating anything that came within a metre radius of her was, well, expected. Realising her vital mistake, the girl slid back from the boy, taking a small breather.


"Ah… Sorry about that. Didn't mean to shock you. Just paranoid."

It was a lot more awkward than it seemed. She had literally almost killed a guy and all she could really say to make up for it was sorry. Her short and quick words indicated that she was quite deprived of her energy and out of breath, so if this boy was implying to start a fight through his aggressive tone of voice then Makoto was pretty much screwed.

"Most everyone else is probably way ahead of us by now. Could've sworn I saw you get a good head start on me before."

Okay. Looks like he wasn't intending to kill her. Yet.

"Well, I wasn't that far ahead. I was probably lingering somewhere in the middle though," she responded, running her fingers through her sweaty hair. Makoto grimaced, deciding to tie her hair up instead.

"I guess searching for those cards is much more time consuming than I thought. I was peering through every nook and cranny just to find one. Oh, and I almost got killed, too. And now I'm here, apologising to you and hoping you'll accept it. So… yeah."

The teen in front of her was quite cold and stone faced, no real expression. Makoto raised her eyebrow.

"What? It's the truth."

The boy then raised his left hand where he had previously been gripping his gun, probably in case any more of those drones came rushing in. He stretched his arm out, keeping his still face.

"Name's Gil."

In contrast to him, Makoto's face seemed to light up. Was this the start of a brand new friendship?


"Oh, well, hey Gil! My name's Makoto… Oh crap, behind you–"

In a state of shock, the girl watched as a wolf shaped drone leaped in from nowhere, baring its fangs at her new friend. Suddenly, flashes of lightning practically killed the clump of metal, making it drop towards the two soon-to-be academy students. It brushed past Makoto, wiping away the chances of ever being met with a heavy dump of metal in the face.


"Seems I wasn't the only one who found you," Gil said.

"U-Uh… Yeah…" she muttered back. It was clear that Makoto felt both overwhelmed and slightly suspicious.

She glanced over her shoulder to view the mess Gil had caused. Crouching down, she poked at it, when she spotted something sticking out of it. Makoto's eyes widened.

"Wait, this… This is one of the tarot cards!"

Score! A tarot card after searching for (not) so long was just what she needed. She grinned, getting up to her feet to face the thunder dude.

"This is great! Now I don't have to worry about–"

Wait, but what about Gil?

Darn it.

Technically, it was Gil who defeated that wolf drone, leading to Makoto finding a card stuck inside. But, there was always that constantly scorned saying; 'finders keepers'. She looked down at the card and then back up at Gil.


"Uh…"

Maybe this brand new friendship wouldn't last very long at all.

@j8cob

Hop. Skip. Jump.

The fact that most of the buildings were tilted in one way or the other made it much easier than Shinobu had expected when it came to hopping from rooftop to rooftop. With her weapon sheathed and the entirety of her mind set on sticking the landing, the little girl made some impressive progress through the fallen office buildings of the Downtown Ruins. From her vantage point, she could observe the flashy battles of others as they utilized Manifestation and personal skill to carve through groups of drones, leaving only electronic wreckage that spewed sparks from ruptured carapaces. The moon was massive that night, a full moon that cast a heart-red pallor over the buildings below. It was as uncanny and frightening as it always was, but Shinobu thanked the unobstructed moon that night.

She didn’t have the foresight to bring a flashlight, after all, so having such prominent lunar lighting was quite a boon.

Despite her high ground advantage and bright moon, however, she was now two hours into the night, and Shinobu was getting both tired and pissed off. The rooftops were bare of anything noteworthy. Searching the interior of broken-down air conditioners and the few penthouses lead to nothing, and each jump she made tired her further, until she was struggling to cover ten foot gaps between buildings. Down below, combatants were still trucking on, and she spat a foul word at her own lack of stamina. Plopping down with her legs crossed, the brunette leaned her back against a dusty box, not minding how dirty her clothes got. Black was a good color for people who don’t wash their clothes, and brown was a good color for people who didn’t mind dirt in their hair.

Now, though, she had to think.

Shinobu had crossed around ten to twenty large buildings at this point, but had found jack shit.

Outside of that invisible wolf mecha and a few small groups of spherical drones, there had been no other encounters with the enemy. This was originally a good thing, but the more that she thought about it, perhaps the intention was to display combat skills after all?

There have been no sign of the giant mecha that she felt while on the ground. Perhaps her hypothesis was wrong, and it was someone’s Manifestation instead?

So ultimately…did the Headmistress lie? Did Aria actually intend for them to find the tarot cards within the drones that they kill? And does that mean that Shinobu was definitely screwed?

She grit her teeth and slammed her small fist against the stone roof. A jolt of pain that ran up her hand caused her to wince. She shook her hand, hissing in pain, before standing up. Looking out into the distance, Shinobu searched for the drones. The ground forces were off limits, and she really didn’t want to fight something that could abuse the same ability that she could, so that meant only going after the flying beam-balls. She leaned over the edge of the slanted building, narrowing her eyes, before finally catching a promising sight.

“There we go…” she whispered.

Three buildings ahead of her, a squadron of drones floated about, seemingly on patrol. They floated above the roof, perhaps ten or so meters up in the air. Taking in a deep breath and placing a hand over her heart, Shinobu calmed herself once more, before making the jump.

She sailed through the air, flipping once before somersaulting on the ground. Pushing up and using the momentum to maintain her speed, the girl sprinted to the next edge, leaping off and diving onto the next roof. Her breathing was still stable when she hit the cement hard, front-flipping onto her feet once more, before stretching out her stride as she approached the final jump. She pressed one foot onto the ledge and kicked off. Her other foot found some purchase against the opposing wall, pushing her higher up as she reached up with her hands.

Shinobu only barely made it, both hands clutching the edge of the higher building, arms trembling from effort. A night breeze tousled her hair, a ghostly wail that reminded her just how easy it would be for her hands to slip and for her to fall to her death.

The girl didn’t look down. All she could hear was the pounding of her heart and the weightlessness of her dangling legs.

Focus. FocusfocusfocusfocusfocusFOCUS.

Shinobu clenched her teeth, and slowly began to lift her scrawny body upwards. First, her face pressed itself against the roof. Then, her right leg managed to raise itself over it. Following that, her chest pressed against the stone ground. And finally, with a grunt, the girl rolled onto the roof, panting heavily. The squadron was still humming about on the other side of the roof, she could hear that much at least. Giving herself a minute’s worth of respite, she scooted away from the edge and drew out Remembrance again, holding the blade by its tip.

Tossing it up and down to get a feel of its weight once more, the girl slowed down her breathing.

A target, ten meters up, patrolling slowly rather than going at top speed. With her invisibility, it should be an easy feat to hit it.

Should be.

A deep breath as she rose, her form disappearing from sight.

A casual, normal gait, suppressing her own intentions.

A quick look upwards, at the drones that were floating above her head.

And then, a big grin.

There was a tarot card plastered onto bottom of the centermost one.

She was right after all.

Here. We. Go.

The dagger spun upwards, striking the center of the drone. It sparked, sputtered, and its flight capabilities disappeared, the basketball-sized sphere falling down into her arms.

Cradling it, she watched the object disappear, turning invisible as Insidious’s effect activated, before closing her eyes as well. Gravity dragged her intangible form through the rooftop, to the floor below, and Shinobu did a dramatic three-point landing, the shock of the impact absorbed by her bending legs.

And only then did she breathe once more, almost happy enough to scream.

She got a card, and she destroyed one of those machines as well! So she could be useful after all, even if her kill count was only a single low-level ‘monster’!

Humming cheerfully, Shinobu pulled Remembrance out of the mechanical corpse of the drone, making sure to stab a few more times and ensure that it was disabled, before carefully peeling off the tarot card. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was supposed to be, but it didn’t matter, did it?

Clearly, it had to be a special card if it had 0 as a number and the picture of a hobo!

Well, actually, no, that made it look rather stupid and worthless as well...

Shit, did she make another mistake?
@Kol@TheWindel@SolisHeretic

James was lowering his mineral surfboard to the ground so that he could check more of the abandoned buildings. There was a particularly tall one that looked like it had to have something inside of it. That was the plan until he realized he had a passenger. Lloyd himself had grabbed onto the levitating sand and was currently fighting off a couple of drones that had caught on to them. He noticed that Lloyd was making a gun with his hand like boys used to do when they were kids. James was briefly confused until a bolt of green plasma shot out of his fingers and blew up several drones. "Weeeeeeeeeee!" Lloyd said in slight glee as he fired the shots, "Eat that you flying tin cans!"

"Well damn, that must come in handy," he said aloud. Jamie watched as Lloyd tumbled off the sand and dusted himself off.

"Oh hey there!" Lloyd said in greeting, "It's good ole' Jamesy boy, my most favorite guy in the world! Guess I tried keeping up with you and totally succeeded after all."

James paused and looked at Lloyd then chuckled. "Alright, alright, ya got me. Have you found a car yet? Those fuckers are hidden super well---" Jamie was cut off by a robot slamming into his sand surfboard and sending him flying. The sand dropped back to the ground along with the robot. Wolfe pushed himself back onto his feet, panting, hitting the ground had knocked the wind out of him. The drone stood at its full height of 8 feet, its tentacles that served has hands twisted and coiled in the air. "What in the fuck? Where did you come from?" The robot responded by slamming a tentacle into an unprepared James, which sent him flying. Jamie got more intimate with a wall than he would have liked as he hit it pretty hard.

Wolfe staggered to his feet once again, dazed from the impact. It kind of stung to breath, he figured he hit his ribs pretty hard. "Hey, Lloyd ole buddy ole pal. Wanna help me out here?" The drone began charging towards Jamie. James used the ground to push him into the air, leaving a pillar of rock sticking out of the ground in his place. He rolled as he landed and turned to face the robot. James punched the air a of couple times, and piece of earth raised out of the ground and launched themselves towards the drone. A couple bashed into it and a couple missed. It looked like this robot had tougher armor than the others. James turned into steel and launched himself back at the drone with the earth under him. He tackled the thing full force. They proceeded to engage in an intense fight of hands vs tentacles. The playing field was even now, he was stronger in this form, and a hell of a lot more durable.

James managed to looked back at Lloyd and say, "shoot it if you get an opening!"

"Yeeeaaaah. Alright, let's look for shit to beat the hell out of and find these lame ass cards, would've been easier if these mother fuckers just told us to pick people we first see, or just throw us into the forest and tell us the first asshole we see would be our fucking alley. NOOO we gotta do this stupid ass card shit, I can't wait to see a monster because I'll take all my fucking anger out on it because this shit is fucking dumb.

Awww, yeah! "Time to paint the town red!" Juniper grinned, almost running off into the ruins. Almost.

That was until a green-haired beast tripped over and fell into sight, at which point Juniper almost attacked her.
"I got her!" She yelled to Gaz, her pick raised over her head. If it hadn't been for Ikkime and Mizura's timely intervention, a trail of icy spikes would have made their way over to Lucille and froze her solid. Fortunately, she stopped inches before her pick slammed into the ground. For a moment, she was confused as to why the newcomers were attacking first years. Then she realised it was all a mistake when one of the newcomers lifted up the green-haired person.

"Is that..? Hey, Beastie! You okay?" she called with genuine concern in her voice. A second later and Beastie would have become an interesting conversation piece and Juniper would have a bounty on her head. Or not, considering this academy was bananas. Like, proper yellow bananas, not those little weird foam banana sweets. They didn't even taste of banana.

"Juniper!!" her partner's voice snapped her out of her banana-fuelled daydream.
"We're still somewhat close to the others! We gotta go in deeper and find some monsters and animals to beat up !!
Before she had a chance to object, Gaz lifted the smaller girl onto his shoulder.
"Woah! Okay! Steady there, big guy, I expect at least dinner and a date first!" she joked. From here, she could keep an eye out for monsters behind their backs.
They advanced further into the ruins, Juniper giving Beastie and the Twins (Good name for a band) a farewell wave.
"♬ We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when... ♬"

Eiko almost bowed to the four eyed girl when she was finished speaking." I would gladly challenge you to duel on any week, but we don't exactly have the time for a duel, you have to find a card like I have." Eiko pulled out the card she found from her back pocket, it the card was the Queen of wands, one of the many wands cards that were placed around the ruins." I have this one here. The wolves tried taking it back after I took out a horde of them with my Wakizashi." Eiko spoke the last word without hesitation or changing the word into English, she informed the other girl as she patted the handled the short sword.

" Do not worry I will have an eye on your backside and make sure no wolves come to jump either of us." Eiko told her not noticing how she sounded when she said she'd watch Erys' backside instead of back really, as they walked Eiko began changing out the magazines in her MP7s, pocketing the empty mags while putting the full magazines into the weapons." If you don't mind me asking, what is your name ? I don't want to call you person or woman or glasses lady." Eiko asked the student her name, she remembered telling her name to the girl but she never shared her name with her.

Eiko kept her defenses up as she followed behind of swords woman she constantly looked back as they journeyed further into the ruins she kept an eye on their back making sure nothing would get at them, she was using her ears, eyes and instant to make sure that they weren't being tailed by wolves, monsters, or even other students that could be willing to steal her cards." We should hurry in finding these cards, I don't think the small vampire lady with the large parasol will allow us to go over the limit in time it takes to find the cards she set out for us to collect." She told the four eyed girl.

@Vocab

Gyuuki

Second Post

"H-h-hello!?"

A human voice, actually, any voice, was a soothing sound right now. Even if they were one of those students who would get scared of her, anything would be better than another one of those robots.

“Over here” Gyuuki says, as she finally managed to get on her feet again and moves toward the main corridor again.

The fight had done quite a damage to the Ox-demon, her legs still had wounds were they were hit by the darts, her hands, specially the right one, were wounded by the friction with the steel, her nose was still bleeding from the punch to the face and she had yet to take the cables out of her horn. Even so her mood was still up “Peace and love, please don’t run away” she said, expecting one of the scaredy cat students.

“Oh, you?” she said, as she saw that it was the youkai girl from the night before, the voice of reason in that silly fight that happened. She too had been wounded on her right midsection “Fighting too huh? Were it the metal dolls too or …”

“Ah I see, I met like, 4 of these things here, and a flying ball too. Awfully smart for a metal chunk, setting up ambushes and everything” she sighed and grabbed her backpack, maybe it was a mistake to only stock food and water instead of some bandages, even worse, the food was gone, all eaten last night. “Sheeh, water will have to do, I just want to take away this taste of blood in my mouth”

She gulped a bit and noticed the youkai staring at her water. “Ah? You want some too? Here, have it” she offered her water skin, expecting her to be thirsty, but instead she used it to heal herself.

“Oh, you are like, a flower spirit right? I’m an ox-demon, strong by nature” she made a brave pose and giggled “My name is Gyuuki by the way”

“Either way, I think we are going to the same way right? We can group if you want, if we find a Carrot Card you can have the first for you” after that battle Gyuuki would do anything to get a teammate.

They continued to explore the ruined mall, this time with proper attention and care to not walk into another battle. “What do you think this place was? There are so many odd things in these rooms, maybe it was like a storage or a…” both went silent once they noticed the narrow corridor ended and in front of them there was some sort of large hall where these corridors connected.

“One, two...five...seven. Seesh” the ox-demon was counting the number of the spherical robots patrolling that hall, some venturing into the nearby corridors and stores. They would need to find a way to avoid that place.

Gyuuki couldn’t find a way but Erisa managed to, finding a link to the service corridors previously used by the staff of the mall. They followed it until it ended in a long set of stairs. “Ugh, you go first, with hooves for feet it's hard to go up these things”

After struggling her way up, Gyuuki found herself in the third floor of the parking lot building of the mall. The place was full of holes but there was a clear ramp back into the streets. Before they could take any step forward however, a strong pain crossed Gyuuki’s back and the ox-demon was thrown into the ground.

It was a Drone γ, the canine type of robot. It was annoying agile and stealthy, giving Gyuuki barely the time the stand up again, and when she was up she still couldn’t land a punch on the thing. A shot from Erisa went into its direction and to dodge it the drone walked up an wall.

“No wall, no wall climbing” Gyuuki yelled as she grabbed a rusty and old motorcycle and threw it against the wall, making the already ruined thing collapse. The robot landed on the edge of the floor, with only its front legs stopping it from falling, Gyuuki quickly fixed that with a punch to the muzzle.

“I’m tired of this already” the sound of metal crashing in the ground could be heard in the distance.

Erys continued walking, mostly ignoring the girl behind her - instead trading the concentration for perception of the surroundings. The sounds of fighting was constant, and very audible despite the wide expanse of desolate town that surrounded the two. In the odd parts she actually did catch from the talk behind her, she managed to pick out a few things.

"My name is Erys; Erys Onell. You might have heard the last name." she said, not turning around. She had also picked out that the girl had a card, though which she didn't catch thanks to her constant facing forward.

It wasn't long after Eiko had stopped talking that a small, spherical drone whizzed around the corner from behind a building, guns blazing. It fired multiple red energy dart looking beams, clearly powered by FLUX, before it began spinning. Erys dodged the ones aimed at her, immediately drawing her blade, and then narrowly dodging the spinning ball as it went in for a melee attack; or at least a slam.

In a swift action, she drew her blade up in an arc, the digging into the machine before becoming lodged. If the drone could have laughed, it probably would have, only to see the white-gold light emanating from inside it. In a bright flash, several bolts of electricity burst free of it's armour - drilling boiling holes clean through the white plating and causing it to drop off the blade; splitting in two.

"That was ru-" she was about to slide her blade back into the sheath, but from behind the two she heard a slight crunch. As she turned yo face Eiko, she saw the faint glimmer of camo against the sun, indicating the presence of a γ drone.

"Wolves... We have been ambushed, my friend." she glanced once more at the increasing number of shimmers, and drew her blade. Several runes began to glow, and she sprang towards the area she thought some might be. Bringing her blade down, the spots shifted and jumped out of the way, the camo fizzing away as a small crater exploded out from under the katana.

And, the one thing Erys hadn't noticed until she caught it in her peripheral vision, there was a card seemingly taped to the side of one of the now visible wolves.

The Queen of Swords.



#3

@TheFourthIV


James paused and looked at Lloyd then chuckled. "Alright, alright, ya got me. Have you found a car yet? Those fuckers are hidden super well---" Jamie was cut off by a robot slamming into his sand surfboard and sending him flying. The blonde turns to see a drone, one that eight feet high, with its tentacles that served has hands twisted and coiled in the air.

"Well ya found this thing." Lloyd responds as he faces it, "A big ole' robotic TENTACLE monster? Boy, I've read too much manga to know where this will~"

"What in the fuck? Where did you come from?" The robot responded by slamming a tentacle into an unprepared James, which sent him flying. Jeezus, this thing was aggressive as hell, too aggressive for that matter. Still looked kinda cool but also disturbing at the same time.

"Boy you are hard to look at." Lloyd says as he puts his right glove in his pocket, "I'm getting all the wrong images already!"

"Hey, Lloyd ole buddy ole pal. Wanna help me out here?" Wolfe says as he staggers to his feet once again, dazed from the impact.

"Yeah yeah, one sec." responds Lloyd as he takes off his other glove like a casual.

As soon as he finishes, he makes two finger guns as they are now ready to fire at the robot. Yet what he gets is a show that has Jamie fighting hand to hand with this thing... getting his ass kinda handed to him as well. This drone has some kind of advanced armored plating, but other than that they can probably get a few spaces to punch or shoot in some damage.

James managed to looked back at Lloyd and say, "Shoot it if you get an opening!"

"Uh-huh." nods Lloyd as he aims at the robot.

He then aims near the attachments of where the tentacles connected to the robot and proceeds to fire several accurate shots that if hitting the locks, should be able to detach a few tentacles and maybe drive the drone's attention towards him.

It seemed that out of all the First Years, Shinobu was the lucky or perhaps greatly unfortunate one to obtain the Fool's Card. The card itself seemed to mock her as a red shining mark glowed briefly before soon disappering. Well that was interesting...but whatever the case, the Fool Card meant a special prize was in order. But special prizes were only achieved when a special challenge was taken.

Unfortunately for Shinobu, the one who was supposed to enact said challenge was...missing. Further away, in the outer edges of the ruined cities, a certain red-head grumbled in annoyance. Reiko had asked her to help out the school for once as she was to be the Secret Boss but...someone had the nerve to steal the Fool Card away from her. So how was she supposed to be the Boss when she didn't even have the card? With more trouble than it seemed, the Crimson Hound turned on her heels in the attempts to retrace her steps.

Meanwhile, Shinobu would be greeted with a gentle prodding on her shoulder. Had she turned, she was have seen a short girl poke at her left shoulder while dodging to her right, trying to steal back the Fool Card.

Maybe if Shinobu had been looking at the card closely, she would have been unnerved by the shining, beast-like mark that showed up on its surface, before dissipating. As it was, however, the Fool's Card was just a card, and she moved to stuff it in the pockets of her tracksuit. Or, at least, that's what she would have done.

Someone poked her from behind, a silent figure that did not announce their presence beforehand. Without giving a thought as to whether it was a finger or a gun or something less savory than that, the brunette instinctually closed her eyes and held her breath, falling through the floor and landing on the next one below, before dashing towards the staircase.

There was no fucking way she was going to let some ninja jackass take her shit.

"Aw damnit," the shark-toothed girl muttered with a frown, landing on the ground...before soon fading from sight. She reappeared again right next to Shinobu, casually running beside her. Maybe she should have paid more attention to that Fool's Card after all...

"Oh ho, hey there...Shorty? I kind of don't know your name, soooo, let's call you Shorty! So, yeah, Shorty? That card's kind of mine. Well, not really. I stole it from this red-headed bimbo and went through all the trouble of hiding it...soooo I guess this means we have to fight each other!"

Dana said all this while keeping up with the other girl. Granted, she couldn't actually see her but for some reason she kept appearing wherever Shinobu went. And it wasn't like talking to thin air wasn't uncommon for Dana either. Though it did beg the question of how she was able to keep up.

---

~BGM~

The same power? No, it was too accurate, and even then, too sudden. Unlike Shinobu, the girl wasn't out of breath at all, nor did she seem to have any other type of trigger like closing her eyes or whatever. There were no steps announcing her presence, so that meant...

Fuck this unfair world, did this midget bitch have teleportation? Omnipresence?

Shinobu grit her teeth, rebounding off the far wall and leaping down a set of stairs. She picked herself up, activated her intangibility once more, plunging down another two floors. It was fruitless, all things considered, but for now, she'd just have to keep on going. There will be more options once she got to the lower floor.

Maybe a drone or five could drop on that blonde brat's head after they got to ground level? That'd be great.

"Hey, hey, whoa you're fast! It's almost like you don't want me around or something," Dana mockingly pouted before a grin escaped her, showing off her shark teeth. "By the way you keep bouncing around all over the place, I can tell you wanna keep the card, right? Oh ho, I know something you don't~!"

The blonde girl's words were sometimes cut off as she disappeared, only to reappear wherever Shinobu went. She seemed to even keep track on the walls, running along them just as Shinobu did before the two girls found themselves on the ground once more. Enjoying the chase, Dana leaned in to where she thought the girl's ear was before whispering.

"Hey, hey, wanna know the secret? You know that mark you saw on the card? Or that mark you completely ignored on the card? Yeah, that mark is my teleportation point soooo...as long as you hold onto it, I'm always gonna be right there. Next to you...pretty cool right?"

A chill rose up Shinobu's spine as the girl spoke in her ear, much too close to comfort. Holding the card with her teeth, she leaned downwards, pushed with her free hand, and spun horizontally, lashing out blindly with Remembrance as she fell down yet another floor. A painful thump resounded through the temporarily empty floor, before she bit down harder on the card and pulled herself together.

They were now low enough that she could just run out a window and make the two-story drop probably. And if the card was the teleportation, point, then...

A clang would resound all around them, the screech of metal on metal ringing. Dana grinned as she held up what appeared to be a simple boxcutter, parrying Shinobu's strike before lashing out with her own blow. Even without sight, she had other methods of pinpointing Shinobu's motions.

"I can smell you...no seriously, I can smell you. Like, you're really sweating alot. Oh ho, there's no need to take this too seriously!"

Shutupshutupshutupshutup "SHUT UP!"

Shinobu jumped out the window of the slanted building, sliding down the stone surface as bits of gravel tore into her oversized pants. No need to take this seriously? She spent more than two hours avoiding combat and searching for cards, and she spent five years just to get to this arena the first place, and she spent a whole lifetime chasing after that fuckwad's back, and this god-blessed teleporter thinks that she has the right to tell Shinobu to take it easy?!

Maybe if Shinobu was actually half-decent, everything would be fine. Maybe if she was actually good at fighting, she'd face that box-cutter midget head-on. But right now?

A sharp twang rang up her right leg as it struck the road. Stumbling forwards, the girl almost fell face-first from the momentum, before catching herself and running off towards the goalline, her eyes wide-open and her lungs burning for air. At this point, she could manage, what, twenty seconds of holding her breath? Before she completely collapsed, before her stamina reserves ran out, she needed to find a crowd of drones to change this fight from a one versus one to a moshpit of violence.

"COME ON, YOU PIECE OF TRASH! FIGHT ME!"

"Aw I knew you had a thing for me," Dana said happily as she kept to the other girl's side once more. "Hmm, but wait, you're actually talking to the drones? Instead of me? Wow, you're really that desperate to not fight me. But I gotta ask you, what drones are you trying to call again?"

The crowd of drones did turn and face the two running girls. And they did not hesitate to launch off after Dana and the insivible blur beside her. But as soon as they were about to reach the two, they shattered, torn apart by what seemed to be a chain with a blade at the end of it being launching out of a portal. More of these portals appeared, each bladed chain shooting out to turn the drones into scrap metal.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Dana disappeared again, this time stepping in front of Shinobu and pouncing on the insivible mass in front of her. Fighting to hold her down, her happy shark smile morphed into a dark smirk as she fingered the box cutter in her hands.

"Sorry...but I want that card back. And I'm not gonna let you bullshit me out of a fight. So either grow some and face me or I get to take the card and your hand with it."

What?

As explosions sounded behind Shinobu, her eyes grew wide at the bladed chains that easily eviscerated the few drones that came, attracted by the sound of her voice. Was her intentions that obvious? Or was mind rea-

Before that thought could be be completed, the other girl appeared before her, tackling her. Once again, Shinobu found herself looking at the night sky, and this time, at the shark-toothed grin of her opponent. Panting heavily, her stomach heaved against the weight of the blonde girl. Was she heavy? Or was Shinobu just tired?

"Hey," she asked, managing a weak, defeated smile, "What's your name?"

"Eh? Oh ho, you're finally gonna ask me on a date! Took you long enough. Name's Dana. Used to stand for something, but I kind of forgot what it was. Well, not really. I mean, I thin I can remember but that's all in the past. New girl, right? Right, right? Or you can call me Trash like you did a few minutes ago. Sometimes I go by Super Trash! Like a super hero! Or maybe a super villain? It's hard to keep track of everything. Maybe I should be a shark-themed villain? Eh? I feel like it's easier to do bad things than good things. I mean, I could totally just kill you right here and now. But see how I'm talking pointlessly while you wait to do something? Hey, how come you haven't stopped me yet? Wow, it's like some greater power is holding you back! Oh ho, that's amazing! You can turn invisible and walk through walls...and you have this omnipotent force on your side? Best first date ever! You really should have bought flowers though. I hear that's a good kicker to get the kicks on, oh ho! But seriously, why are you still listening? Hell, why are you even reading this? Shouldn't you be doing something right now...?" Eh...whatever. Ooh, time to talk about-"

Oh god, what the fuck. For a moment there, Shinobu almost found herself drawn into the vortex of pointless jabbering that this Dana person was going on about. She had expected a terse reply, perhaps, maybe an insult or whatever, but by the time the conversation shifted to superheroes and supervillains, the girl realized that she had fucked up the timing horribly.

Well, better late than never.

In a quick, sudden movement, she swung upwards with Remembrance, aiming for the equally flat chest of Dana.

"-and so much more things that I could possibly talk about but since you're now obviously tired of me talking your ear off-eh?"

Dana blinked as Shinobu launched forward with her knife. Frowning, she sprang with her box cutter. The resulting clash flung Dana's weapon away from her, the blade hitting the ground with a dull thud. Dana watched it arc with wide, red eyes before shrugging.

"Well you know what they say. Live and learn, right? Hanging on the edge of tomorrow? But yeah, totally not gonna let that happen again...good thing I brought me a spare!" she said excitedly, revealing yet another box cutter from her skirt pocket.

As Dana made a move towards her skirt, Shinobu's spare hand reached outwards, grabbing her by the wrist. In one smooth motion, she pulled Dana forwards and stabbed outwards with her dagger.

Dana narrowed her eyes and for a brief moment something replaced the otherwise carefree gleam in her gaze. As Shinobu stabbed forward, Dana countered once more with one of her chained blades that came from a portal above her before sighing, that glint in her look gone. She rustled about before moving off of the other girl, noting the two box cutters now embedded into the ground.

"This is getting us nowhere...eh, I think I lose interest in that stupid card. After all, you managed to sit through most of my talking. I guess you deserved it..."

A ruse? Or was she actually going to let this go? Shinobu watched her warily, her own hand still stinging from the impact of that portal-summoned blade. It hurt somewhat, that all this was just a form of entertainment for Dana, but then again, she was severely outmatched to begin with.

If Shinobu was Dana, she would have just skewered the person wielding the Fool's Card at sight. Perhaps it was a sign of strength, that she could take things so easily and nonchalantly.

Getting off the ground, and noting a few more stitches that she'll have to fix in the tracksuit after all this was done, the girl nodded once, staring into those red, fathomless eyes. Though it was probably pointless, seeing how she could teleport and summon chained blades and all that, Shinobu still wasn't going to relax and walk off until Dana did so first.

Shinobu was right in assuming Dana wasn't quite done yet because the moment she turned her back, the shark-toothed girl had teleported yet again. This time she landed on the equally short girl's shoulders, waving her arms to keep her balance before sitting with determination and pointing at the end goal in sight.

"Oh ho, lead me on noble steed! Just cause I'm not gonna kill you still doesn't change the fact that you owe me something. That wasn't really a fight soooo I guess I can overlook your wimpiness...in exchange for a free ride. Heh, there's no need to complain. I'm like the same height as you so I'm not thaaaaat heavy. Also..."

Dana manuevered around until she could whisper in Shinbou's ear again. She was in an awkward position so she would have to work fast. Snickering, she said, "By the way, that mark didn't just go on the card. The moment you touched it, the mark went to you and since my marks don't ever wash out, weeeeelll....looks like we're going to be seeing each other all the time this year! Sounds fun, oh ho!"

The sudden weight, combined with her accumulated fatigue, almost caused Shinobu to collapse, but she recovered just in time once more. With shaking legs, she narrowed her eyes and spat, "Don't you need to find your own card or something? Or were you seriously just fucking around about needing mine?"

"Eh? I think it's a mixture of both? Maybe? I dunno...hey, we're close to the finish line. Why don't you keep moving before time runs out and we both run out of luck?"

It was oh so tempting for Shinobu to just drop this bitch on her ass, but all things considered, she'd probably just teleport back on her head or whatever. Letting out a long, long sigh, and deciding that it was good enough that she was still alive, the brunette put her attention solely on walking onwards.

At the pace of a turtle with broken legs, whilst sweating a waterfall, Dana's majestic steed slowly inched towards the finish line, the goddamned card still in her pocket. Why couldn't it have been a normal one?

Oh, because this was a world that fapped to a little girl's suffering, obviously.

-

Makoto had been jumpy at first but it seemed that she was quick to warm up to Gil. He knew that he would often come across as intimidating though he didn't think she would be so quick to assume he was an enemy. Perhaps she had ran into someone before who tried fighting her? Either way Gil didn't feel like it would be necessary to attack other students over an exam like this. Before she would accept his handshake, however, Makoto decided to inspect the deactivated drone and found it had a tarot card. She was initially joyed but Gil maintained a straight face, an aura of anger layered in his body language. Makoto was quick to recognize it and grew visibly nervous but after a brief, tense moment it all changed.

"Hahahahaha!" Gil burst out laughing, putting his left hand on his stomach as he tried to contain his laughter. It likely seemed particularly odd to Makoto, considering how stoic Gil had been up to this point. After a few seconds of wheezing as he tried to regain his breath, Gil stood back upright and put both his hands at his waist. "Oh wow. I never thought to check out the drones. I wonder how many tarot cards I just completely passed..." His stoic expression was gone as he kept an upbeat grin, half-attempting to guess how many dozens of drones he had dispatched so far. After an exasperated sigh he brought his gaze back down to the girl in front of him. "You can keep that card. There's enough time left for me to get another one. If the machines carry some cards then it'll take no time at all to get another."

Even after getting the laughter out of his system his emotionless expression did not return. The tension was properly broken and now he was also in a good mood. After one final chuckle he rested his left hand on his gun again and took a brief look around. "I suppose I'm just gonna keep heading towards the other end of the city. Makes the most sense to me that I'll find more of these robots to beat in that direction. But I guess you've got no reason to not just make a bolt for the exit now, huh." Gil began walking again, passing Makoto as a spark flicked across his torso. "I don't mind if you want to stick around with me for a bit. If the drones almost got you then perhaps staying with someone like me makes for a pretty easy tour, wouldn't ya say? Besides, I could use another pair of eyes to find another one of these cards." There was the sound of battle nearby, somewhere in the direction Gil was walking, but he seemed either unfazed by it or he somehow didn't notice the gunshots and explosion. "It'd be a little embarrassing if I walked the entire time and didn't end up getting into the Academy. That'd just make me look like an arrogant failure or something."

@Jay Kalton



Much to her surprise it was another Youkai that she had heard making all that noise. And she also had a similar experience with the drones and getting hurt. While Erisa was glad she found company she was slightly dismayed that Gyuuki wasn't a human. But perhaps that was a blessing, because as much as she wanted to learn about humans it would probably be a distraction in this ruined city populated with killer robots. At least the ox-demon had some water, allowing Erisa to start recovering from her wounds. There were some good upsides to her plant-like biology. It made her wonder how her body would react if the Crimson Sky were to go away and the sun were to shine again...

But that was a thought for another day. The two girls navigated through the abandoned mall, though Erisa believed it was something like a gathering place for humans in the old world, but had to take a few alternate routes to avoid more drones. When they got to the parking garage Erisa took a moment to look out over the city. "Oh hey, it's easier to see up here," she remarked. "The finishing line is that way." As she looked back to Gyuuki to see if her new friend was looking where she was pointing it would seem that another one of the dog robots decided to attack, slashing the poor ox-demon across the back. Erisa fired a quick Zetsu arrow from her bow but the drone dodged. Thankfully Gyuuki wasn't too hurt and managed to get rid of the robot by knocking it off the garage. Sure, Erisa could've fired more shots or even used her Twin Dragons, but Gyuuki was between her and the drone and she didn't want to hurt her new friend.

"You seem pretty strong, you just got cut bad and was still able to pick that thingy up," Erisa complemented her, running back to Gyuuki's side to see if she needed help moving around. The flower spirit felt a bit guilty that she couldn't directly heal the ox-demon like Gyuuki had done for her, but she realized that there was probably other ways she could make up for it. "We still need to find those carrot cards... I mean tarot cards. Tarot. Yeah. Do you know what they look like, by the way?" she asked as the two headed down the ramps to the bottom floor of the garage. "I know cards are small pieces of paper. I think..." As they reached the exit of the garage that led back into the rubble-covered street, Erisa stopped and looked both ways. "Coast is clear." She then continued to lead the march, feeling a subconscious need to stay in the front as if she could protect Gyuuki in her injured state. Granted this wouldn't help in an ambush from the sides or behind, but Erisa wasn't a scholar anyways. "So... why did you come to the Akatsuki Academy? If you don't mind me asking, that is..." Having a companion made Erisa feel confident enough to begin talking freely again. She did, however, remain wary. The mistake of her first encounter with the stealthy drones was not forgotten.

@Double Capybara

Kurenai stood behind, lingering on the starting line for a good part of the exam time. She noticed when Gyuuki went past her, seemingly not noticing that Kurenai remained immobile, but that was not an issue now. The time Kurenai allowed herself to have was to observe the city from afar and take a good look at the patterns of everyone's movements, allowing her to easily determine where was the place why the highest chance to have an unclaimed card.

Kurenai also noticed something more worrying from this range, the ruin were being slowly devastated by a giant war machine that approached like a juggernaut trampling all under its feet. In fact, right now the steel behemoth was ready to let itself be known by bombing a good part of the city with heavy FLUX charged mortar shots from an angle and distance that would make counter him from within the city all but impossible to counter. Worse yet, the hulking giant was right on the path to the exit, which meant that to go out one would either have to fight, or evade it.

The only thing that made Kurenai not think they were completely insane by bringing a war machine like that to a test such as this is that it was using concussive shells. They packed quite a punch, but at least wouldn't kill you on spot. With her battle plans ready, Kurenai took one, two, three step and then, disappeared in a blur of speed...



Kurenai took the time to fetch a card as the giant robot was still taking aim. "The Page of Cups, huh? I wonder if these have any special meaning beyond the mentioned by the Director?" Kurenai said to herself as she inspected the card, before pocketing it safe under her cloak and getting atop a building near a few other students that were fighting the assault drones, bow in hand. "You all down there", Kurenai shouted her peers bellow as her bow produced a steel arrow with an explosive charge fitted at the tip that she aimed in a wide firing arc, "there's an enormous gunship ready to rain hell over us in the direction of the exit. I suggest yo get done soon and be ready to fight it, because I don't see any way to escape other neutralizing that threat."

As Kurenai shouted to the other students, her voice echoing thanks to the acoustics of the derelict buildings, the robot fire a first volley of three mortars that would hit random targets over the city, if not for, "Increase FLUX charge, multishot mode." Kurenai said to herself before two other arrows appeared on her bow and she shot them all at once, hitting the bombs and setting them off, the huge explosions rocking the whole Downtown Ruins, sending flying concrete and shattered glass everywhere.

"Anyone else that can use ranged attacks, find higher ground and help me cover the ground forces!" Kurenai shouted, hoping that the other applicants had the least bit of brain to understand her plan. "Those who cannot, maneuver using as much cover from the buildings as you can, but the gunship is in a mostly open area, be ready for its point defense weaponry once you reach the exit! What is that!?" Kurenai finished laying out her strategy, but as soon as she did so, she surprised to find that there was, someone riding above the gunship's main gun.

_{*because of lack of time.}





Meanwhile, away from there in another building, a short blond-haired girl was sitting at an old, but nearly intact, executive chair with her legs crosses over the (seemingly mahogany) desk, admiring the style of whoever owned this office god knows how much time ago, and eating a hot dog that by now had run cold, with a bit of a dark expression. Damn, she never even had the time to eat something and that duo of delinquents had too drag her into trouble and then disappear when they thought that they would have more playing hide and seek or preaching about La Revolucion.

"Heh, let them be, this sweetie here is right what I'll love to have once I get my hands at mom's- damn!" The girl rolled to the side when a troop of assault drones invaded the office, one of them going as far as shoot a rocket at the desk, destroying the priceless hardwood artifact.

"Goddamnit, these creeps found me again? I'm starting to grow tired of you, bo...ys?" The blonde began to say as she lifted her body from the middle of the rubble and tried to dust herself, before she noticed that one of the robots was stepping on her half-eaten hot dog and grinning with its shiny metal face. "Ha... ha.. ha..!" It seemed to mock her with a robot laughter, or perhaps it was just the blonde's imagination, who knows?

"Oh boy, you're so screwed now!" The blond girl said, as the drones pounced her with swords, staffs and guns, quickly pilling on top of the short girl, as they tried to take her down, only to... "Go to hell, pests!" She yelled as a blast of golden plasma and a gargantuan tiger's roar shook the building, which she jumped away of, landing besides the even bigger robot bellow and shouting to her friend who was atop the gunship. "Hey, Eos! I don't mind if they guys are your pals (or made by mom's company, by the way), but nobody mess with my food and goes away walking, hear me?" After this, Itsuko kicked the last of the robots who followed her to a nearby wall, shattering it's hull and crushing it under a layer of debris.





"I told you to stay away from them, haven't I? They wouldn't have attacked you if you wasn't trying to play the CEO game." Eos retorted to her teammate, even though she was a main cog in the robot liberation move, her friends still were more important to her, so she would let Itsuko slide away... this time.

Anyway, "where is Dana? I thought we had agreed on this plan, yesterday." Eos asked before getting a shoulder shrug fro Itsuko, that clearly wasn't informed of any changes in their plans as well. Eos sighed trying to resist the urge to facepalm, considering that their leader was the least one who could actually follow any plans.

Leaving that aside, the Eos turned toward the city, and (using the gunship's sound system to propel her voice through the ruins) she said, "Stop this genocide right now, murderers! It's about time the robot slaughter should have ended! If you refuse to leave us machines on our won, we will be forced to defend ourselves. Hear me, brothers and sisters, unite and fight back the oppressors! Our time has come!" Interestingly enough, Eos' speech had little to no effect on the canine and flying drones, but the humanoid ones became twice more determined after being graced with rallying words from the Electric Princess herself, whoever would face them from now on would be having a hell of a tougher time.

"Ready the next volley Delta", Eos said, petting the metal monstrosity bellow her feet, "we shall show them that we machines are people too, even if we need to use force!"

Examination Post 2

-

Pockets stuffed with all manner of electronics and stun darts liberated from his fallen foes, Charlie bowed respectfully to the fallen and walked off looking for a... a card, that’s right! Before he left he had to find some tarot card. Clambering over debris, Charlie looked surprisingly relaxed. Sliding down the side of a destroyed store of some sort Charlie went into a building that looked more or less stable and began climbing the stairs.

By the time he made it to the fifth floor he was a bit concerned, he thought he heard fighting, but it was kinda muffled. More importantly he couldn’t find any more drones Are they just not in this building? Are they not searching? Wait... are they supposed to search? Or are they randomly roaming about?
As he reached the roof Charlie scratched his neck and looked about. Unsure where to go, he walked to the edge and looked around before making a running jump to the next building... and fell short. As he was about to come crashing down, Charlie displaced himself using his belt and with a cracking noise tumbled to the the opposite roof, gasping for breath and feeling as if he was about to cough up a lung, an adhesive grenade tumbling out of his pockets.

As it rolled down the slight slope of the roof Charlie stumbled after it before it... bounced off of something. Pausing, Charlie saw a small light flickering on it and ran back as the orange goop splatted out... revealing a dog like machine

“Op... optical camouflage!?” he couldn’t help exclaiming as he tried to get his breath back. Scrambling for his ray gun, the metal hound realized that Charlie could see it and tried to pounce him, but the orange adhesive staggered it enough, giving him enough time to get out of the way before firing a few stray shots, operating more on prayer than him actually aiming.

Slipping, Charlie tumbled into the canine drone. Instinctively throwing his head to the right, Charlie narrowly avoided having his head becoming a chew toy and pressed his ray gun to the drone’s neck joint Sorry... Oh God this is worse than Yeller almost crying, Charlie turned his head away and fired.

...

Looking at the ‘dead’ drone, Charlie felt a bit... remorseful and so he picked up and began carrying the dog-bot on his back. Taking it with him, Charlie hopped that it wasn’t completely destroyed. If he could fix it, it would be for the best... nothing should be left to go to waste, the word ‘trash’ didn’t exist to him and... well he’s a dog person. I may not be able to fix you, my Manifestation refuses to do that, but I'll make you better instead! You'll be one of a kind! The peak of all dog drones!

(With @Spriggs27)

As they walked through the ruins, Juniper on Gaz's shoulder like a parrot, the duo kept their eyes open for any sign of trouble. Gaz had his eyes to the front, Juniper looking behind them. And of course, the pink parrot was talking the poor guy's ear off.
"What kind of card are we picking up, G?" She had taken to calling the white haired boy G, regardless of whether he liked it or not. It was her way of showing affection - or rather, more affection than she usually shows. "You got anything in mind, or are we just going to get the first one we find?"

" I think we should just find one and after that we find one related to it. It seems like the only thing that seems smart really if not completely stupid as fuck really. " Gaz told her his plan for the two, it wasn't really rocket science that Gaz was hopeing to do with her, just find one card and whatever it seemed related to.

Juniper nodded with faux solemnity. "D'you think the others already have a card? Oh! What if we can't find two of the same type? Actually, how do we even know what we're looking for? I've never seen a Tarrow card before..."

" Damn well then we find two that look the same on the picture side, I don't know what the hell they look like either, since we got to find two of the same type then I guess we can find something to the first card we find." Gaz told her. As he continued into the ruins Gaz was thinking that they were probably gonna find two completely different cards and look like dumb asses." If someone has a card we're looking for then we'll kick their ass or trade it."

Juniper stopped listening halfway through. Was that someone in the ruins? She thought she could see someone, but they looked weird. Metallic. They glistened beneath the light of the Bloodmoon.
"G, I don't think we're alone here..." she whispered, her voice abnormally quiet. As she looked around, she could see more metallic figures. All of them watching them. Waiting. But for what?
One of them raised their weapon, and Juniper suddenly realised they were walking into a trap.
"GAZ, GET DOWN!"
At that, beams of FLUX rained down from the rooftops. Most of them hit off rubble and ruin, but one of them hit Juniper directly in the chest. She was knocked off her perch and hit the ground hard.

As Juniper fell off Gaz's shoulder, the white haired guy ended up doing something he thought he never would really do, he threw himself over top of Juniper and took the extra hit that rained down upon then, after getting hit sever times, Gaz jumped up and rolled up his sleeves.

" Fucking shit, that fucking hurt like ten fucking bitches on a boat. " He tried to feel his back with his metal gauntlets, but stopped when he got a view of his enemies."Jupiter get up if you can, I know that flux shit can be heavy hitting but if you don't shake it off I'll get to have all the fun kicking these guy's asses. "

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine!" the girl responded, pushing herself up. Fortunately for her, her armour took the brunt of the impact. "Leave some for me, would ya?"

Gaz fired his bolts at the enemies that were attacking them as he fired he noticed that he was tearing his jacket sleeves up." Fuck hell my jacket's getting fucked up. " Gaz disgarded his jacket quickly dodging the flux that was being shot at him at the same time, while he was dodging he managed to slam his fist together and lighting his gautlets up like a spark to gas.

Now that she was on her feet, Juniper was able to engage the enemy directly. She didn't have a gun like Gaz, but she did have something up her sleeve. Literally. She scampered behind a piece of ruin and looked up at their attackers. She counted six metal men.
"Fufufu! Ganging up on a little girl! That's hardly fair, is it? Come and face me like the big, bad metal men you are!" Why was she taunting them? It wasn't like they were going to respond. Oh well, whatever got the job done.

Drawing her pick, she attached her metal rope to it. This was her favourite part of the job.
With Gaz drawing fire, she was unfettered for getting her aim steady. Line up the snipers with her thumb... steady... perfect. By the time her attacker knew what was happening, the pick had already left her hand.
The bot she had chosen spotted her just as the sharp end of the axe smashed into it's face. It's targetting systems were utterly destroyed, making it essentially useless. But Juniper wasn't done yet - she wanted her weapon back. Tugging the metal wire, she dragged the bot over the edge, sending it hurtling to the ground.
"Aww! I think it's falling for me!" she laughed at Gaz. "That's one down, five to go!"

" Nope three." As Juniper was having fun throwing her weapon into the robots and pulling them to the ground, Gaz decided to just say screw it, he fired most of all his flaming bolts into two of the robots, he moved both his arms back and forth as if he was throwin air punched towards the two.

But as he did air punches, large bolts came out the wrist of his gauntlets and flew through the air, Gaz fired not a couple, but dozens of bolts shreading two of the robots to pieces and hitting a couple of the others. The bolts that hit the others only mearly wounded them, if machines could be wounded in any real way, he swung his arms to his sides and large shell casings to the bolts that Gaz was using launched out his gauntlets.

Gaz took out two bundles of what looked like bolts wired together, Gaz threw them both into the air and caught both of them with his wrist and the sound of gun reloading filled Gaz's ears.

They might have been robots, but they knew a lost cause when it came their way. The drones made a fighting retreat, attempting to supress Gaz and Juniper whilst they made their way out.

But Juniper was having none of it "Running away, are ya? You yellow wimps! Come back here! We were just getting warmed up!"
She checked her FLUX container, switching it from Ice to Earth. They had attacked her, and now they were trying to leave the party early? No chance!

"Gaz, you ready? I'm going to bring this thing down!"

" Sure I'm down with it." Gaz told her,

"Let's do this!" The pint-sized powerhouse yelled. She swing the hammer end of her pick into the wall of the building the snipers were hiding in, releasing the flux from her weapon into the walls. A stronger, more recently built building may have suffered a light tremour, but this rotten old thing hadn't a chance. The FLUX spread through the building, knocking out vital supports and bringing what was left down.

As The building began to shake and tremor, Gaz re-donned his leather jacket and watched the building began to start falling to the ground.

Juniper had expected that to happen, so instead of standing around waiting to be clubbed by shrapnel, she darted behind Gaz, using him as a sort of human shield.
"You can handle it from here, can't you, Gaz?" she asked sweetly.

When the building stared to come down with rubble, Gaz just silently rolled up his sleeves, part of him wanted to curse real quick but he didn't have the time as a large piece of rubble came tumbing their way. Gaz quickly cocked back his arm and slammed his metal gauntlet into the rubble shattering it into tiny pieces around the two, sadly dust from the broken rubble collected onto Gaz's leather jacket.

" Well shit I wasn't expecting this to happen, my nicely stolen jacket is now even more competely fucked. " Gaz sighed before jumping and punching another dangerously giant piece of rubble headed towards them. "Don't worry about it" Juniper tried to reassure him "We can just find another!"

Soon he noticed the robots that tried to kill them stuck under a giant piece of the build that collapsed, two of the other robots were trying to help the stuck one, Gaz didn't hesitate, he rushed in quick punching one of the robots with a flaming fist to it's metal jaw, then he proceeded to sucker punch the next one quickly not letting them get a chance to access the situation.

Juniper, meanwhile, skipped behind him, all sunshine and sweetness. She looked down at the trapped bot, hands behind her back coyly.
"So, Mister Metal Man" she began, smiling cruelly "Either you start talking, or I'll have my friend here redirect your central processing unit to your waste management chute!"

There was, of course, no response.
"Not talking, eh? Shame for you. Fore!" At the end of her 'interrogation', Juniper brought her hammer down full force on the robot's metal skull. The resulting mini explosion was beautiful.

The threat to their lives was managed. The problem now was... where were the cards?

As Gaz ripped the head off the last robot and watched as Juniper smashed the head of the last robot, Gaz sighed before sitting on the ground in the ruins." Nice job killing our guy that could probably tell us where the cards are." Gaz sounding like he was angry.

"Aww, don't sound so grumpy, Gaz!" Juniper grinned at him, trying and failing to put an arm around his shoulder "He wasn't going to say much with his voice box crushed anyway. Chill out! The Boss told us to have fun!"

Before he could really say much else about the situation, two cards began slowly drifting to the ground and both laned right side up in front of the two, Gaz didn't say anything when the cards dropped in front them, he just grabbed one and looked at it, the card he grabbed was the nine of swords, he let Juniper get the other hoping it was one that was somewhat related to it.

"Nine of Cups? Lame!" Juniper's voice came from next to him. There it was, a fat old man sitting with a cup in his hand, leering out the card at her. "Couldn't have been a queen or something..."

Gaz took a quick glance at Juniper's card and began laughing at it finding the card completely funny.

Storing the card in her breastplate, Juniper looked at Gaz. "Let's get back. If this is what we wanted, we got it..." She also sounded angry. Guess she was pretty mad about getting that card.

After seeing Juniper store her card inside her breast plate, Gaz stared at her with his doctor's mask covering his mouth and nose," So you willing to hold my sword card in there or will I have to keep it in my pants ? " He asked.

That did it for her. She lightened up immediately. "Hehe! Here? Now? It's a bit exposed, isn't it?" she teased "Yeah, alright, I'll hold onto it for you. Best place to keep it!" Without waiting to be asked, she snatched the card out his hand and put it next to her own before running off at top speed.
"Last one back's a rotten egg!"

Gaz quickly took off from his standing position, he remebered all the other times where he would be chased by people before and caught up to her quickly without much problem." Really gonna just start running ? " Gaz asked, as he caught up with her he grabbed the back of her armor and pulled her behind him to get ahead of her." If you think your winning your outta your damn mind."

James realized that while he had learned to fight, it had been a long time since he had practiced sparring. Let's just say that the drone knew what the fuck it was doing. Getting hit didn't necessarily hurt him that much but it didn't feel great obviously. He managed to land a few hits and counters but he wasn't going to be able to keep it up. Robots don't get tired, humans do, well fuck.

It seemed as though help was on the way thankfully as he heard Lloyd accept his request for assistance. This time Lloyd used both of his hands to fire off plasma bolts. He shot off several shots, and none hit James which was either a miracle or plain skill seeing as he and the drone were engaged in a very intense boxing match. The shots severed a couple of its tentacles and also grabbed the drones attention. When it turned around, the girl that was with the big black-haired boy revealed herself. It looked like she had been hiding behind a broken down car. James watched as she kissed her hand a three rings of wind were released from it. He lost faith in their destructive capabilities when he saw how slow they were moving. Deciding he should help out, he made an "everyone please rise" motion with his hands and sand tentacles shot out of the ground and wrapped around the drones legs. James hardened the sand so that it was as strong as his organic steel skin. That robot wasn't going anywhere, especially when the rings reached it. Jamie was astonished when the wisps cut clear through the robot. "Well damn... That was cool."

"That was sensational!", the girl beamed, and then she proceeded to look over wherever James or Lloyd may have had exposed skin to see if they were wounded. "Are you both okay? Are you injured? I can try to heal you if you are."

James batted her away politely, "I'm fine, thanks, just a little sore."

Then, Tadakatsu landed close by a made a crater in the fucking ground, like god damn... At first Jamie didn't recognize him and tensed up, thinking he was a Youkai. He slowly realized that it was Tadakatsu and relaxed. Tadakatsu introduced himself to Lloyd and James.

"I'm Tadakatsu, this is Hope. Thanks for keeping him safe while I was off".

Tadakatsu kept eye contact on them as he reached into his pocket, "Here..." and within each of his hands was a card, held downward so he couldn't see the figure or number on them. "These were the last two cards on the rooftop. I won't accept no for an answer," Tadakatsu commanded fiercely.

James looked between Tadakatsu and Hope, "wait... Him?" Realizing what he just said he kept going, too late to go back now. "I mean, yeah him, Hope, uh no problem man..." Jamie's brows rose when he was offered the car. "Wow, uh, thanks..." He grasped it and flipped it over. The King of Wands. Well, that was easy, they still had time left too.

It looked like they weren't out of the woods yet when Jamie heard explosions in the distance. Then he heard a female's voice calling out to the other contestants.

"there's an enormous gunship ready to rain hell over us in the direction of the exit. I suggest yo get done soon and be ready to fight it, because I don't see any way to escape other neutralizing that threat. Anyone else that can use ranged attacks, find higher ground and help me cover the ground forces! Those who cannot, maneuver using as much cover from the buildings as you can, but the gunship is in a mostly open area, be ready for its point defense weaponry once you reach the exit!"

James noticed a bunch of ß drones coming around the corner lining up towards the quartet. "Um, guys. We might have a problem...."

@Angel Eyes@TheFourthIV


LLoyd can see a few of the tentacles break right off from the monstrous abomination and smiles with glee. He was going to ravage this drone back to hell, maybe even getting some sort of card in the process too. However, before the drone could counter attack against the blonde, those brief seconds it was distracted allowed one of the wisps to pierce through the electrical wires of its cranium, literally drilling a clean hole straight through. The tentacles went limp, its systems shut down, and it fell over on the ground in a sad mechanical heap of ruin. Lloyd was indeed taken quite by surprise as he lowers his hands back to his side. What he saw next was a little girl, or so it looks to be, delicately stepping over the rubble to meet them.

"Well." Lloyd remarks dumbfoundedly, "That was fast, way too fast actually."

"That was sensational!", the person beamed, and then it proceeded to look over wherever they may have had exposed skin to see if they were wounded. "Are you both okay? Are you injured? I can try to heal you if you are."

"I'm alright miss." the blonde remarks as he "checks" himself for some wound of any kind, just in case.

Then from behind him, another person came crashing down like a comet, with debris flying in a dispersed manner from the extravagant impact.

"Jeezus..." Lloyd says as he shields his face, "No need to be a party crasher or anything!"

It seems as if this guy was injured as well, but then the girl came running up to him and hugs him. Guess they were already partners or something. It was then that the man began to walk towards them and begins to greet the two.

"I'm Tadakatsu. This is Hope. Thanks for keeping him safe while I was off."

Wait... HIM? That little girl is actually a HE? Lloyd has heard of traps before, but he never actually encountered one before in the flesh. What another unexpected way to start off the first years of being in the academy. However, he said nothing about it, despite really wanting too. And it was a good thing he didn't either...

Tadakatsu kept eye contact on them as he reached into his pocket, "Here..." and within each of his hands was a card, held downward so he couldn't see the figure or number on them. "These were the last two cards on the rooftop. I won't accept no for an answer," Tadakatsu commanded fiercely.

Lloyd was downright impressed. He and James already got two cards, one for each, on the get go by two other mages? Now these were some guys he can get along with.

"Oh, uh, thanks." Lloyd replies awkwardly as he takes a card, "I-It's nothing really man."

He then looks to see what James got, which happens to be The King of Wands. Ah crap. If he got the good one, Lloyd was sure that he'll get some lame-ass one. An internal growl ripples through his whole body as he turns his card quickly, while looking away. He then looks at the card slowly and finds...

The King of Pentacles.

Well... fuck him sideways and call him Lloyd. This was almost too easy. He and James just got two King Cards right at the get go, with plenty of time to spare. He was erupting with glee inside, but only showing a raised eyebrow and a little smile as he looks at the two.

"You guys..." he then says to Hope and Tadakatsu, "Are now my best god-damn friends for LIFE!"

However, it looks like they still weren't out of the wood yet when they heard explosions in the distance. Then they heard a female voice calling out to the other contestants.

"There's an enormous gunship ready to rain hell over us in the direction of the exit. I suggest yo get done soon and be ready to fight it, because I don't see any way to escape other neutralizing that threat. Anyone else that can use ranged attacks, find higher ground and help me cover the ground forces! Those who cannot, maneuver using as much cover from the buildings as you can, but the gunship is in a mostly open area, be ready for its point defense weaponry once you reach the exit!"

James suddenly noticed a bunch of ß drones coming around the corner lining up towards the quartet. "Um, guys. We might have a problem...."

An annoyed growl comes from the Blonde as puts the card away in his breast pocket.

"MotherFUCKER!" he swears as he prepares his finger guns.

It was then when he realizes that he has ranged powers via his "Hand of God". They may seems weak at first, but he thinks he can at least shoot the drones from a higher angle and take vulnerable shots at the gunship. Though this will still take a lot of damn time to defeat.

"Wait," he says, "I have some ranged attacks. Let me see if I can get up to one of these buildings and begin pecking them until they get all annoyed and pissed, or like die. Keep them occupied!"

And with that, he bolts to a tall apartment-like building. As he enters the abandoned building, he then realizes he has to run up the stairs... all thirteen flights. He sighs annoyingly as he exhales loudly

"Someone pay me a small loan of a million dollars once I climb up this shit." he says to himself (or the fourth-wall) as he begins to run as fast as he can up the stairs.

This wasn't what Makoto had expected after her awkward exchange with this guy. Her new 'friend', Gil, who had put on an expressionless face until now, had actually broken down in a fit of laughter.

"Oh wow. I never thought to check out the drones. I wonder how many tarot cards I just completely passed..."


"Jeez, first you were all stoic and stone faced a second ago, and now you're laughing all of a sudden? Make your mind up dude, I thought you were about to kill me for this card just then."

Although she was trying her best to put her own serious face on, Makoto couldn't help but chuckle along with Gil. It made her feel a bit weird, but she let her emotions do the talking for now.


"So, what about this card? You gonna take it or…"

"You can keep that card. There's enough time left for me to get another one. If the machines carry some cards then it'll take no time at all to get another. I suppose I'm just gonna keep heading towards the other end of the city. Makes the most sense to me that I'll find more of these robots to beat in that direction. But I guess you've got no reason to not just make a bolt for the exit now, huh."

Well, that was also unexpected. In circumstances like this, Makoto was sure things would've been entirely different. She didn't really know how to respond to it either.


"Er… Okay then… Uh… thank you I guess?"

That was really all she had to say. All she could say. However, technically…

"…it is your card. I mean, you did defeat that drone and there just happened to be a card inside."

"I don't mind if you want to stick around with me for a bit. If the drones almost got you then perhaps staying with someone like me makes for a pretty easy tour, wouldn't ya say? Besides, I could use another pair of eyes to find another one of these cards. It'd be a little embarrassing if I walked the entire time and didn't end up getting into the Academy. That'd just make me look like an arrogant failure or something."

After breathing out a small sigh, Makoto smiled, glancing up at Gil.

"Oh well. Your decision, your outcome. Don't blame me for taking your card. And don't blame yourself for letting me do so either. That's gonna cause you a few problems."

Skipping towards a completely different direction with her Queen of Pentacles card, the human lamppost kept her gleaming smile.

"Why would you feel embarrassed at all, though? If you think about it, I got my ass handed to me by one of those drones yet you managed to defeat one with just one hit. Even if you didn't make it in, you tried, didn't you? What's there to be embarrassed about?"

Makoto's face was now hidden from sight, but it wasn't too hard to figure out that she was grinning like some psychopath after a pleasant torture session. Turning her head once more before disappearing around a corner, Makoto stopped and smiled.

"What? It's the truth."

Hopping behind a pile of collapsed buildings, the girl vanished.

"Good luck to you, Gil!" she shouted from behind.

Once she had turned the corner, another unexpected moment occurred at the most unexpected time. Makoto laid her widened headlight eyes on the decorated card lodged in a small crack. Nah, it couldn't have just been lying in such an obvious place, right? Was this some sort of trap? Some sort of illusion? Makoto poked at it to make sure.

Then, a triumphant shout could be heard as she held the card in the air. She would definitely be able to pay Gil back this time!

If she managed to escaped from the swarm of spherical drones above her, of course.

"You have got to be kidding…"

This time, a fearful shout could be heard as she sprinted back into the open and towards Gil. She didn't want this happening to her, she didn't like it happening to her, and she was ultimately very pissed that this was happening to her. Again.

"These damn robots! C'mon Gil, don't just stand there!"

Grabbing the boy's wrist Makoto pulled Gil forwards into some other place she didn't know off because these were freaking ruins. The drones flew by with shocking speed, catching up to them in an instant. One of them even had the decency to shoot the card out of Makoto's hand, which led to quite a large build up of irritation.

"You things just don't know when to quit… do you?"

The metal ball zoomed towards Makoto, readying its little laser thing to shoot. She wasn't going to have any of that.

"I'm not gonna have any of that!"

Once the drone came close enough the girl batted it away with her sheath, sending it flying into a large pillar like structure and shattering both it and the pillar. The two crumbling constructs collapsed on the card, much to Makoto's dismay and astonishment.

"You have no idea how much shit you and your machine friends have caused me!" she yelled, beating the drones one by one in a fit of rage. She continued to smash at the swarm into oblivion in a rather comedic fashion, even screaming 'home run' after she got rid of the last one. Grunting in exhaustion, Makoto staggered towards the collapsed stone pillar thing. With another strong swing, she brushed away the stone and made another crater in a nearby wall. Makoto was often mistaken to possess super strength, and this unpredicted event was one of the reasons why.

She crouched down and reached for the card, hoping it wasn't too damaged or scratched beyond recognition. Thankfully it wasn't to badly scratched, and like a Makoto in a steaming hot bath, the girl's face bloomed with joy. Stretching her arm out she revealed the card to Gil.


"Now we're pretty much even, right?"

@j8cob

~Lucille Ferris~

---

Lucille sniffled, patting off stray streaks of dirt off of her overall-clad form before she yelped as she was literally swept off her feet. Blinking, she glanced up to see Mizura cradling her like a princess before the two of them came to a screeching halt. More than a little embarrassed at all of this, she adjusted her glasses as her feet hit solid ground once more.

“U-Um…t-thanks Mizura,” she said meekly, the head pat doing nothing to raise her confidence. She had stupidly gone off on her own, only for her teammates to chase after her. No wonder they were Team MILE and not Team LIME…what right-minded instructor would let her handle the team anyway? Discouraged by Ikkime’s words-because she clearly heard her outburst-Lucille trudged along with her teammates with her eyes cast downward.

Some time passed, the team of three trying to find their way out of the ruined city, before loud sounds were heard and the earth trembled with ruptures. Lucille knew what they were, having gone through this obstacle course once in her lifetime. The First Years must be fighting the Final Boss then. Well good luck to them…unless…

“S-Should we help them? I mean, w-what if one of them gets hurt? And I wouldn’t want any of them…to…um…” she trailed off, already losing confidence in what she was suggesting.

---

Gyuuki

Third Post

“I was a village guardian, wait no, I was born from the statue of a village guardian so people just told me I am one” Gyuuki lived on the present oftenly ignoring both the past and the future “But, uh, a few months ago the people from there decided that I shouldn’t just protect a small place, so they sent me here”

The conversation went on for a while, ultimately however it would be interrupted by a distant cannon like sound. There was something ominous going on, an odd sound crossed the sky. Then something on the distance blew up louder than anything she had heard on that day full of explosions. Only one thing crossed the Ox-Demon’s mind, the fact that there were multiple cannon shots.

"GET DOWN”

She lifted the rear of the nearest car up and pulled Erisa closer to her. This was going to be a close call, she already knew it.

The bomb fell on the mall they were just a dozen of minutes before. They wouldn’t have the time to be glad they had already crossed it though, a shock wave came in crashing and concrete, debris and glass rained across the streets and buildings.

So far the car had provided enough cover, but both youkai could feel something “toxic” approaching. A heavy and dark cloud was quickly approaching bringing particles harmfull for humans and youkais alike.

There was no need to say a thing, they already knew the drill by this point. Run.

"Stop this genocide right now, murderers! It's about time the robot slaughter should have ended! If you refuse to leave us machines on our won, we will be forced to defend ourselves. Hear me, brothers and sisters, unite and fight back the oppressors! Our time has come!"

This made Gyuuki grind her teeth. “They try to make steak out of me and then say I’m the opressor?” she growled, still running.

She looked up to see if she could find the source of the voice and while she failed on that, she still saw something interesting. Falling slowly, unlike the other debris, a little paper piece was right above them. The situation was problematic, the card wouldn’t be in their reach before the cloud caught up with them. Luckily Gyuuki had an idea.

“Eri, there!” she pointed up “Jump on my back and then up”

@j8cob