In preparation for a grand unveiling, the Sumeragi Conglomerate has opened all ports in their home country. As expected, such a move was causing quite the commotion on the day of the announcement. Among the throngs of emigrants making their ingress, there were quite a few Adepts to be found. In fact, many had received personal invitations in the form of hand-signed form-letters from Sumeragi's president.

But, with such an announcement on the horizon, and with so many emigrants making their ingress, trouble was sure to follow. The crowds milled about restlessly in a packed train station by the coast. Several figures in dark coats drifted near the walls. Out in the bay, unknown to anyone on shore, a cruiser sailed over the water, preparing to dock at the rear of the train station to allow its passengers to land.
The relative calm aboard the vessel was shattered, however, as several individuals in green diving suits leapt from the choppy waters and stormed onto the boat. Each had flippers and an air tank on their back, with rebreathers and goggles covering their faces. Their diving suits were layered in a way that almost made them seem armored, and most held harpoon guns out at the crowd.
"Alright, nobody move!" one of the men shouted, "Take it easy, and nobody gets hurt! We're going to be taking this boat for a little ride!"
With that, he gave some muted gestures and hushed commands to several of the divers behind him, who began heading below deck. A water-proof duffle bag was hoisted aboard, as yet more divers climbed onto the boat. Most of the passengers were being corralled into a corner, while the crew was pushed to their knees and spread out. One of the divers who had gone below decks emerged, only to seize the duffle bag for himself, and take it past the bridge.
"Nobody be a hero now!" their apparent leader called out, after having talked to the captain, "We wouldn't want any accidents."
With that, he cackled madly, and planted a pot-shot into the deck near the captain, causing a harpoon to lodge precariously close to the man's side.

At the entrance to the train station, a series of posters hung. Most were of the Sumeragi Logo, which seemed to be the titular tower surrounded by a gear like ring. Interspersed between these and several evenly spaced news screens were various small spray paint tags, most of which had been painted over, with a few odd ones bleeding onto a poster or two. On all the screens simultaneously, a female reporter dictated the planned event proceedings, attempting to incite speculation in the viewers as to what that the event might entail.

I wish I had my team back, were the thoughts of one Gavin Prince as a wormhole appeared in the vessel's cargo hold, and the young man snuck through, fully armed and ready, looking for a place to await the coming of the armed men who were in the process of hijacking the ship. What were they? Anti-Adept bigots, Adepts themselves, Pirates, or some other sort of malcontent? Well, whatever the case, his goal was simple; stop the hijacking, save civilians, and neutralize the goons, preferably in a way that allowed him to find out more about them; he had been on the deck when the hijackers first appeared, but had soon vanished.

If Gavin can succeed in freeing the ship from these people, that might be a way of getting Sumeragi's trust...

@tobiax

Joseph Leidner was in his cabin on the cruiser as the hijacking began. Hearing the commotion he looked out a window, only to see the silhouettes of some of the divers as they climbed up onto the deck. This is not standard procedure for pilots, and they don't look like crew or other passengers. Something is up, and if it was an emergency, the onboard accouncement system would be used.
Coming to the conclusion that locking himself in for the time being shouldn't put him in unnecessary danger, Joseph locked the door to his cabin from the inside.
Whatever this is, if it is dangerous, it wouldn't hurt getting off this ship, especially since we should soon be close enough to land for me to make it over.
And so he began packing his luggage, at least what he had not packed in advance already.

What the hell is going on....? Were the thoughts of a young woman named Lilith as she was nonchalantly draped on a chair. She opened one eye in annoyance, rose-colored orb that was opened narrowing seeing the intruders. Who would they be? Definitely not the crew....Hi-jackers...? She sighed, just lying back. She completely ignored what was going on around her and she just kept her eye closed, almost as if she were a corpse having fallen asleep only to never awaken again.

There was a resounding click around the deck as harpoon guns were leveled at the lounging young woman.
"I said get down!" one of them called out, even though that particular diver hadn't said anything so specific.
One of the assailants was then sent to the helm, and was directing the ship as the helmsman and captain were tormented by their leader.

Two of the divers crouched into the cargo hold, carrying the long duffle bag between them and placing it on the floor. As they began to open it, they heard a strange sound, and the rustling of someone else's clothes, and the clattering of a gun. Rapidly turning, they saw a scrawny young man standing there. One of the divers fired a harpoon at the stranger, while the other took a time to withdraw a pistol from a pouch, and opened fire, five loud shots ringing out in the cargo bay.

Below decks, a line of divers snaked out, fanning out down every hall, and kicking in doors. When they found someone, they would drag them out, sometimes by their hair, and take them above deck. As they approached a recently locked door, they kicked it in, only to have it stand firm. Several divers swarmed the door, those behind firing harpoons into it. The dark metal barbs pierced clean through the door, hooking on to the other side. Being tethered to their harpoon guns, they made good anchors against which the divers could pull, ripping the door from the wall. With the door out of the way, the five in front fired their own harpoons at the young man who seemed to be packing.

When the divers first appeared, a figure with pink hair and a coat loosely tied at the shoulders stood looking over the stern. It took the sound of several of the divers landing upon the deck for the figure to turn around, casting an almost cloudy green gaze over the deck, seeing the harpoon wielding divers beginning to amass. With a slight crouch and a flip of the foot, the spear that had been resting on the deck was brought bouncing up, caught softly in a slim hand. Pulling up the coat's collar, the figure mumbled something as he was approached by the divers.
The spear in hand had a slight coil to the shaft, almost as if it were two winding strands of wood made one. This pattern seemed to continue past the small tuft of what looked like feathers and the somewhat large leaf hanging from the end of the shaft, where the rather smooth, simple spear head was set, a strange barbed coil twisting around it with a considerable distance. Leveling the spear in his left hand, Gero leveled it towards the divers. A moment later, and he dashed forward, leaving a puff of yellowish pollen behind, as he slammed the spear's shaft against the closest diver's side. The diver yelped as he was then bashed upwards, the spear catching his hand and throwing him off his feet into the air. Now leaping after, Gero lunged into the air, snapping the spear down in a broad swing before stabbing the 'frogman', sending him crashing back into the deck, and sliding a short distance before Gero landed.
For the moment, the diver did not get back up, but the others seemed to be closing in on the young spear wielder, who passed a semi-clouded gaze over the attackers, "Hopefully, this will make for decent exercise," he remarked, holding the spear up and back in his left hand, while taking a fluid stance, and raising his free hand with his fingers curled slightly down and his thumb bent slightly in.

Gavin Prince

And that was why Gavin had appeared in the cargo hold in the first place; because there were all sorts of crates to use as cover. And so, safe from behind a stack of crates, Gavin waited till the five pistol shots were finished, and then moved to fire back at the direction of the cargo hold's door, hoping to kill one of the attackers. If that didn't work; the diving suits were too much like armor for his liking, Gavin would throw a small wormhole at the enemy, a small blast of elemental power that would cause at least some damage...

Then he would move on.

The sound of the harpoons lodging themselves into the cabin door could not be missed from within said cabin. Figuring the door would not hold out for long, Joseph brought it into his field of vision and kept it there, preparing to use his septima to toss one of his already packed large aluminum suitcases at whoever tries to get through it. With it's weight it should be enough to both knock over a human and leave a mark, likely even broken bones, depending on how it makes contact. Most armor would be useless against such a blunt force, especially armor that retains most mobility. The suitcase would likely be scratched and dented, but it should be strong enough to survive the impact without opening up.
Mr. Leidner wondered how the intruders would react to a suitcase flying towards them at speed.

If there were too many for this one hurl to take care of them, he could always pull the thrown case back to himself with the same ability, but he also had the other suitcase he was almost done packing.

As the door was forced open, and the first diver started entering, Joseph tossed his luggage shouting: "Don't interrupt me while packing!", as his gravity slingshot accelerated the packed suitcase into the diver at the rough velocity of a non-professional's baseball pitch.

Lilith opened both eyes now, then a lazy smile curled her plump, pale lips upward. She looked at them and she said, drawling out every word, "I wouldn't do that if I were you." She giggled a little, more than prepared to use her septima to teach these bums not to point weapons at her. She felt her body vibrating with her element now she concentrated on it, ready to fire or use a sphere to block any weapons.

Waiting at the train station, was a white-haired young man in semi-formal attire. He checked the time on his watch and walked away with a sigh, it should be around time...

Arriving at the docks he could see the ship in the distance. Something was off, the ship was going faster than it should be going, looking as if it would collide head-on with the docks. Waiting another moment to make sure he wasn't just imagining things, it became apparent that the ship really wasn't slowing down. Taking a deep breath, the young man took a few steps to the right, to change his angle with the ship. From out of nowhere, a strong wind started blowing from behind him, hammering against the front/side of the ship.

As the wind hammered in on the side of the ship, the young man started running and ran as fast as he could and jumped off of the dock. With the rowdy waters below him as the wind pushed him forward, the young man almost seemed to soar over the water as the back-wind propelled him forward. His jump reached a turning point and he would almost start his descent before actually soaring forward, air-dashing onto the ship's railing.

As he landed on the railing, the young man was met with a harpoon aimed at his face, looking very ready to be fired. While he had expected something to be going on here, he hadn't expected to find any actual opposition. With another one of the men being knocked over the deck, the young man's hesitation disappeared like snow in the sun as he unleashed a spherical tempest around himself, knocking both the harpoon and the man holding it aside.

Less than a moment later the wind turned into a gentle breeze that lasted for no more than 5 seconds. In the total silence of the wind following this, the young man declared "I don't know who you are, but if you people insist on wasting my time, I won't go easy on you."

"Wait, what is that?" one of the divers grunted to the others at the port side, as a stiff breeze seemed to slow the ship from the side.
As they all gathered, they saw a young man falling their way. Harpoons trained on him, they watched as he seemed to be falling overboard, then proceeded to slip forward onto and over the railing.
"He's an Adept!" called another as they were slid back by the swirling torrent of air, "I'll show you!" declared another after the flier's response.
The more brash of the divers then drew a handgun from a pouch at his hip, and rapidly began firing at the Adept before him.

The group of five divers surrounding the pale woman pulled back bolts on their harpoon guns, turning them down in a series of resounding clicks. The barbs were launched at her lounging form, tethers snaking out behind, whining as they unreeled.

There was the sound of a hammer clicking after the boy in the cargo hold had ducked behind some crates. The gun wielder fired again, aiming for the middle of the crate, splintering the wood, and passing through the other side. With a burst and a whine, a harpoon was fired, piercing through the crate and smashing it to bits at eye level, before winding back. A small flurry of bullets whizzed past them, but they had already been off to the side. A strange glimmering blue object then raced by, causing the lead diver to vanish for a moment, before reappearing, looking slightly worse for the wear.
"Get help!" the harpoon wielder called to his cohort, before tossing a grenade at the one lurking behind the crates, ducking off as the explosion resounded.

The youth in pink was rushed by several of the divers, who pulled sea-knives from their sleeves. His empty hand came crashing down at an assailant's arm as it drew near, tensing in the moments before impact, driving into the diver's elbow. Another swipe of a sea knife came his way. Thinking fast, the first attacker's face was struck in the back swing, bringing his arm down in an axe blow against the wrist of the second. The way the second attacker re-gripped his knife, however, caused a gasp to slip past the youth's lips, prompting a swift jump backwards. It was at that point that several calls of distress came from the other divers, thinning the group around the spear wielder. Two ran down below deck, while three from the other side began to run in to fight the wind Adept. Looking to close the distance, the four remaining divers began to creep in, only for a wave of their target's hand to cause three sharp projectiles of splintered, barkey wood to be sent careening towards them.

The divers in the hall stood to the side as the door was ripped out, which, bizarrely enough, was followed by... a suitcase? The baffled attackers glanced at it incredulously as it clattered against the wall. With a shrug, one of them tossed a cylinder forward, causing it to roll and bounce into the room, spewing smoke as it clattered past the door. In the moment of reprise, the harpoons were retracted from the dislodged door, ripping it to pieces, before being fired one after another into the room once more.

Gavin Prince

As Gavin's cover got blown away, and just before the grenade was thrown, the young man moved to open another major wormhole, appearing just above where the voice of the harpoon wielder had sounded from; hopefully, he can literally get the drop on the goon, while wheeling around to shoot the gun wielder. If that failed, he would dash out of the way of a possible enemy counterattack, hoping to get to another stack of crates or possible source of cover...

The sound of the door being torn apart followed by the sound of the smoke grenade hitting the floor told Joseph Leidner that his escape route wasn't clear yet.
Not knowing what exactly was thrown into the cabin, but also expecting projectiles to fly his way soon, he activated his Event Shield, protecting both him and the suitcase he was almost done packing by now.

As the harpoons that were heading for Joseph or the suitcase behind him made contact with the Event Shield, some shattered due to the extreme force gradient of the shield, their pieces flying around the room as shrapnel, some back at the door. Other harpoons were 'merely' bent, while a few were deflected without visible damage, before they continued on a strongly altered trajectory, impacting the walls, ceiling, floor or some furniture in the cabin.
As the barrage was nearly over, Mr. Leidner finished packing, the locks of the suitcase audibly clicking into the locked position as he closed it.

Knowing he could not keep the shield up for long, Joseph started charging at the door after the barrage was over, he could not defend a dead end forever, he had to get offboard, or at the very least to some safe place on the ship.

As the cabin was rather small, it did not take long to reach the door, at which point he deactivated his Event Shield, as he did not want it to tear up his luggage. Besides, a shield facing a hallway's wall is useless when your enemy is in the hallway.
Joseph also pulled his recently packed suitcase ahead of him, such that he could toss it to the left once it passed through the door, while at the same time tossing his first suitcase to the right. In the narrow hallways of the ship dodging those suitcases should be impossible.

And so he did, as the second suitcase passed through the door, it was tossed to the left, mowing down any diver it hit with its sheer mass, just like the first suitcase which was tossed to the right at the same time.

Once through the door Mr. Leidner immedeatly turned right, as he recalled it to be the quickest way to the afterdeck of the ship. He hoped to not find too many intruders there, as he expected most passengers to have been near the front while the ship headed to port.

Having turned right he could easily grab his first suitcase again, at which point he looked back to locate his second suitcase, so that he could toss it his way again. He was not about to leave his luggage behind.

Joseph Leidner had to avoid further combat if possible, the Event Shield had used up most of his EP.

Lilith smiled widely, almost like a girl truly insane. She laughed maniacally. She generated a sphere of her charcoal-colored Demonshadow right at the point all the Harpoons would collide and she kept laughing. "I TOLD you not to mess with me!" The young woman, seeming to be barely twenty years of age, stood up straight, still laughing maniacally, drawing her trusty Demonshadow-infused katana. She twirled it expertly, then stopped laughing, taking on a serious expression. "Now...Face my Demonshadow Katana!!" Her rose-colored orbs narrowed, bloodlust suddenly obvious in them.

Attempting to combat roll out of the way of the gun the moment it was being drawn, Itachi was mostly succesful. Getting hit by only a single pair of bullets before the diver's clip emptied, Itachi just ran from the group, bullets bouncing away from him at the moment of impact. Softly mumbling "Boom.", he "detonated" a triplet of storm bombs right underneath some divers, turned and shot an air-cutter. This would've made most people lose their footing, but as if it wasn't yet enough, another quintuplet of storm bombs went off.

As wood was splintered and divers were tossed, Itachi ran, jumped against a railing and kicked himself up, soaring to a higher vantage point. Once on his higher vantage point he looked around to see if he could find a captain's quarters, this ship would need to be stopped as soon as physically possible--or sooner.

In the ship's cargo hold, the remaining diver heard a strange sound, leading to him seeing a blue light. Baffled, but now on guard, he raises the grenade as the figure dropped on him. In a fit of panic, he shoved the grenade in the shirt of the attacker, then dove behind some metal crates, dragging the duffel bag with him as he went. A few moments later, and a swarm of twelve divers, all holding larger caliber guns, and some with waterproofed carbines, while others still held on to their harpoon guns, rushed down the metal stairs, taking tactical positions and training their guns on the room.

As the harpoons were fired, though with the smoke obscuring it, the divers were able to tell something had deflected their shots, causing them to sink into the walls and ceiling. Smirking, one turned to the others, and all at once, they tugged the harpoons back, sending a shower of plaster and ceiling tile foam at the occupant of the smoke filled room. Satisfied for the moment, they began to fan out, only for suit cases to begin moving about rather annoyingly. After one of the invaders was sent toppling onto his back towards the bow, and another took a case in the chest to the stern, the other divers closed in. As the young man rushed out, he was swiftly met with one of the more burly divers, who took the opportunity to squarely punch the runner in the face.

The harpoons were fired. However, much to the shock of the divers, the freefired harpoons were swallowed by a momentary sphere of blackness. They began to back off in fear, and were visibly shaken when the katana was drawn. Still, one held no fear for the girl, and drew a pistol, firing a quick burst of six shots.

The blasts of air tossed the divers into the air, causing much trauma to their bodies. In the resulting slash of air, three divers fell to the ground, and were rendered motionless- unconscious or dead. The remaining ones met the same fate as the bursts of air tore at them again. However, seven more divers were now approaching, the front three firing tethered harpoons at the Adept. From the air, however, he would see the way below decks, as well as the tiller house, from which the captain and helmsman had been ousted, and where now a diver in a more yellow suit stood holding a wickedly curved harpoon. Yes, from the air, he could see all the happenings on the top deck, including the pale girl and the one in pink fighting other divers. The figure in pink was dashing forth and back, seeming to attempt to disable and disarm the four divers before him with strikes against the arm and a few kicks to the face, with the occasional leg sweep from his spear.

Gavin Prince

Gavin would then dash towards the guy with the duffel bag, phasing just before he hit the stack of crates the goon was hiding inside. While phasing, he had left the grenade and his shirt behind, leaving the top of his Combat Suit visible; although said suit had no marks, it was structurally identical to the ones the US' Navy Seals had begun to use. Now behind the set of metal crates, Gavin shot at the man with the duffel bag with his Assault Rifle; hopefully, he had a clear shot. If he did and the guy was killed, Gavin would loot the grenades and toss one of them at the men shooting up the crates; he would then use the time to look at what the bag contained...

Lilith smiled at the men who backed off in fear. Yes, they were right to fear her. She wasn't exactly the most sane individual, thanks to her nearly sentient Demonshadow. She looked at the one who fired the six bullets at her and she used her strong legs to do a high flip into the air, landing silently on her feet, like a cat. She sighed and sheathed her katana, then rapidly drew out her pistol and fired a few shots at the diver who had fired at her first. She fired them at different points so should he move away from the first bullet fired he would be shot in spots that would immobilize him.

Momentarily unmoving in the air as the harpoons approached him, a gust of wind picked up and almost instantly surrounded Itachi. With minimal effort, the harpoons were flung into the water. With a sigh, Itachi drew his Kusarigama and shot towards the tiller house as soon as he started to descend. These common thugs aren't worth my time.

The plan was relatively simple, hit the guy with the flail, then fill the room with pain.

As he shot forward he started accelerating the kusarigama's flail, shooting it forward through the window as soon as he landed. Tossing a second quintuplet of storm bombs in the room and readying his Kusarigama to strike, Itachi declared "Make yourself scarce, or I'll make you a corpse." Not actually waiting for a response, Itachi detonated his storm bombs. The wooden floor splintering once more under the spontaneous pressure and filling the air with dust, the room was completely obscured, albeit for a single moment...

Having thought to have taken out more diver than he actually did, Joseph Leidner did not expect a punch the moment he ran out of the door. As such, the punch hit hard, temporarily knocking Joseph out. The momentum of his body carried him to the wall opposite of the cabin door, where his body came to a halt.

Waking up shortly after, Joseph had a headache. He opened his eyes just enough to make out the locations of the divers, that were fighting him, to make sure they were in the area. Mr. Leidner then mumbled: "A mass beyond compare / Pulling in and out / Ripped apart by the tide! Tidal Shredder!". It wasn't a quiet skill, especially as parts of the hallway's ceiling and walls were also within the affected area, but Joseph did not care. If the ceiling collapsed on him, he would at least have some silence to recover from that punch.

In hindsight, letting a ceiling fall onto you isn't a good plan, but the headache didn't allow him to consider that at the time.

Upon entering the tillerhouse, Itachi would be met with several divers, as well as the one in the lighter suit which seemed to be their leader. While they were intimidated by the spike crashing through the window, he stood unflinching. The sudden torrent of buffeting air scattered four divers along the ground, and knocked another back into a chair bolted into the deck, leaving him groaning in pain. The lead diver, however, was still standing. Albeit roughed up, he turned staunchly towards the attacker, drawing back the bolt on a gun he carried, and proceeded to unleash a flurry of bullets.

The pale girl's high jump caused the gun toting diver to look up in shock. Her swift movement allowed all her shots to hit their mark. The diver didn't have the time to move, so he was forced to take each bullet, and fell flat on his face. From behind the cover of the stairs to the lower deck, several divers peaked out, and began firing at the pale girl, ducking behind the wall between shots.

The fighter in the pink coat had gotten into quite the predicament. Having caused them a bit of a problem with throwing bark shards, one of the divers from farther up the deck began returning fire. In a moment of panic, he dashed across the deck, leaving a puff of pollen behind him. With a short hop, he jumped over the nearest refuse he could find- a pile of toppled deck chairs, and hid there for a moment's reprise, knowing it wouldn't last long.

The man from the cabin was laid out on the ground in front of the door as the smoke from the grenade cleared. With a slight gesture to his comrades, they continued down the hall, while he proceeded to punch the traveler in the face several times. The punched passenger would then utter several words that the diver couldn't quite make out, at which point, the portion of the hall they were in became complete chaos. The assailant was killed by the shifting debris, which all came to miss the man on the ground. However, the bombardment was less kind to the floor, and caused the man to drop through it.

As the scrawny man dashed, three of the machine guns were fired, followed by a carbine and a harpoon. Some missed their mark as he created a portal in the crate, which confused the lot of them, but a few bullets were primed to make their marks. After the exit portal was made, however, a shirt and grenade plopped out behind the pale man. The diver, having heard the strange sound again, and the gunfire, grabbed the duffle bag again, and ran away amongst the crates, eventually making himself lost somewhere in the back of the medium sized room.