With both Sato's and Shizuka's buffs place on the two frontliners, the group felt nearly invincible. However, the Oni quickly countered this by whipping out an even stronger attack, breaking through their forces through sheer force. Their defense buffs mitigated a lot of the damage from the blow, but its strength was unparalleled. Well, Sato assumed. He was pretty much safe a little ways behind Kami and Jun, but relative safety wouldn't last when the frontliners couldn't even manage to scratch the thing. While the mage he and Shizuka were throwing out seemed to work, physical attacks seemed to do next to nothing. If there was nothing they could but effectively tickle it with their weapons, magic was the obvious choice.
Kami commanded Jun to stop trying to slap it. Sato merely nodded at the statement and summoned his persona again, casting a Hamaon on the Oni. Maybe excorsing it would be better than blowing it hitting it with wind.
As the group continued through the village, nearing the town square, it surprised Sato when the first-year Shizuka sidled up to him. They knew eachother, of course-- Sato distinctly remembered the few times they'd met at the library, and they'd interacted as part of the team, but it didn't really occur to him that he was her senpai both in school and in the team. The Mirror World seemed to melt away any identity he felt in the real world, perhaps a side-effect of the surrealism of it all. Regardless, it'd be damaging to team morale to avoid her, so he tried to come up with something... comforting to say.
"This is different from even what I'm used to," Sato said, hardly looking at Shizuka as he kept walking. "This whole world is already bad enough, so it's only natural to feel disconcerted with something like this... You have to wonder how Rui feels about it, don't you? He was on the team from the beginning, and he's always the leader of the frontlines. It's impressive how unfazed he seems sometimes."
There wasn't enough time for either to say much more, as the group soon stumbled upon what looked like a pile of broken glass. Instead of reflecting the surroundings, though, Sato saw glimpses of country-side, which was presumably Warakuma due to the presence of a few notable landmarks of the area. The pile was the first notable thing they've found thus far however, so naturally one of the first things they did with it was try to touch it. Upon trying to approach it, though, the shards suddenly flew away in a hurricane of glass, forming a loose circle around them in the sky. They continued spinning around and increased speed as the team backed away, Sato instinctively keeping Shizuka behind him. He wasn't much of a wall for her, but he was a senpai. The circle of flying glass soon broke away, though, as they started converging back in the center of the town square, this time forging what looked like a glass statue. The reflection, however, turned from rural countryside and into parts of skin and flesh. In between a single blink, the statue of glass transmogrified into what looked like an oni from folklore.
"What the hell...?" Sato muttered, drawing his bow. The creature started moving, almost immediately raising its spear for battle. Kami ordered the group into combat, and with little delay Jun and Kami were already forming the front-line with Sato and Shizuka behind them. "This thing doesn't look like any of the shadows we've seen before. Be careful, everyone." Sato said, notching an arrow. As he watched it from behind the fletching, it occurred to Sato how 'real' it looked. The shadows they'd been facing thus far had all been weird, well, shadows. They moved with what looked to be an unfiltered darkness and they all had the same kind of aesthetic to them, but this monster seemed to move with muscle and tendon. Yet, it came from that pile of glass... It couldn't be real. Could it?
Sato let the arrow fly. It lodged itself into the oni's left arm, but it acted as if nothing had even happened. It was clearly stronger than it looked, so Sato quickly summoned Chronos. For all intents and purposes, it was just another shadow for now. With only its spear and nothing else shown, it seemed to be physically powerful. Even a glancing blow would probably hurt bad, so maybe it'd be best to avoid using brute force to win. Though, if they could use its own strength against it...
"Tetrakarn!" Sato called, and Chronos started to spin its scythe in front of it for a moment, a blue haze forming around them both. Suddenly, a translucent barrier in front of Kami appeared, rigged to explode if the Oni would try to hit him. "We have you covered, Kami! Hit it hard!" Sato felt the drain of using his new-found ability immediately, but he shook it off like nothing. With out delay, Sato immediately prepared to start throwing out Garudynes at it. The range of Sato's attacks was definitely the best asset he had at the moment.
The group soon decided to split the team into two parties: one to go investigate the presence they detected, and another to go explore the actual Seto. Sato was paired with Kami, Jun, and Shizuka, a fact he wasn't too sure about. He didn't remember working with them much before, and Jun was completely new, so Sato decided he'd proceed with extra caution than usual. The whole of Seto was different from what they usually dealt with as well, so it was... mysterious, to say the least.
There wasn't really anywhere to go, as far as Sato could see, so the party took cautious steps forward. While it had looked like water, putting his foot in it instead revealed a staircase that lead down below the water. It was hard to see where they were going with the ominous glow and translucency of the veil they descended through, but the broad steps brought them through to a wooded road soon enough. The light filtering down from the surface ominously flickered and flowed across the ground, and the air was hard to breath. It would feel like drowning, if it wasn't for how utterly serene yet out-of-place everything felt. It was more like some surreal fever dream more than anything...
The presence seemed to be coming from the towering church they encountered on a fork in the road, but Sato wouldn't get the opportunity to check it out as he and the others headed off the other way while Rui's group took it on. Instead, Kami lead them down the main road, which soon started taking a more winding path through what appeared to be a rocky trail through a forest.
Soon enough the group found themselves standing outside some Japanese village, another torii serving as another entrance. It was mysteriously void of any life or movement, which was in of itself unsettling, but something in Sato said that it would have been worse to have seen anything in such a weird place. Everyone seemed to agree that their only real course of action was to investigate the ghost town, and as such Kami took point again with the rest of the group trailing behind as they started searching the village for anything of note. Sato tried to peak through windows and into buildings, even working up the courage to try to open a door, but the ones he tried by the entrance torii were blocked by something on the other side. Perhaps there was some other house they needed to check... Or was there something waiting for them further in?
JULY 22TH 2015, WEDNESDAY Mid-day After the stress of exams disappeared, Sato realized his life had devolved into two things: sleeping and worrying. He hadn't really realized just how tired he had been from everything. The Mirror World and the cult, Mako and the others, school. It was nice to just relax for a while, even if thoughts of the Mirror World pervaded his every-day thoughts. Yet, he hadn't talked to Rokurou or Mako since exam week, and he felt a little bit of guilt over it... Had they thought about him since the last time they'd met? Well, they hadn't texted yet or anything, so maybe they were recharging the same way Sato was or something.
Well, nobody outside of the Investigation Team was relaxing quite like Sato, who was waiting around in abandoned warehouse for the other members to arrive. He was out in town already, about to do some shopping for dinner, and he had made a B-line for the warehouse as soon as he got the text. He had shirked both responsibility and the unpaid items in the grocery aisle of the superstore, but hopefully they'd understand. After all, the Mirror World excursions usually were live or death. Even if jeans and a white t-shirt didn't exactly scream serious.
Soon enough, though, everyone who was gonna come arrived and the group huddled up in the center of the room. Sato stayed leaning against the wall, though, as he was an edgy prick.
After briefly discussing the fact that that a new area had appeared in the Mirror World and how nobody knew how to get into it, the weird bird they were harboring suddenly freaked out and flown directly into the mirror. It was a surreal experience. They walked through the glass all the time, but to see a hawk do it... Sato had gotten so used to just entering the Mirror World like that, that it made his mind wandered a bit. They'd proven they could use any mirror to enter, and that it was dangerous to not use one that lead to somewhere relatively safe, but what would happen if he just jumped through the mirror in his bathroom? Where would it lead, and could he get out easily? Questions, questions. Regardless, the group quickly realized they had no other lead than to follow the mysterious persona bird, so everyone entered the Mirror World as well without delay.
The group followed Zeke (who had named it, again?) down the corrupted Warakuma roads until cutting a corner revealed to be what looked like a sickly green sea, and, apart from the sand they now stood upon, only an ominous torii that Zeke now perched upon. The only thing they knew about it was that it was named Seto and that, as revealed by Megumi, someone was in there... Under the water? Sato shook his head, it obviously wasn't water. Whatever was under the surface, though, wasn't going to be too different from what they've known thus far. Another person, another dungeon... Was he really that used to the Mirror World now? How many times have they saved someone's life with some big bombastic battle? Something in his head reminded him that whatever was going on wasn't quite normal, and the realization instilled that old feeling of anxiety in him. He hadn't quite felt the same queasiness since he first went into the Mirror World after getting his Persona, but hopefully it was unfounded worry.
Kami cut through the mumbling of the group through with the order to group up and prepare for the upcoming dungeon, a notion Sato found comforting. There was nothing to gain from conjecture outside of Seto, so Sato wasted no time in making sure he had all his equipment and confirming with Rui who was going with who.
"I'm ready to go whenever everyone else is," Sato said once finished with preparations, trying his hardest to project an aura of confidence. Or was his forced stalwart gaze just weirding everyone out...?
Once the sounds of the escaping grunts finally faded out, Nov first walked over to his his fainted Growlithe and gently treated it with the sole revive he was carrying in his bag. After a brief moment of recovery and petting, the fire dog regained conscious, but Nov decided to let both of his Pokemon rest for the time being so he returned them to their pokeballs. With his buddies taken care of, Nov turned back to the group of wild Pokemon. The three of them watched him carefully, clearly suspicious of another trainer. A few of them were huddling behind the Yamask, who looked as if he was protecting the others. Nov glared at it for a short while, noting the stash of fire stones behind them, but only gave a huff of air before walking over to the control panel for the machine. He was still pissed about the thievery, but after seeing it protecting its friends when the ruins were being attacked, Nov couldn't justify being too mad at it anymore.
The machine was much more important than some firestones anyway, so Nov scanned the control board for anything that could stop it. Unfortunately, he was no tech wizard, and the lit-up panel was just full of cryptic graphs and unlabeled buttons. He tried tapping random things on it for a minute, but all that really accomplished was some concerning sounds coming out of the machine's engines. He also tried just hitting it a bit after thinking didn't work, but all that did was hurt his hand. It was then a Natu came up beside him and the Yamask pushed Nov back a bit. He was about to tell them off, when they suddenly conjured some kind of darkness and tore the machine apart with physic power. The panel was eviscerated into shards, and with the controls busted, the entire machine started to shut down as a safety measure. "Woah, cool stuff... I guess that's one way to do it." Nov muttered. Sparks jumped out from the disconnected wires left in the control's place, hissing harshly. With that done, the whole conflict in the ruins seemed to be at an end for the moment. Hopefully the scientists and police would be able to completely disable the machine and contain any damage that had already been done by it...
The Pokemon all looked at Nov again now that they felt they were finally safe again, but there was little time to do anything before an officer appeared in the doorway behind them, completely out of breath as she walked in. She seemed confused about the whole situation, at first accusing Nov of being one of them before realizing the machine had been shut down and the wild Pokemon were standing by him. He smirked to himself, shaking his head. "Don't worry, I'm not one of those guys. My Pokemon and these guys," Nov gestured to the group of three standing cautiously to his side, "We managed to scare those thugs out of here, then we shut down that drill thing by busting the controls."
"You're with the police?" Nov said as the officer informed them that they were going to need to make a statement about what had happened. It was only natural, of course, seeing as this was probably a major crime they had stopped. "I'm happy to get out of here at this point, but some of my friends helped take this thing down, so we gotta find 'em first before we leave."
That said, they started off in the direction they came from, and for some reason so did the wild Pokemon, bringing the firestones they had taken from Nov's group with them. Once they were back in the first cross-road, Nov first checked out the path Roxy had gone down, which of course lead to the second floor of the machine room. Nov looked around curiously, finally realizing the lay-out of the place (but not the differences between them, though). "Huh. The machine goes up three floors? But where's Roxy...?" Nov rubbed his chin, a bit concerned, but he dismissed the thought. She had probably just went back and rendezvous'd with Aiden already, so he lead the group back to the cross-road and took the left path. That took them, after a few convoluted turns, to where another officer and Aiden were. Just Aiden. Nov's heart sank immediately at the realization. Was there another path he hadn't seen, or did something happen? Aiden seemed fine at least, so Nov left his group of five and ran over to him.
"Aiden, have you seen Roxy anywhere? I checked the path she went down, but there was nobody there... Think she already went back to the entrance?" Nov said, running a hand through his messy, sand-blown blue hair. He hadn't dyed again before leaving, so the roots were starting to show the true brown color beneath. "Man, this isn't the kind of thing we were expecting to do today, huh? This is some serious shit, dude, I'm worried about Roxy. These aren't just local teens or anything, so who knows what they'll willing to do..."
After talking with Aiden a bit, though, Nov turned back to the police. "Both of you sure you didn't see a girl our age when you were coming in?"
Without much deliberation, the team of three trainers decided to split up three ways. Novis climbing the stairs upwards, Roxy taking the middle path, and Aiden descending on the left path.
Aiden took out his flashlight and illuminated the darkest of the three paths. The stairs were relatively steep for what they were, quickly descending into another hallway. It gave his Pokemon buddies a bit of a tough time just going from step to step, but regardless Aiden found himself back on flat ground again. The path ahead just lead to another intersection, which while despairing at first sight, was actually far from hard to know which way to go. Going left would just lead to a dead end pretty quickly, straight would eventually lead out the other end through a small series of tricky doors, while going right would lead to a corner that lead, again, right. It was immediately obvious that turning right would cross underneath the middle path and presumably the upwards path as well. Of course, no matter what path he chose, he'd soon realize which the right one was: the noise of drilling and machinery was distinctly louder in the path going right, so it was just a matter of how soon he'd find it. Regardless of which he took initially, Aiden soon wandered down the right (in both senses of the word) path. The noise amplified the further down it he went, confirming that, with no doubt, he was unnervingly close to whatever they were looking for.
The hall opened up into a rather large circular room, with a huge machine taking up the middle of it. The ceiling had a big hole in it, revealing to Aiden that it went up at least a couple more floors. Whatever it was that they were doing, Aiden had found the main operation. Or at least part of it. Most distressing, perhaps, was that the machine had already done sizable damage to the infrastructure of the ruins; the machine had just started running, and was already trying to break through the hard stone of the floor, the force of the operation sending cracks across the floor and into the walls. It was clear time was of the essence... The quicker they stopped these thugs, the sooner they could stop the drilling machine.
Of course, it wasn't as easy as walking up and pulling a switch, because as soon as Aiden entered the room, two Arclight thugs suddenly jumped in front of him. The taller, more macho clean-shaven one wearing weird shades and a white suit barked, "What's this kid doing down here?! I thought we had men positioned outside!"
The shorter man, with a scruffy face and a dirty labcoat, glared at Aiden and pushed up his comparatively normal glasses. "Huh, wonder where they went... Oh well, we'll take care of the twerp ourselves." With almost no hesitation, the two Arclight members threw out Pokeballs, and out came a Noibat from the grunt and a Magnemite from the scientist. If they were going to fight 2 on 2, Aiden had no choice but to send out both his pokemon or get stomped.
Arclight Grunt Keith and Scientist Thane want to battle!
Meanwhile, back at the first intersection, Roxy rushed down the path. It was quick jog down the curved path before the corridor opened into an open circular room very similar to the one Aiden was currently in. A machine was in the middle of the room, but there was open floor and ceiling surrounding it. The walls surrounding it were coated with ancient art and history, though now faint cracks ran through it with sizable chunks missing. This, of course, sent Roxy into even more of a blood rage. If she didn't have her Pokemon with her, she probably would've used her very own nails to maul the two Arclight members standing to the side, operating some kind of machine that was digging out blocks of ancient writing from the walls.
"O-oh man, she looks realllyy mad..." The lanky grunt whispered to the scientist hastily working on some controls for the machine, muttering a few more unintelligible things as well. He was shaking in his respectably stylish boots, the same clean white suit appearance as the grunt Aiden was dealing with. The confident look contrasted with his pitifully unconfident personality; he couldn't decide if he was more afraid of this teen or his higher up.
With a sigh, the scientist finished up what she was doing and turned towards Roxy. She brushed a few long red locks of hair out from in front of eyes, revealing an incredibly fed-up death stare. Her appearance was strikingly well-put together despite it just being a standard labcoat outfit. No matter how good she looked, though, she meant business. "Hmm. Another twerpette comes strolling in, trying to stop a multi-million dollar project. Go back to the dumpster you crawled out of, you brat!"
With that, the scientist set aside her clipboard and pulled out a Pokeball from her pocket. Throwing it out in front of her, a bright red light materialized into a Voltorb. After a few awkward moments of comparing her one Pokemon to the two Roxy sent out onto the battlefield, she elbowed the grunt in the stomach. He stumbled backwards and let out an anguished groan. "Oh, grow up!" She spat, returning her glare back over to Roxy after. The grunt quickly recovered and took a stance beside the scientist, throwing out a Noibat.
Arclight Scientist Madeline and Grunt Matthew want to battle!
Novis wasted no time bolting up the stairs and bursting into the top floor of the three-part machine space. The room was just like the other two-- big machine in the center, hole in the floor around it. The top floor was arguably the least damaged, due to the least amount of work being done on it. However, there was something Nov suddenly realized: Nov realized Nier couldn't climb the stairs by himself very well, so he went back and carried the little dog up. Nier barked out of glee, apparently ignoring the fact that Nov had abandoned him in the first place.
Anyways, the top section of the machine seemed unmanned, so he made a B-line for the controls, but that was when he saw what the thugs were busy with. Two of them were ganging up on a bunch of wild Pokemon on the other side of the machine! They were probably trying to stop the drill and protect their home, but they couldn't get past the thugs' Pokemon. This issue took precedent-- getting rid of the thugs and enlisting a squad of angry Pokemon would be more beneficial than fiddling with a bunch of switches and buttons he didn't understand.
Of course, since it was going to be 2 vs 2, Nov sent out his own second Pokemon beforehand, the Drilbur appearing in a flash of red light. It seemed confused for a moment, before noticing Novis again and scampering behind some rubble. Nov rolled his eyes and sighed-- they didn't have time for this! He walked over and leaned over the chunks of broken stone to glare at the mole Pokemon. "Levi, come on!" Nov shouted, which alerted the grunts to his presence. "I don't care if you like me or not, but we gotta save those Pokemon and we can't do it without you!" The Drilbur glared back at Nov for a brief moment before emerging from the rubble cautiously. The cause was apparently great enough for him to work with Nov, at least for a moment. What a self-righteous little thing.
Regardless of whatever they felt towards eachother, Nov started ordering his Pokemon to do a flanking maneuver, but of course, the grunts had long since noticed the presence of an intruder and moved to go deal with it. Nov's little team couldn't get very far before being pushed back to the entrance of the room by the grunts' Pokemon: a sparking Joltik and an angrily trilling Feroseed. The wild Pokemon were being held back by a duo of Arclight Magnemite.
"Who're you!?" The female grunt demanded, jousted a finger at Novis. They wore matching uniforms: pristine white suits and weird futuristic glasses. It was incredibly jarring compared to the rustic environment they were fighting in, but hopefully, Nov wouldn't have to see them much longer after he kicked their asses.
"Doesn't matter!" Nov shouted back. "You'll be running out of here with your tails between your legs before I can even finish saying it!"
"What a lame come-back," The male grunt gave a cocky grin. They stepped beside eachother, both mirroring the same overly-dramatic pose. "Team Arclight's here to stay, and we always get what we want! The future is fashion, and you," They both jabbed a finger at Nov again, "fit much better in the past!"
Arclight Grunt Dianna and Grunt Marshal want to battle!
Before Nov could even give any orders, the opposing Joltik leaped forward and latched onto Levi, preparing to hit the Drilbur with a Bug Bite. Nier moved to go help get it off, but the Ferroseed intercepted and hit the Growlithe with a Gyro Ball, grinding its spikes into Nier's flesh. The force of the blow pushed Nier back a fair bit and allowed for the Joltik to bite Levi a fair bit before getting knocked off. Nier and Levi regrouped themselves before anything else could happen, leaving it up to Nov to decide what to do from there on. Getting hit by the opening gambit wasn't good at all...
The pair of grunts laughed at him. "Not so tough now, are you? You fell right for our plan!"
Nov grit his teeth together. They were just pissing him off now, but he couldn't afford to make a stupid mistake because he was angry. It was as he was trying to calm himself down that he heard the sound of conflict below them-- someone else was having a Pokemon battle a floor down, the sounds of orders and Pokemon howls clearly coming from the hole in the ground. It was then that he realized that the opposing trainers were standing just in front of said hole... Maybe he could knock their Pokemon down it? That wouldn't hurt them too much, would it? Either way, they needed to get the offensive edge first before trying anything too crazy. They were backed up against the wall at the moment.
"Levi, use Dig on that Joltik! Nier, hit that Ferroseed with Ember! Nov called out, and the two Pokemon took no time in carrying the orders out. Nier dashed forward quickly and closed in on Ferroseed before it had time to shuffle out of the way of the eruption of flames that came from Nier's mouth. The force of the blast sent the Ferroseed rolling towards its trainer, but the female grunt immediately punted it back. The Ferroseed ricocheted off of Nier's head, off a nearby pillar and back a few meters in front of the trainer. Meanwhile, Levi tunneled through the deep stone flooring (which, in hindsight, was probably a bad idea since they were trying to save the infrastructure) and tried to target where the Joltik was. He popped out of the stone dramatically, tearing apart anything that was above it with a brandish of its steel claws. Unfortunately, he didn't hit anything. The Joltik had leaped up onto the nearby pillar, eyeing it from above. Once it had a good angle, it tried to shoot an electrified web at Levi, but he tore through the sparking threads with ease, though that didn't save the nearby Nier from getting his side covered in webbing.
The sparks shocked him a bit and Nier whimpered, falling to the floor and trying to rip it off of him. Nov knit his brow and concentrated. The Ferroseed was going in for another Gyroball as the Joltik recovered from the exertion of its move. "Levi, stop it from hitting Nier! Use Rapid Spin or something!"
Levi nodded and dashed forward, launching into the air and forming a drill with its claws. He started spinning as fast as the Ferroseed and intercepted the attack, his claws digging into the side of the Ferroseed. They stalled mid-air for a second, smoke coming from the friction at the contact point between the two, before bursting apart, sending both Pokemon sprawling to the side. Fortunately, only Levi stood back up as his claws had torn a hole in the Ferroseed's side. In the time that took, Nier managed to get most of the webbing off of him and got back up to his feet as well.
The female grunt swore under her breath and gave a melancholic pose, leaving it all up to her partner to finish the fight. Unfortunately, Nier barely had any strength left in him to fight and was an easy target. The male grunt barked out an order to the Joltik, and the spider quickly launched from the pillar and latched onto Nier. The dog erupted into a ball of fire as he furiously shot fire around to try to get it off as the Joltik tried to bite him. While the erratic flames did some damage to the electric arachnid, it didn't stop it for knocking Nier out with a powerful Bug Bite. It leaped off the unconscious body of the Growlithe and jumped towards Levi.
Levi, however, was ready for the attack and intercepted the Joltik's leap with a Metal Claw. It didn't stop the Joltik completely, however, and it latched onto Levi again. Again, he started freaking out as the little spider tried to get a good hold and bite him again. The panic got to him quickly-- the Drilbur couldn't do much more than scramble and try to shake it off.
However, Nov's voice rang through the confusion: "Levi! Rapid Spin, now!"
With that command, Levi realized how stupid he'd been and jumped into the air with the Joltik before combining his claws again and turning into a drill again. This time, the Drilbur tried his best to keep the Joltik on him as they tore through the air while spinning extremely fast, before launching the spider into the wall at a high velocity. It stayed where it had splatted into the wall for a second before tumbling to the ground unconscious.
Levi ripped apart his claws, a sharp metallic shinnngg echoing around the room. The battle was over, and he was the only one still standing.
"Whaaaaat!?" Both of the grunts cried, clutching onto eachother. They both looked like they were actually on the verge of tears...
Novis was about to say whatever sassy comment came to mind, when they all heard a sudden ruckus come from the other side of the room. A few seconds of scuffling later, and both Magnemites came flying across the room before unceremoniously clanging off the wall by Nov, fainted. The group of wild Pokemon emerged from the corner they were being held in and surrounded the Arclight grunts. Novis couldn't help but grin to himself as he watched the terror in the grunts well up as they returned all four of their fainted Pokemon to their pokeballs.
"We'll remember thiiiissss!" They called out in unison, as they leaped over some of the wild Pokemon and sprinted out the exit, barely avoiding running into Novis. The footsteps faded for a second, before turning into a lot of tumbling and sounds of pain.
They had forgotten there was a staircase.
Nov kinda hoped they were okay. Only sort of, though.
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