| With Friends Like These; [Shane, Masumi, Kakeru, Shiki, Kuzuki, Naoya - Ask First] | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 13 2013, 03:27 AM (622 Views) | |
| The One True Nobody | Nov 3 2013, 05:34 AM Post #21 |
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
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Masumi simply kept walking, shaking her head. "I'm not--sure, no," she said. "It takes a bit for me to pick out individual Shadows at a distance. I can guide us down a clear path and... well, I'm not really sure what to look for. Does anyone know the 'name' of this copy-Shadow? Kyo-san didn't say. I guess my best bet right now is to look for the first Shadow I don't recognize. If it involves one Shadow a clone-thing it created, then... I can at least rule out single, lone Shadows. So that's something..." The fortune-teller stopped at an intersection, holding out a hand, undecided. It was four-way, one path straight, one to the right and slanted downward as if the cavern it was built in had weighed it down and caused the hallway to bend a bit. One to the left, which was just another hallway. And-- "...There are..." she murmured, "eight Shadows within my range, one group of three, three individual Shadows, and... one pair. Down that way." She raised a hand and pointed down the slanted hall. "Something about one of those two feels odd. And powerful. I can't get a fix on it, though. The other one feels like something I can actually 'look at,' does that make sense? Well, it's tough to put into words. If we get closer I can check." --- "Great..." Shane muttered, shaking his head as he moved toward a door on the other side. "That's a thing, I guess. Well, let's just hope you don't have to do that too much, because it'd be a pain if you ran out of magic before we found the fucking thing. Wherever the fake Nanako went, I hope it isn't too far, because this is going to be a really tedious game of in-and-out if she d--" And the he opened the door, and then a fist swung out to meet his face. It hit, square in the jaw, and the impact caused Shane's head to snap to the right, even though it didn't hurt at all. Shane blinked, and turned to look. For a moment what he saw was anger: yellow-eyed fury and hate that just so happened to be wearing Nana Samurakami's facial features, hairstyle, and long-skirt ensemble. Then, before Shane could properly get a guard up, or draw his sword, or anything, before he could do so much as make a feeble swipe at Nana's swinging arm, the green-haired facsimile and slammed another fist into his stomach. This time it hurt: there was a Zionga spell in that punch. Shane's world seemed to go blank and numb for several moments, his muscles seizing up, no longer cooperating with anything his body had to say to them. Then he stumbled backward, out across the hall. Grinning in a strangely cheerful way (that was a bit closer to the Nana he'd seen around from time to time), the fake Nana stepped out into the hall in pursuit. It had been holding its sword on its shoulder the whole time: both punches had simply been delivered with the other hand. The blue-haired boy managed to choke out a swear and bring Force Edge out in front of him in a two-handed grip, but in his haste to establish a defense, he failed to get proper footing. Shane Spencer fell unceremoniously to his rear end on the hallway floor, which was in no way a dignified stance from which to fight this kind of enemy. Briefly, Shane caught a glimpse of the ballroom-dancer Shadow lurking in the room behind the fake-Nana--then she was lifting up her sword to deliver a very basic vertical cut... and the sword began to spark with yet more electricity. This doppelganger wasn't stupid enough to attack with pure physical force more than once, it seemed. "Kuzuki! A little help here?!" shouted Shane--there was a blue glow and a buzz from his sword, as Shane batted the katana aside with a Force-infused swing of his blade. It didn't have the desired effect he'd hoped for, the katana didn't show any visible cracks or damage, it was either too well-made or afforded some kind of added durability by its recreation in Shadow-form. |
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| Prince Arjuna | Nov 3 2013, 08:33 AM Post #22 |
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-insert something witty here-
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Kakeru simply followed the fortune-teller while Shiki followed from behind. When Masumi told them that she detected some Shadows, Kakeru walked to her side, looking at the direction of where Masumi was pointing at. It was quicker than he thought if it's their target. "Let's get closer, then..." he suggested. Meanwhile, Shiki just kept following these two. She was humming a tune and twirling her tanto with her fingers as she did that. |
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| Icarael | Nov 4 2013, 10:42 AM Post #23 |
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Robespierre Did Nothing Wrong
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"You needn't worry about me running low on energy," Kuzuki said, closing his fist around the lightning ball to extinguish it. "I think I might have more than enough to--" And then there was the crack of bone on flesh as the Nana-shadow socked Shane in the jaw and stomach. He stumbled to the floor. The Nana-shadow followed, her blade crackling with lightning. It all happened so quickly that by the time Kuzuki pulled out his sword and slipped on his mask, Shane was batting away a furious strike from the Nana-shadow. "Hold on! I'm coming!" With a shout, Kuzuki dove at the Nana clone, swinging in a wide arc to distract it. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something in the room ahead, shaped like a ballroom dancer. "You take care of that," Kuzuki said to Shane, pointing to the dancer-like Shadow. "I'll deal with Nana here." And with that, he placed himself in front of Shane, sword held out in front of him. |
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| Czernobog | Nov 6 2013, 09:34 AM Post #24 |
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Best Influence.
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"How powerful are we talkin'?" Naoya asked Masumi. He kept the barrel of the flamethrower pointed upward, away from his comrades, the tongue of dark blue flame dancing in place. He then glanced over at Shiki and Kakeru: "That 'un could be our guy...mind if I take point? This bastard needs a bit 'f room t' breathe, 'n' I'd hate t' be lugging it around just f'r th' hell 'f it." It was his hope to exhaust the acetylene quickly and drop the tank. He'd come back for it at a later date, because they could be refilled if you knew who to ask. Perhaps he should figure out the formula for acetylene and make it himself? That would probably be more cost-effective, but who knew how complicated the process was. The precursor chemicals would probably be cheaper than the finished product, after all... |
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| The One True Nobody | Nov 6 2013, 12:40 PM Post #25 |
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
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"That's pointless, Greenhair Senior says the singing thing's invincible until we kill this one--" barked Shane, rolling out of the way in the moment Fake-Nana became preoccupied with blocking Kuzuki's sword swing. "Shit, why the hell couldn't you have been this prompt when I was trying to lure out the real you?!" Shane leapt to his feet, Force Edge humming with magic as he established a two-handed, textbook guard stance. "What do I know about this bitch... throws a mean punch, has a pretty decent grapple hold, hurls lightning and dark magic doesn't work. That about covers it. And her Persona was, uh--Izanami, did she say on the forum? Does that even matter? Whatever." The green-haired Shadow didn't seem to care too much about Kuzuki for some reason; once it had parried his swing and moved to the side to avoid his dive, it rushed past him, attempted a token elbow aimed for Kuzuki's jaw, and then diverted straight toward Shane again, the vicious intensity in its eyes almost manic in the sense that she just didn't fucking like him very much. Welp, Shane thought, as he snapped his finger, casting Quicksilver in time to dodge aside, evading another Zionga-slash... I guess she wouldn't like me very much, would she? Tch... Shane swung his Force-infused blade for Fake-Nana's midsection--she caught it with a solid block, and her sword held as well, her surprisingly non-feminine, muscled arms shaking only slightly under the strain of impact... could a genuine katana really stand up to this sort of strain? Somehow Shane didn't think it should have been able to. Probably had something to do with it being part of the Shadow, then, after all. Shit. --- "I can't say. I can only really get a basic idea of how powerful something is, I couldn't tell you, say... what spells it can cast, just, name. Arcana. That's all," the fortune-teller said in a somewhat let-down voice. "I'm probably not as helpful for this sort of expedition as the more experienced scanners..." Masumi let Naoya move ahead of her with his flamethrower as she spoke. The woman sucked in a breath, and the group moved down the slope... nearer... nearer... "Melodramatic Mistress," Masumi announced. She could feel them, just waiting there in a wide chamber up ahead. It looked as though the laboratory complex was partially giving way to natural caverns in this direction, and, squinting toward the end of the hall--yes, it wasn't so much a "chamber" as a small patch of cave. Cave... Cave meant rock. Rock meant Earth magic. Well, shoot, it went somewhere with a home field advantage! Crafty bastard, Masumi thought. "Well, that, um... is an interesting name, isn't it! It sounds like something that might wear a ballroom dress, though. The other Shadow, is um, I can't--" she said slowly. "The um, the other one feels like a Shadow but it also sort of feels like... a Persona-user superimposed over a Shadow. I can't tell a Persona name, but the Arcana is 'Tower.'" |
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| Prince Arjuna | Nov 6 2013, 05:47 PM Post #26 |
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-insert something witty here-
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"Yeah sure..." Kakeru responded to Naoya. When Masumi said that she detected the Melodramatic Mistress and a presence that resembled both Shadow and Persona-user, Kakeru smirked as he unsheathed both Hanamatsuri and Rekka. "Then we might have hit a jackpot..." Shiki conjured her mask and prepared herself for the encounter. |
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| Icarael | Nov 8 2013, 09:47 AM Post #27 |
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Robespierre Did Nothing Wrong
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The crack of wood on metal sounded as the Shadow-Nana parried. Kuzuki's arms shuddered with the force of the blow. Behind him, Shane jabbered on about Nana' powers, strengths and weaknesses. Shadow Nana pushed backwards, and Kuzuki broke away, not wanting to cross blades for much longer. As Kuzuki reared up to strike again, Nana's elbow shot out. Kuzuki raised an arm to block. The elbow slammed past his arm, grazing his cheek: he spun back, stumbling, letting Nana shoot past him to strike at Shane. "Shit," he said through clenched teeth. Thankfully, Shane caught the Shadow-Nana's next strike. Her back was turned: she was busy wrestling with the Force-infused blade. Kuzuki hurriedly infused his sword with a Hama spell, then did a quick thrust aimed at Nana's back. |
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| Czernobog | Nov 8 2013, 04:51 PM Post #28 |
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Best Influence.
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Naoya moved ahead, flamethrower held at the ready, and dropped into a crouch, duck-walking forward so that other people could toss magic in over his shoulders should they decide to. Someone stepped around a corner in the patch of cave. Suit. Devil mask. Tower. He spotted the movement ahead, and responded by raising his flamethrower, and charging it with maragion. Normally, a rig like the one on his back could produce a cone of flame maybe five meters long and three wide at the end. With the magic, he could triple that, and cause it to burn much, much hotter. He had assumed this would be enough to handle the enemy quickly and easily. This reasoning had been faulty. While he managed to singe Tower's suit, the shadow-copy quickly conjured up a magarudyne, pushing the cone of flame back toward Naoya. He tried to pump more power into the spell, but it wasn't nearly enough to overcome the enemy's attack. He felt himself lifted up and tossed down the hallway, the top of the acetylene tank scraped the ceiling and levered him up into it, sliding him face-first along the exposed pipes there. He tried to shout, call for help, but he couldn't produce enough sound to be heard over the gale. And then, when the mass of wind had passed, he tried to draw breath -- but the spell was only half-finished. Because where the air had moved, there was nothing left. He plummeted to the ground, buffeted by the thunderclap of the air rushing to fill the vacuum left by the wind spell. Naoya lay on his back, his spine feeling twisted and sprained, then rolled and tried to push himself upward, to see how the other three had fared against the vicious wind spell. |
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| The One True Nobody | Nov 12 2013, 03:35 PM Post #29 |
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
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While it seemed to pay little heed to Kuzuki, the Nana copy's situational awareness was greater than its single-minded focus on Shane made it appear. It caught the flash of light magic out of the corner of its eye, as Kuzuki infused his weapon with it, and, giving Shane's sword an upward push to redirect it away from its body, it threw itself aside in an attempt to evade Kuzuki's sword. While it managed to send Shane's relatively cumbersome weapon on an awry arc above its head, it did not manage to completely evade Kuzuki's strike. While it escaped a fatal skewer through the spine, the light-infused blade left a wide gash on the copy's left side, wider than the blade's edge, Shane noted with some interest--and the skin and clothing around the wound became a an even wider splotch of bleached-light-burn, or something, Shane had never seen an injury quite like that before--not on a Shadow, and certainly not on a human. The Nana-Shadow's momentum carried it into the wall, and on impact it gave a disproportionate, full-body cringe. Whatever Kuzuki had done, it had left this Shadow hurting, alright-- "Now! While it's--" But then the Shadow-Nana swiped its sword horizontally through the air twice, sending a wide-sweeping Gale Slash toward both of its opponents at once. Shane, who had been moving to rush the Shadow, felt himself buffeted back by an impact to the chest. He looked down. There was now a really, really long gash across the front of his shirt and coat. "God... damn it!" --- "Oh, balls." It was a swear she'd heard Kyo use a few times and the moment she saw what the Tower-Shadow was doing, Masumi knew she had to get the hell out of the way or probably break like a waxwork. So she quickly reached for one of the doors to the side--it was unlocked! And she opened it and dove inside, barely in time to avoid the devastation of a spell well beyond anything she was capable of producing. By "dove," I mean to say that she jumped to the ground and threw her hands over her head. She could hear the rush of what might have been a hurricane just outside, and-- CRACK! The door, unfortunately, had opened outwards, and that meant it got caught up in the Magarudyne. The hinges gave one, single, solitary warning crack, and then a second, louder CRACK! sounded the door being blasted clean out of its doorway, sailing and flipping end-over-end down the hall toward anyone who might have been directly behind Masumi at the time. A blunder worthy of Ryuunosuke Makoto, to be sure. Oops? |
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| Icarael | Nov 15 2013, 01:13 PM Post #30 |
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Robespierre Did Nothing Wrong
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The Shadow-Nana's slip to the right did not go unnoticed by Kuzuki, who threw himself at the same time. His blade slid home with a squelch, and sent the Shadow into the wall. Holding his blade in front, Kuzuki prepated to close in, only for the Shadow to send a gust of razor-sharp wind at him. He raised his sword to block, only for the impact to knock it out of his hands and send him staggering. When he rushed to his sword, sharp pain sliced through his midsection. He cupped his stomach: wet warmth seeped through his fingers. "Oh, shit." He channeled a Diarama into his hand, the heat of the spell seeping through to his insides. The effort left his head spinning, but he managed to snatch his sword and ready himself. Edited by Icarael, Nov 22 2013, 10:17 AM.
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