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Aint Got Time to Bleed; [Chika, Aleph, Yuka, Akio]
Topic Started: Oct 12 2013, 06:31 PM (2,221 Views)
Nonsequitur
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Yellow Bubblegum
It all happened fast. Way too fast. Out of nowhere this new Shadow appeared, it attacked Yuka and it was over her. She hadn't a weapon, and she was immobile as it came closer. Just what was it planning on doing?

It grabbed her, she tried to recoil away, useless as she was pinned to the ground, She had an intuition that whatever happened next, would have taken her out of the fight. She blurted out, quickly.

"Chika! Akio! You have to get everyone ou-"

She didn't get a chance to finish her statement. Her assessment of the younger Serizawa told her his judgement was shaky at best, and his sister she thought was too inexperienced to make informed judgements in the ruins. That left her to rely on the others to get them out safely if she couldn't.

…and clearly, she couldn't, it took a few disorienting moments to realize just where she was: Another part of the ruins, unfamiliar to her. Teleportation magic then? What were those spells called? Tresto? Trafuri?

…so now that meant she was alone with the Agent. She glared back up at it defiantly, the most she could have managed in her current situation.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
The room into which Maki Yamada was transported was unremarkable in the extreme. In such a sprawling place, that was the norm, but having been whisked away in the span of an instant, without anything to orient herself with, it was also a problem in and of itself. It meant there was no way to tell where she was in relation to where she'd been.

In fact? She was directly below where she'd been. This room was simply one vertical hop from the circle of webbing on the floor in the corridor above. It seemed to have once been either a breakroom or an office belonging to one of the better-paid employees of the laboratory, but the furniture here was so trashed that it was impossible to tell which--the splinters of wood could either have been a desk or a table, it was impossible to tell which, and what looked like they might have once been cushioned chairs were equally in-pieces off to the side, their once-comfortable cushions gutted, said "guts" (actually fluffy cushion innards) scattered about the floor. One yellow chunk of this inner material lay on the floor not an inch from Maki's free hand. Sadly, such a thing was useless as an improvised weapon.

The fedora-wearing Shadow remained crouched at Maki's side, and did not let her go. The instant the teleportation spell completed, the barrel of its gun was under Maki's jaw, held there, promising instantaneous and very final death at the twitch of its finger if the woman did anything other than exactly what the Agent wanted.

It held this position for a time span than might have felt like seconds or years depending on... well, depending on Maki. And then, its sunglasses blinked again. This time, however, the remained black as night.

And then it spoke, in a whisper:

"What..." hissed the Agent, "is your name...?"

---

Chika heard Maki's parting cry and all she could do for several moments was stare in denial. She had to get them out? They had to get out? No, there was still time, there was still--

Her eyes fell on the Strider that Yuka faced, and her ears realized that the two behind her were still making clanking noises. Yuka's charging slash did what her Earth spell wasn't quite potent enough to accomplish: it dislodged the Strider from the ceiling complete, left it blinded and flailing about on the floor. Unfortunately, this also meant it was blindly flailing its bladed legs, which was liable to injure Yuka if she wasn't careful...

Chika twisted around toward the others. She saw Aleph next to her with his saber drawn, and felt a moment of apprehension. He might cut her in his attempt to cut her feet free, and--

"Don't worry 'bout me!" she snapped. "Kill the Shadows first or they'll tie another of us up! Fire! Fire and weapons!"

It was clear at least what Chika meant by this last statement: Aleph's fire magic had ignited the ceilingbound Strider easily, and Chika's previous sword strike had cut through the floor-Strider's legs almost like they were straw practice posts. As Chika observed this, reaching out to one side to reclaim her sword (she could cut herself loose with much more confidence than she could allow someone else to, because she could actually tell where her feet began and ended under the webbing), she held out her other hand. A spark of electricity built up at her fingertips before she saw the state of Akio's head--

--so much blood--he was weak against physical attacks like she was, and that had barely missed his eyes, and how deep was it how deep why didn't she have any healing magic what she wouldn't have done to have healing magic she could help with instead of this stupid corrosive Dark magic--

She refocused on her target: the injured Strider on the floor, and blasted it with a bolt of Zio. It twitched backward, and for the moment, it was vulnerable. The one on the ceiling, however, clicked and clicked across the ceiling, shaking and flailing its spherical main body as if hoping that would extinguish the dying flames on its body faster. For the moment, all three Shadows were a bit too occupied with injury to attack.

Now was their chance!

Chika's right hand found the back of her sword's hilt and she managed to pull it closer, close enough to lay her hand atop it and assert some sort of grip...
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TheGameFreak
Upupupupu~!
Aleph looked at the Shadows as they were now occupied with getting themselves out of their respective predicaments. But Maki and the fedora person had disappeared without a trace, and there was probably nothing that either he or Yuka could do to find her. But they couldn't leave her.

Aleph turned and noticed that Akio was bleeding from his forehead, apparently having been stabbed by one of the Striders. Aleph quickly rushed over to the boy and started pouring a Dia onto his forhead. "Are you okay?" Aleph asked. Aleph looked at the Strider flailing around on the floor, then threw an Agi at it.

Meanwhile, Yuka smiled as her katana managed to incapacitate the Strider, but she soon found herself recoiling back as one of its sharp legs came dangerously close to stabbing her in the face. Thank God it didn't, though. She looked up to see one of the Striders had been set aflame, most likely from her brother's Agi spell. Yuka tried to finish it off by throwing a Magna at it.
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GKG
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when ur team wipes but ur ult is at 15%
The pounding in Akio's forehead weakened slightly when he felt an healing spell being poured into his wound - in a way, he'd been lucky to be weak against physical attacks: the Strider's attack had just cut through the bone instead of fracturing it, which could have had pretty nasty consequences on the long run. The young man wiped away the blood from his eyes once more, but this time he had the time to see what was in front of him before he had to do it again - the cut hadn't been completely healed.

"...Yeah. Thank you. I'd need another dose, though." he replied in a croak as Aleph asked him if he was alright - well, he certainly didn't feel hunky dory at the moment, but he was aware enough to help in the current situation, at the very least. He tried his best to aim a wind spell at the nearest Strider, but he hadn't had enough time to concentrate to strike with much accuracy.

Did he feel dizzy ? Damn, he hoped that the wound hadn't messed up his brain or something like that...
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Nonsequitur
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Yellow Bubblegum
The finer details of her situation, especially just how close she was to potential help were lost on Maki. Instead she had to take in what she could, and had much more immediate concerns.

…her name? It wanted to know her name? It's motives weren't known, but with the implied threat of painting the room with the contents of her skull to deter noncompliance told her it was an interrogation.

She stared back at this humanoid Shadow, unsure of what to make of the new development. She waited as long as she dared before the Agent decided she was giving it the silent treatment.

Not answering would end badly, as she was at its mercy, but…as far as she knew, it had no idea to tell if her answers were truthful or not. Or even if they mattered.

"…they call me Mister Tibbs."

Why did that quote pop into her head at the time? Well whatever, it seemed to fit.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
The Agent seemed utterly unconcerned and unimpressed by Maki's answer. It also seemed totally incapable of telling whether or not it was actually her name. The creature leaned closer, placing its pale face right up in front of Maki's almost in kissing range. Its next question, however, might have sounded a bit like a karmic slap for Maki's smartass response.

"What... is your quest?"

---

Chika managed to lift her katana, and, pumping that small trickle of required magic into it, activated its Sukukaja enhancement--as the spells cast on her earlier had already worn off. Cutting at the webbing around her feet was awkward, but with sharpened perception, she could at least be confident in her ability to react in time if it turned out she was cutting in a bad direction. She looked up, and saw something rather unexpected: a stone projectile blasting the flaming Strider off the ceiling, nay, not simply blasting it off but splatting straight through its eyeball. The monster was dead before it hit the ground, but before it hit the ground it also hit the Strider below it, driving that monster to the ground as well...

Aleph's fire spell likewise finished off the Shadow that Yuka had been confronting, leaving the team clear on that side as the lone Piercing Strider caught flame, flailed its limbs even harder, and then stopped flailing completely. It was roasted, and then it was melting ingloriously.

The remaining Strider pushed itself back up onto its legs, advancing toward Akio, but a second bolt of lightning from Chika's hand struck it in the eye. It gave a jolt, it stiffened, and then its remaining six legs snapped up, recoiling beneath its spherical torso, and it fell to the ground, rolling sideways like... a dead spider.

Which it was. Dead, that is.

"Akio-san..." Chika said, her voice tense with worry. "Akio-san, are you alright? Officer Yamada is gone, taken away, we need to look for her we need to... damn those spiders!"

This she snapped angrily as she resumed cutting her foot loose of the sticky material holding her down. Every moment wasted was a moment during which Maki--the woman she'd trusted and who'd been there when she had told her story--could have had her brains blasted out.

And the worst part was she could literally have been anywhere right now. Where were they to even start?!

---

Battle Results
 
Chika Nakadachi's Persona, Tisiphone, has leveled up!
- Strength has increased by 1!
- Agility has increased by 1!
- Luck has increased by 1!
Tisiphone has learned Double Fangs!
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TheGameFreak
Upupupupu~!
Aleph and Yuka smiled in triumph as the Striders were finally destroyed. However, there was still the matter of Maki's whereabouts and making sure that Akio didn't bleed to death. Aleph nodded at Akio and poured another Dia onto his face.

Yuka sighed in relief as she resheathed her katana. The excursion went from normal to batshit over the course of a few minutes. "We have to go look for her. But for all we know, she could be anywhere right now." Yuka said.

"Well, Shadows can't exactly leave the ruins without exploding or anything." Aleph said. "So, it couldn't have taken her far."

---

Battle Results
 
Akira "Aleph" Serizawa's Persona, Adonis, has leveled up!

- Strength has increased by 1!
- Endurance has increased by 1!
- Agility has increased by 1!


Yuka Serizawa's Persona, Arianrhod, has leveled up!

- Luck has increased by 2!
- Strength has increased by 1!
Edited by TheGameFreak, Nov 4 2013, 05:14 PM.
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GKG
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when ur team wipes but ur ult is at 15%
Akio waited until Aleph had poured yet another Dia into the wound on his brow to reply to Chika's question. "...Yes, I'm fine. I was lucky to be under the effects of my Sukukaja." he replied, wiping the blood away from his brow one last time. At least, it wasn't bleeding anymore - even though he now had blood all over his face and would quite probably need a good cleaning before he came back home, lest his mother start to ask him awkward questions.

"We need to be methodical. I'm not sure if splitting up would be a wise idea, but the simplest thing to do is still to call for her. I don't think we'll have the time to search if we don't try to do it calmly and efficiently..." the boy said - he was visibly a bit pale from the bloodloss and the pain he'd just endured. Feeling a blade cutting through you with such ease... kind of made you put things into perspective.

"But we're already losing time. Let's go." Akio prompted the others to snap right back into the action.
Edited by GKG, Nov 4 2013, 06:00 PM.
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Nonsequitur
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Yellow Bubblegum
As it tried to learn from her.

First her name, and now her quest?

That was a strange, archaic way of saying goal? 'Who are you and what are you doing here?' Almost reasonable questions to ask a captured enemy.

She thought about it: Just what, if anything, was being done with the information this Shadow demanded? It could be nothing, but the questions were far too focused for just some Shadow's idiosyncrasies. She strongly suspected that they'd be used against the collective group of Persona users exploring the ruins.

It was better to lie, or better still, give useless nonsense noise responses, at least for the time being.

"…I quest for the Holy Grail."

…nii.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
"What..."

Once again, the Agent seemed to give no sign that it understood the sarcasm of Maki's answer. It simply powered on through the next question.

"...is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallo--"

And then, abruptly, its voice cut out. It didn't break off; it was more as though the audio switch had been flicked off mid-syllable. It blinked again, or rather, its sunglasses did... and this time, when the "lids" opened, the lenses were yellow.

"No more games," the Agent said suddenly. "Tell me, Mister Tibbs--what would it take to push your friends upstairs into the state you call 'Monster Form?' What sort of mind games might do the trick...?"

The agent's free hand abruptly snatched at Maki's hair, taking hold, violently jerking her head back so as to emphasize just how vulnerable the underside of her jaw was.

"Answer me..."

---

As Chika cut herself free of the webbing, she looked up, and got a closer, clearer look at the injury on Akio's forehead. If he was weak against physical attacks like she was, then an attack like that, if it had been any more direct--or--or had it been direct? Chika felt a moment's panic. It had been her call, in the end, her who'd decided to keep going.

But I'd rather choose negligeable progress over lasting harm any day of the week.

Any lasting harm that happened on this trip was her fault, hers, like Alan's eye, all a result of her recklessness, she'd been so sure continuing on was the right way to go, the logical choice, but had it just been an excuse for more--for more--

The girl scrambled to her feet, for a moment looking around frantically, then, feeling an almost negligible fidgeting motion on her ring finger, a little, minute scratching that did no harm but reminded her of the dangers of losing her grip on her emotions, she stopped. Took a breath, breathed it out.

Methodical. Calmly. Efficiently. The simplest thing to do was to call out.

Chika sheathed her sword, then cupped her hands in front of her mouth. When she called out, it echoed through the halls, left, right, back, ahead...

...and it was also loud enough that it could be heard in the room directly beneath the floor they were standing on.

"OFFICER YAMADA! ARE YOU THERE? ANSWER ME, PLEASE!" Chika called, and some of the desperation she was trying to suppress leaked out, as she felt compelled to add: "I'M NOT LEAVING WITHOUT YOU! ANSWER ME! PLEASE!"
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