[IC] Final Fantasy VIII: Tempus Veneficarum [7/10 Slots]

[Little_ninja]

Noticing the weakness of Wiggs was his implants, Xerox had called out "It's the implants! Hit him with Thunder, now!". He gathered the last of his stock of Thunder paramagic and shot it at Wiggs. Wiggs roared out from the thunder, breathing erratically. His voice bellowed "YoU .... DIe ... NooOOOW!".

Incredibly enraged, Wiggs started to charge forth. Although he had slowed down, his mass and momentum were a force to be reckoned with. With the limited space to move, Xerox alternatively dashed forward, swinging his giant spanner. Activating the rocket booster apparatus he recently installed into the spanner, he was able to clash forth with Wiggs with great speed. Meeting head on, the two flew quite a distance back. Wiggs was still standing, looking unharmed by the attack. Xerox was fine, but his spanner was unbelievably deformed.

Wiggs once again prepared to attack. Xerox stored his spanner in his ESS and drew out a small pen like object. As Wiggs was about to set off, Xerox clicked the object, emitting a pulse. "GRAWRG!!! TraAI ... ToRS ... DIIeeE!" he screamed before kneeling down. Xerox had sent an electromagnetic pulse, shocking Wiggs's implants. Yet it was not quite enough. Bringing up his gauntlet machine gun, Xerox deployed his shield from his bracelet. A barrage of bullets started to hail towards Xerox and his shield. The ammunition fired was heavier and fired faster than others, leading to Xerox being pushed back behind his shield. With Wiggs taking steps forward as he fired, Xerox held his best to defend against the machine gun fire while walking back. The shield was slowly getting dents, and would not last much longer.

[akirashadow]

'That's enough observing, earn your keep.' A familiar voice echo'd through Jake's mind forcing him back to reality. A lot had happened and Jake had merely observed this opponent of theirs shared more in common with that of an enraged monster than that of a human. The attacks at first seemed skilled, but over time it became clear that it was just aimless stampeding. "So you want me to earn my keep eh?" Jake mumbled to himself as he felt the pain in his chest and arm subside. "Then lets show this major a thing or two." As Jake pushed himself off from the wall he'd been slumped against he took one last glance at the entrance to the Major's office, no time to think of that now. Just before he could go on the offensive however it seemed reinforcements had arrived in the form of the operations leader, and a few more of the Balamb SeeDs. One had a less then fortunate entrance to say the least and the others had drawn the Major's attention.

"It's the implants! Hit him with Thunder, now!" So that was this enemies weakness was it? Jakes grip on his daggers adjusted as he coursed the energy of thunder from his spells into their tips. The blades let off a small spark as if to indicate that they were full of the magics potency, and on its signal Jake charged forward once more. The advantage was his as he used the Balamb SeeD being fired upon as an appropriate distraction as he delivers the first blow the Majors slightly less armoured back. The electricity sprung from the blades tip writhing through the Majors body and drawing his attention. As the Major turned to strike out in retaliation another slash was delivered across the chest plate of the armour the magics allowing the dagger to have more power as it bludgeoned cracked into this bulls steel shell. Jake managed to weave out of the way from the initial blow. "You've become... very predictable." This only enraged the Major more as Jake parried away and dodged further blows, each one parried send jolts of electricity through the Majors body.

However it wouldn't last long as the Major grasped hold of Jakes shirt lifting the SeeD easily from the ground like it was a mere paperweight. The Major bared a smile for the brief moment he thought he had the upper hand until... "Thundaga!" Jake grabbed the arm that had him held in the air as a strong surge of electricity passes through the pair of them, enabling Jake to break free from the Major's grip as he staggers about in a foreseeable manner considering his immediately ended predicament. The spell had bought him enough time to get about a foot between them before he was snapped right back gasping for air. "Ack!" Jake chocked on his words as he was dragged by the Jacket that had, until recently, been acting as a sling for his injured arm. The SeeD flailed as he struggled to find his footing to ease the pain as he was pulled back his own dagger swings preventing anyone from getting close enough to separate the two. Unable to get himself out of his own predicament a flash of light rips the jacket between Jake and Wiggs, allowing Jake to scamper back to the safety of the other SeeDs. A series of obvious coughing followed and Jake quickly wiped away the small specs of blood that coated his lips following. 'Tha-thank you Kensei.' remembering not to voice it Jake silently thanked his watchful guardian, as he tried to recuperate and be prepared for when he'd next be expected to act.

[Zarkun]

Jericho didn't have any Thunder magic, it wasn't what he specialized in during training, or was it something that Glaciem got too close to, given it tended to make flying more difficult. However, Jericho remembered his trick at the communications tower and put his scythe on his back, charging a powerful ice spell in his hands. He had to make it count, as he only junctioned two of these spells a day sine he preferred to use Blizzara and Blizzard more often, with a about fifteen Blizzaga's for emergency purposes. He watched Xerox counter the Major's charge, applauding him for his bravery, then watched the SEED from Galbadia stun the major for the most part, though he earned a near suffocation to death for his efforts. But it provided an opening.

"Death's grip is cold, and so is this! Blizzaja" The entirety of the hallway lit up blue before an icy wind blew up and down it, frost forming along the walls and a lighter layer along the clothes and armor of the SEEDs. When it all cleared, the Major laughed and stepped towards the spell's caster. Or tried to. He instead jerked forward and didn't move at all. When he looked down, his legs were encased in a thick block of ice. He could also feel several of his implants short circuiting from the cold, which only enraged him further. "TraItors....wIlL....DIE!" He began pounding away at the ice and Jericho blanched ever so slightly.

"If there's some kind of containment plan, nows the time. I don't relish looking like some of the others."

[Shiinen]

"If there's some kind of containment plan, now's the time. I don't relish looking like some of the others."

With those words spoken, a quartet of orbs crackling with lightning flew to the front of Jericho and promptly began to hum as they sat.

She'd finally made it. A swift movement and a scan of the scenario in front of her.

There were people hurt...People she'd been too late to come and get out the way of. That...really pissed her off. From the glimpse behind Eika -- if one had followed her path at all -- husk after husk of patrol that had tried to stop her advance lay in her wake. She'd made it in with a few scratches -- only the most visible being on her cheek from what could be presumed a bullet scraping by -- and evident panting spoke of the fatigie raking at her body for leaving the infirmary in such a poor condition. The mental condition, the weakened state from the coma itself, and extensive usage of Junctioning and tearing people apart to turn them into spell fodder. She might drop at this rate...she needed-

...Duncan was a pool of spells that could keep her standing. And as inconvenient as it was...she needed them to keep herself awake.
"Instructor..."
Yes. Eika Munashii had finally arrived on scene and the first thing she did was yank Duncan back in order to...

Well. Kiss him.

A blatant motion that came with the visible borrowing of support magicks that she'd witnessed him use back during her exam.

Haste.

Protect.

Shell.

Regen.

Now was probably the time where she spoke the moment she took her lips away from his and cleared her throat, body aglow with the cocktail of "wake-up" spells that she'd used on herself via...well. His mouth.

"I'm sorry if I'm interrupting. Let me help with the big scary man, if you would."

And with that, the rotating quartet began to fire now that her concentration was finally focused. Four swift Thundaga spells flowing out from each orb to hit at the opposing and fairly pissed off cyborg's body. A pull forward and a deliberate number of steps taken to the side to get out of the way of others followed. She was finally where she belonged, after forcing her body to cooperate after sleeping for so long.

With the people she would happily die for.

[Ogo]

Ramses Q. Reinholdt

It was quiet. Disturbingly so. The air was cold, absolutely frigid, actually. And here was Ramses, dressed head to toe in a rather ill-fitting and worn, not to mention stinking, Galbadian uniform. He was leaning against a tall, metal crate across from the warehouse base, watching for any Galbadian patrols or any OTHER “undesirables” that might enter the area. Smoke hung in the space before his eyes, travelling up from the cigarette hanging lazily out his mouth. His helmet was placed on the ground by his feet. He’d wear the reeking uniform. He’d stand outside in the icy hell. But being stuck in that ungodly thing? That’s where he drew the line. Not that it was unusual for Galbadian soldiers to go without helmets anyway. They had a reputation for being microwaves for the head.

So why was the hulking SeeD from the tiny island of Balamb, tasked with removing the Galbadian head of state, masquerading as one of the enemy?

Yoko. Ono.

She REALLY didn’t take kindly to his objection back in the barracks. Not that he could blame her. He had pulled her leadership into question in front of the other troops. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, he had also called her on her weakness. Not directly, but she picked up the subtext of his sudden volunteering. So she had ordered him to stand guard. To watch for the “big, bad, Galbadians.”

Ramses took a deep drag, letting the warm nicotine infected smoke tumble down his throat into his lungs. It burned a bit. Damn thing was almost spent. Slowly exhaling, savoring the taste it left on his deadened taste buds, he flicked the butt to the ground and snuffed it out with his boot.

He couldn’t blame her for the “punishment”. She had to save face, otherwise the others might see weakness and try to take advantage of it. He had really put his foot in his mouth there. Should have just kept his damn mouth shut and went along with it. He could have kept an eye on the others, could have made sure they got there safe. And he might have been able to help up the main team. Now...well…

Despite having just finished one, Ramses pulled out a small blue box, flipped open the top and plucked out another long white stick. He plopped it into his mouth and slid the box back into his pocket, exchanging it for a green lighter. He flicked it once. Nothing. He flicked it again. Nothing. Damn. He tried it once more, really putting effort into it. Voila. Third time’s the charm. A flame rose to life from a spark. He pulled it up to his cigarette, cupping the flame and cig with his free hand, shielding it from harsh, heat destroying wind.

He took another drag.

They were probably dead. Dead or taken prisoner. Ramses wasn’t sure which one would be preferable. He had heard...things about the fates of Galbadian POWs. He sincerely hoped he was wrong. If he wasn’t, then not only would their numbers be considerably reduced, including the majority of their combat specialists, the Galbadians would be on insanely high alert. After all, a butchered attempt on a high ranking Galbadian officer? By SeeD, nonetheless. Maybe they wouldn’t spill their mission or even their occupation. Say they’re Timber rebels and maybe the mission could be salvaged.

Ramses rolled the helmet with his foot.

stompstomp

What was that?

stompstompstomp

Ramses bent down and quickly grabbed the helmet, sliding it onto his head. He then grabbed the Galbadian assault rifle that laid nearby. He ejected the mag and verified that it was full. He had done so before leaving the base, but better safe than sorry. He readied his weapon, shooting daggers down the sights. Something or someone was nearby.

stompstoMPSTOMP

And getting closer.

STOMPSTOMPSTOMP

A younger blonde man in a green zip-up hoodie had come around the corner. He had originally had his hands dug deep into the pockets of his black, studded jeans. Originally. It didn’t take him long to notice the barrel of an assault rifle practically shoved into his face. By a giant Galbadian, nonetheless.

“GET DOWN!”

Ramses threw all of his frustration at the man who dropped like a ton of bricks. He was...Oh no, was he crying? And that smell. No...he didn’t…

“I-I-PLEASE, DON’T S-SHOOT, MAN!”

He actually blubbered. Ramses had never heard a man, or anyone actually, do that. It was almost enough to make him burst into laughter. But he didn’t. He kept his cool.

“State your business, asshat.”

“I was jus-just taking a w-walk, man! PLEASE, LEMME GO.”

Ramses’ face hardened.

“This area is restricted until the Galbadian Military finishes its investigation. Consider this your only warning. I see you again, I shoot. Now go.”

He delivered each word increasingly more harshly. The weeping man froze for a moment, then scrambled to his feet. He hesitated for the briefest of moments.

“MOVE IT.”

He took a step forward and tightened the grip with which he held the rifle. It was enough. The man practically evaporated. And Ramses grew a scowl. He screwed up. That guy shouldn’t have been here. He should have put two in the chest and dumped him. He could have been anyone.

”Dammit…”

And he took another drag.

[Little_ninja]

Being given a breather, Xerox discarded his shield. It was un-salvageable. Any more and it would have been pierced through with bullet holes. He only had a couple more of those left in reserve, but they were built weaker than this one. Propping his glasses, he scanned the situation, assessing the state of Wiggs's implants. A number were severely damaged, but he had a ridiculous amount. Hell, it was almost like he was a mecha rather than a human. It was difficult to find out which implants were important due to the sheer amount.

With Jake almost suffocating, Xerox prepared to dash in, to attempt to assist, before seeing a flash of light free him. Soon after, Jericho froze the room and the Major's feet. Xerox felt the chill embrace his body. It allowed him to assess the situation some more.
"If there's some kind of containment plan, nows the time. I don't relish looking like some of the others."
Jericho called out. Xerox was about to ask if Duncan had a plan, before he spotted the quartet of orbs.

"Well, look at who joined the party. Good to have you on board Eika." Xerox called out to the girl who came with her signature orbs. Seeing her approach Duncan, he wasn't surprised at what she did, although, he did not realize that she was drawing magic from him.

Wiggs was shocked by the lightning shot by the quartet of orbs. "MmmmmmOOOORREEEE TRAAAAiiiiiitORS!!!" He shouted out. Further enraged, he pulled off a large mass of ice from floor near his feet, and threw it at high velocity at Eika.

Pulling out another shield from his ESS, Xerox tried to reach out and defend the girl sucking the life out of Duncan. However, he was not going to reach. With all his effort, he, unknown to himself, was able to drop a metal wall he had stored in between Eika and the chunk of ice, which shattered on impact. "Can you not flirt here? Kind of need to capture this guy, which makes it harder than just killing him off." Xerox sighed, relieved.

Turning back to the Major, and once again propping his glasses up, he found something. There were two implants that were special. One which was the control system of the rest, and another which was meant to recover the others. The first one was located opposite of the heart in his chest, the second was located in the center of his body, surrounded by many of the other implants. Most paramagic won't be able to penetrate that deep, however, with the paramagic rifle, it should be able to set off a thunder deep within his body and short circuit the recovering implant. After that one more thunder should be enough to stop his implants and stop him from moving.

"Duncan, use the rifle and shoot a thunder right into the center of his body. Aim exactly at the solar plexus, just under the xyphoid process! Eika, please follow up the shot with any thunder magic on the right side of his chest and it should incapacitate him. I'll try stall time for the shot." Xerox ended up ordering Duncan, the operation leader. But he doubted he would mind, considering the situation.

Going forth, Xerox charged forth of the group, towards Wiggs. Wiggs had broken free of the ice entrapping his legs, and looked at the puny traitor with a devilish grin, ready to pound Xerox flat to the ground. As Xerox got closer, he paid careful attention to the arm ready to flatten him. The angle was to be very important. Seeing it start to swing, Xerox placed his hand in front, accessing his ESS and pushed a giant drill angled into the fist that was coming down. Xerox kicked off the drill and made some distance between himself and Wiggs.

Wiggs wanted to laugh at the attempt to stop him with a drill. Continuing with the punch, he went to smash the drill into a lump of scrap. Except, instead, it pierced through his arm. The tip was made from diamond and ended up piercing through Wiggs's exceptionally tough skin and bone. The impact still broke the rest of the drill, however, Wiggs had also suffered a serious injury to his hand. "GRAWWWRRRRRRR!!!!" the giant of a man screamed out, for the first time seeming like he actually felt some pain.

[Lennon79]

Despite all the hits he had taken, the implants cutting out one by one and the blood lost from a dozen wounds, Wiggs was still on his feet. The man's a fucking machine, Duncan thought incredulously. How in the Hell are we supposed to knock that out? He had no reply to Jericho's question, Hell he had kind of been banking on Xerox figuring something out... Duncan tensed, torn over whether the objective was worth the losses and considering giving the order to just kill the bastard; it would have been so much bloody easier... it was all he could do to slow the Major, firing a shot here and there to knock him off guard or make him flinch; Duncan was focussing so hard that he didn't a new another presence beside him until it was far, far too late. A wall of chilled air swept though the corridor from Jericho's spell and Duncan shook the frost off and - suddenly warmth. Heat, the familiar feeling of magic flowing from his body and the less familiar feeling of softness on his lips...

What. The. Fuck? Duncan's mind went totally blank as his already frantic thoughts completely disintegrated. Was that Eika..? But she- coma? In Balamb... Even after the girl moved on to cast her magic, Duncan stood transfixed, gaping after her like a fish out of water. The realisation came like a bucket of cold water. Did she just fucking kiss me!? More than that, he realised. Some of his junctioned magic had been drained away, enough for him to feel physically weaker; with that many support spells you could make cripple dance the cancan. Was she still injured..? A voice tugged at Duncan's ear, just loud enough for him to pay attention. It was Xerox. 'T... thunder you say?' After a few false starts, he was able to aim his weapon once more, if more by instinct than anything else. His concious mind was gone, well away with the fairies by now; three of his team were likely dead, one he had never expected to return had fucking kissed him and now he was taking orders from his subordinate..? Confusion muddled his thoughts into a malaise and instinct took over. He aimed and fired the spell.

The traitors... had rallied. He didn't understand how they could fight so much better, harder after the fight had dragged on so long. Surely they should have become demoralised as Wiggs tore through their comrades? Surely the deaths of three traitors would have frightened them? It normally worked like that; kill one or two and the rest run away. But these... these traitors were different... Tougher, smarter. And they had figured out his weakness at last. Arnholt could feel the power leaving his body as implant after implant shorted out; at first it was just the weapons and armour, but then his muscles stared dying and his retinal enhancements. Now after a dozen lightning strikes, Wiggs could feel his third and fourth hearts shutting down, drowsiness slowly overtaking him. He could fight it, so long as they implants kept rebooting, but even he couldn't keep this up for- another bolt hit him, this time dead centre mass, the magical electricity arcing right though him to destroy his most vital implants. And suddenly, it was as though the fog had been lifted from his eyes. For the first time in years, Arnholt looked at what he had become... and screamed. The next bolt went through his true heart, knocking him to the floor and cutting his conciousness.

No-one moved for a long moment after Wiggs fell, every weapon trained on the unmoving hulk, perhaps unwilling to believe that it had ended so suddenly. Eventually Duncan broke the silence. 'Ex... traction team, so uh... you Xerox. Take him back. Load up the wounded and... the dead too. Kein's a healer, he'll keep them going.' His voice grew slowly stronger as he spoke, as if giving orders were slowly restoring his confused mind. 'The rest of you, search the area; anything of value, nick it. And Jake, do your thing, the office is yours.' He studiously avoided looking Eika in the eye, unsure of how to approach that particular situation... Instead he kept himself busy rifling though paperwork, not paying enough attention to realise that it was just a a visitor's book...

[Shiinen]

A single eye remained open as she drew her orbs over to her side and let the crackling energy disperse between them again and again, forcing the charge, the voltage, to keep getting bigger as she heard the voice of her favorite mechanic. He was being rather rude, as the magic forced a bullet previously unknown from her thigh, she hummed at it falling out and rubbed her head.

"Hey. I ran all the way here. And got shot at. After getting out of the Doctor's office. I needed a kick-start before I passed out! This hurts..."

But there he went, throwing those orders. A soft sigh and she laughed before holding her hand out and aiming her quartet after Duncan's shot. Four Thundara spells would burst out, converging in behind the bullet as Xerox instructed in order to assist with shutting down the big scary man. With lightning so true, the bullet went through the titan's heart and the thunder stayed in his body to assault every fiber -- flesh or machine. As he finally fell, Eika in turn did as well with a soft sigh. The effects of the support cocktail she'd yanked from her Instructor had finished up and now? Hell. She could be that cripple that wanted to can-can with how unwilling her legs were to move. Ah....Everything was aching in the worst possible ways thanks to all of those spells...

So of course she didn't notice her little PuPu climbing up Mount Duncan in order to jump on top of Duncan's tourist guide and wave it's little arms about for his attention.
"Elixir, please!"

It...talked. Like an actual PuPu. And repeated it twice more while jumping up and down before pointing to Eika.

"Elixir! Elixir! Please!~"

Failing to notice that, Eika had turned her attention to Xerox at this point in order to try and grab HIS attention.
"Ah...Sorry I couldn't get here sooner. And uhm. Nobody save the doctor and maybe the man at the exit knows I left. What exactly was going on and...Well...What happened to everyone?...Was I too late to stop it all?..."

So she had seen it all. And like her family, she hadn't been able to help them?...Those tiny cracks in her head were emerging once again. She just...had to try and hold it together for now as that exhaustion hit at her will. This was a poor way to wake up and try to help what she could more or less call her "family" now...

[Little_ninja]

Relieved, Xerox heaved a heavy breath. A few others could be heard among the silence. Is it over? was the first thought. Xerox propped his glasses, confirming the state of the implants, no longer functional. The silence was broken by Duncan. 'Ex... traction team, so uh... you Xerox. Take him back. Load up the wounded and... the dead too. Kein's a healer, he'll keep them going.' His voice grew slowly stronger as he spoke, as if giving orders were slowly restoring his confused mind. 'The rest of you, search the area; anything of value, nick it. And Jake, do your thing, the office is yours.

Xerox replied with a simple 'Yes sir'. Turning over to the fallen Eika 'You okay? You don't need to push yourself you know. Eika spoke, "Ah...Sorry I couldn't get here sooner. And uhm. Nobody save the doctor and maybe the man at the exit knows I left. What exactly was going on and...Well...What happened to everyone?...Was I too late to stop it all?..."

Looking around, Xerox sighed. "Well, if you are talking about those from the class that graduated, the others seem to have gone on other missions or something, I haven't been able to see any of them around. So far it's you, me, Kein and Syrus. But Syrus took a pretty big hit, so he might be out of it for a while. If you are talking about everyone in this team built by Duncan, a number of them are back at the base camp. A small team was selected for this capture, but ... we lost a few good people, but, nonetheless, you weren't too late. You really saved us there while we were in a bind. I was able to find the weak spot, and although I am not the leader, issued an order which you listened to. I'm thankful you got here when you did. You did the best you could, you should rest. You really helped out everyone. There's probably less dead thanks to you." He gave her quite a speech, he was unsure what it was she wanted to hear, and tried his best to comfort her. The best person for that would of been Duncan, but he seemed to be kind of avoiding Eika.

Going through his stock, he had some Cures he could use to help her, at least a little. "Cure", Xerox called out, calling forth his paramagic stock of Cure to use. A green glow surrounded Eika, letting her feel the soothing paramagic. "Think you can stand? You should get Kein to look at you to help you. Maybe Duncan can take you, I need to get the target and the injured." Xerox asked, lending Eika a hand to help her stand.

Regardless of if she stood or not, or if she took his hand or not, after a moment he left her with the words, "You did your best, and you did a great job. Get some well deserved rest." Walking away, Xerox approached Wiggs's body. Assuming the proper procedure to lifting heavy objects without straining ones back, he attempted to lift Wiggs.

...
...
...
...
...

After a few moments, it was evident, Wiggs was too heavy with all those implants to be moved by even a group of people, let alone just Xerox himself. Getting a long pole, Xerox used some leverage to get Wiggs to lift up slightly from the ground. Afterwards, he brought up a trolley using his ESS and managed to get Wiggs on it. Luckily, it was a trolley suitable for mechas, so it was able to support Wiggs weight. Checking one last time, Xerox was able to confirm the implants weren't being repaired. In all honesty, he wanted to extract the implants and check them out, however, there was a chance of killing Wiggs in the process. That would be a waste, considering all the effort they put into capturing him.

Once he got Wiggs on the trolley, he went and got the wounded SeeD, such as Syrus and Freya, onto a trolley next to Wiggs. Turning to the person with the scythe who had helped them during the SeeD examination, Jericho, Xerox requested some help. "Hey, could you help gather the rest for me? I will start heading down with who I got now. Hoping that he would get that help, Xerox dragged the trolleys to the extraction vehicle. Although on a trolley, Wiggs was still quite difficult to transport.

Kein and the others had their eyes wide-opened at the size of the man, and the sheer weight. The team struggled to get him into the vehicle. "Woah, what is he, a giant? ... Oh shit. Syrus, Freya. I better take care of them! Kein spoke out. Although he was being frantic, he was a good healer, Xerox knew that much at least. "I'll go get the other wounded and ... deceased. We will be moving out probably after we grab anything useful and Jake does whatever he needs to do. Xerox went back to where the others were.

[akirashadow]

The finale was quiet the spectacle to observe, a widespread ice spell followed up by the rallied ending of some kind of lightning arc weapon. Jake was able to do nothing but watch over it as he recovered his breath from his close encounter with the enemy as he watched the mammoth of a man collapse to the floor. "You put up a good fight Major Wiggs. But your fate now lays in the hands of Balamb Garden" Jake whispered to himself as he recovered up to his feet catching the part of his jacket that had clung to his front after being cut into two. Sighing the SeeD walked over to recover the rest of his jacket from the ground. "Such a shame, waste of good jackey." Jake remarked as he walked over to the major kneeling down beside him. Just as Jake was about to speak Duncan gave his orders, Jake listened carefully a small smile on his face when he had been cleared for carrying out his secondary objective. "Well then Major Wiggs I'm sure we'll get to speak soon and then I can repay you for you've done, until then." Jake stood up resisting the urge to deliver a swift kick to the mans jaw, for now they still required him to be able to use it. "Consider it done Duncan." Jake spoke in a rather informal manner before stepping through into the Majors office.

The office was as could likely be expected for a person such as Wiggs. Someone who was heavily influenced by electronic implants clearly had no needs for personal effects. Every piece of furniture looked to fit the part to play, the all important desk, which was almost completely bare bar a few stationary items. "So... where is it?" Jake asked as he scanned the room over as he noticed the filling cabinet shoved as far into the corner as possible. "Ah, the obvious choice. Lets see if we can't find something a bit more personal first." Jake walked over to the majors desk placing the sliced remains of his jacket on top of it before jamming one of his daggers into the small opening between the desk and drawer. "Comeon.. give... way." Jake pried on the dagger until the lock snapped causing the drawer to swiftly slide open. Jake flicked through the items within, it seemed to mainly just be correspondence. "Something for them maybe." He muttered as he placed the items on the desk before walking to the filling cabinet. He pulled the top drawer completely out of the cabinet, carrying it over and placed it down on the desk as he began to flip through files and dividers each one proving of no interested being followed up by an obvious 'no'. "Balamb?" Jake lifted the file from the drawer as he flipped through a couple of pages "Bit of an overstretch for a team like this." Within the file was photo's and profiles of different people, although no one Jake recognised. Jake placed the file on the desk before returning to look for what he was after.

Jake looked up from his search to see how closely he was being observed. 'You know what to do Jake, support them, but protect our interests.' Jake's orders rung out in his head as he grabbed a second file 'Dollet City'. Jake didn't open the file and merely added it to the pile on top of the other items. "This Major's men appear to have been busy!" Jake calls out as he looks up toward Duncan, before quickly following up. "I should be done here soon, I'll bring what I find to you, no need to come me!" Finally, a file of actual importance 'The 7691 Reports' Jake was no idiot, this file was his SeeD ID number. "You sneaky bastards..." He muttered softly placing it down onto the pile. The last file to be picked out 'Galbadia Garden'. He had what he needed, there was no need to search for anything more. The SeeD picked up his jacket remains in one hand before picking up the files and correspondences with the same.

Jake walked toward Duncan switching hands of the files and sleight if handing the 'Galbadia Garden' & '7691' files backed to the original hand tucking them under the jacket. "These may prove of interest to you." Jake stated as he placed the files in Duncan's hands. "My understanding is the military forces in Timber were not to be dispatched to Dollet City. But I'm sure we both know that what happened in Dollet wasn't really what was planned." Jake cleared his throat before continuing "The small overwatch team we had in place wouldn't of placed a dent in the armies reinforcements. But that is a conversation for another time. Is there something else I can assist with, or should I withdraw now?"

[SwordfishKnight]

After the fight had finished, Gracelyn breathed a sigh of relief. One troublesome foe down. Maybe more to come. Gracelyn brushed herself off and tasted some of the blood in her mouth from her biting her tongue and cheek so hard. She strolled over to Jericho and inspected him for injuries, all the while speaking.

"You okay? Any major wounds or broken bones? No? Good."

Gracelyn reared her hand back and slammed it into the back of Jericho's head.

"What the hell were you thinking you moron! Do I look like I can take on that guy alone!? Why's you rely on me to do that!? Aggggh. You idiot! We're gonna talk about this when we get back. You go help out with whatever."

Gracelyn walked away and hailed Xerox, notifying him of her volunteering to hoist the dead nody and haul it. She slung the dead body and asked where it went, careful of the blood still dripping from it.

[Zarkun]

Jericho watched Gracelyn storm off to help Xerox and shook his head with a chuckle, rubbing the back of his head for a moment before going to search some of the other rooms before they left. She knew he had a reason behind it, though he hadn't WILLINGLY left her alone. A spinning metal death saw flying at your face tends to make one preserve their own life first. With another light chuckle, he starts searching through one of the foot lockers. "Hey Duncan, what are we rifling through the other people's stuff for anyways? Someone is gonna make the connection with as tough a guy as Wiggs was."

[Lennon79]

Shit, that's a lotta blood... Syrus had the worst of it; the Major's attack had caved the poor guy's chest in and now Kein had to work furiously to keep his guts from spilling out. Good thing he had his full medical kit too; Syrus was too far gone for simple curative magic. A few expensive Curagas and Regens had sealed the flesh and started to mend those powdered ribs, but the SeeD had slipped into a coma that could last weeks, if not more. At least his other patient was conscious, barely; Freya's arm had been snapped in two and thrown into a solid wall. The impact would have knocked most out instantly, but somehow the SeeD had endured. But no matter how tough she was, it would take time to heal such a majorly broken bone. With the last of Syrus' guts secured, Kein administered a sedative to them both... and then a big dose to Wigg's colossal bulk too, just in case. the other two extraction team members bickered back and forward as they strapped Major in place; with solid steel cords criss-crossing his body, there should be no chance of him moving even f he did wake up. Probably.

'Military intelligence.', Duncan replied vaguely, not even sure who had asked. At this point they needed any information possible about Galbadian troop movements in the region, especially given the ultimate aim of this deployment. '... With Wiggs gone, I assume they'll assign a new commander here, but...' He paused mid-explanation as a small figure made its presence known before him. Eika's doll? About the only thing he knew about the mysterious PuPu doll was that it regularly provided him with apples; it occurred to Duncan that he had begun to take that for granted... '... but by taking copies of Wiggs' files, we can stay one step ahead of them when they do.' Elixir? What, the medicine? He knew where the doll was pointing and could guess what it was trying to say; it still took an inordinate amount of willpower to turn toward the exhausted Eika. 'Uh... Well. You look like hell, um... no, I mean you look well, given the... the... circumstances...' Duncan Lerwick was not a man easily given to embarrassment but the moment he looked into his erstwhile student's eyes, he felt a furious blush overtake him. Shit. Shit. Focus. Be professional. Shit. Fuck. It wasn't as though she had professed her undying love or anything, all Eika had done was draw some of his magic; the fact that she had chosen such a... direct method was irrelevant. 'I can give you more support magic, if you need- wait, no. Didn't mean it like that, I... Fuck it.' His dignity utterly spent, Duncan threw up his hands in surrender and began casting a battery of support magic upon her, once again avoiding her gaze...

'These may prove of interest to you.' Oh thank fuck, a distraction! He skimmed the files Jake handed over, nodded vaguely in reply; he was right though. The outcome at Dollet had been a disaster for both sides, but from a military standpoint, the Galbadians had had total superiority without needing to bring in extra reinforcements. Considering the size of the army that hit Dollet, that implied a substantial and disturbing increase in the size of the Galbadian Army; if they had invaded Dollet six months earlier it would have taken up all their reserves. Was the President gearing up for a larger conflict..? There were other useful bits in there too, little gems that Garden Intelligence could use. 'Thanks Jake. Corvo's gonna love this...' For a moment at least, Duncan was able to regain his composure. 'Alright team, listen up! Primary directive is achieved, time for exfil. You know the drill, split up and make it back to camp in twos; avoid conflict, but if you can't then draw them away from the base before breaking contact. I'll see you there.' And now for the awkward part... Each SeeD had a designated partner for the return to base; Duncan had planned to go back with Syrus but in the circumstances... He bit the bullet. 'Eika, you come with me. We'll head back through the train lines.' As the team split up, he led the injured girl eastward out of the compound and into the service tunnels that led to Timber Station. Duncan braced himself for a very awkward walk home...

As the others split up, Kein and the other two SeeDs were getting the car ready for their escape. He couldn't drive for shit and the other two had set up guns so they could hang out the windows for protection; that left Xerox in the hotseat. 'Hey man, hurry up! The engine's hot and I got a satnav set up to lead us out to the first sewer outlet.' He grimaced, knowing full-well how bad those sewers were gonna be. With the dead and wounded loaded on to the jeep, getting back to the base was gonna be a mission.

[obitokizuke]

@Ogobrogo

Footsteps could be heard several minutes after the disappearance of the man. It was a clinking sound.
It echoed dully , its subtle pitch resonating as the approached the undercover SeeD. Within moments a man stood in front of Ramses.

"Why haven't you been answering you'r comms...?" He said , his monotone voice ringing out.
"Put out that forsaken cigarette. It does far more harm than good. And you should know that it can inhibit your sight, I'd expect someone of your expertise to cherish their sight more."
He said dryly as he approached and stood before him.

"To the main topic at hand, it's time to evac."
He said not giving any explanation for this order at all as he expected him to simply to comply. His eyes then examined everything around them calmly. He knew he didn't fit into the scenery but there was no way he was willingly going to change out of his suit.
"Let's get going, I've heard spiders are ample this time of year."

He says turning and walking , he knew this tidbit of information , whether true or not would push doubt and subtle fear into his mind and influence him to hurry. He continued his walking , following the subtlest of imprints and marks he made to return to his original location, clearing them afterwards so that they would not be followed.

[Ogo]

Ramses Q. Reinholdt

Clink.

Ramses scowled. Another one? Or was the bastard coming back, gun in tow, ready to cap a Galbadian just because Timber independence or some other bullshit?

Clink. Ramses pulled up the rifle once more and took cover behind a box. He wouldn’t let the fool go a second him. Two in the chest, then get rid of it. That’s all he had to do. His finger lingered just off of the trigger. He was quick. All he needed was to see that damn hoodie and it would be over.

Clink. It was getting louder. Ramses tightened, ready fo-

It wasn’t the man. It was a SeeD. Ramses lowered his gun instantly. Relief flooded him, but he took care not to show it.

“Why haven’t you been answering your comms…?” the voice carried, not a single syllable higher than any other. Ramses recognized the man, but could hardly recall the name. They were both Balamb SeeD, he knew that much. It was something with a ‘Z’...

Wait.

Comms?

Ramses pulled off his helmet and gazed into it. The built in comm was on?

Wait.

Shit.

He had it on, but it wasn’t yet tuned to the right frequency. What irresponsible son of a…

Oh yeah. That was his responsibility. Another fuck up. Ramses scowled despite himself. That could have been terrible. Would have been terrible. He had been on the verge of calling back to base. He wasn’t sure what frequency the comm had been on, but if any Galbadian had been listening to it…

“Put out that forsaken cigarette.” the monotonous man lectured. He continued on, going on about sight. Ramses stunned for a moment. Not much of a people person, this one, eh? Ramses laughed. Not at the guy, but just in general. He was about to speak, a witty retort to the cigarette comment when the guy spoke again. “To the main topic at hand, it’s time to evac. Let’s get going, I’ve heard spiders are ample this time of year.”

A shudder shot through Ramses. This guy must have seen his file or something. Spiders. Ugh. He hated the damn things. Too small to sense, too quick to shoot. What good were they anyway? And...didn’t he say they were to evac? Leave? There’s no way. Why would they...He must have misheard the guy. Not that he could clear up the confusion though. The SeeD had already turned to leave. Ramses noticed that he seemed to be deliberately choosing his steps. Retracing his path? Not a bad idea but…

Ramses checked the helmet again, tuning it to the right frequency. Nobody was going to hear about this one. No. One. He placed it back on his head, grabbed his rifle, took a last drag on his cigarette and tossed it. He hit the comm button, causing it come to life.

All of a sudden, he was hit with excited chatter. His eyes widened. It was the away team. They were receiving information but...Holy shit, they actually did it. Evac...the guy was referring to this, then? Ramses shook his head and hurried up, heading back to base. His tracks would be fine. He was wearing ‘Bad boots. Around here, that was as natural as the birds. He caught up with the SeeD, but didn’t say anything. His head was swimming.

They actually did it.

They actually did it.

THEY ACTUALLY DID IT.

This...this was…

This wasn’t just a pipe dream. They had actually did it. They could actually do this thing. WE could actually do this thing.

Watch out Deling...we’re coming for you.

[akirashadow]

A rather annoying predicament hand landed at Jake's feet as he looked round at the remaining SeeD's there was only two who were realistically reliable, but they already were a good team and there was no point in changing that. Jake gazed over the few support SeeD that had also made it to the compound before pointing to one of them. "you."
"y-yes?"
Jake grimaced at the staggered response as he grits his teeth and hisses softly. "...Never mind." Was all Jake said as he changed his mind almost instantly just based on that. He points out to another one of the support team. "You, don't speak. You're with me." The support support SeeD reluctantly listened as he heads over. "Now given the predicted patrol movements... we'll return through the back entrance of the compound and use the network of back streets and side alleys to return to base. Should we come into contact with the army I'll run interference, you head back to base."

As the two of them headed back toward the back entrance Jake slid his jacket, what remained of it back on as he shoved the sliced remains of the sleeves into his pockets. The process of putting the jacket back on was a careful one as he kept his files neatly tucked away inside away from eye sight. Each room they passed proved worthy of a quick glancing once over for anything important. "What are you doing?" The support SeeD asked curious of Jake's continuous double checking.
"Clearly I should of gone with the first SeeDling, this is my territory, I'll know if you've missed something." However despite trying to prove a point it became clear that the other SeeD's had done a good enough job. As they reached the back entrance Jake noticed that the wounded guard that he had left had attempted to leave before giving in to the loss of blood at the door. With a sigh the mercenary walked over and knelt before his fallen opponent. "May you find peace in your next life, I had hope that you'd contain the will to live..." With that said Jake pulled the body away from the door ignoring the support's small look of confusion.

As the two exit the building Jake pulled the door to before grabbing his radio and changing the frequency. "May be helpful to listen in on these guys for a bit..." Jake stated as he flicked through searching for the channel the Galbadian's were on. "Remember SeeDling first sight of trouble you run for it... I'm sure I could convincingly pass you for a contact, if you're far enough away that is." The pair took a rather strange and lengthy route through the town with Jake leading the way. It would take them a while to return to base, but Jake was somewhat hopeful they wouldn't run into any soldiers, although it was almost inevitable that at least one group would.

[Zarkun]

Jericho snorts at Duncan's reply and finishes his search through the foot locker, finding nothing that would be considered intel by any stretch. "Right," he mutters, moving on to another one, "Because throw away soldiers are going to be trusted with anything even remotely important." Finding a journal, Jericho opens it and skims the pages, finding mostly complaints about the Major's approach to training and drills, although one line in particular stood out to him. It briefly mentioned a muffled conversation between Wiggs and someone important sounding who gave the Major all his orders. The soldier mentioned it was over the phone line and that the only line he caught from the phone was something about a reward for doing well. Not much, but maybe we can use this against Wiggs when he wakes up.

Stuffing the journal in a pouch, Jericho repeats the process with all the footlockers, but the only other notable thing he found was a collector's edition movie that he swiped to watch later. Not like the owner was going to miss it. Hearing Duncan call for the fall back to the base, he met up with Gracelyn and lead the way out into woods behind the base. The two had agreed to move through them until they found a road leading to the part of town the base was in and then follow that back to the building. "So we're down two of the heavy hitters in the group. That figures. Could have been worse though."

[Little_ninja]

With Gracelyn helping, Xerox was able to get the rest down quickly. "Thanks for the help. You should get ready to leave with Jericho. I think it's about time we head back to base. I'll head out in the car. Thanks." After thanking her, he headed out of the base to the car, when he heard Kein complain. 'Hey man, hurry up! The engine's hot and I got a satnav set up to lead us out to the first sewer outlet.'

"Yeah yeah. I am here already. Xerox replied, getting into the car. With the satnav already set up, he reversed the car and started to drive towards the sewer outlet. It was relatively okay at first. Till it was time to floor it. "Get ready" he called out, speeding up. On route, he spotted a regiment on patrol of the Galbadian Army. What timing he thought, as he could hear the others prep their guns and fire away at the patrol, preparing to fire at the moving vehicle. "Looks like we might get more trouble since we got spotted." Xerox sighed.

With gunfire back and forth for a few seconds, the car passed the regiment, with only a few losses to the regiment. "We're gonna need to hurry now, don't want that backup to catch us in the sewers" he mentioned, accelerating towards the sewers. Reaching the sewers quickly, they were lucky to not have another encounter. The sewers were foul, and dark. With little breathing room, they drove through. The ground uneven, rocking the car. At the end of the sewers they could see light. Xerox had noticed something, however, near the exit. A proximity mine. The Galbadians were prepared. Xerox sighed once more.

"Tenacious" he said, accelerating once more. Reaching the top speed of the car, he sped passed the mine, leaving the explosion in his trails. Some more Galbadian soldiers were outside the sewers, ready to fire, however, the speed Xerox was taking the car, left them little chance before they disappeared among the trees. After that, it was smooth sailing, taking an unorthodox route to the base.

[Shiinen]

"Well...I am glad to see you, Xerox. I didn't want to lose a part of my new family. I'm sorry I couldn't get here faster."

The words that had been offered to her by Xerox were comforting in a manner, helping the caster smile as she took his hand and stumbled up onto her own two feet before he went on his way off. Her legs were rather tired from all of the rushing to get over here, and it took its wrath on her up until the point that Duncan came and began to speak to her with...quite the fluster, might she say. With a soft laugh falling through her attempts to keep it sealed up as he cast a cocktail of supportive spells on her body to get her walking straight and walking tall. Instead of fading into embarrassment over what she had done, she owned up to it instead and reached out -- rather, attempted to, before he stepped away and went about busying himself with orders. Her little PuPu came back to her side, prompting her a look of confusion as she picked him up and placed him back into her side pouch to let him rest in the meantime as everyone started moving about and moving along. Looks like she'd be getting in trouble if she was mentioned in the report...Well, it was too late anyways, if the Doctor reported her leaving.

"Ah?...Y-Yes, sir! Whatever you say."

He wanted her to come with him?...Maybe he was looking to lecture her for the spell-stealing kiss? Or perhaps something on a more positive note? She could only hope for such a positive reaction as she stepped close to his side and laced her fingers together behind his back in order to come to a "relaxed" stance. The magic had taken its effect, finally showing her that she'd actually taken a few more shots than she'd realized -- seventeen bullets in total, three of which she actually coughed up while waiting on him to give her appropriate instructions since she was honestly still in the dark on matters.

"Huh. They say blood tastes like copper...I figured I'd bitten my tongue or something. I guess I'd been shot instead. Well, I'm glad I didn't notice until now. What should I do in the meantime that we're together, Instructor?"

[Lennon79]

His rifle up in a ready position, Duncan turned slowly into the tunnels, scanning left and right with long, slow steps. Clear. He waved Eika along and headed in, still unsure of how to start a conversation. They continued for some time in silence before Eika spoke up; already on edge from the fight and unexpected kiss, Duncan's overprotective streak suddenly surfaced with a vengeance. 'Wait, you got shot?' Slinging his weapon over one shoulder, Duncan pulled the other SeeD to one side under a service light. A bullet wound was a serious injury even for a GF user, but Eika had clearly been hit by more than one round. 'Why the Hell didn't you say anything? We had Kein running triage. Christ... sit down.' Luckily his earlier nerves were overridden by concern, so for the moment at least, Duncan didn't feel so self-concious. For five long minutes he busied himself with checking for bullet wound and applying liberal amounts of curative magic. It wasn't until he spotted blood seeping though the front of her clothes that he pulled up short, again suddenly very aware of her. 'I-I think you're ok. Yeah. Good enough to move, right..?' He wasn't great at healing but had nevertheless patched up at least five wounds, enough to stop Eika bleeding out. He paused for a moment mid-stutter to took a deep, calming breath. 'Alright... We need to talk. About a few things really, but let's start with why you're not still in the infirmary.' Duncan helped Eika to her feet and the two of them started moving on down the service tunnel. His tone was level but carried an edge to it; Eika had broken God only knew how many regulations to get here and while he was grateful for the timely intervention, there would be disciplinary consequences.