It was an eerily quiet night in the city of Mahoukyo. The city, normally crawling with activity and flashing lights was deadly silent and the moonless night cast a dark shadow over the metropolis. The morbid atmosphere of the abandoned street just seemed to make the cloaked man more on edge, constantly looking over his shoulder. Like a scene out of some horror movie, shadows seemed to move and creep about from the corner of his eye; but when he looked back, they had vanished. Or maybe it was just the man's imagination?
Wait, no. Someone was there. It was just a flicker, it barely lasted a moment. It could've been just his imagination, but he was certain. They had found him.
Eyes wide with terror, he ran through one of the many back-alleys that made up the city. It was almost a maze at times, and he knew this. He intended to lose the person chasing him at this moment. Every so often he would glance behind him, but the figure was still there...silently following after him without seeming to break a sweat no matter how hard he ran...still they walked after them and even seemed to be catching up without a hassle!
Gah! He knew he should’ve never gotten involved with that group….he knew they were nothing but trouble, why didn’t he listen to his gut?! He came to a sudden, skidding stop at that thought, barely saving himself from running headfirst into the glistening wires in front of him.
“Oh? So, you managed to see them? Impressive.” The man’s head shot up sharply to look at the voice that spoke out to him...only to see a black cat with two mismatched eyes, one green the other yellow, looking down at him. That wasn’t the only strange thing about the cat, for the tip of its tail seemed to be on fire? He was a familiar, this man knew that. For that was that mans familiar.
He went to open his mouth, only to let out a blood-curdling scream as he felt himself be grabbed by an unknown force and slammed into the ground. He could feel it digging into him now, like rope, his squirming just making them tighter around him. The small figure that had been following him had now caught up and placed a foot atop his back, pressing him into the ground. The man began to frantically try to think of something, anything, that would stop this monster!
“W-wait! I’m sorry! I won’t do it again, I promise!” The man was desperate as the smaller, cloaked figure gave no hint of a verbal response, simply raising their small, doll-like hand and slowly brought it into a half-fist, causing the tight feeling around him to intensify. Wounds, as if he was slowly being sliced up, started to form along his body as he howled in pain.
“Heh, you should’ve thought of that before trying to steal the artifact. No mercy for thieves and traitors Leo.” The cat spoke again, grooming itself slowly as it looked down upon his writhing form. The small figure seemed to look up at the cat now, pointing down at the man beneath them before making a slashing motion across their throat.
“Oh, of course, you have to kill him. That’s kinda your job there Diligence.” The cat chuckled as the hooded figure nodded silently, the man speaking up once more.
“W-wait! I can explain! I just-gah!” He was cut off as it felt like a rope had been wrapped around his entire body then tightened further and further, screaming as his arm was sliced clean off like a precise surgeon, blood gushing out of his wound and spraying all over the walls and the figures cloak. Stopping for a moment to reach up to their face and wipe a speck of blood off, inspecting the tip of her finger with a morbid curiousity as all the while the man writhed in agony before her.
Flames shot out from the man and wrapped around the figure, who seemed unperturbed at the stream of desperate, pain-filled abuse that burst forth from the dying traitor in his last moments.
“You bitch! I’ll fucking kill you for that! Mark my words, we will-!” Having heard enough, the feminine hand finally clenched into a fist. Shortly after the man was sliced into fine little chunks with one last agonizing scream, the flames dying soon after.
“Heh, he should’ve tried fighting back, to begin with. Would’ve ended better.” The cat remarked smugly, leaping down from its perch up above and seemed to float down onto the figure's shoulder. After patting down a small fire on it, the cat wandered up to nuzzle against the figure's cheek. “You did well again Diligence, though could you stop with leaving so much blood everywhere? It’ll be a pain to clean up you know?”
The figure simply nodded at the cat’s words, leaning down as all the pieces of the man seemed to be dragged by an unseen force into a large pile. Luckily despite the cat’s complaints, they didn’t need to clean this mess up ...he was meant to be an example, so it was time to leave an impressionable one.
@Polaris North@Styrgwyr@Zuko@Not Fungus@Claw2k11
~2235: Isamu Transport Truck Inbound to Facility 1202~
Hurtling down the road at a breakneck pace during the middle of the night was a pitch-black 18 wheeler truck, if it wasn't for the fact it was the middle of the night then they might've run the chance of being booked by the police. Well, even if it wasn't night they wouldn't be dealing with such minor inconveniences, but the quiet night streets certainly helped them with the urgency of their mission. There was visible tension in the air amongst the dozen or so occupants within, especially the one standing up to address the rest of the group. He was a deceptively leanly built man wearing a mash of armor over a more formal outfit with unkempt brown hair. This man was Dieter Gunnar, the leader of the newly formed Team 3 whom he was now currently addressing. Though normally most knew him as a calm and collected individual, he seemed visibly tense as he delivered the briefing of their vitally important meeting.
"I'm sorry I had to drag you all out at this hour, but this mission is of the utmost importance. Whina, if you would." Dieter began, gesturing to a younger girl with orange hair in the back. Seemingly startled, the group's technician, Whina Tinkerer, fumbled for a moment before firing up the project besides her, bringing up a series of images beside the team leader. "At around 2200 hours tonight, Maylis herself received a message from none other than Touma Akechi, head of the vastly influential Akechi family, about a disturbance at warehouse district 12. Soon after at 2210, through the use of unmanned drones to do some reconnaissance Team 1 found there to be heavy Rikimaru activity in the area. 2215, the Isamu were authorized to use whatever means to stop the Rikimaru from...well, what I'm about to say is beyond confidential and must not leave this trailer, am I clear?" Taking his time to slowly go over the notes he was given, a series of images containing various individuals doing battle with what seemed to be a group of heavily armed guards appeared to where he was now tapping.
"The Rikimaru target seems to be this facility here, a top-secret research facility funded by the Akechi to store and study the Soul Essence that we, the Isamu, have been gathering. The exact purpose of this research is none of our concern and thus I was not given a briefing on it, so I do apologize in advance for my lack of knowledge on the matter. The only thing that matters is that we are to stop the Rikimaru from breaching the facility's innermost vault; their target clearing being the vast quantities of Essence inside." He wasn't one for long-winded explanations, even this amount of talking seemed to be irritating him as he tried to condense the rather lengthy notes into a more concise form. "I take it as you've all read the briefings I gave you earlier, do refer to that if there is something you may have missed or wish to know further. But all you need to know for now is rather simple; our objective is to put a stop to this attack on a government facility by the Rikimaru. So long as we procure the Essence, we've been giving to use whatever amount of force we see fit to do the task. Which brings me to my next point of interest."
Clicking his fingers at Whina, the girl nodded feverishly before pouring some Soul into the projector. A layout of the building replaced the images with a series of red and white dots peppered throughout. A lot of Red dots, numbering at least 50. Pointing to what was obviously the entrance, where the bulk majority of the red dots currently were, Dieter began to speak once more.
"We'll be splitting into three teams; Team A will be lead by myself and will do a frontal assault on their main forces to draw their attention. Tenma, Roya, Sora, you're with me." Gesturing to the three men as he spoke, the white-haired Sora simply nodding in acknowledgment, Dieter was quick to shift his attention to a side entrance. "While we draw their attention, Team B will be using this fire escape to try and get to the core of the facility before the Rikimaru forces can reach the essence. This task I'm entrusting to you Rena, Lucia, and Kazumi. Whina will be supporting you from outside with constant updates through the facility's security footage, as well as guiding you to your target once inside. Avoid combat wherever possible, your only priority should be securing the Essence as swiftly as possible. Once you've secured it, the rest will form Team C and look to extract you from this exit point right here." He tapped a little harder than maybe he should've, tracing a path all through the facility before finally bringing his finger to what looked like a docking bay of sorts. "Teams 2 and 5 are en route as well to support Team A, so we simply need to stall and draw their attention for as long as it takes. Once reinforcements have arrived and the Essence has been secured and being escorted by B and C, we'll push to rout and then detain the Rikimaru forces. Any questions?"
He knew their summon had been rather sudden, the team having been haphazardly slapped together from what Maylis had on hand and was now deemed official from here on out. Some of the members had barely interacted before, some complete strangers. They had time before reaching their designation as well, so if there were no questions to answer Dieter would let them talk amongst themselves to let them get to know one another better. Plus, he had to deal with a rather mad young girl before she burst her bubble.
