/=====================( - Lunarvale - Sebec Building - )=====================\
| |
| Sebec, the shortened name of the Sakei Electronics / Biological / Energy |
| Corporation, is the most dominant corporate entity in all of Lunarvale. |
| Responsible for all sorts of advances in the many fields it specializes in, |
| many households hold at least one Sebec product. Its main headquarters is |
| located past the north end of the industrial area. |
| A recently constructed building, it is very new and quite slick. The color |
| black is prominent through not only the lobby, but out through the hallways |
| that lead to the various offices. Citing security reasons, their hallways |
| are set up as twisty mazes that make it hard for complete strangers (or |
| intruders) to tell which way they're going. A highly restricted area down |
| below where more intensive research happens appears more a shelter than a |
| corporate building, steel floors and blast doors a seemingly unnecessary |
| touch. |
| Controversially, some areas are trapped with pressure-sensitive taser and |
| gas traps, which Sebec largely gets away with due to the sensitivity of |
| their work. After all, it would do no good for anyone who depends on their |
| products to have their security compromised, now would it? |
|===============================( - Players - )================================|
| Shiki Ichimonji[SEES] <Lilim> Yosuke Hanamura[KDA] <Flaemis> |
|===============================( - Objects - )================================|
|================================( - Exits - )=================================|
| Out <O>:Lunarvale |
\============================================================================/
SEBEC, Lunarvale Branch. A massive building that possesses a dire reputation, having been built upon the demolished remains of an abandoned mansion that was rumored to be haunted. The Branch Manager of the location, Takahisa Kandori, has a similarly dire reputation. They have security that many would consider extreme: Armed guards, electified floors, and even gas traps. But they have managed so far to avoid public scrutiny due to their financial and legal power. After all, a company who works with so many things must protect their interests, yes?
The building looks much like it normally does at late night. All the NORMAL people have gone home for the day. The front doors are locked, with a single bored security guard relaxing and reading some kind of 'visual novel'. He's not expecting visitors.
Little does he know the chaos that is about to occur.
Yosuke Hanamura has managed to pull a few forces to his banner. Perhaps a few more will come of their own accord, perhaps a couple just randomly feel like raiding SEBEC tonight and are LFG. Who knows. His face is obscured, black fabric covering all but an oval of his eyes, and some hair sticking out. There's a knot tied at the back, and if you look /really/ close, indentations that look like emboss. Yosuke is a goddamn T-shirt Ninja tonight. Deal with it.
He's also wearing a backpack, it looks stuffed with../supplies/, and seems to have a few cans of spraypaint attached to his belt, offsetting the black shirt and black pants because they seem to work every other time he's spying.
The text, sent earlier, had the plan.
We know they're up to shit. We cannot legally go in there. By definition, we must illegally go in there. If anyone's going to sneak in their, their ludicrous security measures must be distracted. That's where we come in. Bring whatever you need to break shit and make people very angry, we're going to run through the building ilke crazy. If you see science, make it unscientific. If you see a priceless ming vase, juggle it disconcertingly before stuffing it over some hapless guard's head. We are going to be a small riot, but we're gonna make noise like a big one. If you are /in/, meet me at SEBEC at
Yosuke Hanamura is, of course, by nearby bushes, obscured from the guard's view.
"Spraypainting Kandori's crap is MY schtick, man." Fumiya whispers to Yosuke as he approaches. He got his call to arms, and though he wasn't expecting to come back here again quite so soon he feels like he should try and make up for last night's debacle. So he snuck out to the side when the others went in to meet Kandori? He didn't abandon them! Honest!
For all of Yosuke's ninja-wear, Fumiya pretty much destroys his stealth just by being next to him because he's back to wearing his usual loud neon clothing. But Fumiya was under the impression that they were going to be causing chaos, so what's the point of trying to hide their identity from a guy like Kandori?
Actually, it's because Fumiya doesn't own much non-neon clothing and after the events of the past few days it's just all in the wash. But that doesn't sound nearly as cool and stuff.
"So..." He whispers again. "Is this a sort of chaos where we use our 'special abilities' or do we keep it totally free of that stuff?"
DYYYYYNAMIC ENTRY!
SHOOOOOOOOM.
Somehow, /someone/ from SEES has managed to get their hands on those colored smoke generators they use on tokusatsu shows. And they're using them right now! The doors are broken through via some as-of-yet vague means, and red smoke pours in! What the?
"Team Awesome, let's go!"
Apparently, someone died and made DESTINED HERO Shiki Ichimonji leader?! Or at the very least, they've allowed him to call that out, although trying to prevent that would probably be like trying to stop a force of nature from doing its thing.
A few days ago, he learned that something big was going down that might just seal the fate of the whole planet. Also, a ghost girl asked him for help and cryptically said "Halloween" before disappearing. And more recently, he's been reminded of the city's connection to the evil megacorporation whose president may or may not be able to reshape reality. And then, the KDA planned to raid them... Like the action detective he is, Shiki managed to combined /all these facts/ to find out the location of the main battlefield to the war that will determine the fate of the planet!
And Shiki runs in as part of the flock of teenagers with attitude that appears! He's dressed in his usual combat gear, though just like in the TV, he's decided to actually wear the goggles. To make him less recognizeable to security cameras, maybe? Who knows! Naturally, he's ready for /everything/ tonight, his unnaturally large pockets containing everything from fireworks to band-aids to a Mr. T car freshener. (For good luck.) It's do or die time!
Anise Thompson arrived not too terribly long ago; she was escorted from Inaba by her new friend Souji Seta and as a consequence didn't have to punch the wind out of anyone from attempting to grope her on the train. It was very nice of Souji; she'll have to thank him for it later. Then, after parting at the train station, she came to her 'internship'.
So with her bow and quiver deposited in the corner of the darkened 'office' that she shares with several other actual interns three times a week as part of her cover story, Anise is quietly recovering after the 'stress test' that she just went through involving her Persona. It was a somewhat exhausting experience but, one does as one must to get what one wants.
Anise turns her keycard over in her fingers, idley and boredly staring at the weak reflection of the dimmed lights on its glossy surface. "Well, I did get what I want." Clearence to engage designated targets at will. While playing James Bond with the KDA was amusing, it was never really going to last. A smile blossoms across her face. She just couldn't, after all, resist dropping the hints to help them. Fire is always the best when it is played with.
Tonight, Lunarvale, it all goes down. Didn't Shiki say it was important? Didn't he say it mattered? Itsuka's not sure about all the details, but honestly...they're not that important. Her world is at stake here, another little battle of her own, and honestly?
Yosuke's invitation is too good to pass up. Itsuka would love to break some things.
At the call, Itsuka is in. This time, she's dressed differently, all in black with her favorite fighting sneakers and her Evoker strapped to her leg. No uniform this time, and no sleeves, either. The cold is going to keep her awake, now. She's got little gear, herself--leave the equipment to Shiki. Instead, she's just got an axe that's entirely inappropriate for a girl her age to wield. She rushes in right after Shiki, beaming even with all the smoke curlig around. The glass shards around her might just imply how that door was broken, though. "Let's do this."
Visiting papa! That's what Rumika was doing here at the SEBEC building tonight. Unfortunately, papa already left, and told her to stay here, probably to avoid having to deal with her all night. Haw haw haw. So now she is just ~wandering the halls~ somewhere in the bowels of the building, a small rubber bouncey ball in her hand which she occasionally bounces off of a wall and catches. Or occasionally she bounces it off a wall and has it smack her right in the goddamn face because that is what bouncey balls do when you unleash their fury.
CERTAINLY NOTHING ABNORMAL WILL HAPPEN TONIGHT. And so she simply continues along, like some sort of small female security guard who doesn't have a uniform or a (real) gun or anything cool like that. How awful. She could at least hit someone in the face with the ball, though. That'd probably hurt for a few minutes if she did it hard enough.
A few days ago, well, Shiki explained that part already. While the ghost girl had not recognized her, the invitation that their masked host extended afterwards cemented Hinata's belief that she had to be here as well. All will be lost? Not as long as this centerfielder's in the game!
Earlier that day, she had been in her room, sliding open the door to her closet. At the end of the rack, past the sweaters and dresses and collection of Gekkoukan uniforms was her special outfit. She had not pulled it out since that week in Inaba, she wasn't sure if she ever could again. Superman needed his cape, however, and Kamina needed his stylish sunglasses. She was going to need her own armor.
So it was that Shiki was not alone in his charge. Racing after him at full tilt is a girl dressed for as little stealth as possible: Her auburn ponytail bobbing as she sprints full-tilt, a duct-taped old bokken slung over the shoulder of a white baseball jersey flapping in the wind. "Team Awesome going!" she cheers with a fist-pump. The MANGAKA HERO and yeah Yosuke too can carry all the special gear, she has everything she needs with her: The bokken, her optimism, and her one and only Ichiro Suzuki #51 jersey.
Tonight, it was her turn to play the superhero once more.
'Don't comment on the team name don't comment on the team name don't comment on the team name...'
That was what was flowing through one Himeru Namikawa's mind right now, as she followed the 'leader' of this expedition in silence. She will give him credit where it's due, smoke generators are a good idea. Clad in her 'combat gear' as she had grown to call the denim-heavy clothing she wore when she wanted to not worry about wear and tear, as well as carrying a heavy backpack, the first year Gekkoukan student stood to the left and slightly behind Dynamic Hero Ichimonji-sama. Or whatever the heck he might be calling himself right now. Bokken already covered with blood yet never dripping a single drop on the floor, the wooden sword rested on her shoulder as her eyes scanned the entrance. The Primary Security checkpoint will be the strongest resistance, they should be encountering fire any minute
She did not bring any face concealement however, it was not in her plans, and she saw no point to it. They probably had her data from the previous event(s) so it's not like hiding was actually possible.
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight." calls out Himeru. They were the invaders, but a warning felt appropriate.
Kanon Itoh has, of course, come along and is here to support this team of interlopers because, uh, well--she's already kind of a thug, so it's cool if she breaks into places. She is in disguise, of a sort, in the sense that she's wearing her full trenchcoat at the moment, most of her body obscured by the heavy thing even as she steps in behind Hinata.
She smiles at her. "No tellin' what's gonna happen in there." She says as Shiki does something crazy.
No mysterious little girls appear. For now.
Glass breaks, and smoke rises. The distracted guard had no freaking idea what was about to happen to him, and he does what's expected: He panics the hell out, hammering the alarm button.
JUST AS PLANNED.
Slider panels come down, beginning to block in the door and stop casual exit (though slow enough were people can do EPIC DYNAMIC ENTRIES if they are so inclined. the guard yells, "HEY! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE IN HERE!" He fumbles for his gun, but can he possibly get to it before the charge reaches him?
Elsewhere in the building, Anise's door opens, and a massive slab of Japanese muscle fills the sudden void. His expression is dark, but amused in the fashion of one who looks forward to battle. Takeda, Kandori's personal bodyguard and enforcer, has made an appearance. "Come. We have intruders." Takeda's smile grows wider. "I do hope they last long enough for us to arrive."
Anise's head snaps up from the languid torpor of exhaustion and at Takeda's words, a thin smile spreads across her face. "I should have brought my hip quiver and chest guard." She says to herself, in English, licking her lips. She falls in at Takeda's flank, already drawing her fiberglass bow and grabbing for a broadhead arrow, her tiredness forgotten as the thrill of expectation starts to take hold.
"Does this happen often?" She makes polite conversation with Takeda as they walk along. Well, as much as anyone can make conversation with a man like Takeda.
Well. Yosuke's dreams of giving an awesome speech before rushing in were just ruined. Whatever. Whatever, he gets to spend the night DEFACING shit, he guesses he'll survive. There's a shrug, as Hanamura rushes in after Shiki, hands in his pockets as he pulls out...firecrackers? Seriously? Not even real explosives? Geh. In any case, he seems to have an easy enough time lighting it, and throwing it at a nearby potted plant. He figures the dirt explosion'll look cool.
"GUYS at some point we have a map, we're going to have to actually look at it"
"But okay just break shit I guess..."
It's not too important. He's headed off to whatever looks like it'll control the PA system. He has a plan, and he's been wanting to do this basically ever since invading evil corporate headquarters became a possible thing. Nothing wrong with splitting up, right? ....right?
HUWAH. PEOPLE. INTRUDERS? Rumika sweatdrops as her hand grabs hard at her Evoker -- she furrows her brow, drawing up close underneath her chin. She's ready to fire, and explode faces with all of her might .. !! .. .. only to be met with the sight of Anise and Takeda, having been conveniantly somewhere in the path between wherever they might be headed. She pauses for several moments, lips parting awkwardly -- she then lowers her Evoker, hanging her head in embarassment as she scitters over to start following them, like the giant dumb she is.
The alarm would not have been prevented even if they probably could have. They're meant to be a distraction, more or less, so drawing attention HERE is within the objectives. Getting shot for it however, not so much.
"You have made your choice." is stated coldly, as Himeru rushes for the guard before he gets a chance to aim and try to fill any of them with lead. Not an experience she wishes for, and the bloody wooden blade is brought to strike hard against the shoulder from the side and slightly below, aiming for muscle and nerve rather than bone to cause his grip to weaken followed by a strike on the hand to either break it or make him drop the gun all depending of how solid he is, the girl doesn't really care about it enough to hold back anything. Having a broken hand isn't that big a deal. Besides, SEBEC is bound to have Health Insurance, right?
"You may want to escape, Guard-san." she does suggest helpfully. No sense breaking more bones than she absolutely has to.
Fumiya doesn't even wait around to get a response from Yosuke, he's not letting Shiki lead the charge for too long!
Even though the young manga artist is already well inside by the time Fumiya clears the doors.
"Alright!" He exclaims to no one in particular, then draws a blank. The hell is he going to do? Antics like this are usually right up his alley, but not when there's a dozen other people doing it too! For a moment Fumiya is a little lost, standing in the lobbey as all the others do their thing, while he tries to figure out how exactly he should /follow/ a crowd?
He doesn't hesitate for long. One thing Fumiya CAN do is make split decisions. It's just that they're not always good ones. For now he looks for large, heavy office supplies that he can use to throw at any security cameras he can see.
A flick of the wrist with the right timing and a simple paper weight can easily shatter a lens. Best to blind their opponent, makes them hesitate and second-guess more.
Shiki half-grins. Yeah, that's the spirit! The originally-named Team Awesome makes its flashy way in, hopefully with the KDA's own enforcers in tow. The guard is reaching for his gun, but Himeru seems to have it handled! This is a good team they have. And Shiki had his knives ready too, but it's okay, they go towards defacing what must be some priceless works of art in the lobby. He only regrets it for a very short moment.
"All right, then!!" Shiki vaguely acknowledges whatever exactly it is that Yosuke said, trying to find the best things to wreck here before Leeroy Jenkinsing his way further in. Oh! This chair should do it. It's an eyesore. He kicks it into a wall, causing it to shatter to pieces. Huh, fragile chair.
And with that done, he heads into an unspecified corridor, running the way Yosuke may or may not have gone. "Okay, moving on to phase two!" Wait, they have phases?
GO TEAM ITOH. "Nee-uh-" Hold on. Were they supposed to be undercover? There's her and Shiki and Himeru looking like they're off for a trip to a baseball game, and everyone else is ninja'd up. Oops. Too late now, eh, she'll just have to explain to Mom 'n Dad just how she wound up on the nightly news busting up a corporate headquarters. And is Himeru's bokken bleeding? Did she cut up some guards when she wasn't looking?
A hand reaches back to squeeze Kanon's with a wink. Sisters are sticking together tonight! Hopefully Ran made it with the other team! And with that, she takes off after Yosuke. "You've got a map? Great!" she shouts, taking a flying leap to a home run swing at a nearby security camera. Its not quite as strong as her bat, but that's where the layers of duct tape come in. " Where are we headed? ... Why are we here exactly anyways? Are we crashing Kandori's office as a group now? And what's phase two?"
Shiki's voice, from afar, "I don't know!"
This is a great team! And Itsuka's sort of vaguely pretending to listen to Yosuke as he talks about his plans, too. She sure isn't going to stop him from going off and doing whatever. Besides, there's a guard with a gun, and this SEES member isn't going to let Himeru and the others handle all the action. She has a reputation to consider!
Reaching one hand up to check that her mask is still in place, Itsuka charges in along after Shiki, knocking over another chair on her way through. "Phase two!" She...wait, Hinata doesn't kow about all this? Itsuka slows down, stops. "Phase two is we get further in!" She's certainly ot making this up on the spot or anything. "Find something that looks important, and /break it/! There's got to be a directory by the elevator or something!" She runs off to look for exactly that.
Kanon bobs her head, and may be looking for someone to headbutt tonight. But for now, she's just chilling out, so far it's just human beings, hopped up on gobstobbers maybe, but nothing she's particularly terrified of so far. She says, "oh, well, that's good. That we have a map," She says, squeezing Hinata's hand.
There is a faint rumbling noise, but its immediate source is not clear.
"Not often enough." Takeda rolls his shoulders as he walks. 'Security agents' in black suits form up behind the pair, each already carrying loaded firearms. "The world is full of cowards."
Takeda looks over to Rumika as he sees her almost Zan the crap out of them, but his grow cracks ever so slightly into a smile as she falls in instead. "Come, little bird. We go to hunt."
Dirt flies everywhere, joining the smoke in an explosion worthy of ballistic tank games. The bokken smashes into the guard's shoulder, causing the gun to drop from nerveless hands, and the follow-up causes him to reel, grabbing his hand and yelling in pain. He quickly falls back, making his escape through a different door than the others. "You guys are crazy! Crazy!" He ducks as a paperweight goes flying, the fancy SEBEC object hammering into a security camera and shattering the lens handily. Hinata smashes the second camera, and the team Zerg Rushes into the building.
Yosuke's search yields fruit as he ducks into a side room and finds a PA commstation. Command?
You guys have a full map of SEBEC. Where do you want to go? The elevators have a directory next to them, information on the contents of all of the floors readily available. Where do you want to go?
Huh, the elevators are even coming down. How convienent.
"Yes, run along now. You don't want to be here when the madness reaches a climax." Let the guard believe whatever he wants, really. Himeru doesn't care, as long as he doesn't get in the way. She doesn't take the firearm herself, unsure how to operate it safely and unwilling to risk it, but she does kick it away toward the corridor to make sure the guard can't just run back in and grab it to shoot them in the back. When the arrayed Troublemaker Forces surge forward, she deliberatly takes a slower pace. She had been ordered to guard the rear 11 days ago, that command had not been lifted formally. Or maybe she just felt it was best she took the task willingly, who knows.
"Nice to see you are doing well, K-chan." she does however say aloud, gaze briefly on Kanon. Hime did not think they would run into each other like this, but the world is made of amusing coincidences at time. For now, she follows the others, mentally preparing for eventualities. "There could be security forces in the elevator, don't be too close as the doors open. We should use stairs however, elevators can be locked down via a computer, and then we would be trapped like rats." is her advice, but if the Leader(s?) will follow is another thing entirely.
Whatever happens happens, Himeru will just tag along for it.
Yosuke takes a stride forward. Pulls up the bottom of his shirt to reveal his mouth, and pulls a small electronic device out of his pocket, before hooking it into the microphone part of the PA device, throwing the old mic off in the corner. What follows is a text-to-speech voice that says...
"Good evening SEBEHK corporate drones! Have some grooving tune-tune-tune-tune-tuuuuuuuuuunes----"
Yosuke cracks his knuckles, and sets it to some music he found on the internet, the other day.
"Makes sense, honest," He says to no one in particular, pulling his mask back down as he continues along the hallway to what is hopefully an elevator to Kandori's office. "...It'll keep security from communicating, right? It's not /just/ about cool tunes."
One of the guards proffers Anise an ear-piece for coordination purposes. "Thank you." She says distractedly as she attempts to fiddle the thing into her ear with one hand.
Only to rip it out a moment later as its filled with annoying sounds and also some music. Anise snarls, just a little, and breaks off from the main group. "I'll deal with that." But she still manages a smile. "Besides, I think I recognised that voice." Placing arrow to her bow, Anise draws back with three fingers in the Mediterrainian style instead of the locally prefered 'thumb draw' style. She can hold a pull like this for the better part of a half an hour before needing to rest her fingers; a thumb draw is tiring quickly.
"Now where, oh were, did that little rabbit go?" Anise asks of herself in her native language, stalking along the corridors apart from the group.
Alarms have been rung! Noise is made! Things are being wrecked! So far so good, Shiki thinks. But yes, the narration brings up a very important point. Where /do/ they want to go? "Tsuka, does it say anything about a secret laboratory?" Hey, if the fate of the world is at stake and there's a megacorporation involved, there's /bound/ to be some crazy crap in a secret lab, right?
But Himeru passes by, suggesting using the stairs rather than the elevators. "Aw, do we really have to?" Wait, what? Bad Shiki! This is no time to be lazy! But her suggestion's good. If they can locate it, and they probably can, then Shiki, and whoever's following him, is apparently heading to the /Science Zone/. ...hopefully that annoying music won't be playing there. It might be a liability to /their/ team!
Right on Yosuke's trail, Hinata comes to a stop right at the door. She glances up and down the corridor hesitantly, as if checking for something. Windows, more specifically. "Did everyone hear that? Did the other team bring any bombs or anything, 'cause I swore it wasn't ready to storm outside." Does SEBEC security carry grenades?
Less worry more ominous music provided by their friends in the KDA. The first-year blinks, then shakes her head, "Evil lab music, huh? You'd think they'd have some of their own!" As he goes, so does she, though Himeru's offered advice has her keeping one hand on her bokken and the other on the evoker tucked into her jeans. "That's pretty smart too. Shouldn't we be headed for the stairs- Hey... you were... uh, I mean we've never met, have we?" No Yosuke here, just a t-shirt ninja!
Rumika perks up just a little bit, taking on a more serious expression -- hunting, huh? SHE WON'T FAIL YOU, GOLDAR. On the other hand, that voice over the intercom rattles her a bit -- whatisthis why is this happening RUMIKA DOES NOT LIKE CHANGE. She bites her lower lip, gripping the hilt of her Evoker firmly; her brow knits a little. She turns her head to look over toward Anise when the girl starts speaking to herself /weird foreign languages/, which Rumika does not understand in the slightest. How strange.
One camera down! Score! And Hinata takes down a second! Score! "Nice one, babe!" He shoots Hinata a thumbs-up. Now that they're working on blinding their enemies, they can have some fun until reinforcements arrive.
At least that's how it plays out in Fumiya's head.
He goes in a bit of a rampage, knocking over trash cans and flipping chairs and desks wherever he can as he tries to be as chaotic as possible. As chaotic as he can be given that he didn't bring accessories anyway. In the madness of it all Fumiya loses track of who he came here with. There's a few faces he's never seen before, but he 'trusts' Shiki enough to bring reliable folk. He doesn't recognize bokken-girl, but makes a mental note to hit on her later if he gets the chance. He has a mental list.
After a few moments he finds himself in front of the elevators suspiciously going down. A lightbulk practically appears over his head as he gets an awesome/stupid idea. He runs to grab the nearest fire extinguisher, (a well-equipped office has to have some on hand yes?) and waits near the decending elevator. Whoever's on board will get a face-full of extinguisher foam! Ho ho ho! It will be priceless.
Itsuka had almost forgotten about Himeru being the rear guard, but knowing she's back there is a good thing. Someone she can trust, right? And her advice is pretty good--even if it's hard to hear over the sudden chaos--and is that /music/? ...She's alright with music--she calls back, "Got it! No elevators! Everybody, be on your toes!"
And with that, things are /weird/. "I uh, I can't tell!" He used her name! "But I'm sure that whatever's importat is going to be on a really far floor or something, right?" She pauses, and also slips over to the side of the elevator, checking her Evoker in its holster. "I know! Let's ask one of the guards! ...we'll just, um, keep one conscious."
"Hey Yosuke." Kanon says, "...Is Kandori the person who made your girlfriend a cellphone?" She headbangs lightly to the music, finding it fairly catchy. That rumbling noise hasn't stopped, time is a factor here. This is enemy territory.
But it's hard to tell on Kanon's face because she's just so mellow. Gosh.
The elevators come down with a pleasant, faint chime to let people know they have arrived.
The doors open to reveal a large number of men in black suits and hats, with automatic weapons. This isn't good. The fire Extinguisher goes off, and it saves Team Awesome from an initial hail of gunfire. SEBEC security shoots first and presses charges later.
It looks like there's a promising R&D department up on the third floor. Ready to run up some stairs, Shiki? Especially since the Japanese Hulk and Superduckie just turned the corner. "YOU!" Takeda yells in a mighty voice. "THE ONE WHO IS MOVING! LOOK AT ME!" Takeda moves forward, knowing Anise the Huntress is getting into position to snipe. This is good. "I hope you know what you've gotten yourselves into, little ones." Given he's almost absurdly huge for a Japanese man, it's understandable why he calls them little. "Don't let a single one escape!" Takeda yells, as he hurls himself forward, bringing mighty fists to bear. And right behind him and Rumika? More gun-toting agents. Oh crap.
Yosuke doesn't respond at first, waving Kanon and Hinata into the elevator with him, before pulling up his shirt again. "I know they won't stop /this/ elevator---" He chuckles a bit, looking down. "He's got a few expresses, for some reason--anyway. First; the stairs are probably also trapped, and will just turn into a slide like you see on children's shows. Seriously. I'm starting to get a feel for how this guy works. I'm...going for a specific thing I wanna pluck out of his office. I figure if I gotta mess up anywhere in this place, his personal office has to be a good target, right? Right?" He cracks his knuckles, and presses the top floor button.
"Besides, what could possibly go wrong? The bullets are being shot down there, we're up here, all's well."
Yosuke Hanamura ...belatedly, looks to Kanon. "--no. That may or may not have been my fault."
Shiki didn't use your name, Itsuka, he's not /that/ stupid! He used your nickname, which has one less letter.
But hey, her idea seems like a good one! And Fumiya has managed to incapacitate potential security guards in a goofily nonlethal way, too! And it seems they're headed to the third floor, which is at least better than, say, the eighth.
But while he moves towards the stairs... What's that rumbling sound, anyway? And that terrible shout? Since he's moving, Shiki must be the one being called out. He turns around to check-- His eyes widen. Oh no! It's a... big guy! A... /really/ big guy!
The mighty fists almost catch him by surprise, but the boy's light on his feet-- he practically dances out of the way, just in the nick of time! This new Persona he got really is pretty great. He might be able to dodge like this for a little while and maybe even escape, but he's completely overlooked Anise's presence, and then there are /other agents/, too. Huh-oh. Little help, team?
Haaaaahahahahaha! Take that, elevator-boarding thugs! That'll teach you to be potentially flammable! As the fire extinguisher empties, though, Fumiya realizes the goons are, in fact, packing an entirely kind of heat. So he does the most reasonable thing he can think of.
He chucks the empty extinguisher into the elevator and quickly ducks behind the first thing he can see that looks like it might cover him.
"Damn.. damn..." He mutters to himself, trying to get a grip. He's finally gotten used to the whole 'horrific mind monsters' thing and now he's being spooked by the mundane again. He knows his Persona toughens him up, but he hasn't really tested the limits and he's unwilling to do that testing with something as extreme as automatic weapons. Dammit, where the hell is Hanamura...
Escaping up the elevator they used last night. Super.
When Takeda and friends arrive, there's not much else he can do. If they're cornered, then he might as well put up a fight. He springs to his feet and answers Shiki's silent call for aid! He runs up to Takeda and tries to land a punch in the big man's big face.
Team Flashy is go!
With the alarms ringing, the odds that the elevator would carry normal salarymen were low. Fumiya's initiative earns him a few props, good thinking Neon Man while she moves out of direct line of fire from the Elevator Security Squad. "It's not impossible that the stairs would be trapped in such a way, but if you can't climb a forty-five degree slope then what business do you have here?" retorts Himeru, "The enemy would be as impeded as us anyway." Which is not the case in the elevator, which would be a trap just for them she would see no way out from. Worse, you can gas an elevator cabin, while gassing an entire staircase would be time consuming and have better odds of escape. And if there are explosive traps in the stairs...well that's just bloody insane.
Yosuke's path will not be her own, not unless Shiki and Itsuka find themselves agreeing with it anyway. However, pressing trouble has come.
Takeda is...large. Scarily so. Direct confrontation sounds unwise, their amount of firepower too great to try and fight on even footing. One hit of that sort of fist would send her into a wall, there would be no parrying knuckles of that magnitude. Speaking of magnitude, what's with the inconsistant shaking, really? No time to ponder it.
Unfortunatly, she isn't carrying the Trap or Smoke Bomb supplies, and the movement toward the stairs is enough for the blackhaired girl to dash that way herself. Good choice, she thinks.
Her, the one who is looking at this big guy. Itsuka is that person looking, and she's...kind of excited, when the huge group comes all in. At least, it /would/ be that way, with how their awesome plans are working (fire extinguisher!), except that in the chaos, it seems that someone is going after their fearless leader.
It's the big guy.
As Fumiya runs up ahead of her, Itsuka draws her Evoker, her feelings hidden by the mask she's wearing...to a point. She calls right back to the big guy, "Touch him again and you'll regret it." She closes her eyes a moment, and pulls the trigger. A small, white-clad red fairy-type being appears, and a blue glow moves underneath Shiki, meant to harden him against wounds. Her power, just for him.
Yosuke is in luck, his reputation hasn't quite spread across SEES. His plan is sound, his logic impeccable. Whether this reputation will last remains to be seen, however.
The Itohs are following right behind him into the elevator, the youngest sprinting in first at full-tilt. The back wall is there to stop her as she slams into it palms first. She's OK, she just needed a backstop! A quick spin around and she's grinning to the ninja. "That's right! You think he'll be up there, though? I've heard wierd things about him. Uh," a quick glance to the door to make sure no black suits are listening, "Is it true that he teleported Yuuka-senpai into your room?"
'What could possibly go wrong?' Yosuke asks.
As if in reply, an arrow blossoms out of the back of the elevator shaft, between Yosuke and Kanon's faces. It waggles there for a second and a half as the force of the impact travels down the wooden shaft and disperses into the wall. There is very likely that quite moment of 'oh crap, that was close'. Anise slips into the elevator just as the doors close behind her. Things get extremely cramped and now no one has the room to swing a punch, summon their Persona, or act without causing unwanted collatoral. Anise certainly can't draw and pull in these conditions.
"Hello, /friends/!" Anise says with entirely too much zeal and affability.
Things get quiet and awkward quickly. 'The Girl From Ipanema' plays over the elevator's radio. Anise takes it upon herself to be a proper host and make pleasent conversation. "So, are you all wearing masks because you are cowards, or because you think that they'll help?" Her green eyes shift over to fall on Yosuke at that statement. "Oh, pardon me a moment." Anise says, using an arm to move the littler Itoh out of the way of the back of the car. "Thank you." She says pleasently.
Haaah. Takeda will handle you, you big housewrecking jerks! Rumika, on the other hand, stands a little bit behind; she draws her Evoker, but does nothing with it quite yet. She instead glances along the assembled Hero Team members -- at least, as best as she can manage -- and, well, none of these people are people she cares about injuring. How delightful! She stands ready, sparing a glance over toward Goldar as she waits for him to strike first. Like some sort of injury-capitalizing puppy.
THUNK. Suddenly there's an arrow that, Kanon is pretty sure, was intended to not take out her eye but rather to startle her. She finds this interesting and she plugs the arrow out of the wall to take a look at it. She twists it around her hand for a moment, and then looks back towards Anise.
"What the crap?" She asks.
Yosuke does not /completely/ startle when the arrow is fired right by him. He leaps backwards, sure, he grips that...grippy thing tightly, sure, but he doesn't completely startle. Yeah. He didn't /actually/ scream, so it works out. His eyes slowly, slowly turn to Anise as she fits into the--Ffffffff
"Man, I totally had you pegged as the /not/ evil one that day." Yosuke snaps his fingers. "Guess that tour's off, sorry." At the comment about masks, he merely snorts a bit. "Hey. You get one chance in your life to dress up like a ninja legitimately for ninja purposes, I'm taking it--can we save the epic battle till the elevator gets up top here? Too much pyrotechnics and the cable above'll drop us both to our doom. It's cool, pretty sure his office has enough room for that stuff."
"You just want to trash his office." Kanon says.
Thunk? Its not every day that you wind up with a lethal projectile aimed that close to your head. Its the first for Hinata, at least, and she's not afraid to startle, jump back, and grip the very handy elevator handles. Though there's not much in the way of fear there at first. "Whoa!" A warning shot? That was... not expected?
Neither was the girl squeezing in after them. Friends? "Hey, uh, have we met?" Its all too surreal right now for the requisite banter, she's certain she's seen this girl before! The best she can manage right now varies between perplexed brow scrunches and head tilts. "And what mask," she points to her own unhidden feaures. "I'm no coward, uh, hey!" Hina's squeezed right up against Kanon, its a very awkward fit inside the car right now. "... No problem," she grumbles.
"He does?" She sighs, "I knew I should've followed Shiki."
The agents in the elevator are still incapacitated due to extinguisher. Give them a minute. Do you know how much of a pain in the ass getting that stuff in the face is?
The mighty fist sweeps through the empty space, and Takeda frowns, a scar on his chin rippling. "A fast one." His eyes shift as he sees Itsuka unleash her Persona. Unfortunately, he doesn't look very intimidated at it. "This will be a good fight, then." He chuckles, flexing under his suit. "You break into the building, wound our security, and cause us trouble, and you tell me /I/ am the one who will regret it." He chuckles. "You're going to be lucky if I only break you in two! Let's see what you've got! NOPPERA-BO!" There is an explosion of blue light around Takeda, and a faceless creature appears, a masked marionetts with purple hair.
Oh, great. The massive bodyguard ALSO has a Persona.
The pair raise their fists in unison, and with a roar, smash forward, the pair crashing into the floor and sending a whirling shockwave of air rising from the ground towards the clustered group! "COME ON!" Takeda laughs.
Meanwhile, in Yosukeland, the fifth floor looks... different. The hallways' been completely rearranged. so has the entire floorplan for the rest of the building. The agents don't care. they're shooting when they get shots.
"What is this 'we'?" Anise replies to Yosuke. "/I/ would make it out of the top hatch in time." But she humors this request for the moment, smiling back pleasently. "Oh no." Anise does, however, correct Yosuke. "No, no, no. You aren't getting out of the tour that easily, I'm still holding you to that. So you die here I'm going to be /most/ cross with you. Most cross in/deed/."
She gives Kanon a pleasent little smile. "Don't like Bossa Nova?" She asks, in English. "Gilberto isn't the greatest, I'll admit." She follows this up by patting Hinata on the head in what is typically thought to be a dismissive fashion. "I don't think so, sweety, and no, you're not. Good for you."
Anise then, of course, rounds back upon Yosuke, because seriously. "But /evil/." Anise sounds scandalized as she shifts back into her stilted, tenuous Japanese and perhaps, just a little hurt. "Really now. One little arrow between friends and suddenly I'm evil." Anise places a hand on her hip, the motion jostiling Kanon and slapping Hinata's thigh with her bow lighty by accident. With her 'free' hand she brushes a few stray blonde curls back over her shoulder to show her disgust. "Some people."
"I frigging do NOT just want to trash his office! Th-there's a very important thing I have to get from his office, okay, can we /try/ to look like a cohesive fighting party until we're finished with her?" Yosuke snaps back, "Seriously, I..."
"Fuck, this isn't his office." He adds, peering past Anise.
He pauses a moment, pulling his backpack around as he starts pulling things out of it, dropping a few firecrackers and cherry bombs on the ground, before making sure there is enough /room/ for something.
"Look, seriously, you're clearly not an insecure girl who's being lead around by the nose, you don't look blackmailed, or mentally deficient. You're working for Kandori. You are pretty much ev-GO!" He says, swinging the backpack in an effort to smack Anise right in the face, looking to Kanon and Hinata. "QUICKLY! This shoulda lead to the top floor"!
It might be the top floor, but the hallways look all rearranged, as if some total jerk went and decided to map-edit the entire place to be as confusing and annoying as possible when you weren't looking. Got Google SEBEC handy?
And the team DOES help reckless little Shiki! Yosuke's heralding of doom draws Anise's attention away, Fumiya Leeroys even harder than even the goggled boy would dare, and Itsuka... lends him some of her power? Now isn't really the time, but it's hitting him now just how rare that is.
Speaking of hitting him, Shiki's little dance can't last forever-- and now, even the big guy's got a Persona too! That one, he can't anticipate so well. A shockwave erupts from under him before he can leap out of the way once more, and he loses his footing, sending him rolling towards the rest of his group!
Thanks to Itsuka's little trick, however, he barely seems to be bruised by the sudden assault. Quickly, he staggers back up to his feet and draws his Evoker. Time to show what /he/ can do, then!
In front of him appears his brand-new Persona, Lilim! For once with Shiki, she doesn't seem to be some horrible caricature of the official design, but the observant will note that the demonic woman is wearing her hair rather short. How odd.
Smiling mischievously, she leans towards Takeda and, for as long as he'll allow her (which, to be fair, will probably not be very long), plants her lips on his, mercilessly siphoning his life energy. If the group intends to escape, then this should at /least/ keep the big guy distracted for a precious second or two. The rest, the others can probably handle somehow. "Let's go, everyone!" And Shiki takes off into the other direction while his inner succubus(?!) does her thing.
Itsuka would have a great comeback if she were in that elevator! She isn't, though. She's instead faced with a massive Takeda who's commenting already about their group's speed. Or someone's speed. Anyway, she looks dead at him while he's talking to her, through the mask, and just smiles.
He has a Persona? That's alright. She does, too. And she's not afraid of other Personas.
The blast of air buffets her, anyway, knocking her into a nearby wall--was that wall there before?--where she has to take a second to catch her balance. "Spread out, everyone!" She follows her own advice, taking a run over to the side, but she takes a minute to notice Shiki's new Persona. ....She's so cute! But...it looks like...
"I'll cover you! You go first!" She puts herself between Takeda and Shiki, looking the big guy's way. "...I've seen worse. LORELEI!" This time, it's water--it's not that powerful, but it aims to crash right through Takeda and whoever else might be behind him.
Maybe she hasn't seen her before. Hinata would've shrugged it off if she wasn't also petted like she was the resident kid of the group. Which she was. But that is completely besides the point! She scrunches up even more, face matching a familiar internet emoticon. As her thigh is slapped, the first-year squeaks and squirms herself, her bokken now poking up at Kanon's hat. "Listen, if you start shooting at me, that's not going to get you on my Christmas card list and," her growing annoyance shifts to Yosuke, "It isn't as if we've teamed up before! We should've practiced first!" C'mon, top floor... she's getting stuffy and huffy and...
Ding! Hinata bolts right past everyone, stopping once out to catch her breath. "Freedom- eh?" Oh right, she has a bow. Excellent work! Yosuke gets a thumbs-up from the youngest Itoh before she sprints off again, heading for the first sharp corner she can spin around. Now to find the office door labelled 'Kandori', 'Boss', or 'Here You Bastards'.
The sight of Captain Gorilla summoning a Persona is just making it worse. It would have been plenty bad enough without him also possessing supernatural entity summoning abilities. Himeru takes cover behind the wall of the stairwell, but even that cover proves useless as the ground itself done quaketh and the young girl stumbles, falling to the floor very ungracefully. She doesn't care if that's not a proper word, because Takeda's attack just doesn't seem to be something she can define in a better way than 'quaketh'. It's like Quake lv2, or something.
"Ow."
Shiki doesn't have to say it twice. Hoping there will be no further Takedatremors, she begins the ascent. "Which floor?" she shouts while running, finding strange amusement about having unexpectedly switched roles of point and rear with Itsuka. Nothing to fret too much about, Hime's more worried about the risk of guards erupting from higher floors to cut them off. The bloodied wooden weapon might just see more use soon enough, for better or worse.
"Ah, nah." Kanon says, in English, though she's a little hesitant in using the language. It's apparently not her first or second. She holds onto the arrow, and adds, "Just, you know, wasn't expecting another passenger. What's your deal?"
The little girl who talked to Shiki before appears before him, briefly, shimmering in the light--before he can stop he literally runs right through her. If he looks back, she's gone. How helpful.
"Go on ahead," She tells them, "She has, you know, /a bow/."
She turns around, stepping a few feet back. "You like a good brawl?" She asks.
Fumiya's punch... doesn't connect? Wait, where'd that guy go so quickly? He's a big guy! Big guys aren't supposed to be quick. Fumiya quickly pulls back and jumps out of the way as Itsuka calls out her Persona. "Hey hey, should we really use that on... uh... normal people?"
Fumiya's question is answered in an indirect way as Takeba calls out his own Persona. The annoyance visible on his face as it happens. It took him /months/ to eventually get his own Persona after he was first exposed to this supernatural hullabaloo, yet people signing up for mundane jobs at SEBEC get them? Do the customer service reps get one too for when callers get too rowdy?
The blast of air knocks him back, but doesn't throw off his balance. Not about to be outdone by a walking slab of beef with a face drawn on, Fumiya calls out his own Persona, no longer caring about holding back against muggles. "Kick his ass, Murugan!" Fumiya commands, calling out the four armed, peacock-riding, war god on Takeda. Murugan charges, attempting to impale him on his lances.
Hinata slows down to glance over her shoulder. Wasn't Nee-san supposed to be running with her?
*DING*
Anise slams a foot against the back of the elevator and heaves, hurling herself backwards as the door opens. Yosuke's pack scrapes along the underside of her chin as she flies, then falls back into a tight combat roll that leaves her crouched and ready to pounce. She launches her readied arrow back at the elevator after Hinata's already slipped out; odds are either Yosuke or Kanon will 'intercept' it as they try to push out of the narrow doorway.
Hinata slowing down may have been a bad idea; As she looks over her shoulder, she is less likely to see Kanon and much more likely to see the arrow that Anise launches down the corridor after her.
There is no time for Anise to wonder why the elevator stopped on a floor that it could not have physically stopped at; in fact the very notion that it did doesn't occur to her. While she doesn't recognise the layout, she doesn't have to. "What, you want my life story?" She asks of both Kanon and of Yosuke. "You should be more worried about my arrows then my motivations!" As she ducks back around a corner for cover, she drops a pair of arrows into the air at once. It's a neat trick, but accuracy does suffer some from using a bow in ways it wasn't meant to.
Kanon can't stop the launched arrow for Hinata, but she isn't going to give Anise a chance to launch another one that easily. Even as she runs for cover, she is already giving chase after Anise, swinging her fist for her as she aims to duck behind cover, the arrow she caught previously in her hands...
...and glowing an unusual purple color...
...as she aims to slam it into her gut. It explodes a moment after impact if she doesn't manage to avoid Kanon's charge.
"Sure, whatever!" She says.
Lilim reaches out to give Takeda a nice little kiss. And steal his life energy. Takeda grimaces as he's smooched, his eyes going wide from the pain of having his life leeched out. With a roar, he reaches out and GRABS the Persona with his bare hands, using his colossal strength to ram the apparition straight the hell into the wall. The resultant countershock back to Shiki might be unpleasant. He looks over at the wave of water, setting himself for the impact. The wave hits him and he grimaces for a moment from the powerful impact, but he doesn't seem to be significantly moved. "So many of you. Am I so fearsome?" He smiles grimly, and launches forward. "I WILL BREAK YOU!" He is intercepted by Murugan, who stabs out at Takeds. The weapons sink into his flesh, but not nearly as far as one might expect. "This... isn't going to stop me..." He growls, reaching for the lances and once again manhandling the Persona with sheer brute strength out of the way! He stands there, breathing and looking down at his wounds, before he shakes his head. "You'll have to do better than that!" He leaps forward, this time striking for Shiki once again! He seems to be the de facto leader of this group. He punches out in a brutal combination attack, before suddenly changing it up and spinning around to deliver that most deadly of attacks, the roundhouse kick!
By now, the agents in the elevator have recovered and begin firing on Fumiya, bullets whizzing past him in a hail. Good thing he has cover!
That was not the epic backpack maneuver he was looking for. Yosuke awkwardly stumbles forward a bit as she leaps out the doorway, arrow cutting into his side as he rushes out of the elevator. "Damnit!" He cries, one hand going to his side as he limps a couple steps. "...Damn, okay, I can..I can deal with this. Jiraiya~!" He jumps a bit to the side as the second arrow nearly clips him, the frog ninja standing directly behind him. Hands are dug into pockets, knives are pulled, as he readies himself. "Let's just bowl her over!" He rushes forward, shoulder front as he attempts to go right for where she's hiding. He may or may not vault over her cover.
Slowing down really was a bad idea. Hinata glances back just as Skuld raises the alarm, both too late to help. There's a flare of searing pain from her shoulder, and the sprinter stumbles in mid-stride with a yelp. Her Persona prevents what would have been a catastrophic wound, but that's one hole in her jersey that she's going to have to hide from Mom 'n Dad. Not to mention it /hurts/.
Pain can do a lot of things. So can pain inflicted by other people. For the ponytailed girl, it mainly sets her temper up to a varying degree between 'righteous anger' and 'oh no you didn't'. There's a glare back at Anise as she yanks the arrow right out with more of a screech this time. It really does hurt! Her other hand's already on her evoker, and biting back through the tears she raises it to her head. "Skuld!"
A flash, a cloud of blue mist, and a woman shrouded in veils appears, her shield held high before the girl. That is it, the mist dissipates and takes the norn with her. Its also dissipating faster now that Hina's off and racing back the way she came. "That's it! No Christmas card for you!" Her Persona will still protect her with the shield, the better to absorb any incoming arrows during her charge. It'll take her and the wound-up bokken a while though, she's not going swinging in while Nee-san and Yosuke are in her arc of clobber!
Wait, Shiki can't leave Itsuka behind! He hesitates a moment at her words. ...but then again, he should probably stop worrying about her so hard. She's gotten stronger, hasn't she? "All right. Remember our promise!" What a weird moment to bring that up. He nods, then takes off for real in the same direction Himeru is going, while Itsuka and Fumiya, still behind, try to keep the pursuers at bay for an instant.
Before he can get very far at all, however, the impact of Lilim's hitting the wall painfully resounds through his body, a shocking contrast to the... oddly pleasant feeling of life energy filtering into him just a second before. "Ah!" He nearly loses his footing in his run, but-- there it is! It's that strange apparition! He can't slow down before running through her, however, and... sure enough, when he turns around again, she's gone. Well, at least this is a reminder that he must be on the right track.
However, this little pause is enough time for Takeda to keep him in the fray. The first strike hits him in the back, then the next ones, then the deadly roundhouse kick! Coincidentally, he slams right into the wall not very far at all from where Lilim was smashed.
This could have pulverized most other people. But Takeda's target, this time, was Shiki Ichimonji, who happens to be a particularly stubborn Persona-user, and who's been made just a little bit more invincible about a minute ago, to boot. It only takes him a second to get back on his feet, grab ahold of his chest for a moment and cough up a copious amount of blood. "Gurk."
...okay, what that out of the way, he wipes it off with his sleeve as best as he can, staining the yellow fabric into a sick orange. So it looks like there really is no escaping, huh. "Persona!" This time it's Gawain appearing, the large, silver knight swinging its enormous poleaxe at the massive bodyguard. If /that/ doesn't keep him down...
Fumiya winces as Murugan's attack falls short of doing any real damage, and his Persona is flung aside like a rag doll. "Goddamn, this guy's some kinda monster." He mutters. Maybe he's hopped up on drugs and is feeling no pain? Whatever it is, Takeba is proving himself to be more than a grunt.
This makes Fumiya think they were hitting Kandori a lot closer to home than he first thought. Well they wanted to raise chaos, so here it is.
He looks around the area, trying to make a note of where everyone is, and realizing that just about everyone else has run off one way or another. So it's him and Itsuka versus Captain Beef? "Craaaaaaaaap." He sighs. Not that he doesn't have faith in Itsuka's abilities, but it's just that Takeda seems more like someone who needs a full party to tackle. Two plucky heroes won't cut it.
In fact make that ONE plucky hero, because Fumiya is pinned behind cover once more as the elevator goons put the pressure on him. His hands cover his ears for a moment as the hail of bullets whiz by him. "Alright, this has strayed into ugly territory." He says to himself, preparing to call on Murugan again. "We need to get ahead of this mess..."
Jumping out from behind his cover during a break in the gunfire, Fumiya calls on Murugan again to call down an Arrow Rain on the pack of goons. He hopes they're Personaless and he also hopes this does it, because if not they'll be stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Though he has a moment to mutter under his breath, "There better be some Topsicles in this for us when this is all over, Hanamura..."
People rush Anise's position like gang-busters, mistaking the range on Anise's weapon to be a weakness in the way that she fights. As Yosuke is 'first over the wall' so to speak, he has the misfortune of finding Anise's outstretched leg waiting to trip him. As he bowls past, she's already twisting away from her position in an attempt to tag him from behind, but that's when the next in line comes up.
Kanon fares considerably better and her punch doubles Anise forward and launches her backwards, saving Yosuke from being shot in the back... for now. As she lands on her feet (a good three feet away, no less), Anise wipes at her mouth with the back of her hand and smiles at the trickle of blood that it dabs at. Thankfully she ate a light lunch today or else it'd be on the floor of... a quick glance about tells Anise that she has no idea where she is. It doesn't matter. Thankfully, the conditions keep Hinata from turning this into a three man melee pileup for now.
"Now THIS is a challenge!" Anise calls out in triumph as she does something that is probably unexpected; she charges forwards. "ALECTO! ILLUMINATE MY SOUL!" Persona, Persona, call out your Persona... and up from the ground springs a woman, clad in a toga. Her eyes are blindfolded and the wings on her back are appearently made out of barbs and arrows. She raises an arm and up in front of the charging Hinata springs a pillar of water, unbidden from the ground, before Anise snaps her fingers and flash-freezes it into a pillar of razor sharp ice.
But Anise isn't done, firing a shot on the run at Kanon as she attempts to dodge past like a football player evading a tackle. Anise has to keep moving, she can't take enormous amounts of punishment like the meat miracle a couple floors below... but that just makes things more fun! Anise aims for Kanon's foot in particular, trying to pin it to the ground to cripple one target's movements. Yosuke gets off lucky for the moment, as Anise comes at him with an unloaded bow and a simple (unlady-like) left hook! "Somehow, I'll live without the Christmas card!" Anise replies, strangely jovially for someone locked in mortal combat.
Itsuka is trying to be all heroic back here, but it would seem that it's harder to get away from Takeda than she'd imagined. She winces despite herself at seeing Shiki's persona so abused, even though she can't actually see the reaction of her boyfriend himself.
That changes as the guy actually kicks Shiki into the wall, and her eyes snap his way. He coughs up blood, and summons, and...That's it. Itsuka holsters her Evoker, looking straight over at Takeda again. Most everything else is blocked out of her mind. "...That's going to be your last mistake today." She says it in a cold way quite at odds with a cheerful schoolgirl, and shifts the presence in her mind again--calling on Yaksini, the strong one, who will make her blows strike true. She charges, axe clearly meant to chop the big man in half as best she's able. Gunfire? It's over there. She has a Persona. She'll be just fine.
Himeru Namikawa slows down to a walk. The sounds of struggle were audible enough, but for a long six seconds it comes to be the obvious that she's the only one who made a dash for the stairs and actually made it up, the others staying to fight an inevitable loss. To remain in one location in this building, filled with security, and likely plenty more of potential reinforcements including Persona-users...staying still is no better than just waiting to be taken down and taken prisonner, if they would even BOTHER with such things.
"Shiki Ichimonji, you reckless idiot..." Not to mention the others, but she would feel bad calling Itsuka an idiot, and 'Neon-Man you idiot' sounds silly. Heck, the people who took the elevator are probably faring better right now. Maybe?
She's no architect. Himeru would have about 1 in 365896th chance of causing a structural collapse with her Persona's power, it would be a wild guess as any and she has no doubts that while Hannya can damage a wall, asking for that sort of damage would be too much. She didn't come packing demolition or sabotage equipment either, most of her backpack was medical and food supplies.
"Well, I guess I have no choice." The mission must go on. She has to trust them to know what they're doing, they're more experienced than her at this. Heck, for all Hime knows it might be a test. And so she moves further up, opening the door of the third floor with force if necessary. The 2nd floor is never where anything useful would be, logically. Her face however has lost the mask of calm and control, as the blood on the wooden blade swirls like a maddened tornado.
The goal, to her understanding, was to cause a diversion via chaos and property damage. They will have it.
Yosuke is..not happy about the trip, somehow finding the reflexes to curl and roll a bit. Not enough to do some kind of epic 'get back up instantly', maneuver, really, he just kind of twists midway and rolls along the floor a bit, but it's better than a direct smash to the ground. He gets up just in time to /not/ get arrowed in the face, but rather just in time to receive a left hook directly to the jaw. He's stable enough to stay kneeling, though, standing up as the archer resumes moving. He pauses a moment, and then pulls a can of spraypaint from his belt. It's bright orange. He /likes/ bright orange. Next effort? Rush at the archer, and try to blind her with Science! If...by science, we mean bright orange spraypaint sprayed directly into her eyes.
DELINQUENCY MANEUVER LVL.2 : FLAGRANT DISDAIN FOR WARNING LABELS
The girl doesn't immediately reappear.
Kanon seems to be a professional fighter, someone who got into scrapes well before she had a persona to make matters easier for her. She has a balanced stance, one that doesn't seem to favor either offense or otherwise--but does she have the mind of a hunter? Probably not. But she IS a fighter. The arrow disintergrated upon detonating (not like an explosion, more like an expulsion of energy). She shakes out her hand and sees---a persona summoned!
"--She has one too...though I guess I shouldn't be surprised..."
She swings her hand, expecting Anise to fire at her face, but she takes the strike in her foot--an unfortunate place to be shot when your primary style of combat is one based of dance.
She grunts, ducking down to look at her foot. She can't move quite yet, having to think about how to escape this without mauling her foot--
"Urdr! Your turn!" She shouts.
The Persona of the Goddess of the Past appears above Kanon's head--sending a wave of darkness power for Anise's body. Simply keeping Kanon from moving doesn't mean she can't strike back.
Every video game Hinata's played so far has made archers out to be weak in close combat. This does not seem to be the case today. She's got too much of a head of steam built up to stop now, however. This centerfielder's going to get one good swing in with her stick if she has anything to say about it!
A wall of water might, she thinks, it would make things slipper. A pillar of ice, on the other hand... "Ah!"
Her trajectory is too straightline, the pillar too central for her to dodge without getting sliced up or worse. There's no time to think of anything too crafty, she goes with the first thing she can think of. And the sprinter immediately hits the linoleum hard in a spread-leg slide. The bokken is shoved forward as if both attempting to steal second and get a bunt at the same time. "C'mon..."
Skuld's shield hits the pillar first, right before the bokken itself. The first-year comes to a near-stop, the bokken bending, then breaking in half. She's still moving but the momentum has died, and Hina comes to a full and complete stop an inch away from the razor. "Eee...." Something about close shaves comes to mind, but she's too busy trying not to wet her jeans rightnow.
And to think that archer girl is so jovial about it too. Hina shoves herself back with her broken bokken, hopping up and already moving again with her hand on her evoker. Keep moving, look for an opportunity, what were they here for in the first place. Diversion. Property damage. Survival. Nee-san is hurt.
"Nee-san!" She's a sitting duck! The evoker's trigger is pulled, and Skuld and her shield appear again. Only this time before the stuck Kanon. Because protecting family comes before insane delinquent maneuvers. Though that does give Hinata and idea...
The battle starts to take its slow but inevitable turn against Anise; the local conditions don't favor her fighting style and she doesn't know the area well enough to seperate her three enemies and pick them off one by one properly. Yosuke's cleverness slips through her guard. Anise raises an arm to block Yosuke's outstretched hand with her leather archery bracer. It works, but it does nothing to stop her from aerosol to the eyes. She recoils with a four letter word in her native language, bringing her whole arm up to guard her face. Alecto, above her, mimics the movement with it's left wing, tellingly. Then moments later the darkness washes over her and throws her forwards, back towards Yosuke.
And even though it's strained with pain, Anise manages to bark a laugh. When she speaks, it's in her native English (the Queen's English, of course, not that bastardized gutter-slur the Yanks are inordinantly proud of). "Yosuke, I must admit that you are a man of a different colour then I thought you to be... ha ha, I think I'm going to have to respect you more then I originally thought I would! We're going to be very good friends until one of us dies!"
And then Anise sweeps her arm backwards away from her face. Alecto also mimics this movement with her wing, sending a hail of barbs and arrows out towards the Itoh sisters to harass them and keep them pinned. Anise is too busy expressing her friendship to Yosuke to properly deal with them.
Yosuke doesn't get the arrows; instead Anise holds her bow cross-wise and tries to jam it as best as her blurry vision will allow up at his throat to wind the boy. That would be a decent start, because on contact, she tries to flip the weapon around to work the bowstring over his head. Anise quickly reverses from a push to a pull, twists her arms, and pirouttes towards Yosuke's back, trying to ultimately both garrotte him while using him as a human shield against the other two.
Argh, Shiki doesn't have time for this! They were supposed to escape, not keep on fighting this guy! But it's just not that easy-- He's good at this. The boy watches once again as his girlfriend takes his getting injured the wrong way. He's not even that hurt! There just... must be something semi-important broken somewhere in his organs. Otherwise he's fine!
Nothing healing magic can't take care of, right?
But no... The goggled boy has apparently overestimated his own sturdiness, probably due to being so used to the defense afforded by the mighty Gawain. It still hurts. He's not even sure what, but it /really/ hurts. He's pale, unable to keep his vision in focus. And then... oh no. Oh no!
It's not very hard to grab ahold of Shiki and start crushing him-- there's a snapping sound or two, the exact source of which is left to the reader's imagination, and then he's used like a ragdoll to defend Takeda from Itsuka's own attack. The blade cuts into his chest. His mouth opens, but there's no scream.
His eyes can't /focus/ on anything. He wishes he could see Itsuka's expression, tell her it's not her fault-- Of course, if Takeda's looking for a fight, Shiki might still have one in him, but he's going to need help. His fingers move aimlessly, fumbling around for his Evoker, and they do manage to grab ahold of it! And immediately, the gun slips out of his bloody, weak grasp. Huh-oh.
Fumiya is momentarily struck dumbfounded at how /excessively effective/ his Persona was against the army of goons. He quickly turns away from the bloody scene, his face a little white, as he he keeps repeating to himself 'they were trying to kill me first they were trying to kill me first'. And, besides, maybe they're not dead? They could be getting better.
"Ok, focus." He slaps himself on the face to bring him out of his daze. He's not going to screw this up for everyone by making some rookie mistake. After all, Shiki's situation needs attending to--OH CRAP.
Fumiya's just in time to see Takeda get Shiki in a bear hug. He can't afford to let that go for very long. Unfortunately he's not really close enough to get to Shiki in time. But Itsuka is. And there is that one ability of Murugan's he hasn't made much use of yet...
"Hey babe!" He calls out. "Head's up!" Murugan appears and raises his lance into the air, causing a crackle of red energy to manifest around Itsuka.
Murugan casts Tarukaja. STR up!
"Clobber him one real good!"
Itsuka is pretty reckless, it's true. But Himeru she can trust to go on and do whatever she needs to do. And that's just fine. This is supposed to be a diversion. So she's being diversive, right? Charging the big bad guy, going into the fray, just like always? It's kind of like a game, only, there's bleeding and pain and the guy is already starting to go down and--
Her axe sinks into Shiki, the girl unable to halt the momentum of the new, heavier weapon. It's for the best that Shiki can't see her face. It's locked in horror, as she just freezes, unmoving. "I-I'm sorry...I...Please..." She has to do something, she--
The red glow appears underneath her, Fumiya's voice calling out to her and breaking the haze she was in. There's a choice, a moment--her axe is still in her hands, wet with blood, and Shiki is right in front of her. She feels strong, powerful...Just strong enough.
There's murder in her eyes--perhaps to a professional, it's unmistakable. But she doesn't lift her weapon, letting it go quickly to instead grab Shiki, pulling him loose of whatever holds him there as hard as she can. Infused with magical strength, she's got a better grip than she has a right, and her other hand is already smoothly going for her Evoker. "PERSONA!"
A wave of healing green energy washes over Shiki--Diarama. She knows what she wants most. ...It isn't blood. But it's a close second. She has her eyes on Takeda the whole time, and her axe is close to hand.
She whispers, "I warned you." She's going to kill him.
She figured she would be intercepted fairly quickly, but she would give SEBEC's security forces kudos for moderatly intelligent positioning. Maybe they were coordinated or communicating still even with Yosuke's meddling, or maybe they just had a Standard Procedure. Either way, Himeru swiftly takes cover still in the stairwell, watching the gunfire impact the wall past the doorway with mild interest. Their shots have rhythm, and at one point they're going to have to stop...
As soon as a breather occurs in the fire, which she is fairly sure will not last long, something erupts in the doorway of the stairwell of the 3rd floor and it's not human. Hannya and Himeru may be linked and harm to the Persona would transfer to her, but she can't do some of the things it can. Like shine a darkness so strong it sears the eyes and minds of the people who look at it. And they're probably not swift enough to realise the danger of the maneuver before they get one good look at the light. One look is all it takes...
Evil Shine was the gentle touch of a sledgehammer, and for the problem she faced it seemed like the right touch. Assuming the gunfire ceases, the Gekkoukan student ventures into the third floor.
Kanon says, "Well," after a moment, "At least she's friendly?" she looks at Yosuke and jerks her head a little in Anise's direction. Her persona tries to protect her body from the barbs and arrows, but several slam for her body--and would've skewered her, if it wasn't for Skuld's interference! SISTER: SAVED! One manages to slip past the guard and slice into her side, but it's not nearly as fatal as the alternative.
She gets the arrow out of her foot carefully and says, "Thanks!" to Hinata, flinging the arrow back at Anise. Once again, as before, it's glowing purple--and will explodinate upon impact.
Yosuke Hanamura meanwhile, gkks a bit. Well. Anise has /almost/ accomplished what few can ever say; she's /nearly/ shut Yosuke up. But before he dies to choking /again/, he thinks--wait. When was the las--oh. Oh! He knows how to get Kanon to forget the fact he's a shield....
"Kanon..ghgk...w...was just...fghalgh...fucking with you...yeah i'm daigan..."
Another arrow slices the centerfielder along her shoulder as she comes racing in, but Skuld's saved the day for both Itoh sisters! Or at the least prevented a far more painful attack. Hinata slides to another stop alongside Kanon, standing right alongside the eldest of the mafia- er- sisterhood. Two Itohs being more powerful than one! But how are they going to save Yosuke? If he was worth saving in the first place? "I'm not sure if I like friendly any beter than 'kill everyone'."
Shiki's so weak. He's no hero. It seems it wasn't so long ago that he was on top of the world. He could even keep up with his respected senpai's berserk Persona! And then... he made a horrible mistake. The same mistake his father did.
He got comfortable.
And then, he finally manages to get a look at Itsuka. She's a much better fighter than he is, isn't she? And she's going to fly into one of those berserker rages again for his sake, taking her anger out on whoever wronged him. He closes his eyes, waiting for whatever terrible attack she's got planned while he sits there like an idiot, bleeding out.
And then, she... pries him off and... heals him?
Shiki's going to remember those Light Side Points, you know.
Something goes terribly wrong in the midst of the struggle. Klaxons begins to sound, ripping even through Yosuke's phat jamz on the PA. Even as Takeda prepares to try to snap Shiki's neck, the entire building undergoes a terrible lurch, causing him to drop Shiki. He scowls, and lunges towards them with a scream, but...
A white wave of light rips through the building, exploding through and consuming everything before it in formless, painless light.
Thoughts cease, washed away in the whiteness. Time and space lose all meaning as it warps and shifts around you. There is a vague feeling of motion, as silhouettes twist into something resembling a tube before you, drawing you forward into a new explosion of light and feeling...
/=======================( - Mikage-cho - East Side - )=======================\
| Nobody in their right mind would have truly considered the west side |
| of Mikage-cho to be anything good. It's when they step out into this part |
| of town that they may, indeed, have to say it was the good part of town. |
| The east side of Mikage-cho, separated from the west by a giant black |
| barrier, is covered by a darkness that is most difficult to see through. |
| The streets are in shambles, the most functional being merely half-built. |
| Next to nothing is recognizable from current day Lunarvale. The hospital |
| has been replaced by a foreboding castle. Joy Street has returned to being |
| the Black Market, and the SEBEC building is nowhere to be seen, in its |
| place the haunted house from Lunarvale's past. |
| The demons here are ever nastier, and you cannot find a single soul |
| moving about the streets. The colorful barrier around the town remains as |
| it was in the west, suggesting there is no (conventional) escape... aside |
| from running to the west through the subway tunnels. |
|===============================( - Players - )================================|
| Shirou Sekigawa[KDA] <Charon> Yuuka Chiba[SEES] <True Unicorn> |
| Yosuke Hanamura[KDA] <Berserker> Tohru Adachi[NWO] <Sacagawea> |
| Wataru Hoshimoto[U] <Agravain> Deidra Doyle[SEES] <Xuanzang> |
| Reid O'Lennon[DS] <Samyaza> Kanon Itoh[DS] <Urdr> |
| Tohya Kidzuki[NWO] <Persephone> Naomi Suzuno[U] <Ma'at> |
| Miwa Saitou[DS] <Ratri> Thora Kobayashi[KDA] <Br'er Rabbit> |
|===============================( - Objects - )================================|
|================================( - Exits - )=================================|
| Mall <M>:Mikage-cho E - Karma Palace |
| House <H>:Mikage-cho E - Haunted House |
| Castle <C>:Mikage-cho E - Castle Mana |
| Residence <R>:Mikage-cho E - Fulfilled Dreamhouse |
| Spire <S>:Mikage-cho E - Onisaka Tower |
| Tunnel <T>:Mikage-cho - Subway Tunnels |
\============================================================================/
