one more five horu drive to home...then ill stop spamming the status bar. promise. go back to only updating it once every few months
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1 yr ago
back in my home state. actually a real nice hotel compared to the last one that had cockroaches in the bathroom. so thats cool and good. ready to get home tomorrow. blehhhhjgkjgkjhatk
When the seekers burst from the bloody walls of the tree, they found themselves in yet another hollow. This one was completely alien in appearance. Like the Qliphoth itself, it was hard to tell if the growths that pushed up from the ground and wounded around the area were plant or fleshy animal. Or if they were even part of the demon tree in the first place, and instead just something strange it had absorbed into itself. The fact that there were mundane objects scattered around like closets, wood boards, and busted machines suggested the latter. The area seemed to be larger than those below it, and instead of a nebulous energy surrounding the perimeter there was a massive wall. It was thick metal, integrated into the Qliphoth’s hardened inner skin. It would be very difficult, if not outright impossible, to break through – but the Seekers wouldn’t need to. A huge, ornate metal gate stood not far off, sealed shut by a massive circular door with the number 101 painted on it. Beside it was a console and a switch that, presumably, would open it and grant access to their next way up.
But the various faulty and flickering lights around the door, and on some of the lifeless machines strewn about, indicated that whatever this place was it was clearly operating under emergency power, and indeed, the controls for the great door at the front of the chamber lay dead as a result.
An inspection of the rest of the room revealed not much else and most notably caused Edward to come to the conclusion that ”there seems to be no other way out.”
To which Therion replied with a simple, "so let’s get it open."
Therion didn’t know or care how the blood flow determined where the Seekers ended up. With no way to choose where they were headed or who they arrived there with, as long as they were moving in the right direction that was the most important thing. If they ended up in a challenge none of those present could clear, then… they’d just have to find a different way forward.
It was pure chance that he and Portsmith had ended up in the same hollow again. Or maybe not, since they’d squeezed into a vein one right after the other. But after fighting together with the man he’d come to the conclusion that the dreadnought was competent, so Therion figured he’d lucked out there in the teammates department. On the other hand, it seemed that they’d been joined by Juri and that mercenary - and even after spending a week cooped up in Mafia Town with them he still didn’t have a strong read on either one. Juri he knew was a violent wild card, but at the very least, her strength and raw combat ability would probably come in handy. And Snake seemed smart and capable, which was the reason the thief had initially avoided him in Mafia Town in the first place.
First and foremost though the thief approached the door, inspecting it for any lock he’d be able to get through.
Edward, meanwhile, set about forging more reinforcements, forming, at his own pace, a perimeter of spears and a cannon more or less identical to the one he’d set up for their previous encounter: spears forming a ring in front of the door, cannon facing away from it. However, he did have a suggestion, which was, ”we could attempt to simply blast it open?”
Juri was happily wielding some kind of gruesome new buzzsaw weapon. At Edward’s suggestion though, she frowned and looked at the door, and slung the weapon over her shoulder. ”Are you stupid? That thing literally looks like it’s for a nuclear bunker.” She said dismissively of Edward and his weird little army set up.
”I have no context for what that is” Edward replied simply, and unfortunately for him he wasn’t going to get it right now.
She walked up to the console and scanned it with her regular eye and her artificial eye. ”It needs power. There’s probably a supply or something.” She looked between the other three, and her eyes landed on Snake.
”At least one of ya ain’t from Narnia or whatever and knows what to look for.” She said.
By pure luck or cosmic coincidence, the grizzled Mercenary had managed to find an unblocked blood vessel; traveling up through it and slicing his way out onto another level shortly after dealing with the hellish insectoids from earlier. Snake found himself in another chamber, this one a bizarre environment of biological growths that had at the very least seemed to absorb itself around a gigantic steel wall. His attention quickly snapped to the conversation up ahead, and relief washed over him. He was at least glad to find others from the group had made it to this new area, and soon made his way over. Just as he made his way over, holstering his pistol and sheathing his knife, the punk girl’s gaze settled on his bloodied form. Looking to the strange bunker door at her utterance, he spotted the breaker lever next to it, and a quick cursory glance at the flickering lights affirmed the deduction he’d overheard by the group. Blowing the door open would be possible, yet nobody here, not even the summoner of the cannons, could hope to break through a nuclear blast door with their current firepower.
Snake wasn’t an electrical engineer, but he was quick to surmise the obvious option available. ”External power is going to be the only way we’re getting past that door. We can either split in pairs of two or stay together as we search. I wouldn’t advise going this alone.” Snake said, moving over to the console and reading it. The flickering, stilted typeface almost looked like an old MS-DOS readout, tinted green as the diodes and circuits made tiny flicking chirps as the ancient terminal hummed. Emergency power was active, yet no reroute was available. A digital facsimile of a rectangular power bar was displayed off to the right of the screen; with a red-colored readout of 10% showing the total amount of power the system had. Taking the adjacent machines offline could provide a marginal boost to the power they needed, but it of course wouldn’t be enough. Turning away from the console, Snake un-holstered his handgun as he ejected the magazine and racked the slide; catching the bullet and thumbing the projectile back into the magazine as he tapped and shook the excess blood out of the interiors of the guns. Mentally noting he’d have to have his weapons turned into the armory for a cleaning after this deployment, Snake re-inserted, bumped, locked, and re-chambered his handgun as he holstered it again.
“Anyone else have other ideas?” Snake questioned the group.
After confirming that yes, the lock was completely electronic with no way to get past it without fiddling around with the power source, Therion turned back to the other three. His tail twitched, but otherwise he didn't appear affected by Juri's comment. Even an idiot could follow the cables running from the console out around the area, and given he'd learned to drive and operate some high tech railway gun already, he could figure this out too.
"That's fine with me. We can split up to cover more ground," the thief said to Snake. They could go in pairs; as always, the sooner they could leave the better.
”This is acceptable. Signal if you encounter any hostiles” Edward agreed, far too intrigued in this opportunity to tinker with some of this magicless power technology to let Juri get to him.
”Whaaatever. Rather get cozy with some ugly freak than stay stuck with all you stiffs.” Juri said, turning out her upper lip and blowing some air at her bangs.
But whether the group stuck together or split up, they would have to come to the decision quickly. An eerie feeling came over them, alerting them to the presence of someone else nearby... or something else.
It lurked in the fringes of their vision, observing for a moment. But this was no ambush predator; it was a killer, and it drifted on a carpet of shadows as it moved directly towards the group. It raised its hooked, knotted appendage high, trailing terrible noises as it went. Shrieks. Cries. Whimpers. Pops. Cracks. Feasting sounds. Dark sounds.
The sounds of death.
Edward’s cannon immediately pivoted round and fired a round at it, but the resulting thunderous detonation seemed to have zero impact whatsoever on the entity, a fact he described with forced calm as ”Concerning”
If this thing had some sort of invincibility like the tar lion outside had been, they were all in a lot of trouble - and Therion wasn't about to press his luck.
The thief turned and ran, his eyes tracking one of the many cables along the ground. "Pick a direction and let's go!" he called over his shoulder.
No way that guy’s cannon was packing candy floss rounds, Juri thought. That blast shoulda done something, but it didn’t. Ever since Carnival Town Juri had gotten the idea that some places just played by their own rules. ”That is one ugly freak. Even uglier than the last freak.” Juri said with a frown, backing up as it…slithered? Walked? Towards her. Juri put a stack of crates in between herself in the creature. It was faster than it looked, but, the stupid thing had to go around them. Immediately some of its scariness was lost- this was no different than playing tag or hide and seek.
”Tchuh,” Juri chuckled to herself, and took off running. Though fixing that gate while that thing was after them might be pretty damn annoying. The Dredge gooped after her at a heightened pace, ready to catch up and gore her with that hook arm. Juri kept ahead of it, and spotted what looked like a busted generator, but she wouldn’t stop to repair it with this thing on her ass.
Behind her, Edward did two things. He took off running as well, flames forming around him as he sprinted in what was, frankly, a very unhelpful manner when it came to avoiding notice. The other was he sent the squads of constructs he’d summoned out looking for generators as well. They weren't going to hurt it, of course, and it didn’t seem interested in wasting time killing the lifeless beings, but it would certainly help him keep track of it, and give the others a barrier that would let them pass through that would block the creep itself.
Juri was light on her feet, jogging backwards. She rolled her eyes as Edward set himself alight with power, but the little constructs were helpful. The monster was bogged down and way too slow. She gave it a quick scan with her Feng Shui engine and found it was about as strong as she was. Something about that didn’t add up- if she had taken that cannon shot head on she would have at least flinched. ”See ya, loser,” She taunted, before going low and vanishing from sight. Now the Seekers were scattered and hunted.
Juri got to a generator and popped open the hatch. It was just some loose wiring. In a matter of moments it sparked to life as Juri put her often underutilized sharp intellect to use.
When the generator rumbled to life, a light came on, and the light revealed the form of the Dredge bearing down on her. In front of her, even, like she hadn’t left it behind but had walked right into its clutches. Behind it was an open locker, the interior shrouded in darkness. ”Fuck off!” Juri cursed, scrambling backwards in surprise. It brought its hook down across her shoulder and chest. Juri couldn’t believe it as she saw red splatter everywhere. Was the hook wet already? She put her hand to her shoulder and it came away crimson with her own blood. That didn’t make any sense. Its power level was still only as high as hers; it shouldn’t have hurt her that much! Some other entity was giving it strength. The Dredge stared at her, like it was taking in its own handiwork.
The pain remembered itself and promptly set her nerves on fire. Juri found herself hunching over, her knees weak. ”Take a picture, asshole!” She spat, before mustering her composure and turning to run, leaving a trail of blood behind her. She went through a nearby doorway and slammed down a palette that was resting against it, only for the thing to blast through like it was nothing.
”Somebody get this freak offa me!” She yelled in alarm.
Lvl 7 Sandalphon (40/70) and Lvl 6 Juri (7/60) Word Count:4,009 +5
With a flash of bright green vital energy and a dizzying burst of speed that made her almost impossible to track, Sandalphon’s rescuer darted into the action. Taken by surprise as it fixated upon its would-be victim, the guardian was an easy target; Juri could take her pick of its many faces. Her foot swept in from the side like a hook punch, cutting through the curtain of stringy black hair to connect with one of the guardian’ cheeks. The snappy blow knocked her target’s surprisingly elastic jaw askew, and it did force the monster to take a half-step back, but the guardian reacted much less to the clean hit than a human would. It was heavy, solidly built, and in this brief moment that she had the guardian on the back foot, Juri could take stock of her opponent in all its nightmarish glory. It seemed to be the product of at least a half-dozen pallid corpses, callously mashed together like clay in a potter’s hand, then tightly bound in barbed wire. The hair of its constituents formed a ragged mane draped down around its exposed spinal column, and it dripped blood with every tortured step. With so many heads to spare, a blow to just one would barely register, and as the rest looked Juri’s way they seemed to leer right back at her.
Juri cracked her neck from side to side. ”Just means I getta crack your skull more n’ once.
The guardian raised its left limb, a grotesque club of amalgamated arms reaching out in a greedy, clumsy grasp. Its voices harmonized in drunken, delirious laughter even as its fists closed on empty air, which suited Juri since its buzzsaw descended the next moment. Wider than the canopy of an umbrella, its heavy blade narrowly missed her, and the overswing gave Juri a moment to position herself in front of Sandalphon. The archangel herself, of course, remained encased in ice and unable to respond, but it wouldn’t be long before the martial artist had her answer. Nevertheless the guardian immediately challenged Juri’s protective commitment, its bloodstained sawblade singing as it charged.
The next second fists met steel, sparks flying as the sawblade ground against Juri’s guard. It chewed away at her drive, spiraling her down toward burnout, but before her energy could bottom out Sandalphon unfroze in an icy shower of red-tinged fragments. “Freeze duration: three seconds,” she informed Juri, her face and voice impassive as she dropped her gunstaff, knelt down, and unslung the Eye of Sol. “Recharge time: twelve seconds. Three to go.” As she took aim, she used a mirage to create a blue tile beneath her, and summoned both her Strikers. The Crimson Vampire Maid Annabella appeared and unloaded her massive rifle into the guardian three times, punctuated by an energetic, full-force slam from the Hammering. Their attacks forced the guardian back, at which point Sandalphon took her shot, not at one of the monster’s heads but at the single spine supporting its grotesque upper body. The guardian let out an awful noise somewhere between hysteric giggles and tearful weeping.
Juri shook her forearm, holding her wrist. ”I ain’t doin’ that for ya again, so don’t shoot yourself.” With her drive gauge low, her options were limited. Sandalphon probably had the right idea- she should go for the body and limbs first instead of the heads. That could come later. Juri sprinted forward at her unboosted but still quick speed, and shifted to the side to give Sandalphon a clearer shot. Then she dropped into a crouch, planting her hands on the ground at her side and kicking out at the creatures back knee. Then she span around and slashed into its ankle with a ki strike. Popping back up she prepared, nay hoped for another buzzsaw to come her way so she could parry it this time.
As the buzzsaw came her way she grinned and met the blade with one leg and her hand. Her body flashed blue and instead of a grinding sound there was a ringing clack sound, almost wooden. The saw blade would find no purchase, and after Juri absorbed the force of the attack she shunted it aside and took another step back. ”Kya ha ha.” With that, she had gotten most of her drive gauge back.
As the guardian stood, seemingly puzzled by the lack of carnage on its blade, another fiery shot burned through the curtain of hair to melt against its spine. It gave a bleary chortle and turned to face Sandalphon, making it trivial for the archangel to land another Frost Lock on its center mass. Ice coated its horrendous form in an instant, but given the guardian’s bulk, one frosty projectile wouldn’t be enough to freeze it solid. Guffawing, the monster reached down and carved into the Qliphoth flesh at its mangled feet, spraying shreds of plant matter until, with a mighty heave, it hurled a mass of debris toward its challengers.
Sandalphon narrowed her eyes. Seizing what looked like nothing, she performed a quick yank, and in an instant a handful of shimmering razor wires tightened. The largest hunks of flesh stopped in their tracks, caught like insects in a spiders web, and with one more tug the wires sliced them to ribbons. Some chunks did fly Juri’s way, but the archangel doubted she’d have much of a problem. The bigger issue was the guardian charging into one of the hollow’s many mirrors, at which point it promptly disappeared.
After a silent, watchful moment, Sandalphon caught a glimpse of inky hair to her left. She pivoted to fix her scope on the guardian, but stopped just shy of pulling the trigger. It wasn’t the guardian, but its reflection in a mirror, and she’d been only one nervous squeeze away from a self-inflicted headshot. “...I appreciate the advice.” Both she and Juri could see the guardian in several mirrors around them, giggling as it approached from behinds its reflective veil.
Juri side stepped into position behind Sandalphon, looking in the opposite direction of Sandalphon. With a frown, she eyed the many reflections. ”Wouldn’t want any more of that brain leakin’ out.” She commented.
”Say, I wonder.” She rolled her neck to the side, almost a twitch. Her green, prosthetic eye lit up. Juri hadn’t used it in a bit, but her Feng Shui engine let her scan the power level of other living creatures. Usually Juri thought everyone was weaker than her so why bother, but, in this instance she wondered if the device would be able to scan illusions. Whichever one of these mirrors had the real Guardian in it should have more ‘ki’ or whatever than the others. If it couldn’t detect the fake ones, then Juri would know. If this little counter-trick didn’t work, she’d just have to start smashing all the mirrors.
Juri wasn’t the only one who put her thinking cap on. Sandalphon’s pupils became concentric circles with clockwise-spinning lines, just as one might see on a radar screen, as she invoked her External Information Network to scan the area. Instantaneously she received a return ping from Juri, relaying an extensive list of vital statistics, but when the invisible electromagnetic wave touched the mirrors, they bounced off their reflective surfaces rather than entering the guardian’s domain. The archangel pursed her lips. “It’s as if it slipped away into another dimension.” Maybe Juri’s efforts bore more fruit, but Sandalphon doubted it. If the guardian could use these mirrors as portals into some backwards mirror world, there was a chance that the duplicates weren’t illusions, but different visions of the same monstrosity. “We should destroy them,” she urged. “Then its either trapped in there, or trapped in here with us.”
”Yeah, yeah!” Juri said dismissively. Stupid eye thing, what are you good for?
Before the two could implement any strategy, the guardian charged. It barreled toward the Seekers with its buzzsaw screeching, ghastly faces alight with laughter. Both Juri and Sandalphon turned to face the mirror that portrayed the incoming guardian head-on, reasoning that it would emerge from there. At the last moment, though, it slowed down. In the corner of her vision, she saw a side profile of the monster advance into the frame of a previously empty mirror, and the next second the guardian veered right, plowing back into reality from the ladies’ left. By then, Sandalphon had already turned. “There!” It sprinted in for a whirring haymaker to carve the Seekers in two, but Sandalphon managed to not-so-gracefully dive out of the way. Before hitting the ground she lobbed a pinpoint-accurate Frost Lock that flash-froze the guardian in place.
While lying on her side, breathless from the impact, Sandalphon called Hammering once more. The Nikke appeared with her trademark maul at the ready, but rather than take aim at the guardian, she obliterated the mirror it came from. One down, thirteen to go. Juri knew how long the freeze would last, so it was up to her whether to go for more mirrors or to rack up some damage.
Juri landed from her leap over the buzz saw, stance low, her front hand on the ground. Her Feng Shui locked onto the Guardian and started scanning it out of spite. With a Drive Rush forward she blitzed towards the Guardian, and then right past her, flicking it on one of its noses as she went. She streaked forward and smashed into the mirror closest the Guardian and then carried her into the next with an elegant kick. With another regular dash she grabbed the back of one and simply shoved it forward onto the floor, breaking it. Then she made a face at the creature, like she had done that last one by accident.
”Oops!” She grinned. As the freeze ended Juri strafed right to get to the next one to toss it, too.
Shards of ice flew far and wide when the guardian broke free, accompanied by a burst of flat, unamused laughter, as if the monster were being sarcastic. Able to see in all directions thanks to its many heads, it identified Sandalphon as the closer, more vulnerable target as she picked herself off the ground, and turned to go after her. It lurched forward, and -unable to use the Eye of Sol without a blue surface beneath her- Sandalphon reflexively summoned her other Striker. Annabella appeared with her rifle trained on one of the guardian’s heads, but much too close.
The monster grabbed the weapon’s barrel with its left hands, then carved into the sharpshooter with an overhead slash. While the striker vanished, her wound opened on Sandalphon’s torso, and the archangel gave a ragged gasp. Her rifle fell from her grip as she staggered backward, only avoiding a fall with a timely summon of her gunstaff in order to prop herself up. As the guardian lumber closer to finish her off, she summoned a Cerulean Mirage on top of herself, then lifted the butt of her gunstaff to shoot the mirage in the foot and detonate a diamond-shaped ether explosion. It knocked the guardian back, and put Sandalphon on her last legs, but with what little strength she had left the archangel began to cast Angelic Praise. As holy ripples expanded around her, the only question was whether or not she’d be in time.
All the while Juri was happily breaking mirrors, getting the number down to about five, all of the remaining mirrors all in the same-ish cluster. When she turned to check on Sandalphon, her shoulders sagged and she let her head fall backwards. ”Huugh!” With an overly big exasperated groan she spent Drive Rush to zip across the chamber and come to Sandalphon’s rescue. Letting it rock, leaning forward with her arms out to the side. No doubt it saw her coming, but it only had two arms and two legs. As it was knocked back by Sandalphon’s spell, Juri came in for an empowered sweep against the same knee leg she had targeted earlier. One big hit to try and roll its knee or ankle and get it to topple.
With several legs messily fused together, the guardian wasn’t one buckle easily, but Juri’s kicks were nothing if not powerful. Combined with the damage already done to the monster’s limb, her strike was enough to throw the nightmare off balance, and its disproportionately top-heavy mass did the rest. It went down, flailing its limbs with helpless, childlike anger, and as Juri pounced to take advantage one of the guardian’s unpredictable thrashes caught her in the act with a painful slash. The next moment, though, Sandalphon’s Angelic Praise pulsed outward to restore the bulk of her health. She took a deep breath, conjured a blue tile beneath herself, and swung her gunstaff into firing position to join Juri in pressing their advantage.
Due to Juri’s natural ki durability, no blood was drawn. But damage was still done, and she still felt that familiar embrace of pain in no small quality. ”You random little-! Hahaha!” She flicked out her leg a couple times with the same intent of loading a shotgun. With a slice of her heel she sent out an OD, Fuha powered projectile along the ground to slash into the creatures side. Then she dashed over it, moving in faster to slam her foot on the beasts damaged knee. Then she would flip over to its other side just as her projectile would connect.
Sandalphon added some reprisal of her own in the form of repeated ether shots, rate of fire prioritized over accuracy since even in the midst of the guardian’s thrashing, she couldn't miss a headshot of she wanted to. She knew it would take too long to retrieve her Eye of Sol, but the archangel definitely missed its sheer stopping power. Though she and Juri exploited the guardian’s tumble as much as physically possible, the two weren't exactly bastions of burst damage, and the horror still had plenty of fight in it once it rolled to its feet.
It wheeled around, giggling madly as it searched for an escape route, but all the nearby mirrors lay in pieces. With no avenue of regress, the guardian went berserk and began to rampage, lurching around on its wounded leg with one giant swing after another. Sandalphon put some distance between herself and the freak with Vault and Heavensent, then scanned the guardian as she drifted a safe distance away. “Only thirty-five percent remaining,” she declared. If Juri could weather this thing’s fury and strike back, victory would be theirs. Once she landed, Sandalphon scooped up her Eye of Sol and began to set up. “Aim for the spine.” Once atop a blue tile, she cast a Cerulean Mirage near the guardian to help distract it, then put the creepy carcass in her sights.
Juri backpedaled, ducked, and dashed away from the swings, using her speed and its sluggishness to her advantage. She was pretty happy with the leg damage she had wrought, giggling.
”Easy money, Sandy!” She called back. She turned away from a swing and then spun her upper torso, clawing the creature across the face. Baiting out a counter swing towards her upper body, she ducked underneath it and shifted around to the back. Twisting and then planting her feet, she turned all that momentum into an eye-watering elbow to the creature’s spine. She transitioned into a four fingered stab like she was trying to find the cracked gap in the vertebrate. Using a significant amount of drive gauge she cancelled that attack into another elbow into the same spot, and followed it up by planting her hand on the ground, turning away from the creature and slamming her heel into its back. Once, twice, she used her Fuha Stocks to slash around elegantly again, creating distance between the two once more.
With each grievous blow, the guardian’s gibbering grew more and more frenzied, it's laughter deranged and despairing. For all its gruesome power, it couldn't seem to land a solid hit on the meddlesome martial artist even after it learned to ignore the tantalizing Cerulean Mirage, but Sandalphon always erred in the side of caution. Whenever Juri landed a hit, the archangel followed up to stagger the guardian with a well-aimed sunstreak from the Eye of Sol. The first headshot could reliably punch a cauterized hole, and the second was enough to pop the head. In this way Sandalphon helped extend Juri’s combos, keep her safe from reprisal, and rack up damage until she judged the time to be right.
The archangel adjusted her aim, and shot her Cerulean Mirage. It absorbed the solar slug and erupted in a diamond blast of blue flame, close enough to the guardian to knock it down. This time it fell on its right side, its huge saw partially trapped beneath its clammy bulk, and it's cracked spine exposed. Sandalphon lowered her weapon and stood, her pupils reverting from crosshairs to normal with a sense of finality. “The honors are yours.”
Juri didn’t need to be told twice. Or, really, even once. And there was nothing particularly honorable about the way she was descending on the creature, slamming her heel into its exposed spine after a full front flip. She stood on the creature and began hopping and down, driving her feet into its back with little hippy hops. It was a gleeful, goblin-like display. She would keep it up until it was broken in half, in which case she kicked one of its heads. ”Loser~!” She spat breathlessly, stepping off the Guardian and watching it start to decay into ash.
Amped up, she shook out her arms and hopped up and down some more. With a cackle she kicked at the ashifying corpse.
Finally, she re-noticed Sandalphon, and looked around at their current location. ”M’kay, Sandy. Even though I had to save your ass twice, you weren’t totally useless. Do that magicky radio doohicky thing you were gonna do so you can tell me what you see all the time. ” She commanded off-handedly.
The archangel had averted her eyes during Juri’s savagery, not out of any misguided sympathy for the monster or unwillingness to do what must be done, but simply because she took no pleasure in the act. Once the deed was done, she approached her ally attentively. “I am grateful for your aid. You performed quite well.” She kept her feedback objective and positive; the fight had gone well enough, after all. Granted permission to bring Juri into her circle, the archangel nodded, then reached out and held a hand beside the martial artist’s face. A ripple of holy water pulses into the air, its concentric rings forming into a yellow-blue sigil, reminiscent of a halo. A second later it faded away, gone when not in use.
”Ulblblbl~” After a moment, Juri made a weird noise and chased Sandalphon’s hand away with her waggling tongue.
“Done.” Sandalphon stepped back, wiping some hair from her face. She knew she must look dreadful, especially since not all of the blood staining her clothes belonged to the Qliphoth, but there were more important matters at hand. She made the executive decision to slick her hair back to keep her vision clear, then noticed the spirit of the guardian on the floor. She nodded at it. “To the victor go the spoils.”
Juri stared down at the spirit, going over the rules in her memory. ”I sure as shit ain’t spirit bonding with that ugly thing, no matter how cool that mirror trick was. God, who would? As for a Striker…meh.” Juri shrugged.
”Plus, it means I get to stop on it ooone mooore time.” She chuckled and then stomped on the spirit. But what resulted seemed to genuinely dazzle Juri.
You have obtained: Ghoulsaw The cruelest of weapons built for the crudest of Grineer soldiers. Rips through metal like flesh, and through flesh like day-old pudding. It never seems to run out of fuel, and the dextrous wielder can even plunge its blade into sufficiently soft ground to ride it like a deadly skateboard.
”What the heck? Oh my- woah.” With quiet reverence, Juri picked up the hefty weapon, though she was plenty strong enough to use it. This time when she laughed, it was an almost sweet, innocent sound. Excited, like unwrapping a toy on Christmas morning. Though when she revved up the nasty weapon and heard it purr, her laugh turned much more familiar and cruel, already imagining the havoc she could wreak.
She swung it around a few times for practice. It was slower and much less precise than her normal attacks, leaving little room for her defence. But the speed and power of the blade itself was undeniable. ”Oh ho, man! It ain’t no fine art but it has its uses!”
When she studied the device closely, she noticed something unusual about its design. ”This thing’s balanced. It’s balanced, Sandy.” She said, the implication clear to her. She planted it in the floor and crouched atop it, the blade sticking into the fleshy ground. Lo and behold, it didn't fall over. Juri looked to Sandalphon for confirmation, her mouth a small, excited ‘o’.
Juri activated the engine and it sped across the floor with a streak of green energy, carrying her with it. For a few blissful moments she rode it across the chamber before crashing into the far wall.
Landing in a heap next to the weapon she laughed uproariously, clutching her stomach and kicking helplessly.
”Did you- did you- did you see that?!” She asked between breaths.
Despite her disquieting demonic surroundings, the intense and painful fight against the guardian, the visceral filth that clung to her once-fine clothes, and the nightmarish road that brought her her, Sandalphon seemed to be smiling. It was slight, not the sort of gormless ear-to-ear grin that Nadia was wrong to wear, but like a diamond it all the bright for it's rarity. “Naturally,” she replied matter-of-factly, collecting her weapons in a routine manner. “I feel as though I've seen another side of you.” Juri breaking the tension with her antics has evidently worked wonders for Sandalphon’s mental state.
Juri didn’t know how to react to Sandalphon saying that. It made her a bit self conscious. ”Haha, yeah, well, ptchuh. Whatever.” She stood up and dusted herself off. She looked down at the weapon and righted it, biting her lower lip. She muttered something about getting practice in. But she couldn’t just carry it around when she wasn’t using it. Juri looked to her tommy gun, and plucked the strap from it, jury-rigging it (Juri rigging?) it to the applicable parts of the ghoulsaw instead. Now she could put the saw over her bag and wear it like a backpack or big duffel bag. As for the tommy gun itself, well, she just plum tossed it out like old garbage.
”Thing was runnin’ low on bullets anyhow. And no way am I gonna lug it the whole time. And what, look for and then carry around drum magazines?” She made a face. ”No way. This new thing is way cooler, and I don’t think it runs outta fuel. There’s no intake, and it’s all sci-fi lookin’.” She said, patting it with approval.
Before the two could go any farther, however, another surprise came their way. The hollow seemed to darken around them, and in front of them appeared ethereal cards, three apiece. Stoic in the face of the unprecedented phenomenon, Sandalphon scanned the area for any threats, then once satisfied, speed-read through the options laid out before her.
Cold Storage - your freeze effects last 2 seconds longer Dispel Disaster - when a character is healed, defense is increased by 24% for 10 seconds Raindrop Earrings - every 18 seconds, standing still will confer Repeat, which will refresh the next used skill
After finishing, Sandalphon could only hypothesize that some sort of unseen power had seen fit to reward the Seekers for their efforts in this unholy place. That speculation created a lot more questions than it answered, but for now she would need to accept this unexpected windfall. Since these projections seemed to require her input, she concluded that she must choose between them, and after a moment the made her selection. She could already refresh her own skills via Rapid Analysis, and while temporary defense bonuses could be useful, the extended duration on her Frost Lock would be invaluable–as long as she didn’t freeze herself again. Sandalphon selected Cold Storage, and turned to await Juri’s arbitration.
”Hah?” Juri looked over her cards, one side of her nose wrinkling up. ”Free shit?”
Passion Dash - your dash causes a small magic burst at its terminus and inflicts Weak, decreasing outgoing damage by 30% for 4 seconds Questioning of Purpose - increases break effect (ability to reduce opponent's toughness/poise/guard) by 50% Energy Sandals - your dash stacks 24 energy, up to a cap of 600. Your next attack after dashing consumes all energy to boost damage by 1% for each point of energy consumed
Weaker enemies meant more fun, and Juri was always light on her feet. So she picked Passion Dash.
“Jealousy and love are two sides of the same coin,” rang the impossible voice of Aphrodite. “Maybe there’s room for envy, too, hm?”
”Envy?” Juri asked, an edge in her voice. But the vision faded.
Juri had never used magic before, but she felt like she had the new skill, just like the card promise. She took a long step to the side, and there was a spark of energy. Now she could weaken her enemies whenever she pleased? ”Uh. Okay.”
Once ready to proceed, the archangel eyed a bloodstream on the other side of all the shattered glass, pausing only to calculate how many years of bad luck Juri had incurred. “By my best estimate, we're only about one third up the Qliphoth. I’m glad that you like that saw–you'll have ample opportunity to try it out.”
Juri was trundling alongside Sandalphon on her Ghoulsaw, moving at a slower pace and slowly swerving left and right like a first time skateboard rider. It left a badass gash in the ground as they went. Concentrating, she didn’t look up from the floor when Sandalphon spoke. ”Wonder if I’ll get to hear their screams over the engine?” She mused absent-mindedly in reply.
Level 6: 07/60 Location: Dead Zone: Qliphoth Word Count: 450 Points Gained: 1 New EXP Balance: Level 6: 08/60
Juri looked up after stomping a bug into mulch. She glanced around at all the other Seekers doing battle. Including the giant hot air balloons coming their way. And this new tactician thing? ”Yeah let’s just ditch these fuckin’ idiots. They can have their stupid lobby.” Juri said, spitting onto the ground.
Juri ran over to a xylem tube, using her Drive Rush to get over there lickety split. She Using a leftover Fuha stock from the battle, she did an OD axe kick to slice it open vertically, her heel splitting open the artery cleanly as if she had used a battleaxe. She frowned at the blood fluid spilling out of the xylem, and then chuckled. ”Probably cleaner than your average waterpark.” With that reasoning, she held her breath and dove on in.
The right was smooth and high pressure for the lithe woman. She had her eyes squeezed shut and her cheeks puffed out, her arms outstretched infront of her and her palms clasped together in a permanent dive. If she drowned in here, she was gonna be pissed off. After a second or two she started to contemplate grabbing the sides and trying to dig her fingers in to start splitting it open from the inside. Fortunately that wouldn’t be a problem, as she felt the flow lessen. After that, the vein burst and she fell out.
Sandalphon came over, acting like she was checking up on Juri. ”Buzz off, ya glorified Christmas ornament.” Juri spat, waving her arm. She wiped her mouth with her hand and brushed a wet strand of hair from her forehead. At least her outfit was waterproof. What’s up with all the mirrors? Also, where are they?
As Juri stood up and started wiping herself off, she was alerted to Sandalphon’s alarm. She turned and saw Sandalphon shoot a mirror with an ice blast which then reflected it back to herself. Then out of the mirror came some chick a dozen heads and a fucked up body! Not to mention the giant buzz saw for an arm. The sight of it made Juri’s scalp itch.
”Eee-uwww!” Juri crowed, almost delight. She looked at where Sandalphon was frozen. This would be a good time to prove that Juri being scared in that gameshow was just a fluke, and also her just playing pretend. And if she saved Sandalphon’s ass, she’d owe her one big time.
”Hey there, 12-in-1 shampoo!” Juri used a Drive Rush to blitz forward, interposing herself between Sandalphon and the Guardian. That also gave her spinning hop roundhouse kick a bit more oomph. Juri wasn’t looking for a combo, she just wanted to slam her foot into one of its faces to knock it backwards. She took up a defensive stance in front of Sandalphon.
”Did you seriously just freeze yourself?” She asked over her shoulder. ”Ya better figure something out or I’ll kick ya and see if it breaks you out or breaks you apart.”
Level 6: 05/60 Location: Dead Zone: Qliphoth Word Count: 800 Points Gained: 2 New EXP Balance: Level 6: 07/60
Juri glanced up, and took a casual step aside as some chunk of meat slop sloughed off the demon tree and splat onto the ground where she had just been. With a frown, she nudged it with her foot. ”Kay. Sick. What, like some kind of wax candle.” She scoffed, almost appreciatively. This wasn’t as scary as that invisible camera guy. Who wasn’t scary. It was just a stupid horror movie. This was real, which meant Juri could do as she pleased. That’s what mattered.
The Spider stalked inside with the others, staying on the outskirts of the group a short distance away and watching herself. This place was pure madness and chaos. It was like walking into a giant, failing immune system. ”...Grody.”
Juri kicked at a ‘rock’ (kidney stone?) and kept trudging forward, making a face. This Seeker crap had been pretty annoying so far. She was wondering if she would even bother sticking around. Fortunately, her prayers would be answered. The world’s most disgusting meat pinata parade appeared to greet the Seekers as guests. Festering abominations ripe for the popping. Juri cracked her neck kicked her leg up into the air vertically. ”I think it’s time to play.”
She arched her back and looked at Edelgard upside down, choosing to pick on her for no particular reason. Maybe it was just her prissy, shiny looks. ”Think you can finally make yourself useful?” Juri crowed, her toothy grin upside down. With a crooked lean she fell forward and then lunged to meet the nearest bulbous victim of the Flood. With a few sweeping spin kicks she burst right through it, sending viscera everywhere that then shifted into ash, hovering in the air with all the spores. She finished off the last one with a kick to gain some fuha stocks. Just then a bunch of funny little rat squid looking things started rushing at her, a swarm. Juri backdashed and sent a sweeping horizontal blade of energy their way, disintegrating the entire swarm in one blast, using OD energy to do so.
Setting a hand on her hip she cockily followed behind the sweeping blade as a large Flood with one extra large spike arm charged at her. It was more than twice her size but that hardly made a difference to Juri. ”Well, hello there, handsome!” Juri taunted, side stepping as the spike arm came down where she was just standing, impaling the fleshy floor. Her energy floor blade slashed into its ankles and dropped it to one knee. She did a heavy kick into the joint of the big arm stuck in the ground before it could retract, weakening it. When the big zombie lunged forward to overpower her, she leapt over and behind it. A couple more zombies lumbered towards her but she smacked them away with a vertical kick, charging herself up. ”Haha!”
Once again Ol’ One Arm rounded on her, and Juri dodged the downwards stab. She jumped up and stabbed her fingers into its throat and then ripped into it, hooking around and landing on its back. Over and over again she cracked her elbow into its skull. It thrashed to throw her off and she leapt backwards, and then changed momentum like an arrow to drive herself into its back with a divekick. Slices of white and black energy swirled around her like ribbons as she followed up with a few more kicks that lifted the giant zombie off the floor and sent it crashing down.
”I’ll crush you!” She brought her heel down like a hammer on the already weakened skull. Splat! The entire zombie faded into ash.
”Now we’re getting somewhere.” Juri flicked out her boot and fully stocked up on fuha. A few Empusas buzzed down to meet here, looking at her with all of their weird eyes. ”Overgrown pests. I’m gonna burn this place to the ground.” Juri span upwards with a pinwheel kick, swatting several out of the air. Any that lingered on the ground for too long were crushed under foot, gleefully stomped out. Juri never stayed in one place for long. When more Flood came her way she dashed backwards and seemed to make good on her promise, getting out her Tommy Gun, enhanced with flame and only rusty in a few spots as she kept it mostly under her coat. With a little giggle she pulled the trigger and the barrel spat flaming hot lead down range. She swept it back and forth like a garden hose and filled the chaff with holes before burning them away, many of the bullets hot enough to over penetrate and hit the swarmers behind them.
”I shoulda been an exterminator! Kyahaha!” Juri stopped firing long enough to football punt a squiddy rat into the distance.
Iceburn's blood always ran cold. So it wasn't fear, but frustration that clenched her fists, forcing snow out from between her fingers. Indignation bubbled like boiling water in her chest. The Deathstroke...here? For Metamorph? How had he known that Metamorph would come, how did he get Nymph? What had happened while she was inside? If only she could be in two places at once! She pushed her hands against her head and groaned angrily, trying to calm herself down. Think, think! God, she didn't even know what was going on! Some part of her hoped that Metamorph had brought back up, but considering that nothing good was happening, she doubted Green Lantern or Black Canary was going to swoop down and save the day.
The only wildcard they had was Talos. But if he charged in from where he was flying and got himself killed, what good would that do? Worst of all, if he got Nymph killed? If she was closer, she could freeze Nymph, keep her from being set ablaze. But her powers were at their strongest within thirty feet. And beyond sixty feet, her powers were sub-par. If she did anything to blast herself over there, it'd be too slow. He had eyes on all of them. If she was with Talos, they might have a chance. If she was with Metamorph they might have a chance. Hell, if Stormcaller was awake they might have a chance. But they were all in the wrong places. The correct answer was to not have been in this situation in the first place. They were already falling, the only thing they could do was brace for impact.
”...Fuck.” The fire went out of her and her shoulders slumped, defeated.The snow melted and the mist emanating off of her stilled, the sticky humidity of the swamp settling in once again. Metamorph had to give himself up. They couldn’t let Nymph die like that. And whatever they needed him for, they needed him alive, so they could track him down later and rescue him. That was the only path forward, the only one she could see.
She wanted to threaten Deathstroke. Say that he should watch what he does, lest he summon the full wrath of the Justice League. But a guy like him would hurt Nymph just to make a point, even if Iceburn was right. She took her earpiece out of her ear. ”We can get him back. We’ll get him back.” She said to the others, trying to be reassuring. ”We can rescue him. It won’t be forever.”
Level 5: 44/50 Location: Dead Zone Word Count: 1 point Points Gained: 1 (+10 defeated one wrestler i forgot) New EXP Balance: Level 6: 05/60
"Just chuck the damn baby!" Juri hissed, right before it all went to shit. The dead were rising to meet them, and Juri could feel them seize her calves and ankles, though her vision of them was incomplete.
”God damn it! Invisible handsy freaks! Get offa me!” Juri thrashed and yanked and pulled her legs from the muck. Gritting her teeth and growling, she spent two Drive Gauge and burst forward with a shock of white and black energy, breaking free of their grip. Instinctively she dashed forward, and there was a flash of green ki that accompanied her. Looks like she was getting some of her old tricks back. With her and plastic bodysuit and plastic hood pulled up, Juri felt secure from the timefall as long as she didn’t fall over face up with her shield off.
There was a giant golden faced lion goo monster, but Juri wasn’t dealing with that shit. Leave that to the heroes. What the hell was kicking that thing going to do? And bullets wouldn't hurt it, either. Some support magic came her way and increased her speed even more. Juri leapt and zipped from high place to high place, not quite leaving the threat range. She wanted to stay close enough to interfere, without being in the danger zone herself. If someone got caught, she’d kill them before she let them explode and take them all out. Well, she’d try kicking them as hard as she could to dislodge them first, just because that was easier. But no way was she going to let one of these slow chumps get her blown up. A few hundred meters didn't make a difference if some ghost nuke was going off.
”C’mon, c’mon! Hurry up!” Juri jeered, perched up on a boulder. When it seemed like everyone was in the clear, she made a dash for the Qliphoth or whatever the fuck it was called, using another Drive Rush to get her there even faster so the lion and the handsy freaks couldn’t get a grip on her. She parkoured to stay out of the muck as much as possible and to get to the objective. And she could finally get outta this damn rain as her personal bubble flickered out. Luckily, her entire outfit was nonbiodegradable. Juri would cover her hooded head up with her arms if she had too, she wasn't going to age into some old hag!
”Do you dorks wanna turn old and ugly? What's the point of livin' fast and dyin' young if you don't even leave behind a pretty corpse? C'mooon!” She gestured to the end goal in the distance, mired in fog and rain.
Level 5: 44/50 Location: Dead Zone Word Count: 1 point Points Gained: 1 (+10 defeated one wrestler i forgot) New EXP Balance: Level 6: 05/60
To Juri it became apparent that everyone liked her plan over the so-called tactical genius. Thus she smirked smugly, crossing her arms and shrugging. No big deal. Juri said all kinds of smart things, all the time. She was a genius, and somewhere floating around in the multiverse was the paperwork to prove it.
Who wasn’t a genius by Juri’s standards was the clumsy knight who nearly got them all caught already. ”Do I even have to say anything, Queen Clutz?” She whispered harshly. ”Tchuh,” With a shake of her head she moved away.
Juri herself was doing just fine. Since their enemies were blind she didn’t waste her time with crouching, standing up with her hands behind her head. Her Sombra influenced bodysuit was more socks than shoes. The artificial cyan toenails were strange, but she liked them. And it allowed her freedom of movement of her feet like normal.
She stepped over rocks and didn’t slip or do anything stupid like that. Juri was a sneaky spider. Walking over some mud was a walk in the park.
Soon they had to evaluate their next options. Juri was interested in the spaceship. ”Maybe there’s some sweet ass alien loot in there that could help us.” She ventured. ”Plus, like, I dunno. Looks pretty safe?” But obviously if the main team with the big shield was going in one direction, she'd follow it. Juri was confident in her own ability to remain stealthy and steady, so she didn't care where she ended up.
Level 5: 43/50 Location: Avenger -> Dead Zone Word Count: miniscule im tired Points Gained: 1 New EXP Balance: Level 5: 44/50
Juri pulled up the hood of her raincoat, the one that would be able to withstand the ravages of timefall much more than her flesh. From what she understood she didn’t have long anyway. But if she was going to die within the decade she might as well die young and beautiful and not haggard and gray.
Juri had spent some time working her stealth, getting as close as she could to various people on the ship without them noticing. Including swapping and swiping a few personal effects, just for fun. It didn’t seem like her fighting was going to help much anyway. Juri didn’t like the idea of this mission. If any one of her idiot teammates screwed up, they were all toast. And some of these people were real fat bastards, or made out of metal. Juri would batter them away from the BTs if she had too. And she doubted corpse dust would trigger a voidout.
Once down there, the emitter field turned on, and Juri’s natural intelligence plus the expertise of her infusion made her feel like she understood the machine quite well. With just a flick of her wrist she could turn it off and blow the whole mission wide open. Not that she would, but…she liked having power like that. Notably it was anti-magic, which drew Juri’s eyes to Fortune. ”Oh, but, you don’t have to worry, Fortune. You. Can’t. Die. Right?” She teased.
Some guy named Edward started explaining his grand plan, and Juri made a slack jawed ‘idiot’ face. ”Or I can just use my eyes and ears and see where the odradeks are pointed. Doy.” Juri said. ”If anything we should just move like a big square with a carrier on each corner.” But that last addition was half-hearted. Really she just wasn’t going to rely on some callout system she thought was weird.
Blazermate asked to be carried, which made Juri scoff. ”Don’t look at me.”
”Nobody better screw this up. Just stay low and slow, it’s that easy. Even a baby could do it.” Juri said.
Having been fairly quick to get to the head of the queue, by virtue of feeling no shame in making a run for it, the Koopa Kids got to make their choice of table. They picked an empty one, foolishly thinking that they’d get to keep it, but that would not last.
A plate full of sausage and eggs was set down and quickly stuck into by jr, while the lone pogofruit that had been forcibly added to the plate was sternly ignored. His second plate was meanwhile full of fruit, which was for his motley crew of minions. In a great contrast to her brother Rika had gotten an omelet with every weird vegetable in it, alongside having prompted the creation of, and then received the first portion of, a wonderfully odd fruit salad, both of which she began taste testing to see what all the new foods were like.
Thanks to the boon of poultry that the kitchen had at the moment, Pit was about to enjoy the amazing combination of fried chicken and waffles. Doused in sweet maple syrup, with a few of the chicken sausages and a veggie omelet on the side, he had a full breakfast awaiting him to dig in. And an apple juice to go with it. Despite often saying he was not a kid even if his appearance was youthful, Pit did usually seem to gravitate toward the younger Seekers. Like in mind, perhaps. So it didn't come as a surprise that he ended up at the third table. His wings were drawn up close to his back so that he didn't take up much more space than usual, and he didn't waste any time before starting to eat.
After privately seeking counsel with Lady Palutena, he felt a little better about the whole BB situation. He had to wonder how Junior felt about it though. Was he really fine with it besides just the fact he thought the babies were being lazy? And they really let babies drive go-karts? Babies and Link get to race and I still can't get an invite? Before he could think to ask, a noise cut through even the din of the mess hall.
A loud screech announced the Witch as she noisily dragged an extra chair up from Sandalphon’s table to the kids’, completely ignoring the seats already in place. She’d brought with her a portion of fish—specifically, an entire eight inch long dead fish, which lay flat on its plate alongside a mound of spinach and stared out at the world with cold, empty eyes.
Shortly after, Edelgard arrived with a picture-perfect breakfast consisting of assorted fruits, nuts, smoked meats, and a pair of eggs over easy. She sat and, the picture of noble grace, began to cut into and eat tiny, easily-consumed portions of each food, savoring the breadth of choices the Avenger had to offer. The morning's briefing lay heavy on her thoughts, especially the idea that any one of them being grabbed by these invisible foes would spell the entire group's immediate demise. She’d take Rhea again over that horror. As she took her seat, Pit shot her a smile. They'd missed her (and Edward and Midna) back at Palutena's Temple as the goddess and her army commended the commanders; he'd have to fill her in sometime.
Humming happily to herself, the Witch sliced the fish open lengthwise and began to pick out the bones. Her gaze eventually found Junior, however, whom she regarded with not a little curiosity. “Now what kind of thing are you? I didn’t think dragons were actually real.”
Oh, one of the new people? The angel had seen a few new faces at the meeting, but he hadn't given any of them more than a passing glance at the time. Inching away slightly from the woman's wide, dead-eyed fish plate, Pit left explaining what a Koopa was to the actual Koopa and instead let the Witch in on a universal truth.
"Everything's kinda real," he said casually, "even if it's in a different world from yours. Cool, right?"
”No.” Juri answered bluntly, on the Witch’s behalf. ”At least not when it’s the eleventy billionth time we’ve had the conversation.” For Juri it was more like three, counting this time. But they were on the Avenger, for crying out loud, who wasn’t with the program already?
Juri didn’t seem to have any mind for breakfast at the moment, instead she dropped her tommy gun on the table, and then leaned over it at Junior. ”I wanna see if you really are some kinda genius turtle, or just a regular dumb kid. You said you can make my gun shoot flaming bullets?” Juri asked.
”You’re not gonna eat?” Came the voice of Roxas sitting down more or less next to Pit, but his question was directed at the spider lady. ”I would if I were you. There’s no telling when we’ll get to eat next once the mission starts.” He sat his own breakfast onto the table, a plate containing a stack of three pancakes drizzled with syrup and topped with minced cuberries and a glass of pogofruit juice to drink. He’d gotten here a little later than some of the others mostly because of his three Pokemon nearby who were digging into their own meal consisting of nutritious Pokemon food. Clearly the Nobody was making sure he got them their food before he secured his own.
Jr, who had somehow been taught to not speak with his mouth full, but not to not shove his mouth full of food, had taken a while to clear up his tongue so it could be used to reply to the questions.
”I’m a Koopa, not a dragon, which is way better!” he first insisted, before reaching for his chest and tossing out a trio of pokeballs while explaining that ”and Mimi, Dazzle and Peeka are all part ghost” as he did so. The mon then promptly grabbed fruit he offered them and hurried off to join the others, Rika added that ”and I’m part ship”
The ship girl also had a mind to ask Juri ”How can you just, like, not try out this neat food? It’s all real weird” which in her mind was very much a compliment.
Juri made a defensive hand gesture at Rika and Roxas. ”You wanna get the hell off my back? I eat when I want. Right now I wanna see if dragon boy can really make my gun better.”
”Sheesh. Excuse me for living.” Roxas muttered. It was just a suggestion, not worth getting his head bitten off for it.
Pit suppressed a snicker, then leaned over to quietly tell Roxas, "Juri just pretends to be a sourpuss." He really didn't know the woman too well, but since she'd played minigames with them and seemed to actually want to be part of the group despite the attitude, he figured that she just wanted to make sure people knew she was tough. Then again, he hadn't been on the receiving end of said attitude yet, so his opinion could still change.
”Also yeah I can for sure do that! Easy!” Jr then replied to Juri as well as he grabbed the gun, and set about doing some on-the-table tinkering, snapping open a toolbox to do so. The modification was, as it turned out, pretty simple, as the prince removed the gun's magazine, and then into the slot below the chamber carefully inserted a hair from his magical paintbrush which would coat the tips of the rounds being pulled past it with burning ink as they were pulled past it.
”Probably won’t work while we’re in that magic suppression field, but after, you’ll be burning things up!” he informed her, a little annoyed that his work wasn’t going to be useful right away, before having an idea and asking ”Hey, do you want an even bigger gun for that bit? Got this crank operated thing that’s thiiiis big if you want it” as he spread his arms to denote the length of the Maulcher rotary gatling gun that he had strapped to his clown car at the moment.
Juri tilted her head, looking at her gun. Grabbing it by the back end she looked right down the barrel, taking in the now almost imperceptible adjustment made to it. ”That’s it?” She wasn’t sure what she expected. ”I coulda done that. I thought you were gonna hit it with a hammer or something.”
”On the contrary, Edelgard interjected. ”What may seem simple to those without the gift of magic or artifice is often the result of years of study to simplify an incredibly complex process.” A bit put-off that the many months she'd spent learning magic, and the years after refining that process, could be so thoughtlessly deemed ‘too simple’ was simply galling to the empress. She did her best to keep the derision she felt for Juri out of her voice, but such a monumental task was impossible even for somebody of Edelgard’s willpower. Juri was just that annoying.
Juri then reached her hand into Rika’s fruit salad, scooped up a bunch of it, and shoved it into her mouth. Dusting her hands off she looked at Roxas and Rika as if to say: ‘Happy?’ Then she kneeled one knee on the seat next to Junior, not quite sitting down. ”Nah. That’d just slow me down. We gotta be quiet if we wanna protect our creepy fetus machines from the antimatter ghosts.” Juri said. She glanced around, slung her gun over her shoulder, and promptly stood back up and buzzed off to the breakfast line.
”Well that was rude.” Roxas muttered under his breath. She didn’t ask permission or anything. And who knows if she washed her hands or not. He probably should have confronted her or something, but also thought it wasn’t worth picking a fight over. So instead he slid his plate in Rika’s direction. ”You can have some off the top of my pancakes if you want.” Essentially offering to let her replace some of the fruit Juri took.
A well made offer, which prompted the lengthy spear with a set of cannons at its base that had just teleported into Rika’s hand to be dropped in favor of a fork with which she could spear the peace offering alongside an ”ooo thank you thank you”
The Witch had been watching with eerie intensity while Junior disassembled the gun. She’d read up on killing machines like this on her telephone device, but to see its inner workings displayed so clearly before her… “Ingenious,” she whispered. And then, louder: “I’d like a big gun.” She met Junior’s eyes. “If you have one to spare anyway…”
”Huh?” the prince replied, seemingly a little confused by the request, though not at all put off by the spooky gal’s eye contact it seemed. Instead he started by unintentionally insulting her ”The Multcher’s probably too heavy for you” before asking the question that had caused his confusion ”Wait, who are you again?”
His sister meanwhile was entirely chipper again thanks to pancakes, and so said ”Oh are you new? Hi, I’m Rika!” before offering actual useful information by telling the Witch that ”The Avenger’s got an armory with all sorts of stuff in it. Probably got a couple of cannons in there. I think there was this energy blasting pistol? Oh and a shotgun that fired snakes.”
“I only showed up yesterday. I’m still adjusting to this place.” It was as much an excuse as an explanation, a way of playing off her behavior and curiosity. “As for who I am… Most people just call me Witch.” If her experiences so far were any indication, they’d probably start coming up with awful pet names for her right about now, and she could do little but grin and bear it.
It wasn’t all bad news, though. “A gun that fires serpents, you say? That sounds nearly too perfect to be true.” She leaned in closer to Rika, trying her best not to smile too creepily for once. “Would you help me find it before we go?
"Snakes? Why wouldn't you want one that shoots lasers or something? It would be way stronger," Pit chimed in as he polished off the last of his waffle.
“What a bold chicken you are! But no, I think I’ll stick with the snakes.” A laser-light could burn you once, but an angered serpent would strike time and time again, with noxious venom in its fangs. The Witch knew well which of the two she feared more.
"Wha- how come he gets to be a dragon but I'm a chicken?" came the complaint, along with a bark of a laugh from the (not) dragon in question.
Rika meanwhile just nodded, confirming that ”Mmm. Or. at leasts that it looked like it did? The monster it came from was really weird and just, full of snakes” Rika confirmed, smiling back with the social graces of someone who’d only learned she could do so a few weeks ago, which in this case meant very enthusiastically.
”and yeah, we can do that. We were probably gonna swing by after crushing a pair of spirits, coz I don’t think a weird sausage man and a really really really big crab are gonna make stuff we can really use. Maybe. Probably” she informed the Witch, before recalling how manners worked and adding ”Oh, and my name’s Rika. I picked it myself” to introduce herself.
With his pancakes gone now, Roxas just focused on his orange juice instead. He listened to some of the conversation about guns shooting different things but most importantly getting a proper introduction from Witch. ”I’m Roxas.” He said after swallowing down a big gulp of orange juice. ”I think I’ve been around for about… two weeks? Give or take a day or two?” After this he felt some nudging against his shin and looked down to find Scamp looking like he was trying to climb up. ”What? You want to meet everyone too or are you just looking for a chance to sneak a bite?” Roxas teased, but picked up the Yamper anyway and sat him on his lap before adding, ”Alright, alright, but I’m watching you, buddy.”
”Sorry about that, he’s Scamp, my Pokemon partner. He doesn’t bite but he likes to get up to mischief if I don’t keep an eye on him.”
Seeing that now seemed to be the time for introductions, Edelgard joined the round. ”I am Edelgard von Hresvelg. This is all…very different to me, I must admit. Before…whatever happened, I was an emperor. Now I am without a home, and all I know is that this Galeem creature is responsible.” Edelgard had stopped eating, setting her silverware down and crossing her hands atop one another as she spoke, her tone even and somber.
”Yeah?” Jr replied, misinterpreting this as an attempt as boast before laying out the smorgasbord of royals the seekers had among them ”Well our Papa’s the Koopa King, Sectonia a queen, Ganodorf’s the ‘King of Evil’” the prince paused his pointing to put air quotes around the gerudo's name ” and Midna over there’s a princess. But like one of those ruling princesses like Peach or Zelda, you know? Also she hates Ganondorf’s guts or something I dunno.”
Names, names, names. People put too much value in their names, and the Witch found it hard to really care. She preferred the dead, who didn’t talk so much and mostly didn’t care about what they were called. Maybe she’d get lucky and all these people would die in the upcoming mission, leaving her free to raise them all up as obedient and convenient servants.
Her expression remained eerily blank, but she did at least respond to them all with a small nod. “What a delight,” she said, without emotion no inflection, “it is to meet you all.”
She’d better hurry and prove herself indispensable before they all got better acquainted with her.
”And to meet you too!” Rika replied cherrily, not at all picking up on the meaning behind this lack of emotion, before asking ”Do you wanna head out now to get that gun? I’m basically done,” almost guaranteeing they were about to get at least a bit better acquainted.
After serving up a proper Grade A ass-kicking, Iceburn was feeling pretty damn good about her own performance and the team. Sure Quiver was hurt, but that was inevitable in the line of duty. He would be okay. Viktor and Quiver had grabbed the canisters of evil, anti-karmic juice. That was the objective, and it had been secured.
But before she could even think that she shouldn't be celebrating too early, it was too late. The thought of not celebrating too early counted as celebrating too early. Something bad happened to Stormcaller, they had all heard it through the comms.
"Ssshit." Iceburn frowned, biting her lower lip. What was going on out there? They had to find out and help, especially now that they had the serum they needed. Rain commanded her to push forward and surge ahead. Sounded just fine to her. Now that they were on the way out, she could go all out without worrying about conserving her energy. It wouldn't matter if she was exhausted if she was safely extracted with the others.
"I'm on it!" Iceburn called out. She forged ahead, slamming her foot on the ground and launching herself into the air. "Make way for Yooooung JUSTICE!" She slammed both fists on the ground, creating a large explosions of fog, mist, and wind that shot outward and knocked into every armed guard aiming at them.
She then widened her stance, and inhaled, before clenching her fists and brining her elbows in with a harsh bark. "RAH!" Iceburn flexed her arms, shaking with exertion as the fog solidified into two walls on either side, creating a pathway for them to move through, about seven feet high. Like always her walls ate regular bullets for breakfast, but sonic weapons would create large cracks in the barrier after just one shot.
Iceburn then jumped onto the wall with a poof, figuring Viktor could do the same if he wanted. The wall was just wide enough to comfortable stand a single foot on, so acrobatically minded people like herself and Viktor would have no trouble navigating on top of it. She also used the ice wall to grip onto her boot and propel herself forward, sliding as she blasted ice missiles to suppress all the bad guys, focusing on the ones with sonic weapons first.
As a result, one of the riflemen got a few good shots on her before she could move back into cover. The rounds sparked off of her thanks to her natural superpowered mist barrier, and she fired a double ice rock blast to knock the bad guy to the ground. Still, her shoulder and arm were bleeding now, stinging from where the bullets hit her. The mist barrier only gave her a small margin of error to make mistakes like that, she couldn’t withstand sustained fire. It would take time to get her personal ice mist recreated in that spot again. A thrill shot up Iceburn’s back and she continued forward with her mission, concentrating intently.
Hopefully with her efforts the team could easily make it outside and reunite with the others.
Iceburn spotted the unconscious Stormcaller with Talos defending her.
"The objective is secured, Zatara!" She informed the magician. "We got what we came for, let’s get the hell outta here!”
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