Piercing Light

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Kusari Bloodworth

Before Kusari could get a response from Allison Marcus's voice came through the radio again. She tensed at his words, and quickly checked the map. The collector didn't seem to be aware of their presence, at least for now. Regardless she was starting to feel a lot like a fish at the bottom of a barrel. She clenched her teeth and let out a breath. She wasn't going to panic, she wasn't going to let this scare her. She was invincible, nothing could kill her. She'd be fine.

"Just... fine." She quietly muttered to herself, her eyes glaring at the open windows to the streets outside. She contemplated what she'd do if a collector did attack them. What did she say to her team, that she'd fight the threat alone while they ran away? That sure was easy to say, doing it was another thing. She'd like to think she wouldn't run, after all she'd always had more of a Fight or Bite response to conflicts.

Whatever the case was, all she could do at the moment was wait.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Kusari Bloodworth

Kusari watched as Allison paced around like an agitated animal. This wasn't just nerves, she was fine a moment ago. It was likely her stigma acting up. Kusari still didn't know how to feel about Aberrations. She wanted to relate to them, after all they were Subnaturals just like her, there were plenty of people out there that would be glad if they just dropped dead, just like her. But she couldn't empathize with them. She still remembered the nightmare she'd had, to think anyone would choose it over the Arbiter's dream was insane.

So she wouldn't pretend to understand, and she wouldn't give her false pity. If she couldn't find a way to help then it was pointless. She walked over to Allison, getting slightly irritated at her left arm as it needed to be maneuvered around the diner. "Allison,
is it bothering you? Your stigma I mean." She really needed to learn how to be tactful.

"We can't have you freaking out in the middle of an emergency, so..." Kusari let out a heavy sigh, she couldn't believe she was doing this again. "If it gets to be too much, you can take it out on me. It uh, stigmas are dealt with by destroying things, right?" Hearing herself speak out loud, it really was shameful how little she knew.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Kusari Bloodworth | Allison Revel | Lilliana Brandt

A stream of light streaking through the sky caught the attention of Kusari's eyes. She blinked in disbelief as the helicopter Callan and Sander were in was torn apart. She didn't move, she didn't scream into her transmitter, she just waited. Those two were the most durable mages she knew, surely they were fine. Surely. Angel's voice came through, she was far more able to voice what Kusari was afraid to. A moment later, Callan responded, letting everyone know her and Sander were fine. Kusari let out a breath and rubbed her temples. The fight had barely started and she was already a step away from a nervous breakdown.

Kusari inhaled a sharp breath and turned to her team. "Let's go, I don't want to stay in these streets for too long."

"Alright." Allison's voice was relatively quiet, hushed by the weight of the scenario. "Lead the way." She said to Kusari. Allison hadn't said a word since they had left USARILN, having been preoccupied with thought of the coming battle. Luckily, the trio wouldn't be in the thick of battle, at least not yet. The destruction of the helicopter had definitely dampened Allison's mood, though the confirmation of Callan and Sander's survival prevented her from believing the situation to be hopeless. Allison just wanted to get to their destination. She shifted uncomfortably in the jacket she had forced herself to wear, which offered little warmth against the sprinkling rain from above.

Kusari narrowed her eyes at Allison for a moment before turning back to walk to their destination. She seemed to be bothered by something, but all things considered it would be strange if one of them wasn't. As long as she looked like she was focused she didn't care to bring it up. The noises up ahead had gotten louder, it was safe to say the mission was in full swing now. She had to do her part as best she could, being a body guard was likely the best position she could have here.

Keeping a brisk pace, they eventually arrived to a diner. They hadn't run into any enemies thus far, but Kusari could hear the distant sound of abominable machines growing louder. She pushed open the diner's doors, glass falling from it's frame as it creaked ajar. There were plates of old food still sitting on a few tables, clearly people wasted no time trying to leave.

"I don't like this." Kusari said, examining the wide windows of the diner. "This isn't exactly a stellar defensive position."

"Yea." Allison responded as broken glass crunched under her feet. "you're probably right. We could move to another building, though there could be some reason to stay in this..." She looked around at the awful state of the diner, food and broken plates littered both the tables and the floor, toppled chairs marking the panicked escape of those who once occupied them. Several of the large windows had been shattered, the glass lining the ground both inside the restaurant and out. What would have broken into the building through the windows seemed relatively obvious, and Allison forced her mind away from it, continuing to speak. "... This diner. It's an open position, but that does mean we can see what's going on around us." Allison sighed, pulling a chair that seemed to be in decent condition, it wasn't covered in glass or food at least, away from a table, and sitting down next to Lily, who had done the same. "What do you want to do?" Allison said to the girl with the monstrous arm.

Kusari looked at the digital map on the device given to her. They weren't in any immediate danger at the moment, at least none that was obvious. She was just as worried about encountering those enemy mages than she was about running into a group of monsters. She put the device away and looked to Lily and Allison. "We'll stay here I guess, I can't think of any better options at the moment."

"Alright then." Allison stared out the broken windows at the ruined town beyond, uncertain of the coming hours.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Kusari Bloodworth

Now this was a scene completely new to Kusari. She'd seen wrecked cities before, but it had always been through a television. Walking through the city she saw body after body, faces contorted in horrible ways that conveyed the suffering they no doubt went through. She shook her head and steeled herself. She had a mission, she didn't have time to freak out over every little thing. She was walking ahead of Allison and Lily by about two meters, if they ran into anything she wanted to be the first thing in it's path. She took note of the buildings and streets as they passed them, making a mental note of the layout. They had access to a map, but it didn't account for every bit of fallen debris and altered terrain.

As she stepped over a deflated car tire her cuff came to life, it was Angélique. If not for her introduction Kusari would have been lost as to who it was, she really needed to get to know the others better, at least enough to recognize their voices. She glanced back at her team, they'd also gotten the message of course. Angel's advice seemed like common sense to her, but she supposed someone may need reminding.

Marcus then chimed in, telling them to point out any civilians. She didn't like the idea of helping people that would likely want her and the others hanged or locked away in some dark cell, but it wasn't as if she could just ignore people dying in this hellscape. "Kusari, Heal team Brandt... Acknowledged." She responded through her cuff. She didn't have anything else to say, words of motivation weren't exactly something she was comfortable with.

Passing by a shop full of miscellaneous goods, Kusari's pace slowed. She remembered scrapping together whatever money she could to buy cheap art supplies from a store like this. Oil pastels and colored pencils brought a sense of solace and joy that was rather sad in hindsight. She wondered how many people this store had brought joy to...

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Kusari stared blankly at the stock of weapons before her. Half of her mind was trying to remain focused, stoic and objective, the other half wanted to scream. She'd only taken one strip of wishalloy, having applied it to her neck. As far as she knew as long as she protected her neck and head she could keep fighting, or at least stay conscious. The extras were pocketed away.

She felt her eyes wandering, looking for Callan, she forced her eyes back to the weapons. She looked over the firearms, with no training she wasn't authorized to use them. She found that a little silly, of all things firearm safety was something they took seriously. She needed something that could do damage to hard targets. She looked at her right arm and leg, she was able to damage that golem a bit, maybe being unarmed was viable. She would have left with no weapon, but she saw two things that looked like they could be useful, a breaching hammer and a combat axe. She attached the axe to the belt she'd been given and picked up the hammer. It was eerie how easy it was to carry in her right hand.

She got onto the truck with the other students, taking a behind Sophia, with Lily just to the left of the girl. Standing up, she took out two strips of her wishalloy and gave them to Lily. "Take them, you need them more than I do." She sat the wishalloy on Lily's lap and faced forwards. She closed her eyes and tried to relax, tried to stop thinking about she could screw up again and get someone killed.

She wondered what her mother was doing. Her teeth clenched as if she'd taken a line drive to the gut. Why was she thinking of her mother now of all times?

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Kusari was sliding a bottle of water into a gym bag when she heard loud banging on the door to her room. Such tactless banging could only be the school's soldiers here to drag her off somewhere again. She sighed and put the bag down. She'd been exercising early in the morning whenever she could the past week. It hadn't been long, but she could swear her body felt lighter and a bit stronger already. She chalked it up to her freakish body.

Before her escort got too impatient Kusari opened the door, greeting them with a half-baked attempt at eye-contact. She didn't say anything she didn't need to, and simply followed them. The rain had looked bad from her window, but walking outside she could see that it was turning into a full on storm. The thought that they might have to fight some sort of weather manipulating creature entered her mind. Maybe that was a bit too silly even in this world.

She kept her gaze low as she and her fellow students were led into a room in which many tables with screens were set up. As she listened to Commander Kardos brief them on what their mission would be, she found it odd that she wasn't afraid, at least not for herself. She was afraid for what this next mission would do to the others. Someone was going to die, of course someone was going to die. This was just normal for them now but it never stopped being frustrating. As they were split into groups she glanced over at the two girls that would be on her team. She hardly knew them besides a basic idea of what their magic could do. Maybe it would be a good idea to keep it that way.

They were dismissed to the cafeteria, Kusari again kept her head down, even as she grabbed a plate of eggs and pancakes. She sat down at a table alone. As she ate she caught Callan out of the corner of her eye. She turned her gaze back down to her plate. She tried to think of the coming mission, what it meant that their target was human. She honestly couldn't care less about killing someone like that, at that point she wouldn't even call them a person.

Maybe she's finally realized what an asshole you are.

Kusari's rogue thoughts berated her, refusing to let her think of the mission. There was a reason she'd been doing nothing but exercising. Recently Callan had been avoiding her, going so far as to turn around and hurry away from her when they crossed paths. There was also the fact that Sander and Christmas had clearly moved out of the dorm room. She tried to convince herself that it was just the director experimenting on them, or something like that. But she didn't have any excuse for why Callan was avoiding her.

She felt her chest tightening. Deep down she knew it was no coincidence that the only people she'd been close to were now avoiding her. She was only doing what was right, at least that's what she thought.

She could see how easily Sander and Christmas had bonded, even as she tried to get in the way of it. Callan was also getting along with others, and why wouldn't she? All Kusari had done was cause Callan grief, either traumatizing her or forcing her into an awkward position.

Her heart felt as if it were going to implode. As much as she wanted to believe she would be fine, it wasn't true. She was miserable alone, and she was misery to be with.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Kusari Bloodworth

The sound of a restraining cuff's alarm going off caused Kusari to wince and quickly look towards the source of the noise. She saw only a flash of pink hair before it was surrounded by soldiers. They were yelling at the person they surrounded, she could only assume it was a student that had tried to escape or caused trouble in some other way by the sound of it. At least that's what she thought until Rosa yelled out to the student named Rain. Cuff went haywire? Weren't these things designed by a Precursor or something? She was only remotely curious before, but now she wanted to know what what going on here. The soldiers were blocking her view, so she couldn't just walk over and see, she'd probably find her face meeting the butt of a gun if she got too close anyhow. She glanced down at her right leg. Well, there was one way to see.

Focusing on her right leg, she used it to jump into the air. As she got enough height to see the inside of the circle, she let out a gasp. Rosa screamed, and whoever was there was gone now. Kusari landed on the ground and blinked in confusion. Rosa was clearly shooken up, she said something to Fredric and he seemingly shut the cuff's alarm off. She wanted to ask them what the hell just happened, but Fredric quickly told them to beat it. Kusari glanced around her, gauging how everyone else was reacting to what just happened. It seemed no one wanted to make a scene about it. They were probably too tired to make a fuss anyway, she knew she was.

Kusari headed for her dorm room, as she walked inside and closed the door behind her, the silence hit her. Christmas and Sander weren't here of course. Without anything to distract her the full weight of what she'd seen and done was painfully real. She slumped down onto her bed, not knowing if crying or breaking something would make her feel any better. Neither would, the most she could do was force her eyes shut and go to sleep.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Kusari broke out into a sweat as she watched the monitors replaying the match between teams 3 and 4. Broken limbs, skulls nearly being cracked open, an eye being punctured, was this really happening? Seeing the match through the TV her mind kept trying to assume that it was simply a crude television program, but it wasn't and she knew that. Over and over she watched, each time seeing something else that disturbed her.

An exercise to facilitate teamwork between them, that's what this was meant to be, wasn't it? Kusari finally looked away from the screens and down at the evaluation form she was expected to fill out. She didn't understand the point of this game. She highly doubted that anyone felt more like a team after this. The combat hell they went through when they first arrived was far more effective in making them stronger and learning to work together. Was the director trying to copy that in some way? If so this experiment had failed spectacularly. She let out a sigh and picked up the pen given to her.

General thoughts:

This "game" was a mistake. Whatever minor combat experience anyone may have gotten isn't worth the damage this exercise has done to us otherwise. Can anyone say they'll be thrilled to be working with students from their opposing team? How many of you Aberrations were actually tempted to do unnecessary harm to someone? This place doesn't want us to get along, they want to break us apart and stitch us back together into their perfect tools of war. Don't let them.

Suggestions:

I doubt my say will matter, but I don't want to see another game like this again. We shouldn't be competing against each other like this. We need proper combat training that will teach us how to fight those monsters, not how to take away articles of clothing.

Kusari looked up from the form and back to the screens. She grit her teeth and poked at the paper in irritation, covering it with inky dots. She wanted to just tear the form apart, but she doubted she could get away with that. She stood up, walked over to Fredric and silently handed him the form.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

"C-come on. Please. Please just..." Kusari's entire body was shaking as she leaned against a tree, in front of her a dismembered tentacle writhed on the ground like a dying worm. Her left arm was once again bereft of feeling, as there was no limb to feel. In her right hand she was holding her left arm, the very same one that she had cut off not long ago, she was trying to reattach it. Between the pain and her mental agony she felt as if she were going to lose her mind. Losing this battle hurt, but not because she was simply competitive. She wanted to be useful, to prove that she could actually do something noteworthy. Yet she'd lost without taking a single person out of the match. More of her classmates were going to die. They were going to die because of her, because of her weakness and incompetence.

"Just... work. Please." She fell to her knees, her eyes blurry and glassy. If she couldn't be useful, couldn't she at least be normal?

Her severed arm had only just barely stuck to the fresh wound, and it was taking a long time to heal. She tried to think of something else, anything else to keep her mind off the pain, that turned out to be a bad idea. The first thing that entered her mind was an image of her father. The last time she'd seen him, he was lying in a casket. Her body tensed up, and her teeth were clenched tight. Whatever was forcing her to have those dreams could go to hell. She tiled her body and slammed her head against the tree over and over until her forehead was pouring red.

"Suffer for your art!?

bang.

"That's a load of bullshit!"

bang.

"There's no meaning at all!"

bang.

"Look where it got you!"

---

"Look where it got me..."

She slumped down onto the ground, quiet as she held her arm in place. She didn't know what to do, if she couldn't even be an effective weapon then what possible use did she have?

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

forgot to mention that Kusari got an upgrade... so yeah.... it's in the CS.