Light 'em up!

[Youmu Konpaku]

Faust is fighting another hostile in the hallway, and for me to join in might not do much good, seeing as how it might be easier for us to get hit, were we in the same narrow corridor. In addition, I do not know the capabilities of Ezekiel's target. Therefore, I opt to help Seras to shoot down this card guy.

I can still make out Seras through the fog, as she is close to me. I shoot in the same direction she was firing, unleashing a volley of machine-gun rounds from Kristal.

[Youmu Konpaku]

Zane:
 
Zane's sword is knocked aside, but he maintains his grip on it. Blocking the sword resulted in a small cut on Ezekiel's arm. The sword appears to be scuffed, but soon fades away. The sword now seems to be sturdier and sharper than it was before.

In response to Ezekiel's upcoming strike, he used a technique which he had rarely done. He willed the blood in the veins in his arm to burst out and form a large spike, directly in front of the trajectory of Ezekiel's arm speeding towards him to strike. "Now this should turn his own speed on him..."


Elena:

Although you see nothing through the fog, you guide your shots in the direction which Seras was firing. During the round of gunfire, the sound of metal hitting metal rings out into the air.


Seras:

Bullets fly through the air towards your target, guided by your echolocation. You then hear the sound of metal striking metal when suddenly Jack disappears entirely.


Virgil:

You easily see Seras shoot with improbable accuracy through the fog at Jack, as does Elena, though with much less accuracy. Their shots hit with metallic rings, and before your eyes "Jack", now clearly a look-a-like made of cards scatters backwards, as if blown away by the wind.

[Primusa]

I cried out in pain as the blood pierced a hole through my right hand. Shit, I need to remove the blood as a factor from this fight, and now. But what can I do? What would Arthria do in this situation? I then remembered something she told me when we were proselytizing a town overrun with Malaria. "Mosquitoes don't simply suck your blood, they simultaneously inject their saliva into your body which contains compounds that prevents your blood from clotting so their proboscises don't get clogged. It's quite ingenious, actually. This is also the mechanism by which the disease spreads". Of course! That's how I'll win this fight. I was thinking of a similar idea earlier about using a mosquito proboscis to suck the blood out of the air, but dismissed it as too risky because I couldn't guarantee that he couldn't rip the blood out of my body. Acting fast, I transform my left arm into a mosquito proboscis and land a direct hit on his right Brachial Artery just above his right armpit and inject about a liter of mosquito saliva into his bloodstream. I also infected him with Malaria, because I can, although it will have no impact on this fight. Perfect, that will spread throughout his body in a matter of seconds, and it will render his blood completely unable to clot or solidify in any way. Although I can't guarantee that it will stop his dominion over his own blood, he shouldn't be able to solidify it anymore, and he'll have to concentrate on manipulating his blood so that he doesn't bleed out like a hemophiliac. After all, he does now have that wound in his arm from the blood spike attack. Now the second part of my plan for winning this fight can be enacted, punching that hole in my palm was a big mistake. I cry out into the fog. "Virgil! Can you help me out here?" I transform my right arm into a massive scorpion stinger with deadly Fat Tail Scorpion venom, complete with the hole and ready for Virgil's control. I had seen him do this with his own arm in the arena fight, so I hope he knows what he's doing when dealing with my arm.

-----------------------------------
OOC: Virgil should hopefully be able to do things now.

[Contemplator]

Arriving at the Jeeps, James the minion begins to work with the broadcasting equipment. After a short time, and a lot of technological swearing and fiddling, the equipment sparks, smokes, and growls before calming down to a gentle whirr of motion. 

James grins, "This is James with team Nineteen, we've re-established the communication network!"

Immediately after the announcement, a voice speaks on the radio filled with authority, and just a hint of sarcasm, "Very good soldier, put me through to Jack... and make sure it's a private line" the voice getting deeper and more threatening at the end.

James reply's, "R-right away sir." And moments later the same voice, now a shade lighter speaks with the disappearing Jack.

"Soooo Mr.Diamant...  How's it going?"

"Please AD, I'd rather we skip the formalities."

"Alright then Jack... How's it going?"

"Great so far, we've got everything set up and to make things even better we've got a small group here, completely dominating the battle! I mean talk about convenient! Oh, while on that topic, there's one of the group member's I thought you'd want too see, here I'll send you the video, it's the first guy we ran into on this little mission, he ran away immediately but you should still be able to recognise him."

As soon as the video is sent the communication link fills with the sound of laughter; "HAHAHAHAHA, Oh that's great! I never thought I'd get to see him again! Awesome! I hope this group sticks around! I'd love to run into him again!" Shortly after however "AD" continues to speak; "Well that's interesting, see that girl, the one who comes up onto the roof around 7 minutes into the video? The one with the weird like/dislike relationship?" After a few seconds pause AD continues to speak; "Actually that might be a bad description, seems to fit a few of the members, just ignore that last bit then, the one who gets up on the roof around 7:21? Can you capture her?"

There's a brief awkward pause on the line before Jack responds; "You know I have orders, we haven't been paid enough for me to go all out, that's why I'm holding back so much. If I were to outright capture one of the members of this little crew, it might put some doubt about my actual ability."

"Well then they shouldn't have paid us so little and  then demanded we send such a high ranked member they should be shown what they could have got if they paid well, come on Jack, I'd consider it a favor..."

"Me? The humble Jack de la Diamant owed a favor by the great AD?"

"Jack, humble? There's a joke, but yes, I'd owe you one."

"Well then, of course I'll do it."

"Excellent Jack, pleasure doing business with you as always, oh and JD? I do want her alive alright?"

[Primusa]

I stand on the roof watching the fight enfold below me near the rear entrance of the factory. I guess watching isn't really accurate, I can't see anything because of all this damn fog. Fortunately Ezekiel isn't so incompetent as to be rendered useless by mere fog, he should be fine. Just then, I hear somebody approaching my location. Shit, it seems like they're aware of what we're doing, or at the very least they'll kill or capture me by pure luck. I transmit to Ezekiel. "Ez, I'm about to be killed or captured. You'll lose the prophet's divine powers any time now". It doesn't look like he's in any position to help me right now, but we had planned for this situation. If the body I'm controlling is killed, I'll automatically return to my divine form within my temple, and Ezekiel will return to my temple with another female in tow, hopefully someone a little older and more suitable for me this time. Otherwise, I'll retain control of the body until Ezekiel comes to find me, and since his powers will return when he gets close enough to me, he should be able to deal with my captors. Doubts begin to surface among my thoughts. But what if he doesn't come get me? My hands begin to tremble with fear as I begin to hallucinate. I'm standing in a grassy field full of sunflowers on a bright and sunny day with Ezekiel standing not too far in front of me. He reaches his hand out towards mine... It crumbles into sand, and he gives a confused look before crumbling into sand and disappearing into the ground. The plants around me begin to wither and turn black before quickly disappearing into the ground, leaving only rough black terrain behind. The clouds turn dark and completely block out the sky while thundering fiercely. Cracks form in the black, rough crust and red magma spills out of it onto the land. Even the clouds vanish into nothingness revealing only the darkness of space and a fierce, red sun that takes up much of the sky. In the end, I'm the only one remaining. I'm on the verge of tears when the hallucination ends. If he comes to help me, I resolve to tell Ezekiel everything I've hidden from him until this point, because I'll know that I was right to save him that day.
-----------------------
OOC: Just a sidenote, recall that Ezekiel won't actually be de-powered until they're 1km apart. Please let us know the exact time that this happens in another reaction post.

[Oneal812]

It looks like Seras and Elena have this guy covered. At that moment I hear Ezekiel yell for me from within the fog. The person who has been following us managed to get a hit off on him. It looks like it caused a bit of damage to the enemy, but nothing I can make use of. However, I can easily use Ezekiel's wound. He seems to think so to. Threading Seryu through his open wound I'll be able to make his strikes faster and way more powerful. I can also move his arm to block so he can focus on his attacks. Giving the signal to Ezekiel to attack I begin to focus on the fight. I'll need to give my full attention to the fight if I want to move his arm efficiently. I'll give him all the support I can.

"Go get em."

[Primusa]

OOC: Going to let Zane retaliate now. It would be completely ridiculous if he didn't react after having been stabbed with a mosquito proboscis and being infected with malaria (although symptoms will only manifest in two weeks or so). Also, I think it would be pretty cool to have some dialog scenes between Arthria and this "JD". I'm pretty interested to see what he would have to say to her, if anything.

[Contemplator]

OOC: There appears to be a couple things I need to clear up. 
First off I hate to ruin your whole book Primusa, but the previous post I made was just a fun little filler to add drama, tension, and reason for the upcoming actions. No actual actions have yet happened. In fact, while an abduction is scheduled to take place, I wasn't planning on it happening for at least a few more posts. Which is why no actual stated actions were made, only plans. All in all there is currently no one making any move to abduct Arthria.
Second and a more minor point "JD" if it is unclear is the same person as "Jack de la Diamant" (spelling might be off there sorry, I don't have his character sheet on me at the moment) though up to this point he's been better known as his name-sake; "Dandyman". 
Finally the previous conversation I posted was between Jack and a character simply referred to as "AD". There are more details there too if you look for them but I'm not going to just say them. Otherwise all that dramatic planning and writing would be a total waste.

[Primusa]

OOC: Sorry, but fortunately it shouldn't pose much of a problem to the continuity. I'll just say that I'm retconning my earlier post until said move is made. Until then the fight will continue as normal. If any slight alterations need to be made with its contents, then I'll do so.

[Youmu Konpaku]

Zane was now at a disadvantage, and he realized this after the saliva had been pumped into his bloodstream. In addition, a newcomer had entered the battle which had appeared to be supporting his opponent. He had to turn this around, wrap up this fight and the mission fast. “These people aren’t as incompetent as I thought… time to go for broke.”

As if in a sudden snap, a mental barrier broke from within Zane. His eye color changes from a dull red to bright crimson in a single blink. His wounds which were bleeding profusely due to the toxins had stopped bleeding altogether, as the blood solidified into a clot once more. He chuckles as his weapon is extended by several inches, and its edges become razor-sharp. With inhuman speed, he snatches Ezekiel’s new scorpion tail out of the air, maintaining a firm grip on it as he pulls Ezekiel upwards and towards him with newfound strength.

”A valiant effort,” he tells Ezekiel with a short chuckle. “Fruitless, but valiant nonetheless. Now get out of my face.” He opens his free hand in front of Ezekiel’s face, firing a burst of blood which blows Ezekiel backwards and out of the hallway, taking Virgil along with him.

With a burst of speed, he runs out of the hallway and to the back again. Once he leaves, he is joined once more by Jack, reappearing in a burst of playing cards behind Elena.

He quickly pulls out a bola-type weapon consisting of two heavy dice strung together, striking the back of her head to knock her unconscious. A quick toss of a second bola spun itself around Elena’s still falling body, returning her to Jack, who slung her over his shoulder. “Better have been worth it, AD…”

Zane addresses Jack with a simple “If you would,” and turns to the remaining trio of enemies with a wicked smile. Without a word, he reveals a remote detonator from under his cloak, pressing the button. He tosses the detonator towards the three remaining foes, who can now see that the detonator has a timer on it. It counts down from 30 seconds.

“It’s been fun,” Jack casually comments as both him and Zane flutter away into cards.

[Touch of Ruin]

"Well this mission turned into a rather large failure. Not only did all of the shit kick off within five minutes of us getting there, the building is busted up, we've lost a team member AND THE BUILDING IS GOING TO EXPLODE. And we didn't even get to kill everyone. Like FUCK. Guys, I know this should be obvious but seriously lets get the HELL outta here. Like NOW!"

Extremely pissed off, Seras turned grabbed Virgil slinging him over her shoulder. He wasn't moving and Ezekiel had hopefully taken the brunt of the attack with his crab armor. Also he was WAY to heavy for her to carry both of them. Cursing she then ran down the hall trying to get out of the building and as far away as possible. Realizing she wouldn't make it, She tried to shake Virgil and get a response from him.

"Hey, think you could stab me and make me faster with Seryuu? Also I really hope Faust is okay. I feel bad about leaving him."

[Primusa]

I pick myself up off the ground within the fog with much effort. "Damn it, I shouldn't have gotten mixed up in this fiasco". I would elaborate, but Seras already summed it up pretty well. Oh well, truth be told I really don't care that much. The loss of both Elena and the factory is perfectly acceptable; I can always gain more followers and try again in the future. Unlike anyone else in the world, my power can scale infinitely and is limited only by the amount of followers I obtain. However, a loss of Arthria is completely unacceptable, and aside from that, I am willing to incur any loss short of my own life. Arthria must be saved at any cost. Wait, what did I just say? I see a figure emerge from the thick fog, and it is that of Arthria. "Ah, so I see you escaped..." I begin to say, but suddenly she splits into two figures, each distinctly different, but also undeniably the same. "Which one are you trying to save, and why?" It is as if the fog asks me the question itself, I must be hallucinating. Maybe Virgil's fog is laced with LSD? I give an answer which I think sounded smart. "Neither, just the one on the roof". I don't have the time to mess around with my delusions. With that, I fly out of the fog towards the rooftop.

[Oneal812]

That ended abruptly. Also painfully. They ended up taking Elena which is also a problem. The more pressing issue is probably that the building is going to blow up. I'd get up and run but Seras seems to already be coming to help. I'll pretend to be knocked out and get her to carry me. She's really quite strong. I mean, after all that she can manage to carry me when I can hardly walk.

Wait. She didn't get attacked. Like, at all. What the hell. I'm less impressed now. She shoves me around to "wake" me up. Looks like she want's a boost from Seryu. They really need to find a better way to go fast then me stabbing them.

"Look, this is probably going to hurt quite a bit, so don't kill me after."

Being as fast as I can, I cut a hole into Seras' upper arm and begin pulling her to the exit as fast as I can without tripping her or ripping her arm off.

"Oh yeah, we also need to rescue Elena. Her being kidnapped messes with the whole equal gender thing our group had going on. Also no, the loli doesn't count."

[Primusa]

I quickly fly towards the roof, spotting a clearly impatient Arthria staring out towards the rear lot, having observed the conclusion of the fight at least generally, with some obstruction from the fog. Not even pausing, I sweep her cleanly off the roof and then fly with breakneck speed away from the factory rear entrance. I can see Virgil and Seras quickly making their way through the rear lot, with Virgil using his fog to speed them up. Speaking of which... "I had a strange hallucination involving you while walking through the fog" I say nonchalantly. She instantly blushes a bright shade of red. "W-w-w-hat" she stammers. I instantly go slightly red myself as I realize what I just said, or rather, how I said it. "Fuck, not that kind of hallucination!" She regains her composure instantly with a vague sense of dissatisfaction in the air. I begin to feel vaguely ill all of a sudden in light of this. She begins to speak while looking pretty depressed: "It is weird though, I did have a hallucination involving you as well. However, I don't think it was in this world line, but one similar to this one in which I was the target of the kidnapping. Somebody must have sent a D-Mail which changed the target from myself to Elena". There she goes with her crazy shit again, she must have inhaled too much of the fog up on that rooftop. Either way, I'm extremely tired from two large battles today, hopefully I can actually get some rest this late at night, or this afternoon, or this morning, it's really unclear to me exactly what time it is for some reason. I land us a safe distance away from the factory, and wait to observe the explosion.

[Touch of Ruin]

Grimacing in pain, Seras ran out of the blast zone in time with the help of Seryuu.
"Getting stabbed hurts mate, yenno that? Also you're right about the gender thing. Although now I CAN have a harem... hehehe."

[Contemplator]

From inside the building you can hear the sound of the countdown, which has been steadily getting louder. After what seems like far more than 30 seconds the sounds stop completely. The silence is shortly broken however by what sounds like a recording of Dandyman chuckling, this goes on for a few seconds before silence once again falls down awkwardly on the power plant.

OOC: Sorry everyone for the delays in posts, they have been entirely my fault, however I'm just about in the clear and response times should be shortening... Shortly, the ideal goal is to have time in between posts down to half a day by the middle of next week.

Thanks again:
-Contemplator.

[Touch of Ruin]

Regardess if one calls it the grapevine, the spider web, or anything else, information trade in the world of crime was fast, accurate and lucrative. Needless to say Saul was privy to such exchange of information  and used it to his advantage. The latest news had been that Jack de la Diamant was active once again. No one knew where, they just knew. Pondering over this information Saul went back to the hotel room where Veryon was waiting.

"Well my boy, it seems we have somewhere to be. Best pack up quick. We have an old friend to meet and we don't want to be late. "

Pulling out his cellphone Saul dialled a number he never thought he would have to again and put it to his ear. The contact information simply said "AD". 



------------
OOC: Frankly I don't expect AD to answer but if he did that would be nice.

[Youmu Konpaku]

Then the power plant exploded, violently. Pieces of the building fly outwards, miniature maelstroms of supports, walls and once expensive technology crash through the gate and tear long random paths through the trees beyond. The detonations only increase however and soon the building is lost in a cloud of smoke, rubble, and debris.

After a while the explosions seem to end and the air clears to reveal a relatively small rubble pile (compared to the previous size of the building,) spread thinly over where the building once stood. What’s odd however is in the middle of the pile there is a small structure, much like the outside of a singular room which remains standing. What’s perhaps even odder is that the walls of this "room" seem to be vibrating, almost rhythmically. The more astute of you might notice that the entrance is faintly outlined in the moonlight with a light chipped purple.

[Primusa]

Great, even more shit to do. In the course of a single day I've been shot in the leg, stabbed through the palm, and taken a blood spout to the face. Additionally, I probably had to look forward to an hour-long angry tirade about how terribly I failed both tasks today once things settled down before finally being permitted sleep. I just want this terrible day to end already. With this in mind, I stomp over to the pulsating room, roughly open the door, and head inside. Let's see what this abysmal day has in its bag of tricks now.

[Touch of Ruin]

Seras put down Virgil and walked towards the room looking confused and a little pissed.
"This day fucking sucks"

Kicking the door off its hinges She stormed in after Faust and began looking for someone to shoot.

[Oneal812]

We managed to make it out of the building alive. I feel like we really shouldn't have but whatever. The bad news is I have to get up now. Climbing to my feet I see a lone room in the pile of rubble where the building used to be. Everyone decided to go in without saying anything. Wow, good job team. I can't wait to go into this room and die horribly to some stupid garbage we could have stopped if you didn't KICK DOWN THE DOOR. Getting on my feet I enter the "door" to the room.

[Contemplator]

The door steadfastly ignores being kicked down, (Seras foot however shatters) upon further inspection you notice the door and the walls are several feet thick, heavily insulated, and quite sturdy. Facts you might have gathered after seeing it completely survive the explosions that had just occurred. Inside the small room music blasts so loud it deafens you instantly, the air physically beats against you throwing Ezekiel from the room, only a fast response from Seras, producing a bubble of silence around her, stops the rest of you from following suit. In the middle of the room Mr.Free turns around suddenly, surprised by the sudden quiet.

Looking out the door at the wreckage of the power plant he sighs, "Well that didn't take long, come on then." With that he walks over to the car, somehow untouched at the entrance to the former plant.

[Primusa]

Now it seems that I can add "blasted backwards by loud music" to the long string of events that make this day so terrible. I get up dejectedly, and everyone appears to have been standing dumbstruck for what seems like an entire day.

I guess Mr. Free's exit was pretty surprising after all. I take advantage of the opportunity to try and salvage a small piece of this day. "Shotgun!" I call out into the night in triumph and begin running towards the car.

Just then, I feel a chill in the air, and an atmosphere of death descends over my body, as if all the cheerfulness in the world was just sucked out of me, if there was much left in me. I stop in my tracks, and slowly turn around.

I see Arthria, who had just walked over, with a deathly stare on her face looking towards me, and a feeling of pure evil radiating from her. "Um... never mind" I can only say weakly in the face of such a presence.

With that, I take the back left seat, and Arthria takes the back middle. I mean, I understand that it's pretty important to stay close together because of the nature of our relationship, but can't she relax those restrictions just a little bit?

Come to think of it, she's a pretty possessive individual. Maybe it's because of the fact that I'm her prophet, and because of that she owns me like property.

In particular, she often stares out other women I talk to, making decent conversation with any of them near impossible. She probably doesn't want me getting distracted by potential romance from proselyting for her.

However, she should know better than anyone that I'm not in the least bit interested in that stuff. Ah well, nothing I can do about it now, she's just my instrument after all. If doing this stuff makes her think she has control over me, then I really don't care.

In fact, we haven't been separated by over a kilometer in the two years since I entered her temple. I guess that's not necessarily true though, there was just one time...

---------------
OOC: Someone had to get the ball rolling. Also, book incoming soon.

[Oneal812]

Pulling on the still present hole in Seras I pull her away from the car and rush to the front passenger seat.

"NEVER AGAIN."

[Touch of Ruin]

"Sit beside the creepy loli girl or trunk?"
 Seras jumped into the trunk and curled up into a ball. 
"Wake me up when we get there."

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