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Late Night Visitors; [Closed]
Topic Started: Feb 18 2014, 07:16 PM (1,113 Views)
The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Masumi wanted to keep her ear out for further noise outside the room, if only to have some idea of what, if anything, was happening to Etsuko. There wasn't room for her to focus on anything other than the two assailants in front of her and the doorway they'd entered through, though.

The woman saw the crowbar swinging her way, and her first thought was that she had to avoid the curved end; a blow to the side with the blunt bar wouldn't be half as bad as the end, which might be something closer to an axe blow than anything.

She didn't have time to get out of the way in the recovery from her throw, but she did have time to twist and move to the side. The curved part of the crowbar missed completely, but the blunt end hit her in the chest. She vaguely had time to wonder if that would have hurt more or less if she were wearing something more or less than a sleeping bra--whatever the case, the result was quite a lot of pain, the blow almost instantly blooming into an ugly bruise, albeit unseen under the sweatshirt pajamas Masumi wore.

That, at least, had prevented her from suffering any broken bones or worse, but it also knocked her off-balance; she had to move away from the crowbar-wielder, and almost tripped over the futon. "Guh--!"

For a moment she looked like she was about to tumble back overtop of the futon, but at the last second she managed to set one of her legs on top of the mattresses behind her, and jumped up onto it, landing on it in a crouch. The two men were now between her and the dresser, though... her situation was only getting more and more hopeless...

At the top of the stairs, Etsuko slowly tensed, eyes flitting from the woman to the place where her fellows were. They were probably going to do something, and soon. The rip in her side wasn't showing any sign of bleeding any more slowly, either... she would probably open it wider if she did anything with that arm, or even anything that involved twisting her middle. On the other hand, Masumi could heal minor injuries with her magic, and if she kept her hand over the injury, that would limit her ability to react to things...

Caught in indecision, she remained where she was, watching the stairs like a hawk, and the stand-off continued. They would have to move first; the only question was whether or not she could do anything once they did.
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Nonsequitur
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Yellow Bubblegum
On his way home from work, he decided to call Masumi. He got the standard 'no service' message. At once, Benkei turned his route from his own home to her place instead. Something wasn't right, so he shot a private message to the kid who was already watching out for them.

The answer he received was not encouraging. He put his phone away and broke into a sprint. The realization that he couldn't run as fast as he possibly could the whole way forced him to jog at his fasted sustainable pace. Not fast enough for his liking of course.

The fear was prevalent and insinuated in his thought process quite quickly: He was always too damn late to do anything before. Why should it be any different then? By the time he got there they could have been butchered and the fucking murderers could have just vanished back into the night…

'Shut up and focus on running.'

Almost there, the home was in sight in the distance, no indicator of anything bad happening. No lights. Why weren't there any lights? He picked up the pace, ignoring fatigue and stiffling nagging fears he ran as fast as he could the rest of the way. He didn't slow down when he reached the front door he lowered his head, pushed out his shoulder and rammed it, a Bash was thrown in, with his existing momentum it was more force than the door was ever made for. The locks held, mostly, but the doorframe they were connected to never had a chance.

Either way the path was open. He had no weapons but his bare hands and subtlety was gone. All he had was his bare hands but he was there

"Masumi! Etsuko!"

---

Somewhere along the way, with a crossbow and the special shinai Kakeru gave him, Seiji had thrown on a jacket and was also trying to get to Masumi's as fast as he could. He paused when he realized something important.

This was everything Suzu would have hated, was it? Risking his life, running off alone, without even a word to her…

Before he could have went back, or even thought of shooting her a message, a gigantic, obnoxiously pink old car drove up and screeched to a halt. Hanako had never looked at him with eyes like that. It scared him more than getting murdered, honestly. Wide, wild, furious.

"Hurry up and get in, we don't have time to waste!"

"Ri-Right!"
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Czernobog
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Best Influence.
The knife man found his weapon, and lunged at Masumi, though the angle was bad and it was more an interference for the man with the crowbar than anything else. The bludgeon-wielder shifted position and coughed pointedly. The knife man fell back, falling even with the man holding the crowbar. They adopted ready stances.

They looked to be preparing for a coordinated attack.

The woman glanced down the stairs when the bang of the door being battered came up the stairs. A half-second, maybe a full one, long enough for Etsuko to cause trouble, but brief enough that it would be difficult for her.

The three hoods in the downstairs area started when Benkei struck the door.

Two clicks. The Hood in the lead adjusted the volume, turning it down.

"Immune to physical damage. Seek alternative means of inflicting harm."

The leader pointed to another one, and gestured for the man to follow into the kitchen, then at the other. He pointed at the door. The man gulped, then nodded. He moved to brace the door, not hoping to stop Benkei, but simply hold him back.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
When Masumi pinged Heracles at the outer edge of her perception, she felt her first twinge of true panic. No. Not now. Don't taunt me with this right before I die! Go away! Go-- She didn't want to die. She didn't want to leave Benkei with another dead love. She had been trying to block it out, it was horrible, a worse sin than hurting Etsuko, who hadn't known her for long and hadn't suffered such loss in her recent past--

But Benkei wasn't there by happenstance. He was getting nearer, and he was getting nearer too quickly for it to be a casual walk. He had come on purpose. He knew she was in danger? How? How could it be?

"Benkei-san...!"

It was heartening and terrifying all at once. It was also distracting. She almost took a stab to the shoulder from that knife, and scrambled to the side to avoid it, now in a sitting position near the foot of the futon. Stumbling on the unstable footing, she managed to right herself, and was crouching again. This was a bad place to be. If she couldn't stabilize, she couldn't counter... this was a very bad place to be.

The banging at the door, the shouting. Etsuko's eyes widened, and she gasped. "Ha--!" she whispered. "He's here! He's... fuck!"

Benkei was here! That meant the others downstairs were occupied. That meant the woman on the steps was down reinforcements. That meant it was time, as Victor often said, for "shit to get real!"

Etsuko removed her hand from her injury and ducked into a crouched. The woman on the stairs would have a moment's warning as she looked back, and then Etsuko leapt at her, arm snatching for the tire iron, seeking to drive it and the arm that held it down and to the side. If she succeeded in tackling the woman, Etsuko's next action would be to use the only weapon she had on hand: her teeth. She would bite the woman, bite the woman in her stupid shoulder, as close to the neck as she could manage.
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Nonsequitur
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Yellow Bubblegum
So now that he was there, he had a second to catch his breath, adjust to the lack of light and realize what they were doing. They weren't prepared for someone like him so they had to regroup and prepare a means of dealing with him.

And then he hear Masumi's voice, upstairs, they were upstairs. He was left with a choice of dealing with the leader first or go towards them. Either choice left an undesirable problem: If he went after them? He'd be letting a chance to seriously disrupt their future operations get away if he just let their leader get away. But if he went after him, then obviously that exposed Masumi and Etsuko to the risk of them deciding to hurry up and finish what they came for.

---
At the same time as Benkei had arrived on the scene, Hanako was quickly approaching.

She hissed the question to Seiji. "What is the situation like in there?" Almost there, almost there…! They went after her, they killed several people, hurt her friends! And Wei! Now they were after Masumi and Etsuko? She wasn't going to let them walk away from this! Not in one piece!

"Watanabe-san's inside now, the three in the bottom are moving around. I guess they're regrouping to try and attack him?" His crossbow was cocked and loaded, the bokken was strapped in place. He expected the worst, because why wouldn't he?

---

The choice wasn't much a choice when he heard squealing tires and saw that huge pink car. That was Hanako Ito's. If he wasn't alone, that simplified it, he would make sure the occupants were safe, Others could handle the rest.

"Murderous fucks!" He pointed out for the sake of the two.. "THREE IN THE KITCHEN!"

---

They parked up front with a sudden stop.

"Hear that?"

"Yeah, Watanabe-san's going up the stairs. Go in straight? I'll go around and flank them?" Seiji had stated the plan and when she nodded, they moved into positions. Time wasn't on their side. None of it could have been wasted arguing.

He rushed around to the outside wall of the kitchen. He'd take just enough care not to blast open Masumi's stove, and he'd used a Frei to make himself an entrance. Crossbow leveled and ready to fire reflexively at the first sign of response.

Hanako, meanwhile, ran right inside, just as Benkei went up the stairs at least one of them was in sight. One of the people who nearly murdered her! And all she had was all she'd need: A sharp knife.

The ballisong clicked open as she rushed towards the one that was guarding the door. The jugular, or the large veins on the inside of the thigh were to be focused on: She needed to avoid the torso for best effect because most likely they came wearing body armor.

Any other time, Medusa would have been there to warn her away from acting so impulsively. To do something she might regret later. But Medusa was gone since that time in the mountains.

There was only fury.

---

Maki was on her way to the ruins. She would pause occasionally and keep an eye on the blotter and important messages at the time. Unlike Benkei or Hanako, she approached cautiously. She slowed down, and planned to approach Masumi's home from another angle.

She tried to call for backup for Shin with her phone…no response, for that matter? She lost her 4G as well…they were disrupting the phone signals. But if that were the case, how would they get remote assistance?

Radio seemed likely. She kept an eye out for likely spots within range of Masumi's home, She kept a police scanner in her car for emergencies. If they didn't think they'd need it, there was a chance the Black Hoods did not have encryption upon their communications. She attempted to test that theory by checking various frequencies and see what she could find.

---

Benkei was prepared to attack the first Black Hood he saw threatening the nearer of the two. Beyond that? He needed to improvise.
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Czernobog
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Best Influence.
Click.

The two assailants who were about to launch themselves at Masumi stepped back, adopting defensive stances.

Though quieted by the lowered volume, the voice was clearly shouting: "Incoming! Two Class Bs, two class Cs. Bug out!"

The two looked at each other, and then headed for the door.

The woman guarding Etsuko didn't manage to dodge, but did attempt to jerk her head forward, headbutting the girl. The crowbar-wielding man slid down the stairs into the two of them, and began to tumble, the knife man at his back. The knifeman reached out to grab Etsuko, obviously thinking that a hostage would make the situation more workable.

The other two returned from the kitchen, one held a bottle of floor cleaner, and the other was shaking an aerosol can and holding a zippo lighter.

Click.

"Second team! Rear guard!"

As soon as the door opened the man holding the floor cleaner tossed it straight for Benkei's head -- hopefully he would strike it and cause it to burst. Maybe some would get in the man's eyes? The hood didn't know. He just knew that this was way above his pay grade.

The one with the aerosol rushed Hanako, using the lighter and the spray can to produce a jet of flame. Surely this wouldn't end badly. The flame arced upward when the hood tried to scramble back away from the throat-slashing motion, and struck the ceiling.

The remnants of the first team -- the man with the crowbar and the woman with the tire iron -- followed orders to bug out, and moved through the kitchen toward the back door.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Etsuko might have managed a counterattack--if she hadn't just taken a painful and disorienting direct blow to the head. To the girl's credit (and you didn't survive life on the street without at least being made of pretty tough stuff), she managed to keep a hold on the tire iron, but what the man managed to catch a hold of was her left arm--the arm right above her injured side.

She let out a growl of pain, and flailingly kicked out with her foot toward the main's midsection, but her foot just kicked at the air and thumped against the wall before the flimsy railing at the side of the bottom flight of stairs.

Masumi could sense them all now. The man on the radio had called them something--class Bs, class Cs? Her mind raced--Benkei, Hanako, Heracles and Medusa, they were both ascended.

Imhotep, Seiji's Persona, and the Persona of Officer Maki Yamada, Xie Zhai... they were unascended.

When the voice on the radio ordered a retreat, and they left, Masumi's first thought was they're headed straight for Etsuko! But she couldn't hope to do anything--she'd been boxed in as it was...!

The moment they were out the door, she scrambled toward the dresser, heaved open the drawer, and ignore both her phone and the Archangel radio in favor of the small metal case with the combination dial on the side. Shakily, the dialed the combination:

Zero-Twenty-One. Fool, World.

Anyone who "got" Tarot could have guessed the combination, and in fact that was completely fine with Masumi, who'd only bought the case in order to keep Etsuko away from her gun. Gun safety was important with minors in the house--it was only the responsible thing to do.

She quickly brought out the small-frame revolver, which against conventional wisdom, she had kept fully loaded while stored away, and she whipped it around toward the door. Such a small gun, but five shots wasn't much worse than six. She pulled back the hammer, and quickly walked toward the door.

If these people caused any harm to her daughter, there would be hell to pay.
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Nonsequitur
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Yellow Bubblegum
Benkei was accustomed to sudden attacks coming at him from nowhere. Without the handicap of being totally blindsided he was able to duck low and rush towards the one that threw it. His main concern was Masumi. She was already, he heard her voice. He was going too quickly to overhear any radio chatter.

He was more focused on how to handle the problem at hand. Lethal force was an option, but he turned it down for several reasons: The most practical being leaving one of them for Shin or Yamada to question would have helped more in the long run. The next one was more important to him: Masumi wouldn't want him to. As long as she and Etsuko were alive, that was important. Besides, from being surrounded by a disgustingly high amount of sociopaths and hardened killers, snuffing out another life was still a bit much for Benkei. A last resort absolutely.

So to balance between effectiveness and non-lethality, he'd cast power charge on himself. It'd lose effectiveness without time to 'set.' but not going full strength was the idea there. He planned a quick, heavy uppercut enhanced by the magic right at the bastard that tried to throw the bottle at him.

---

Practicality didn't matter, Masumi's wishes didn't matter, morality didn't matter.

Vengeance mattered.

"Fire, again?"

Just their presence was enough to push Hanako to the limits she could have taken, and there was no gentle voice to warn her not to strike for maximum effect. She dropped low when she saw the lighter.

She slashed at the inside of his legs hoping to sever major blood vessels and ensure the Black Hood's mistake of aiming too high would have been a lethal one.

----

Seiji realized two things: Several of them seemed to be retreating to his position. And it was very dark, and most parties there that were involved in this incident had already grown used to that state.

So when the first wave was looking to retreat, he'd wait until they all were in the kitchen, and struck with a Mahama spell. Without his mask, the weakest form, but making sure to aim for the eyes.

If it was his lucky day the assholes were wearing night vision goggles, too.

---

Meanwhile, Maki was still driving from her own way in. She still tried to find the frequency they were using.

She had her shotgun ready in the passenger's seat if needed, and she was starting to wonder if it would have been wisest to leave the cellphone jammer's range and attempt to call Shin, or Tom or Takeshi directly or to go directly to Masumi's to assist the others in a more timely way.
Edited by Nonsequitur, Feb 27 2014, 10:54 PM.
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Czernobog
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Best Influence.
Benkei's attack landed, staggering the man and driving him back. He stumbled, and fell, dazed by the attack.

Hanako's cut hamstrung the man, and he fell. From his position on the ground, he attempted to spray her with more fire. As he did, the third member of that team came forward, drawing a knife, and then attempted to plunge it into Hanako from behind, aiming for her kidneys.

The man with the crowbar fled into the kitchen ahead of the woman and yelped dropping his weapon and falling to his knees. The woman was dazzled, but had been shielded from the blast by her compatriot. She hooked her arm under his shoulder, and pushed him, making a mad dash for the exit. She ran into the table, and bounced off it, but kept moving.

The knife man on the stairs, however, coughed and then raised his voice, pressing the edge of the blade to Etsuko's throat. He spoke: "Stop! Stop moving or I open her up!"

Click.

The distorted voice spoke from the radio: "We do not hurt innocents! We are not like them!"

The knife man spoke again, hissing: "Go gargle some forty-caliber asprin, you bastard, I want to live."
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Everything was falling to pieces around them. That much Masumi was aware of. Her life was saved, but there was light magic, and there was Hanako, and there was chaos, and when she stepped out onto the middle landing and aimed the gun down at the bottom, she found herself in the precarious position of holding a gun unseen to the back of a man's head--that man had managed to get hold of her adopted daughter and was holding a knife to her neck.

Etsuko felt the knife against her neck and froze, eyes wide. She held her breath and forced her body to still.

"...So your true..." she whispered, "true colors come out now, eh?"

"Everyone stop. Right now. No more fighting."

Standing a few steps above where the man held Etsuko, Masumi had, in the chaos, blindly walked into a perfect stalemate. The Black Hood man had Etsuko's life in his hand... and her, with her revolver inches from the man's skull, held his life in hers. She stood there, stock still. From this position she couldn't see much of what was happening; her voice, filtered for the first and hopefully last time by the tranquil-sounding tones of Pharos, rang clearly enough through the house that everyone could hear it.

"I have a gun, and it's pointed to your head. Before anyone asks, I have a permit for this; this is ordinary, legal self-defense," Masumi said in even, rigid tones. Etsuko wanted to look back, but she couldn't, couldn't move. "Everyone stop fighting, stop moving. No one is going to die unless Etsuko does. If Etsuko dies..."

Masumi drew in a low breath.

"...so do you," she said. "...I don't want anyone to die here, no one, not you or any of us, but I won't hesitate for my daughter's sake."

Etsuko slowly went limp, her eyes slowly widening as Masumi's words filtered into her brain. Daughter, huh...?
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