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Spirit of Solitude
It was a warm day nearing the end of summer. School had started a little while ago, so with no holidays nearby the world had returned to business as usual. However unusual that business may be.
Unfortunately for the thousands of commuters, they would be forced to detour around a certain street, as the street had been flash frozen as the result of a freak blizzard that occurred during the morning rush, when the streets were at their busiest.
Naturally, emergency workers arrived within minutes to assist those caught in the middle of the disaster, with police arriving shortly afterwards. Since these incidents fell well outside the boundaries of reason they were used to, the officers did little more than redirect traffic and ensure no one got too close to the site for the first few hours.
Approaching noon, the police were replaced by a group of mercenaries lead by a tall woman with fiery red hair. It was this squad that was informed and hired to actually resolve this issue.
This, dear actors, is where you come in. Having been brought in by curiosity like the small crowd lining the incident zone, or perhaps disappointed by the nearby mall having been forced to close due to supernatural disaster. Whatever the reason, this is the scene you would arrive to, an armed mercenary group surrounding the scene of an obviously supernatural incident, shooing away the small group of onlookers from trying to get a better shot of the scene.
A severely immature girl gets through the small crowd, attempting to slip through the mercenaries shooing away the onlookers by moving as fast as she can while ducking down so as to avoid their field of vision. Of course, the light emanating from her may make that hard to do, but she tries to make her way through nonetheless.
Hikari Akimoto, high school student. She should probably be in school actually but the Solar has never allowed that sort of thing to stop her. Far from it, she was actually planning to just waste time at the mall today but...
"A disaster of some kind... Mercs, those people almost definitely aren't any normal government types..."
Fuck it, she has nothing better to do today than look into something like this anyway. In sharp contrast to the young child, Hikari's attempt at stealth is a bit more subtule. She'd just fade from sight when she isn't moving, becoming entirely Invisible in fact. Even in motion it looks more like she's a simple shadow on the walls so long as she remains slowly advancing. Only full speed would cause that illusion to break, and she has no intention of rushing while trying to listen in on the group and head closer to the mall.
Stealth is difficult when you are cloaked in a robe among ordinary citizens, but this man is not one for stealth anyway. His thoughts are more occupied by the frozen road he’s approaching and the mercenaries blocking it off. He approaches with his hands in his pockets in an attempt to get a better view. Like the shifting crowd, he’ll probably be shooed away, but he doesn’t care. He just wants to see what happened.
A strange feline person makes his way through the crowd of a race unfamiliar to him in a land equally as unfamiliar. He gets near the mercs shooing people away to get the best view possible, it doesn't matter if they try to get him away, he wants to see what's going on.
{The high schooler who is off being absent for high school due to business practices has decided to try and take a break from it all. And what better way to have a break than by going to a mall? The rich looking girl certainly wouldn't mind, especially if something is stirring up a crowd.}
"Oooo, what is this? Is this what the common folk call, the T? Ufufufu! Now's my time to be privileged and go in without permission."
{She'd put her shades on in a building that's indoors, letting her purse hang around her shoulder, and waltz inside as if nothing's going to go wrong. Of course, the girl, despite swaying and doing a girly walk right into the people shunning the commoner crowd away, she was awfully silent in a sense that her quiet presence could be forgotten easily.}
Everyone who arrived at the scene would notice a scene that looks like it came out of a disaster movie. The roadway is absolutely packed with empty cars frozen to the ground all the way up to the line of mercs. Most of these cars have a single door left unfrozen and opened.
In addition to the above, Hikari is able to avoid notice thanks to a combination of her chameleon-like camoflage and the visual noise of a crowd to keep the mercenaries busy. They're too busy keeping the ordinary, visible people from asking too many questions. Still, as she passes by, Hikari overhears a snippet of conversation from two of the mercs nearest the buildings
M1: "You don't think that thing is real right?"
M2: "Come on. I'm pretty sure we'd've seen a thirty-foot rabbit by now."
M1: "Well yeah... But something has to have caused this mess."
M2: "If I were to guess its probably one of those dumb kids. They've been popping up a lot lately."
At the rate she's going, Hikari would probably be safe to break away from the front lines in another minute or so of walking. Assuming they didn't have any freaks of their own that is, it'd be one or two more rounds for her.
It takes a few minutes for Sunna to get something resembling a chance, as a journalist breaks to the front of the crowd to start pestering the closest mercenary with questions.
Journalist: "just what's happening here? Do you have the authority to be taking over for the police?"
Merc 3: "Away from the front, we don't want another accident."
the mercenary draws a pistol from his holster, giving Asami the perfect chance to run by while everyone is focused on his little showdown.
Almost everyone, that is. Asami only makes it a few feet before her arm is grabbed by a tall woman with firey red hair, wearing a dark coat like the rest of the mercenaries. The woman lets out a sigh before reprimanding her subordinate.
Red hair: "Quit threatening the media and just do your damn job. I don't care how small they are, no one's allowed past got it?"
both Draco and Aak would likely catch sight of this little spectacle, as they are both rather close to the front.
Just like the others, Mal finds her own advance towards the mall blocked by a pair of armed mercenaries
M4: "Hold up, this is a restricted area."
M5: "Kids like you should stay at home. Or isn't it a school day?"
M4: "You don't know? I thought you had kids."
M5: "I'm a very busy man"
He gets closer, straight faced.
"..."
When he gets around to where the journalist is, he starts to smile.
"...So, what's cooking up here, my dudes?"
Asami would merely let out a meep of panic when she is grabbed by the fiery haired merc. In a desperate move, she would start a weak fire in the air right by the chest of the one holding her arm. It would only be hot enough to give them a first degree burn, assuming they didn't move. Under the condition that the hold on her arm is broken by the surprise of the attack, she run full speed ahead, apologizing all the while. Should it not be sufficient, though, she would merely have an expression of fear and pleading as she braces herself in anticipation of punishment.
{The girl would gasp as these two armed men block her way. Weapons are dangerous, but the girl would simply laugh to herself as her voice enters an extremely jolly tone. Her eyes were closed as she greeted the mercenaries with a smile.}
"Oh, hello there, sirs! How are you doing today! See, I don't remember whether it was a school day either. Just trying to wind down and all. Whether or not there's something going on here, I just want to have a little conversation with you!"
{When she opens her eyes, her bright eyes dull and so does her gaze. Her voice is monotone as she doesn't take anymore steps forward, only looking at the two men who just so happen to care enough not to let teenagers inside.}
"First, I'll ask this question right off the bat. Have you two been paid yet? Just asking. It's important."
The Solar smirks to herself, the practice she's been doing is starting to pay off it seems... Which is lucky because the group seems intent upon keeping people like her right the hell out of things don't they? How annoying, but she isn't about to let that stop her. The others trying to get in... Really aren't her problem though.
Hikari isn't about to risk her own stealth by trying to make openings for them even if she does notice anyone else trying to get in, and instead focuses her efforts upon getting closer to the mall as quickly as she can without taxing the limits of her camoflouge. No sense in breaking the veil of essence that's swirling around her after all, it takes effort to remake those.
The Dracomancer frowns at the scene in front of him. Something big happened, definitely from something powerful. It’s clear the mercenaries won’t let anyone pass to investigate though. He looks for any alternative routes to the street. An area as big as this has to have some gaps in security. He has a trump card if all else fails, but does he want to risk it?
As Hikari gets further from the front line, she takes notice of a bunch of small, dots lining the sidewalk. Upon closer inspection, they look like shoes frozen into the ground, leaving just enough space around them to be removed with little issue.
Its around this point that the ground becomes rougher, with the ice making a tiny carpet of needles that shatter easily beneath her shoes. It wouldn't be much longer before she's safely out of the line's sight.
The two mercenaries near Mal look at the kid, a little surprised. Usually people would either leave or start yelling out them, either way this was unnerving. They're obviously not the most formal workers, so one of the pair answers
M5: "We don't get paid until the job is done, that's how commissions work."
M4: "Yeah I guess this is a commission line of work isn't it? Never thought of it that way."
M5: "If you think about it we're basically artists."
M4: "Except artists don't get paid."
Upon seeing Aak, the merc who had been arguing with the journalist immediately points a gun at him, but a single glare from their leader is enough to get him to put it back down
M3: "I.. I'm gonna have to ask you to clear the area."
the guy is noticably shaking, as he'd never actually seen anything unusual before, let alone come face to face with one. Aak is a mild example, yet the man already seems terrified.
The red-haired merc looks down at Asami's fire, which fails to do so much as singe her ordinary-looking coat, much less cause her to loosen her grip. For a moment hatred flares in the older woman's eyes as she spits out.
Red-hair: "So you're one of those freaks too. Should have figured."
The woman tosses Asami a few feet back towards the line, just past the mercenary who had been bickering with the journalist and near Aak and the others. This, of course, draws her attention back to her subordinate's standoff with Aak and the journalist, forcing the woman to take some action before the situation gets worse.
With military-like formality, the mercenary leader takes a few steps towards the frontline to address Aak and Asami
Red-hair: "That makes two of you, maybe more. State your name and purpose. I know full well how... Persistent, your types are."
Unfortunately for Draco, the few side streets he can see from this position are largely blocked with ice, with a single mercenary standing outside each of them just in case. The buildings are all locked and closed, part of the evacuation measures intended to minimize damages.
Though he could probably break in, doing so would likely draw all sorts of unwanted attention.
Upon getting a gun pointed at him, he nearly raises his hands, before the merc lowers his gun on his own.
"Hey, come on, my dude, I've got experience in meds. I could give you some of 'em if you ask nice."
He turns his attention to the red-haired person.
"'Sup? The name's Aak. Spelled A-A-K, the k is silent, though feel completely free to emphasize the k. I just came over 'cus I'm curious as to what's going on here, boss."
Hikari just smiles to herself upon getting past the line, nice nice. That went well all things considered, and there's no sense in letting good Essence go to waste. So despite being past the most obvious watchers she'd maintain the supernatural stealth while walking rather quietly, the second part is more just mundane skill than any occult prowess beyond mortal keen though, and a skilled observer might hear her even if they couldn't see.
The ice is very curious though, and she wonders for a moment if perhaps dealing with whatever caused it will become an issue for her. With some effort she might be able to handle this alone... But she doesn't know what the target even is yet.
She'd focus in on her senses, not just the obvious ones but all 5 and Essence courses through each one. The end result is she's easily capable of picking out individual sounds even in a noisy crowd, smelling things almost like an animal, seeing in all but the most pure dark conditions, even taste and feel are heightened for the moment as she examines the ice and tries to figure out what caused it.
The Dracomancer’s search is more disheartening by the minute. This is the work of meticulous professionals. He considers going the long way around but that’s probably blocked off too. Fight his way past? He’s outnumbered and he’s seen that red-haired woman in action before. He’s not familiar enough to ask for favors either. Trump card it is, then. He turns around and walks away, deep into the city’s labyrinthine backstreets, until he reaches a dead end.
Now away from prying eyes, he makes a circle motion in the air with his hand, forming a white ring that glows and forms a portal to clear air and open skies. A winged serpent glides out of it before it closes. He pats the serpent’s side and climbs on.
“Ketsal. Up high. Very high. We need to observe.”
The serpentine dragon huffs and takes to the air. After gaining considerable altitude to be out of the reach of firearms, it soars towards the icy street.
Asami was shaking, both from the cold and from fear. This would make it slightly difficult to get her words out, as she would stutter.
"M-my name's Asami Sonnenschein. A-and i'm here to help g-get r-rid of the cold. I'm really powerful, so please let me through!"
She then nervously puts her hands together, her fingers interlocked. With a few sincere tears forming, her eyes would close to form an altogether desperate look, as if she had no real power.
"Ah, how wonderful! That's all I needed to know! Thank you for the information, sirs! Now then, I might as well make a commission to you two as well, would you like to accept my offer? It's a very simply one, I hope you appreciate it!"
{Instantaneously, the girl is pleased with how the conversation is going. So much so that she sounds happier than usual. At least happy enough to get her joy back. The monotone voice is no more, and now the rich high-schooler is giddy once again.}
"My older brother is the CEO of a beautiful establishment known as The Reiko Airlines! You know, the airport place? We have a deep connection with each other, and he always sends me money, since we live far apart from each other! In fact, it's so much, that I don't know what to do with it!"
{She would proceed to reach into her purse, now hoping to find the right amount as calculations go through her head. In the end, she didn't think about it too much. She was able to obtain thick stack of yen with a rubber band wrapped around it in order for it to stay in an organized shape.}
"Or at least that's how I usually would be in this situation! But now that I'm with you fine sirs, I'd like to ask you a question. Would you kindly let me through? That's all I want to commission! Say, how does...$211,678 yen sound for each of you? I deeply apologize if that so happens to be the wrong amount, I tried to convert it in my head to find a way for it to make more sense, but alas..."
{Malloryn would glance downwards, making a sad pouty face as she seems so distraught at how much money she has to keep inside of her purse. After all, life is hard when the excess money has to be stuffed in a purse instead of a wallet, credit card, or a safe.}
M3: "I.. I... I'm good."
the mercenary shakily rejects Aak's... Kind. Offer. Before going back to pointing his weapon at journalists. He's obviously new to this, but doesn't seem likely to actually do anything.
The red-haired woman raises an eyebrow, looking between both Aak and Asami. They were both obviously suspicious, but at least they didn't seem to mean any harm. At least Asami's fear was genuine, though she can't really get a read on Aak yet.
Merc 3: "That's classifi.. Classified information. You don..."
he's silenced by his leader's glare once more. At this point the new guy was getting on her nerves more than these two freaks. If nothing else these two seemed more competent than her soldiers.
Red Mist: "Codename's Red Mist, and I can make short work of this situation on my own. Probably won't even break a sweat."
its around this point that Draco begins flying over the street in broad daylight. While its not safe for the soldiers to shoot at him, the presence of a large serpent still catches everyone's attention, including the eyes of the other players on the ground, and the Red Mist herself.
With this in mind, the woman lets out a sigh
Red Mist: "Long story short, a creature appeared about four hours ago, froze the entire street, and has decided to make it their home. I'll give you fifteen minutes. After that, I'm going in. And I can't guarantee your safety if you get too close. Got it?"
These people would likely just get in her way, and while these mercs with her are good enough to intimidate journalists, the odds of them fighting off a group of the freaks that tended to occupy this city is low. So instead she'll try to make a deal with them. If Asami and Aak accept, they'd be permitted to go in, though with a time limit to keep in mind.
One of the mercenaries with Mal lets out a faint yelp before simply clearing his throat, the two of them trying to act as professional as possible. As if that ship hadn't sailed long ago.
4: "W.. Well, I'll consider it...
5: "I mean.. No.. Well... Yeah that's a lot... But if Mist found out about this there's no way I'm getting her autograph.
4: "You have an autograph in your contract?"
5: "Not really... But my son really wants it so I thought I'd just..."
4: "YOU'RE going to ask the boss for something?"
5: "Y.. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. That sounds stupid. Unless..."
Well this kid was filthy rich, and Red Mist was a mercenary, so it was worth trying at least.
5: "I.. I'd like to... I mean if you think you could... Hire our boss to get an autograph? I'd consider it...."
As for Hikari, focusing her mind and reaching for everything, beyond simply the physical. Hikari too would notice Draco flying over, and might even overhear Kali's conversation. But what she, and she alone can feel, is an immense amount of energy coming from the front of the mall that marks the epicenter of this disaster.
The energy is of a kind she can't really describe easily, having found nothing quite like it before. However, it is obviously unstable, in rapid flux, switching from an intensity close to hers, to something more comparable to the source of her powers itself.
She can hear a soft breathing too. The source is largely obscured by a car that's been frozen over completely, but it would be difficult to miss such an unstable and powerful source of energy.
The only thing she can see is a pair of large, green, rabbit ears. Seemingly made of cloth, at least it doesn't look like an actual rabbit.
Flying overhead, it immediately becomes obvious just how much of a commotion Draco has made, with both the mercs and crowd pointing and looking, but there's nothing any of them can do.
And fortunately there's a mostly open area near the mall, presumably a danger zone from whatever caused this disaster. Aside from the dozens of cars clogging the streets, from this height Draco can see a small speck of green, hiding near the mall's entrance.
Aak tilts his head.
"Well, do tranqs work? Do we get to bring some support along? I'm not saying no, but you gotta understand that I'm not too good in a battle, boss."
They probably should have expected this reaction, but the Dracomancer doesn’t let it bother him too much. Getting in undetected is nigh impossible so he’ll have to rely on the weakness of humans: the inability to fly. He taps Ketsal’s neck twice then points at the mall. The feathered serpent descends in a lazy spiral then circles just above the ground by the mall’s entrance. If there is no immediate danger, Ketsal will land and coil up on the ground.
"Personally, I planned on stabbing it, but you're free to try whatever you think might work."
Kali taps her foot impatiently, briefly glancing up where Draco had previously been before adding
"So far it looks like there are at least two other idiots like you already in there. Feel free to hide behind them if you like. Do us all a favor."
Aak takes out a strange looking gun-like device. Looks almost like a staple gun.
"Well, don't mind if I do, then, my dude."
Hopefully his teammates enjoy some unique medicine. He begins to head in, smile still on his face.
The young Chosen of Sun would simply... Hang back and observe for the moment, she can tell others are coming in. At least that man and his dragon, help could be useful and there's no reason to rush in alone. Instead she conjures up a golden baseball bat which has a mark like a rising sun on its handle. Magical power flowing off the weapon, though just as hidden as the Solar herself for the moment while she aims to manuver into position for performing a sneak attack against this strange rabbit like being.
Just as soon as that pair in the sky decides to engage anyway, or when she gets another good distraction. Whatever works really. As soon as she had a chance though the thing would find itself beset upon by a barrage of fireballs rushing from the tip of her bat and straight towards it, raw Essence channeled through the Artifact in her hands and hopefully not only inflicting damage upon the beast but with any luck starting to melt down some of the ice its managed to conjure up. By the end there'd still be a linger blaze all around her weapon that's somehow harmless to the girl.
"Why of course, my good sirs! If that's all you want, I have no problem at all with that! Since you have a son, is there something specific you want her to autograph?"
{Malloryn would listen to the two, taking something if they had a specific request and letting it be the thing that would hold the autograph. Because of their kind actions, the girl decides to lightly throw the money toward them, as if it were just a ball.}
"Noted! Hold this for me."
{Whether or not there was actually something specific that they would want it signed on, she'd take something so that the poor lady has something to write it on. When she walks up to this "Red Mist", she'd approach the same way she did the guards.}
"Hi, miss, do you think it's possible I could go in with you and this lovely group of people? Oh, and I'll pay you about $251,851 yen if you sign an autograph for me, pretty please?"
{Reaching in her purse once again, the girl gives the mercenary a currency prize even when she was not asked to be involved in whatever fiasco that's going on. Nevertheless, she smiles at the red headed girl and holds out the thing for an autograph, silently noting the concerningly young child and the boy with animalistic qualities. Japan sure is filled with some oddities.}
"Th-th-thank you!"
Asami would bow in gratitude for a few seconds before running straight forward, waiting until the crowd would be out of sight to survey the area. She would attempt to become completely silent, a struggle made all the more difficult by noises one makes in cold climates. However, upon hearing the noises of Hikari's attack against the creature, Asami rushes onto the scene. She would steel herself with her staff in anticipation for a hostile encounter, standing in a defensive stance.
5: "R.. Really. I uh.. Didn't think I'd get this far... Let me just."
This mercenary looks around frantically, before coming upon his pistol as the first easily carriable object.
5: "It uh... doesn't matter too much, so..."
4: "What? No, you can't give your kid a real gun. Don't you have anything more personal?"
5: "I... Don't really see them much... Let me just..."
4 catches the ball of money while 5 searches before finally coming across a worn baseball card. It looks like it might be older than Mal, with a player she probably wouldn't recognize. With that, the two mercs would leave her alone again.
As Aak and Sunna come in, Mal approaches the Red Mist. The older mercenary glares at the girl, but she was already familiar with the type. The woman begrudgingly takes the baseball card the other mercenary had given Mal, and quickly signs it, before handing Mal back her pen
Red Mist: "Just like the others, you've got fifteen minutes. After that I'm coming in. And you won't want to be in there."
Thus, Mal would be allowed to follow Aak and Sunna into the warzone.
Draco attempts to land in the space just in front of the Mall, putting him between the green thing and the large building. The distant green object notices Draco's shadow, causing them to look up.
Draco catches a glimps the girl's bright blue hair, and childish face, before they realize what was happening, and make a break from their cover, seeking to break into the mall to find a better hiding spot.
This provides the distraction Hikari was waiting for, as the creature breaks from its hiding spot, they launch a barrage of flames.....
Only for the fire to be met with a sudden flurry of icicles. Though the creature was clearly distracted, it almost seemed as if their abilities were protecting her without needing command.
As Mal, Aak, and Asami, walk through the streets, weaving their way between frozen vehicles, they notice that most vehicles have one door or window open through which their former drivers had escaped, despite being completely frozen over otherwise. Similarly, along the sidewalk they can clearly see small marks, indentations in the ice that seem to be trapped shoes, frozen in such a way that their owners were stable able to flee.
Soon, the three would hear the sounds of Hikari's attack, with Asami running forward to find.....
With our entire army close enough, it becomes apparent that the culprit isn't some 30 foot rabbit monster, rather its a young girl, around Asami's age, wearing a green, rabbit-themed hoodie and carrying a small hand puppet that resembles a rabbit with an eyepatch. The culprit flees towards the closed mall, throwing out a spear of ice large enough to break open its door and provide them somewhere to flee to.
The Dracomancer stares at the fleeing bunny girl in shock. He expected a monster, not... that. Ketsal nudges his arm.
“Right. See you later.”
He strokes Ketsal’s head then forms a circular portal again, allowing the dragon to return to its home. After closing this portal, he creates a much smaller one, this one three feet in diameter, allowing a red drake the size of a large dog to bound in from a volcanic terrain.
“Come, Phyros.”
The young dragon breathes out a puff of smoke and the duo wander in through the open mall door.
Hikari would pause for a moment, that's... Not what she expected, it's just some stupid kid. In fact the fireballs would end after merely the first shot upon her realizing exactly what she's seeing here, and the young Solar gives chase with a grimace on her face. Nothing to do except try and talk with this kid she guesses, what a fucking awful first impression.
"Hey kid, mind chatting for a moment...? I don't know why you've done this, but I thought you were something else entirely at first. So lets do this without any more senseless violence, okay?"
The force of personality is... Rather impressive at the moment, despite the simple words there's an unshakeable sureness in them as she runs after them. And a gleaming glow starts to radiate off Hikari while she smiles at the ice using girl and pursues inhumanly quickly.
"Name's Hikari Akimoto by the way, and I really can't apologize enough for a first impression like that... Shame on me for hitting without thinking, right?"
Asami would drop her guard, running right behind Hikari just as quickly in pursuit of the bunny girl just as fast. She overhears Hikari introduce herself and speaks to her in a hushed tone so as not to be too distracting.
"Hey, need a helping hand? They might be more lenient with someone their own age."
Huh, sounds. He decides to investigate the sounds to see that the mall door seems to have been broken down. While he should probably wait for his teammates... Which have probably already entered anyway....
"Well, you only live once. I wonder if they'll let me test on whatever we're fighting?"
Aak nearly takes a moment to laugh... But he realizes he should save the ominous cackling for a lab, if he can find one, he shrugs as he enters the mall.
{Malloryn would automatically entrust the giving of an autograph to Kali, and she'd be delighted that there would be no more time wasted on them. Now that she's found her way in, the girl would give her regards to the Red Mist.}
"Thanks a lot miss! I'll be sure to repay you someday!"
{...maybe. Either way, the girl heads inside after the seemingly ill-intentioned boy, though whether or not he does anything is up to him. The rich school girl cares not for the methods, just the sweet success.}
The thirteen year-old's legs aren't nearly fast enough to escape on their own, so Hikari and Asami begin catching up the the child rather quickly. Hearing Hikari's voice, the girl's hand puppet is the one to turn around and shout back
Puppet: "Back off creep! One step closer and I'll make sure you regret it!"
The girl darts for the side, hoping to make it into one of the mall's main hallways, only to trip up near the entrance. There's fear in her eyes as the child turns around and begins crawling backwards.
However, before Hikari and Asami can catch up, a wall of ice springs upwards from the child's feet, far too thick to simply plow through, giving the child a temporary buffer from our group.
That's when everyone else arrives in the main entryway, in time to see a massive wall of ice form to block off one of the mall's main corridors. With the chase done for now, the group has a chance to take in their surroundings, which naturally include the public map meant to aid navigating a mall like this.
https://i.imgur.com/3MLRx1W.gif
We'll let that serve as the basis for which our chase will take place.
The group is currently standing near entrance 3, with the passageway to their right blocked off by ice. There are certainly enough fire users here to get through it, but breaking the ice will take some time.
It is here that everyone has a chance to regroup, introduce themselves, and come up with a plan of action.
About two minutes had passed since Aak and the others made their deal, which meant only 13 minutes left before Red Mist herself arrived and things got a lot more... Violent.
We'll say that each action takes 30 seconds, more than enough for the group to do whatever they wish. That leaves the group with 26 rounds of action to do whatever they need to.
Aak is too busy witnessing the huge fuck-you-ice-wall that sprung up to notice that someone else followed them in.
"Well, that's grand."
Well, with everyone grouped up, including some people he didn't know would be joining on this expedition, he decides to introduce himself to everyone, no point in not doing that.
"What's up, everyone? The name is Aak, two A's with a K, stress the K at the end if you really need to call me for anything... Now before we go any further, just to make sure, does the phrase "medical mishap" put anyone here off?"
{Having a living excuse to bother not reading the map immediately is always an amazing thing to have. So instead of figuring out how this mall really works, the girl walks up to the animalistic person who might even be a doctor, oh goodie.}
"It's nice to meet you, Aak...hey, that's easier to pronounce than I first thought it would. Are you foreign? Me too! I haven't been really brushing up on my English, so I have absolutely no idea what "medical mishap" even means."
{An absolute lie through her teeth, but it's important to make sure that all teammates feel safe and assured with doing their best. Nevertheless, Malloryn gasps as she forgets the thing that was truly important. Actually introducing herself.}
"Where are my manners? My name's Malloryn. I forget whether it was a school day so I just came here on a whim, expecting a fun and relaxing time. How sad that my mall break has turned itself into an expedition..."
The Dracomancer and Phyros have a leisurely pace, and thus arrive slightly late. He knocks on the ice wall to test its thickness. He points at the wall, and the red-scaled dragon breathes out a steady stream of fire. While the ice gets melted, he decides to use this wait to introduce himself.
“I am a Dracomancer. This is Phyros. If you cause harm to him with your medicine you’ll be an indent in the wall.”
He speaks quietly and concerningly calmly even with that last sentence. He soon gets distracted by the mall’s map. He’ll have to memorize it.
Asami sighs, stopping just in front of the ice barrier.
"Well that was a bust. At any rate, nice to meet you everyone. I'm Asami Sonnenschein."
She would then walk over to Aak, boldly petting him rigorously without any permission of his own, simultaneously addressing Hikari as she does so.
"Hikari, was it? The merc gave us a time limit of 15 minutes, so we shouldn't waste any time. Any one got a plan?"
Aak... Stares uncomfortably at Asami. Is this a greeting ritual of whatever race this is? What the hell is going on? Even he, the unlicensed doctor who's medications are quite... Strange, is confused by this action, he thinks it's downright unhinged. His troubled, uncomfortable glare almost seems to be that of a man who has to explain to his paraplegic daughter that her dreams of becoming a ballerina will never come true.
"...What the fuck?"
(edited by Aak)
Asami would seem nearly as confused by Aak's reaction. She would release the strange feline person and take a few steps backwards, gazing at him inquisitively.
"What does 'fuck' mean?"
Hikari would just sigh at Mal with a groan. What the hell was her classmate doing to just... Wander in and then complain about danger despite obvious danger?
"Mal, seriously? You came here to relax and decided to bust past the armed mercs and obvious supernatural incident anyways? What, did you expect?"
She's mostly reading the map of this place herself while speaking to them all, no need to waste even more time by trying to focus solely on talking when she has another relevant task. As to Asami's question of a plan, she'd get into that after quickly confirming her name.
"And yeah, Hikari's my name. And we know roughly where she was heading, but no clue on where after that. The passageway is blocked and we could go around, but which method is gonna be faster? I'd love to talk about it more, but lets just focus on staying in motion. Oh and move away from the ice."
After giving a brief moment to get out of her way, the young woman would rush forward and swing her bat... Far harder than any human has any right to, it's enough to cause a wave of physics-defying explosive force imbued with the flames on her weapon that rushes straight towards the wall of ice in an impressive display.
"Anyone wanna help if that doesn't get? And once we're past this we may wanna split up, I can sense things a lot better than most people so that'll help, but I can't search everywhere."
(edited by Hikari-Akimoto)
“Oh Hikari, it’s all going fine! In fact, there are many useful ways to pass this time in order to feel relaxed!”
{The girl would address her classmate with a mere chuckle, as if what she had said was absolutely incomprehensible to the rich girl. Nevertheless, instead of attempting to help right now, Malloryn would walk over to Aak waiting patiently for Asami to finish her session. All so that she could join in on the petting fun too.}
“Say, you have a plan once we get to this mission, right? Don’t worry, I’ll go advance with my dear classmate once we all get thoroughly acquainted~”
{Malloryn “snuck” behind Aak, deciding to scratch behind his ears. All the while she spoke to him with a different voice, one that she’s more used to. One that was lowered by a few octaves, instantly making her sound 7 years older than her actual age.}
Aak turns their attention away from Asami, going back to the strange smiling cat-thing that they usually are.
"Just put me in the group that has the sturdiest people. Just in case."
As if it's a "just in case" reason.
"I'm quite frail, my dudes."
Why is everyone touching him? It doesn't feel awful, if anything it feels quite alright, but it's still uncomfortable to him. He keeps his composure and replies to Mal.
"Oh you know, the usual "hit it until it passes out or dies" tactic. Gotta keep with the classics, ya know."
"Oh, ah, I can help!"
Asami clenches her fists and focuses, holding her right hand out and spreading fire all around the area in front of the ice wall like a flamethrower. While it didn't defy any physics like the force of Hikari's bat, it would be a far more intense flame, creating a dangerous hazard along the ground which could spread if left to its own devices or cause unintended harm
Phyros begins work on the wall well before any of the others do. When knocking upon the wall, the ice seems exactly like that, a solid wall several feet thick. Its tough, but it is still just ice, and as such the dragon's breath is able to start melting it, creating weak spots and cracks in its otherwise solid exterior.
Cracks that are exacerbated by Asami's fire, which comes out much wilder and more chaotic than Phyros's focused flame. Though Asami's flame begins melting the ice as well, its most effective in the parts that Phyros had already began burning, providing an obvious weak spot for Hikari to strike.
And strike she does. As weakened as the wall is, Hikari is able to blast through its weak spot, opening a massive hole the group would easily be able to walk through. Though its difficult to imagine their prey didn't hear the resulting crash.
Through this hole the group can easily see the mall's first hallway with a faint coating of frost. To their right is a single, massive shop covering the entire wall and filled with sporting goods and the like. This one would likely take a while to search effectively.
To the left there's a small, food shop that would be selling pretzels if it were open, as well as a small variety of stores.
One focused on women's wear, for... Accidents, of course.
A second, slightly smaller store, focused on entertainment merchandise, shirts, posters, and the like.
The third store has a wide selection of teddy bears and rabbit dolls in the windows, with a wider variety inside. It certainly had the most childish appearance of the four.
Finally, the fourth store is much darker than the others, focused on a more punkish style, with a large amount of leather clothing with metallic studs. Some sort of goth or biker aesthetic.
The group's prey is no longer visible, having likely either escaped further down the hallway, or taken to hiding in a nearby store.
Unfortunately, there's a small problem remaining in the main room. While the walls themselves are mostly made of brick and mortar, not very flammable materials, Asami's fire does still stress the building somewhat before catching on the fake plants and wooden tables that act as decorations in the place. It wasn't a dangerous fire yet, and it didn't seem to have much fuel around to burn. There was a chance it would simply burn out on its own.
The Dracomancer strokes Phyros’s head, earning a happy squeak from the dragon. After noting the severity of the fire, he shrugs and moves through the ice wall. He somehow manages to lead Phyros away from the very tasty-smelling stand and towards the store with entertainment merchandise. His intent was to search for the girl, but that task turns into “search for the girl while checking out all this cool stuff.” Phyros lets out a smoky sigh when the Dracomancer gets distracted by some keychains.
Asami would grab onto Hikari's left hand with her right, following timidly behind her.
"Where do you think they went, Onee-san?"
Hikari may notice that the younger girl did have an abnormally high body temperature, or it simply be normal to them.
"You have a very straight-forward mindset. I like that."
{Malloryn would continue to pet her teammate while talking in her deep voice. Seeing as how she can control her volume and tone way better, it sounded more natural than before. Nevertheless, the ice wall has been broken down, giving her the perfect opportunity to stop petting the medical person and changing back to her usual self.}
"Oh, would you look at that? The pathway has been cleared. It's time to go window shopping! If you truly want someone that is assured to protect you Aak, I won't mind one bit if you follow me. Otherwise, these items won't buy themselves, tee-hee!~"
{Despite the mall looking to be closed, the high schooler still feels the need for her money to go somewhere. And instead of taking the shorter route by going to the food stand first and work her way through each one, Malloryn would immediately head to the last shop, the one with the punk aesthetic, and search through there in hopes she finds something that'd go well with her current attire. Which was a slight punk aesthetic for today, no school means no Kosei uniform and more outfit choices.}
Aak shrugs. Might as well follow Mal, who knows, they may make for a good test subject. He wonders if their race is even able to take his medicines.
"Lead the way then, my dude."
He looks around at the other shops while he walks, such interesting stuff is in this strange world, and he can't wait to learn more about it.
The Solar doesn't seem overly bothered by Asami's temp, though she is clearly unused to people holding onto her. Given it is just a kid, she'll let it slide.
"Not entirely sure yet, gimme a moment."
More Essence will be needed here, clearly. Whereas before she focused on enhancing her senses in general, an effect that's still functioning. This particular addition to that skill would only affect the young woman's hearing.
Expanding it enough that she could even hear frequencies more like an animal than a human, or hear a girl running or walking around even through a mall's stone walls at a long distance, for that matter. Might not help if the kid's impossibly quiet, or not moving, but it's her best bet.
"Trying to find her, though I can't be sure it'll work out how I want..."
Draco and Phyros find all sorts of figurines and merchandise from the latest franchises, such as the ranger squad show Masked Passenger, characters from the newest Luigi game, or some of the largest idol singers. There's a keychain for pretty much every character they'd be likely to think of, but not many from the more obscure titles such as the older titles in the Masks series or Magical Daisy.
They don't find any other signs of life in the store, including someone to facilitate buying any of these things, or stop him from simply stealing them.
Though there is a small camera hiding in the corner near the register.
Mal's search brings similar results, they find t-shirts for several metal or emo bands, as well as a rack where belts with all sorts of designs, from simple metal studs to skulls. There's of course, a surprisingly large section devoted to nothing more than leather jackets, to the point where it takes up about half the small store space they had.
Just like Draco, Mal and Aak don't find any signs of life other than them, be it in the form of a child, or someone to actually man the store. Since the mall was shutdown for this incident, it'd be fairly easy to steal from the place.
And just like in Draco's store, an observant person might notice the small camera hiding in the corner of the store nearest the cash register.
Hikari pauses to focus for a moment, tuning up her hearing as high as possible. Naturally, Hikari mostly hears the footsteps of her companions, who are making no effort to sneak around anywhere. The sound of their footsteps and the jingling of keychains/belts would likely come off as loud enough to be a pain.
But not so loud as to completely block out the faintish sound of heavy breathing coming from the doll shop. Had their owner been able to calm down and steady their breath Hikari probably wouldn't have noticed, but as it is they're close to hyperventilating.
Hikari grins to herself, pointing Asami over towards the doll store with a proud look on her face. It's kind of annoying sorting out the needle from the haystack as it were, but the fact she can do that is if nothing else proof to her she really is getting better than she was a few months ago.
"She's in there, and she might just react better to someone closer to her own age than me so... You wanna try and take a stab at talking with her?"
There's a slight pause before she takes up a place standing not too far from the doll shop, far enough not to be seen. But close enough she can move in quickly if needed.
"And if you end up needing help, guess I can get in there... Hopefully it won't come to that though since I'm mostly good at brute force."
With some impatient nipping from Phyros and a lack of bunny girls, the Dracomancer exits the store. He’s considering his next destination when he notices Hikari and Asami’s conversation. Context clues and the sentences he catches are enough for him to assume the bunny girl is hiding in that doll store. He taps Phyros’s head, points at his own eyes with two fingers, then points at the store’s door. Phyros chirps and stands at attention. Like Hikari, the two will watch the store in case something happens.
Asami would release Hikari's hand once they come to the doll store, staring in confusion.
"Wait, why didn't anyone think to check this place out first? I mean, it's seems pretty obvious."
She would then nod her head in confidence, gently strolling into the store. In addition to her generally non-intimidating appearence, there would be a calming air about Asami, which might serve to dissipate any sense of fear felt by any individuals nearby.
"Uh, hello? If you're here, come out please! I wanna play!"
{After surveying the store, she finds out that she probably has most of these things hidden in the depths of her closet, but it would be nice to at least buy something, right? Yet there's no motivation to do so. This makes her slightly sad, so she can only look at the cash register with dismay, merely glancing at the hidden camera that placed itself by it.}
"I usually let the workers do it themselves...how does a cash register open again?...nevermind, I have a better idea."
{Without even thinking, Malloryn decides to look at the camera directly and then put the stack of money she didn't have to give to Kali on the cash register. This would be $251,851 yen casually handpicked from her purse.}
"There we go! Oh, but I've forgotten what I wanted to buy. This is so disheartening. Such a hard task to pick from all these choices..."
{Thus, the girl is back to square 1, giving an attempt to quickly survey through the shops. The difference is, this time she searches for a certain something in particular. A skirt or a pair of shoes.}
Aak looks around the store as well.
"Well, it probably wouldn't hurt to take a few of these, gotta have a diverse wardrobe, y'know."
He grabs some random t-shirts blindly. While he should probably check on his team, the shirts come first.
Aak steals a few shirts, one of them's a band shirt for an "our reactionary love", while the other two have more generic skull-themed design. There's no one here to stop him or anything, and just grabbing the shirts doesn't trigger any alarms
Mal doesn't actually grab anything, but decides to pay anyways because she's just that rich, giving the camera the evil eye before calmly leaving the store.
Outside looking for skirts and shoes rules out the pop culture store as well as the doll shop about half of her companions have gathered outside of, but the sporting goods store does at least have a reasonable selection of tennis shoes and running shoes she could choose from.
Of course, the woman's clothing store also carries a wide selection of both skirts and shoes, alongside similar forms of clothing, if that carries Mal's interest. Otherwise there's still more mall to be found past the emo store she had just left, if one wished to search further.
Finally, we get to Asami. The young girl enters the doll store, with her guardians standing outside waiting for her to finish. The store is aggressively cute, with a pink heart motif and walls absolutely packed with dolls, from small, rabbit-shaped dolls, to octopus dolls as large as a person.
Like the other stores, there's a small camera hidden near the front register, but a particularly observant viewer might notice the thin layer of frost covering it.
Asami doesn't get any answer from calling out, though she's somewhat calming, it doesn't seem to be enough to bait out their target.
However, she might notice a pair of oversized, green rabbit ears poking out from a pile of dolls in the back right corner.
Aak looks at the shirts. These should definitely work for him. He leaves the store.
"Now, what to do next?"
He notices that most of the team is gathered around that one store, so he decides to head over.
"What's goin' on here, my dudes?"
Asami, despite being easily distracted, would not be so foolish as to miss what's laying in plain sight. Taking a discretely ironic tone, she paces the store, keeping eyes on the culprit.
"Well, I guess there's nothing to be found here except some adorable dollies. Maybe i'll check some out?"
She would hum casually examining the dolls next to the one with the oversized ears, taking occassional glances in the direction of that one.
The Dracomancer just points at the store’s entrance.
“Waiting for someone.”
It’s a simple answer that leaves out any specifics, but it’s all the information he feels is necessary to say. Phyros gives the cat-man a good sniff then goes back to watching the store. Both dragon and master appear tense - definitely more tense than someone just waiting for a friend to finish shopping.
There are a wide variety of rabbit dolls, varying from large ones about the size of teddie bears, several smaller ones dressed like policemen, firefighters, and other professions.
There's even a hand puppet with an eyepatch, complete with a child's wrist just barely visible.
After a few seconds of observance, the hand puppet moves its hand, as if trying to keep from being heard, and whispers to the pile
Rabbit puppet: "I think she's onto us."
There's a sudden shift beneath the pile, before the precariously perched pack of bunnies finally tumbles to the ground and reveals the source of those peculiar ears.
A small child, about Asami's age, with curly blue hair and her hand in front of her face in an effort to shush her hand puppet that ultimately resulted in their cover being completely blown.
After the girl and puppet stare into each other's eyes for a second, the puppet begins frantically waving its arms in front of itself, exclaiming
Rabbit puppet: "Nono, just keep going. There's nothing to see here. Nope not at all!"
of course, if she's still focused on her hearing Hikari could doubtlessly hear the entire conversation, and maybe even the sound of plush toys falling to the ground.
The young Solar is indeed focused on her hearing, it would be more apt to say the effect simply lasts for a while after use but the end result is the same. She can easily make out everything going on around her, can't help herself from giggling softly while hearing the puppet try and fail to be unassuming and stealthy. This doesn't exactly seem like the time to speak up though, maybe if Asami can gain some ground... But for now she'd just keep watch and remain ready to act at a moment's notice if need be.
Asami would be caught off guard by the entity's mistake, almost drawing her weapon, but instead calming down and holding her left hand behind her back while reaching out slightly with her right hand to gesture to the rabbit girl.
"Hey, calm down, i'm not gonna hurt you. I just wanna be friends, that's all!"
The pair look at Asami, then each other, then back at Asami. The puppet puts one hand on its tiny chin in thought before asking
Rabbit Puppet: "Hmmm.. You wanna be friends with my cute little Yoshino? Seems.. Suspicious.
You heard that big noise earlier didn't you?"
The girl, "Yoshino", seems satisfied letting their hand puppet handle the situation. Or maybe they're simply too nervous to speak up. The girl finally stands up, but her short legs are still trembling, ready to bolt just like a rabbit.
Asami would giggle, unsure how to respond.
"Uh, I'm not really sure. I might've forgotten if I did. Which big noise are you talking about?"
You could almost imagine the hand puppet furrowing its brow before specifying
Rabbit puppet: "Come on, the big BOOM, CRASH, SHATTER! Those jerks chasing us did it like three minutes ago."
The rabbit puppet crosses its arms, before realizing something
Rabbit puppet: "Wait, how'd you get past them? Is there a secret passage somewhere?"
Asami chuckles nervously, deciding it best not to associate herself with the others for now.
"Eh? I simply forced my way through. Why? Are you in danger, or something?"
She would lend a hand towards her new friend, giving them a reassuring smile.
"If you are, I can help you. Why don't you tell me what's going on?"
Rabbit puppet: "R.. Really? You must be crazy strong!"
The rabbit excitedly remarks, looking back at the girl controlling it before finally deigning to introduce itself
Yoshinon: "My name's Yoshinon, and this cute little lady is Yoshino. I'm not really sure what's happening but wherever we show up a bunch of mean people come and attack us. Its like we can't get a minute of peace."
The rabbit doll crosses its arms angrily before adding
Yoshinon: "I mean what kinda jerk would wanna harm my darling Yoshino anyways?"
Asami would seem to sympathise with Yoshino's plight.
"The kinda jerk that fears what they don't understand, and acts out of that fear."
She would take a glance at the entrance as well as analyzing the store for any exits.
"Well, if you stay here you'll most likely be caught. We could try and look for a way out, but it might be worth a shot to try to talk to the ones chasing you. I won't pressure you to do anything."
Yoshinon: "No way nuh-uh. If we show our face out there those psychos will just attack us again."
The rabbit puppet rapidly shakes its head while practically shouting its disapproval.
Asami would notice that there's no other exits to the store, none aside from the open door out front that their companions were guarding. However, the stores were pretty close together, so the walls couldn't be TOO thick.
Either way, Yoshino gets visibly nervous when Asami points out how hopeless their situation was. They can't get out the front door, and if they wait here they'll just get caught again.
As Yoshino's heart rate and breathing increase again, the temperature in the room drops noticably. Frost beginning to gather on the nearest dolls without Yoshino's notice.
Yoshinon takes note of the girl's fear. They needed to get out of this situation, but didn't have any real ideas.
Yoshinon: "Maybe you should try talking to them. If they get angry you can just beat em up again, right?"
Asami nods, confidently smiling as she pumps her fist
"Right, I'll get you two out of here safely, just you wait!"
She then goes out the front entrance, sternly holding her hands forward to gesture the party to stand back.
"Hey, you guys need to go away. Yoshino is scared and I want to help her get out!"
The Solar would just sigh heavily... What an annoying brat, can't be reasoned with at all then. Lovely. Well... She isn't about to murder some child, and maybe sun girl can keep it from becoming too much of an issue. Hopefully, maybe later she'll even get this damn ice under control.
"Fine, I don't know how you plan on getting past the mercs but I'm alright with letting her go. Unlike some people, I'm not a psycho that would kill a kid for money."
This ice using child is clearly just scared and out of control, she caused some damage. But there's no denying that she doesn't seem to actively wanna hurt people. Running away isn't the action of some psycho killer. She'd just look to the rest of the group and groan a bit.
"Now... How exactly do we explain this to those bastards outside, I don't wanna have to fight through them. And red-hair looked pretty strong, I'm not sure I could beat her. Any ideas?"
ah yes, one thing I've been forgetting to note, its been about 5 minutes since the wall was broken through, meaning there's only 8 more minutes, or 16 rounds, until Mist is supposed to arrive. Use that time to decide how you're going to handle the situation
The Dracomancer thinks this through very carefully. First things first, recall Phyros. A quick portal lets the fire dragon chick get out of here. He starts walking backwards and his eyes wander to the ceiling.
“I can fly her away. Guards can’t hurt Ketsal.”
The idea isn’t bad but he still frowns.
“Will she be scared? Ketsal is nice but big. Also she might fear heights.”
He’s in no big rush due to not being aware of the time limit. That might be good actually. Less stress for him.
Aak almost loses his trademark smile after hearing what the thing they're chasing is.
"Hold the phone, my dude. We've been chasing a kid who can freeze things, presumably without originium arts? Just what are you people?"
He shakes his head.
"Alright, so red-head is the main problem, right? Anyone here good at stealthy stuff? I've got tranqs... For non-nefarious purposes of course. If no one fits the bill, who're the heaviest hitters here? Cus I got plenty of enhancement drugs..."
Aak pauses for a moment.
"Alternatively, we could just knock the kid out and bring them alive, decent compromise for people who don't want to kill them, right?"
(edited by Aak)
{Malloryn goes up to the group with two shopping bags filled with what she got off-screen, treating the sports shop just like how she did with the unnamed Hot Topic by paying without being asked to.}
"Maybe I can pay her not to do anything, as I've been doing with everything since I've been here. Good idea, right?"
{The girl says as she shrugs her shoulders. Even if she did have an actual idea, what point would there be to follow through with it when this "Red Mist" most likely will not bother putting up with it?}
Asami takes in all the ideas, deliberating between them.
"Alright, so a fight's the last thing we want. Flying away may raise Yoshino's heart rate and accidentally trigger her power. Knocking her out... is a no. To start, We'll probably just scare off the ordinary mercenaries. Even so, the redhead will come after us in awhile, but she can only come in one way and there are multiple entrances to the mall. Let's just bolt in the opposite direction as soon as she comes in. That might work!"
The Dracomancer silently considers his options as he traces a circle in the air. This portal, leading to an open blue sky, lets his feathered serpent glide into the mall. He closes the portal behind it and snaps his fingers.
“Ketsal.”
The serpent lands and coils up on the ground. He taps his foot a few times then points at the way they came in. Ketsal starts slithering that way.
“We will wait out there. Tell me now if we should wait at different exit. We can help flee if things go wrong.”
With that impressive amount of words by his standards, he puts his hands in his pockets and starts following Ketsal.
She pauses for a moment, taking in all the rather fast talking that's going on... Before just sighing and speaking up in a calm voice.
"I think we're ignoring some key facts, the issue here is that the girl's magic or whatever hasn't stopped, right? This place is still frozen, she hasn't calmed down and it isn't under control. If we can stop that we can probably convince the mercs to just leave it be... Maybe. Worth a shot anyways. So far the only here who's had any luck at all with talking is Asami, and I don't wanna bet on sneaking past.
Instead I think we need to get things actually under control and just... Walk out. Seems a lot saner to me than picking a fight or trying to use stealth when I'm probably the only one here who could actually sneak in or out."
She'd glance around at the others, sort of hoping someone else has a better idea. But not expecting it.
Asami looks conflicted, thinking on Hikari's plan and responding slightly irritated.
"That could work, but i'm not placing all my chips on it. For one, if all of us hang around like this, it's not like Yoshino-chan can easily relax. One or two of you should go talk to the guards to actually make sure if this will work. Maybe everyone else can stand lookout or try and melt the ice?"
Aak takes a moment to think.
"Well, of course I'm gonna stick around here, my dude. If stuff doesn't work out, I'll just use a back-up plan. Anyway, I'm thinking Mal should go, they could bribe the guards to hesitate or somethin'."
"If that's what I'm needed to do, I'll do it! At the very least, it's not really like heading into immediate danger, but the effort required still bums me out a bit..."
{Of course, the only thing to expect out of a rich girl is money. Not that she complains or anything, it would make the process last way longer if she were to do that.}
Asami gives a skeptical gaze at Aak, taking up a challenging attitude
"Eh? Didn't you mention something about knocking Yoshino out? Forgive me, but i'm not so sure i'm willing to let you go through with a "back-up plan" without knowing what it is first."
Aak just stands there with that smile of his.
"That was just a joke, my man. My back-up plan would involve makin' them drowsy, which would probably be a calmer state than they're in at the moment."
The Solar would nod to this, it... Makes sense, having fewer people around here might be helpful in some ways, sure.
"Alright, guess I can come with you Malloryn. I'll be useful if things go... Worse than expected, which is entirely possible."
Violence could be a result of them trying to talk things out, at worst. So she'll tag along and if it results in that well, hopefully being some weird golden glowing hero of legend is enough to survive for a while. Assuming the other girl agreed to come along Hikari would begin setting off besides Malloryn at that point.
By now, the Dracomancer and Ketsal have returned to the mall entrance. After waiting for a bit, he climbs onto the serpent’s pack and whispers a few quick words. Ketsal spreads his wings and, as commanded, takes to the air and starts circling the mall like a hawk - a fair distance above the icy ground, but still low enough to spot any movement from people below. Ketsal does this in a lazy glide but can still sense his master’s anxiety. The Dracomancer keeps glancing at the mercenaries on the horizon.
It took a couple of minutes for everyone to get to their posts, or almost everyone anyways. Getting back to the mercs meant going past the front door where Draco was waiting, in case he feels like tagging along. Otherwise it'd just be Hikari and Mal crossing back over the frozen storefront, a street filled with mostly-frozen cars and back to the crowd where Red Mist was waiting.
The older woman raises an eyebrow curiously as the two approach. Though Hikari wasn't one of the ones she explicitely allowed in, Mist doesn't seem surprised by their presence.
"You do realize you still have five minutes right? Or was it too tough for you?"
Circling the mall Draco would notice there are a couple of guards located shortly outside entrances 1, 2, 4, 7, and 5. With a notable gap outside of entrance 6, the one farthest from the group's starting point. Otherwise the guards have seemingly gotten used to him, at least accepting that they weren't going to shoot down the obvious dragon from this far.
The Solar would have a calm face and even tone while speaking up to her, she's not in the least shocked that this woman doesn't seem surprised by her presence... No, this one seems to be far more than just another merc. Something tells her the lady in red is dangerous even to someone like a Chosen.
"Not exactly, no... It would be more accurate to say we'd like to try something other than just violence. The source of all this seems to be some little girl, and we don't espeically want to kill a damn child. Nor do we wish to get into a senseless fight over not doing so. The rest of us are working on resolving it peacefully with the kid. And I didn't wanna bet on sneaking past you all so... Decided to try and talk it out. "
Kali is an imposing figure, just something about the way she stands and speaks exudes an unshakeable aura of meance and confidence in herself. Despite that though Hikari is entirely sure of herself while staring over at the older woman, there's something in her words that's imminently reasonable and agreeable at the moment.
Like most things a Solar does it wouldn't really be accurate to call it "magic", but rather human skill in speaking and making a case taken up to an inhuman degree. It isn't just the words she chooses, but the tone and way in which they're said, of course Kali being Kali may only take so much notice of the girl's inhuman charisma. Hopefully it'll help.
Asami nods as everyone goes their separate ways, with her going back to the doll store. She tries to come off as composed to Yoshino and Yoshinon, speaking in an unpreasuring tone.
"Alright, you two. You guys are safe, for now at any rate. No one currently in the mall will hurt you, but the area outside is still guarded. I think they might leave if all the ice goes away. Do you have the ability to do that?"
Mist keeps her hands in her jacket pocket all the way until Hikari starts to mention to source of this commotion. Before Hikari can get it out, the older woman brings a hand to the girl's mouth while looking at the journalists and other mercenaries behind her and whispering
Mist: "not so loud kid. You've really got a lot to learn about subtletly."
With that, Mist lets HIkari go again, raising her voice to a normal level before replying
Mist: "Look, if something's too tough for me to kill, its most certainly more than a match for a couple kids off the street. You've got five more minutes to do whatever you need to. I'd suggest you use them."
by the time Asami has gotten back to the shop, she'd notice the child's thin layer of frost has grown thicker, to the point where the floor has become slickened with ice.
Yoshino herself, is sitting in a corner trying to pile the dolls she'd knocked over back into an orderly fashion. The girl looks up at Asami, a twinkle of confusion in her eye. but of course, its the hand puppet that does the talking.
Yoshinon: "Do you think we did it on purpose? Poor little Yoshino was just scared."
The girl just looks away from Asami, back to trying to fix her little pile of dolls. But unfortunately everywhere she touches the stuffed toys becomes covered in ice, which makes them lose their balance and fall again.
The Solar would look over at the media, right... Those losers, she could probably make them leave. But that sounds like way too much trouble would be caused. Fear is something she can inspired plenty well, but it isn't a great thing to rely on.
"That's... Yeah that's fine then, I'm sure we can sort it out."
She doesn't exactly want to go scare the kid more, nor resort to more drastic things like violence... So for now the Solar is simply left by nodding to Kali, and shooting the media a slight glare that would have just a twinge of the force she can bring to bear behind it. At worst, someone like her could even strike terror into unthinking beings.
This is merely enough to cow the average person, but it should get her message of annoyance at them across before heading closer to the mall. If still well out of the child's sight, though not out of her hearing's range. And what Mal does, is up to Mal.
The Dracomancer counts two of the group attempting to chat with the red-haired woman. He can’t tell how things are going though. He shakes his head and focuses on his task. As long as the mercenaries mind their own business he’ll let Ketsal keep circling above the mall. From his time up here he knows he can’t safely land Ketsal at five of the entrances, nor can the others exit there. He taps the dragon’s neck.
“Only go by those two exits. Others useless.”
Ketsal flaps his wings and adjusts his flight pattern, shifting it to a tight oval shape between exits 3 and 6. It won’t make a huge difference but it’s more efficient.
"Ah, don't worry a thing about it, Miss Red Mist! Absolutely nothing will go wrong in our hands. Even so, can I ask you something about what you've said to my classmate?"
{Malloryn would take on the same tone with Kali as she did back when she had first met her. With no fear at all. At the very least, the respect was due a long time ago, so now it shall be given to the Red Mist that was kind enough to take time out of her day and give her autograph presumably to one of her underlings. It's not like she doesn't deserve it, since the mall trip was a success either way.}
"So by the logic you're giving us, it isn't possible that there was never a threat to begin with? Even when the only thing that's come out of the mall was an early snow day? Using this time you gave us, I shopped for these useful items that I can't wait to try on at home and paid beforehand! Not a single thing that's happened would be useful to the media. Don't you think that's strange? The fact that there were no disruptions? I could've easily been scooped up knowing how uncareful I was, you know. That just proves that the threat's nonexistant."
{And by paid beforehand, of course that's just code for "it's still in the mall for the workers to get". Not like her "charisma" was needed in the face of one that goes beyond human nature. The most that can be said is "got money", as there's no point to try with anything else.}
(edited by Mals_Covet)
Asami would appear concerned as the girl's powers continue to manifest around them unconsciously.
"Right, you must not have control over it. I also thought about just fighting our way out... I don't think it'd be as easy aa getting in if I had to protect you as well. But... I think I have another idea, but you'll have to trust me."
The Red Mist lets out an audible sigh at the kid she's unfortunately still stuck with. This.. Character seems even worse at subtlety than her friend was, and is now satisfied simply annoying her.
Mist: "Just call me mist. If you have to. Look, the situation's complicated, but lets just say I was hired to deal with a thirty-foot tall rabbit. So if we find the rabbit, I'll deal with it. There's nothing else at the site, got it?"
Mist lets out a weighty sigh before looking back at the media. four and a half minutes now, whatever it was Mal planned on doing. The conversation seemed to be over.
As for Hikari, she returns to the area near the mall's entrance, with the shattered ice wall to her right that marked the area Sunna and Aak were waiting in. Surprisingly, Sunna's fire that had caught on to some of the decorations near the front was still going, though it didn't seem likely to spread anywhere any time soon.
Yoshino looks back up to Sunna, with her hand puppet Yoshinon eagerly asking
Yoshinon: "You do? Come on, spill the beans! As long as it gets the little lady somewhere safe anything will be good."
"Pffft, you're sure right about nothing else being at the site! Because, Miss Mist, there really isn't anything there besides disappointment."
{"I'll enjoy documenting this infanticide! That autograph will mean so much more when I know that the father's son will be idolizing a child murderer, you know! Though if you really want me to do something serious, I'll go ahead and fly over to whoever gave you that horse shit information, and sue them myself for wasting your time. Can I? Because there's no way that someone that could even be blind would mistake some hand puppet as a 30 ft rabbit!"}
"Good luck with that oh-so important assignment you were tasked to do though!"
{"I'm sure someone with your feeble ideals will do wonders on this mission!"...Even though it's obviously not the root of the problem, this commoner mindset makes the school girl's eye visibly twitch even when she closes them and smiles at the mercenary. With the sodium coursing through her veins, the girl would take this loss with a grain of salt, an L that will last the family bloodline. When she leaves herself, Malloryn would sigh out loud.}
Hikari would glance over at Mal appearing again, that's fine. The girl's kind of a snarky bitch isn't she, wonder if she's any good at reading between the lines though... That last word 'Red Mist' said, it spells it all too clear from the Solar's viewpoint at least.
"Well it's just like she said Mal, it alright if I call you Mal? The whole name's so long. Anyway, she was hired ta deal with a giant rabbit monster right? And seeing as how there aren't any giant rabbit monsters around well... Not much for her to deal with, from where I'm standing. You see what I'm getting at?"
The 'hero' would simply chuckle to herself a bit while listening to... Everything going on around her really, but most importatly Mist and the kid's conversation with Asami. Well, and Mal she supposes but given how close the other girl is not listening would be impossible.
"Heh, somehow I don't think she's actually all bad. But eh, just a guess on my part for now."
Asami nods, looking around the store once more, this time for either air ducts or bathrooms. She then looks back to Yoshino, explaining their plan.
"The sewers! No one would ever think to look for you down there, and it's away from the public. Come to think of it, I could probably find a manhole or something if I do this..."
She would then take out her phone and open google maps, zooming in on her current area and scrolling through the area outside to search for any possible sewer entrance.
each of the stores here are far too small to have their own bathrooms, and what few vents there were are not only small enough that even the children would have a hard time getting through, but also covered in ice thanks to Yoshino's nervousness.
Yoshino + Yoshinon: "The Sewers?"
both girl and puppet exclaim their disbelief..... At first. There's a few awkward seconds of silence after that before the child asks.
Yoshino: "What're... Sewers?"
"Ah!"
Asami was surprised that the girl spoke up, a bit disorientated by the fact that they didn't know what sewers were. In Asami's mind, a diagram of a typical sewer system materializes in the vain of a typical anime style explanation. Of course, since the audience is most likely well aware of how sewers work, there's no need for an explicit explanation but instead it could be assumed that Asami had given a semi-accurate presentation based on her knowledge of sewer areas in various media.
"...And that's basically the gist of it. I understand if you don't wanna do that, either. They're pretty gross."
"Yes, yes, I know, it's just that idiocy can get on my nerves sometimes! Besides, a tinge of stupidity from the other party is always involved in casual business trade. Oh, and Mal's fine, everyone usually defaults to it when I introduce it myself and at this point I consider it normal."
{Mal kept up her tone of voice even if she felt like she was being figured out. She needed to get her instincts straight, so the girl still feels the need to test her fellow classmate for being charitable enough to tell of the obvious fact that loomed in her grasps.}
"Like that kind, Aak person...Hikari do you know what a medical mishap means yourself? My lack of English knowledge is killing me..."
{For a second, she looked distraught, and glanced downwards to show a feign of weakness of being a foreigner. Oh, the pain.}
(edited by Mals_Covet)
Aak makes sure to have some tranqs ready.
"I wonder if anyone I know is in this strange world? It might get lonely if it's only me, y'know?"
He talks to himself to pass the time.
Yoshino watches Asami eagerly, raising an eyebrow occasionally, not that she couldn't understand Asami's simple explanation, she just didn't really understand the purpose of it.
Yoshino: "You want us to.. Go with the trash?"
Yoshinon; "You're not trash! There's no way a precious little lady like you could go in there!"
Yoshino: "Then.. Where do we go?"
The doll doesn't have an answer to that, and they were starting to run low on time. Just 3 more minutes until Mist had said they'd come in. Though Draco would notice none of the mercenaries have started to move yet, it probably wouldn't be much longer.
Asami would start to shiver again, clouds of cold air forming where she breathes.
"Huff, huff... all this cold makes it hard for me to think."
While it would be hard for Yoshino to notice, Asami would start to tire of her and her aide's responses. Rather than advise them on potential escape routes, she would instead prompt them to act on their own with a questioning tone.
"Aren't you guys older than me, anyways? Between the two of you, you should be able to decide for yourselves what the best way out is."
Asami, herself, would start to trail off on a path of indecision, weighing all possible options yet unable to come to a concrete decission.
Yoshino: "M... Me?"
The girl looks around as if there were anyone else for Asami to be referring to, meanwhile her little hand puppet seems lost in thought
Yoshino: "W.. What about you Yoshinon?"
Yoshinon: "Well.. If they're waiting at the front door, we'll just make a back!"
The girl seems a little confused at first, but soon picks up and walks towards the back of the door, her breath visible in the frigid wind. She puts one hand on the back wall, which rapidly begins to freeze and contract, each tiny crack in the stone back becoming larger as its put under this new stress before the girl finally forms a lance of ice at the end of her fingertips, and launches it straight through the wall and into the other side of the mall, opening a hole large enough for the three to go through. Leading them from the doll shop and into a small clothing store.
As a result of Yoshino's attack, the store becomes covered in a thin layer of ice, with a cold mist rolling off of it as the girl runs inside, her puppet waving back at Asami.
Yoshinon: "Well, come on."
Since Aak is still standing out front of the doll store, he'd doubtlessly hear the massive crash that comes from Yoshino breaking open the door's back wall.
Similarly, for Mal and Hikari, who stand by entrance 3, they can see a massive spear of ice get launched through one of the storefronts, shattering glass along the way, and embedding itself in the far wall of one of the nearby hallways.
This largely unassuming clothing store, which sold primarily jeans and T-shirts as well as some summer swimwear, was now covered in a thin layer of ice, with a thin layer of fog rolling off the frozen air.
Asami nods with conviction, following close behind the duo as they make they way into the clothing store.
"That's more like it!"
"Oh? Wonder what that could be."
Aak walks into the store to investigate the loud sound.
Aak enters the doll shop to find it totally covered in ice. He can see his own breath and make out the faint shape of the now-ruined plush toys that the building once held. A trail of carnage leading to the store's back wall, which had been completely blown open.
On the other side of the wall, he can see a similarly frozen clothing store, leading out to the other side of the mall where he can find...
Yoshino and Yoshinon walk through the wreckage they made, not putting much consideration into the property damage they caused as they walk back out into the main hallway.
Yoshino looks left, and right. Although they can't tell who it is, they see a pair in the distance to their left.
Yoshinon: "That's not good. Guess its the other way!"
With her puppets approval, the young girl turns and starts running down the hallway to the right, well within sight of Hikari and Mal.
From his vantage point on high, Draco has been keeping an eye out on the mercenaries. With only two minutes left, he can see the red-haired one shout something to the others, before making their way towards the mall alone.
"Ah, right, if they're that way than we should go..."
Asami tries to work out the correct path in her head, getting confused by her lack of geographical insight. Without thinking, she blindly follows Yoshino, not even stopping to signal her teammates or anything.
Well, things seem to obviously going in an unexpected way. He goes through the hole in the wall and makes his way through the clothing store.
"Gee, it sure seems like the plan is fallin' apart."
The Dracomancer checks the exits again, but nobody’s coming out. Everyone of their little group is inside the mall except him. Whatever they’re doing, they’re taking a very long time, and that woman is approaching. She’ll be here in a minute or two. Ketsal reacts to his master’s tightened grip and lashes his tail. His loops are turning into spirals down so low his belly nearly brushes the mall’s roof. The Dracomancer raises his voice slightly to be heard above the rushing air.
“Fly through there if I signal. Time running out.”
(edited by Dracomancer)
The Solar just shrugs and sighs heavily, none of this is good at all. The kid is causing even more damage now, the exact reverse of what Hikari wanted from this bullshit. So what's she gonna do...? For the moment, she'll just quietly follow after Asami and the girl, hopefully she can convince the damn kid to stop being so dangerous if given a chance. But as of now she simply follows after the pair and looks to Mal with a stare of deadpan annoynance, annoyance that is clearly directed at the two she's now walking after with a calm and collected pace.
"Well come on... Guess we gotta try and sort this out, fucking somehow. Don't ask how I'm still trying to figure it out."
"Gee, more distruction. Guess this calls for some reading between the lines!~"
{As Asami and Yoshinon do absolutely nothing to help keep whatever this situation is under control, Malloryn puts a hand over her mouth, squinting ever so slightly as she keeps in a fake laugh.}
"Don't worry, Hikari! I'm your classmate, Kosei surely taught us how to deal with something like this!"
{Unlike Hikari's clear displeasure, Malloryn has at least something to help her get just a tiny bit happier. With a jovial tone, the girl would decide to follow behind her classmate in order to follow up with whatever that girl's about to do. At this rate, the Red Mist will surely think nothing at all's wrong with this North Pole of a local mall.}
outside of the mall, Draco can see Red Mist heading to the mall's entrance, standing a few feet away from the entry while calling for a few of her mercs to act as backup, mostly keeping an eye on the entrance just in case. There was only one minute left, so they would need to be done fast.
Yoshino leads Sunna and the three chasing her, Aak, Mal, and Hikari, on a short run before ending up in the food court near exit 4. The girl's eyes light up upon seeing the exit in the distance, running ahead towards the middle of the closed food court. Only for her eyes to drop upon seeing the six mercenaries standing guard outside the largest exit.
Yoshinon: "Not good, not good at all. Lets try the next one."
but by the time they've come to the realization, Hikari Mal, and Aak have already made it to the food court's entrance. There, they can see Yoshino and Asami standing in the middle of the wide open area near exit 4, an exit that was currently blocked off by some of the mercenaries after Yoshino.
Hikari just curses and calls out to the girl and her puppet, voice raditating a calming effect as she smiles gently and has no weapon in hand this time.
"Hi, I realize I made an awful first impression. But I really am trying to help you, I can talk to those people even, and if they try anything I'll protect ya so just gimme a chance okay?"
There's that surefire heroic tone again, the words of a woman who sounds utterly sure she can manage what she's promising that leaves no doubt as to the truth of her statement. She'd casually step between the girl and the soliders with a grin and a defensive look in her eyes.
"Now, I'm sure we can work this all out without anyone having to get hurt here... Right everybody? I don't wanna fight you all, and you probably don't wanna fight me either. Your boss probably could, I'll admit! But that isn't needed, we're just trying to help the girl out after all."
She is prepared to start blocking if need be, but hopefully this will work out. If it doesnt... The bat would appear in her hands again, casually flying through the air and deflecting a good chunk of any shots aimed towards her. Though a few might land and do... Less damage than one would expect.
Aak remains silent, keeping that same usual smile on his face. He'll let everyone else do the talking, they're probably better at it anyway.
{As she advances towards their annoyingly indiscreet objective, she notices that the girl and her puppet looked scared...again. Such a warm welcome from them. Then again, they’ve done nothing but makes things cold so it’s only fair this happens.}
“Hold on...is she standing in the middle of this place because she thinks we’ve surrounded her? We already made the effort not to attack. I don’t know what to tell her if she still thinks of us as hostile~”
{So instead of trying to tell the little girl anything that would comfort her, Malloryn would immediately walk past her, standing beside Hikari and in front of the 6 mercenaries that just so happen to be guarding the exit.}
“Hiiii!~ It’d be more helpful for you all to throw down your weapons rather than stand there and scare our friend, just so you know. If you comply, I’ll give each of you a raise~”
{Malloryn would smile and close her eyes, swaying her body left in order to make her posture look more harmless. Because if they open fire on a defenseless looking high school girl and her classmate, they’d deserve what was coming to them anyway.}
Asami would look between her new friend and the group of complete strangers with uncertainly, lost in thought.
"Wait, I think i'm gonna see how this plays out."
Asami would close her eyes and focus, erecting an invisible physical attack repelling barrier around the exit where the mercenaries were stationed that would last at least until their next action.
Yoshinon: "Huh? You think we're gonna.."
The hand puppet seems about ready to fight, but hearing Asami's words, Yoshino decides to stand closer to her friend instead and nods to Asami. She's still nervous, but at least willing to let the others try something.
Hikari shouts to the mercenaries, drawing their attention. They're just beside the door outside, and hearing someone's voice leads the six soldiers to turn around at... Their own paces.
The first one to turn around is wearing a fully black suit that looks to be made of kevlar. His left glove is notably larger than his right, with extra padding on the outside.
A few of the other mercenaries mutter among themselves upon noticing the group
Squaddie 1: "wasn't there supposed to be one?"
Squaddie 2: "I was told about a rabbit."
Squaddie 3: "There's obviously three kids."
The fastest merc glares at the others, causing them to quiet down before looking back at Mal
Veteran merc: "Has that ever actually worked? I don't have any problem dealing with traitors, but I'm sure none of these mooks are dumb enough to try it."
The man pauses, giving one of his 5 companions the opportunity to prove him wrong, but none of them seem up to it. He almost sounds disappointed before moving on to Hikari
Suspicious merc: "Easy, just surrender now and I promise none of you freaks will get hurt. I mean, I wasn't hired to kill anyone at least. I mean, you wouldn't be standing so comfortably if you knew what that monster was anyways"
The man looks over at Yoshino. His hard gaze causes the little girl to try hiding behidn Asami, but her hoodie was much too large to actually hide.
The mercenary casually taps on Asami's barrier. Despite it being invisible, he doesn't seem surprised to find it at all.
Suspicious merc: "Or you could resist arrest. Who knows, if you're all at least half as strong as the Spirit over there you might even win."
The young woman looks over with a casual glare, she doesn't seem too phased by the man's words... But she is curious, and exuding an aura of fear and martial prowess that could send even beings incapable of feeling emotion fleeing in terror while speaking up a bit. Despite this sense of terror however she hasn't struck yet, still open to perhaps ceasing.
"So... Say we surrender, what reason do I possibly have to trust your word? Law enforcement types kill whoever they want all the time without facing any real justice, so why should I think you won't... And what exactly do you mean by Spirit, I'm aware she's the soruce of this disruption, but she seems to be a mere child unless I'm missing something..."
The girl would focus upon not her mundane senses while glancing back at this icy child, but her sixth occult sense. The one which sees into the veil beyond this world and gazes upon spirits ghosts and other such things. With any luck it might reveal some more about this 'Spirit'.
Suspicious Merc: "How did you get here without knowing what that thing is? I thought Mist's crew was supposed to drive away civilians."
Though the other five members of his crew have shied away, the mercenary in full armor hardly seems phased by the fear technique. He glances back at his coworkers before sighing
Suspicious Merc: "Its just a mental effect, it'll go away soon enough. Just try not to make a mess."
Though Yoshino is hiding behind Asami, its not nearly good enough to fool Hikari's sight. They're clearly not a spirit in the ghostly sense of the world, though their life energy is something unfamiliar that they've never seen before.
She might also notice that the girl's clothing is made of the same frigid energy that flows through her.
The suspicious merc scratches the back of his head for a moment, not even caring enough to keep his guard up despite Hikari's obviously threatening presence.
Suspicious merc: "Now then where were we... Oh, right. You seem to believe I was giving you a choice. I mean, I guess I am. You can either surrender or I'll kill you here. I mean, I'm sure you'll be fine. Really, there are five of you and all these men behind me are basically useless so. I believe in you."
The girl just sighs and draws out her Artifact, the 'baseball' bat that gleams with divine might imbued long ago and swirling with power.
"You didn't even explain anything, I can tell she isn't a human... I'm not so blind as to be incapable of that, but she hasn't exactly tried to hurt anyone. So no, I'm not handing her over. Get involved or not if you all want, but I'd be happy to take this man and his faceless mooks on my own if I gotta!"
To call her 'fast' would be an understatement, it's more like the space between the man and Hikari doesn't even exist. One fraction of a second she's at least fifty feet away, the next her magical weapon is slamming towards his skull with enough force to send a tank flying away from her in a blur of motion no human could watch let alone perform.
"I'll trust you can survive withstand a petty warm-up like that, Mr man who sees invisible barriers and doesn't care at all about my presence."
And if he can't he'll just die, which she's okay with. Or perhaps it's more that her nature as an exalted hero is okay with it, either way, the girl is clearly just launching this as a simple test of his skills.
(edited by Hikari-Akimoto)
Asami would draw her staff, alighting it with a protective glimmer. She puts one foot forward as a threat, staring at the suspicious veteran with conviction.
"Freaks, huh? I'm sure you'll meet plenty of those in the depths of hades."
While not being entirely sure what this meant, Asami disregards her own comment and waves her hand, an arc of wildfire burning through the ground at the basically useless mercenaries' feet, tame enough for them to run away without getting seriously burnt but being a deadly hazard should they chose to stand their ground.
"I won't allow anyone to touch Yoshino, so prepare yourself, hired dog."
{Malloryn would roll her eyes at the commoner's drivel. It isn't too shocking that this person immediately outs their peers as worthless ragdolls meant to stand around and pretend like their presence will block anything. Hopefully with the help of her dear classmate, this blundering idiot can eat his words.}
"Wow, I'm trembling in my newly acquired boots. You're soooo scary with your threats. Well, there was nothing else I would've expected from some low-life vermin such as yourself. I'll have you know, that wasn't a bribe. It was an offer."
{Right before she knew about Asami attempting to light them on fire, the schoolgirl would cheerfully wave at the 5 in the back as they missed the salary of their lifetime.}
"Sorry boys!~ Looks like your higher-up doesn't want to let you have the 300% raise you clearly deserve!~"
{Pure bliss would be seen on her face if they were to get burned. Sadly, it's only an if, but it's a very likely if scenario. Malloryn gently puts her shopping bags down before snapping her fingers. A black parasol would appear out of thin air, which she catches without hesitation.}
"It looks like the show's getting on the road. Might as well start contributing in order for the climax to come sooner~"
{She'd open the parasol up, revealing an elegant pattern on the outside, as well as a texture that looks a lot like a titanium covering the parasol. The girl would make it so that the parasol covers half her figure before using it to fire a bullet at the man as the baseball bat was first thrown his way.}
Aak keeps smiling as usual.
"Don't look at me, bro, I'm just a dude who's skilled in medicine."
Aak tries to keep watching Hikari, he's got a plan brewing.
As Asami had expected, the five mercs acting as backup aren't brave enough to face her flames, stumbling backwards away from the fire.
This only leaves one. Though he didn't seem to be ready, in an instant the man has lowered his left arm to block Hikari's strike, intercepting it with the thick material on the back of his glove.
Meanwhile, his right has moved down to one of three black cylinders at his belt that resemble stun batons.
Suspicious merc: "faster than expected. Guess I'll get to enjoy myself after all."
in a flash, the man has brought up this cylinder to intercept Mal's bullet, which is deflected into one of the nearby fast food places.
At the same time, he flicks the device's one button, bringing it to life. Three white tendrils of electricity jolt out of the stun baton and towards Hikari. These tendrils wouldn't cause direct damage, rather even a glancing blow would feel like every nerve in Hikari's body were on fire, causing incredible pain.
White Lightning: "Oh, by the way. Mr man doesn't seem very respectful. I mean, you can call me White Lightning. Not named after my weapon, actually. I mean, I got the name before making these things."
once Hikari has gotten some distance, either to dodge the man's weapon, or getting pushed back the group would be able to see his electric flail in its full reach, consisting of a single black battery that acts as its handle, and three tendrils of electricity that reach out about five feet long before stabilizing into something resembling a whip.
"Well, this sure seems stacked against us."
Aak begins the first phase, aim at his target, the target being Hikari.
"This'll be a fun lil' test, won't it?"
The moment he can get a good shot, he'll fire quite a few of what look like orange darts at Hikari.
"Don't be deterred, Hikari!~"
{Malloryn would shout out to her companion some "reassurance" in hopes that she forgets about those orange darts that rudely are aiming her way. As she does so, there's a dark glimmer in her eyes as her fingertips trace across the air, emenating an evil presence nearby. When this White Lightning tells the party of his name, the schoolgirl feels no need to use it in order to respect him.}
"Ehehhe, why bother calling out that pretentious title when I can make things simple and call you...idiot."
{In her naturally deep voice, her gaze dims as her parasol would contort unaturally, extending itself upwards instead of outwards. It would let itself back down, making the ferrule of the parasol have a sharp tip instead of an open barrel for shooting. She snaps her fingers once more, making it so that the ground below the man would make a sound that was similar to a lever being pulled. Afterwards, several lethal lances would spring up, acting as spikes as they attempt to impale straight through him if he stood there.}
(edited by Mals_Covet)
"Right, let's end this quick!"
Asami nods to Yoshino before running off in a flash towards the sole enemy, clutching her staff tightly before swinging the portion of it just below the top at his right arm with a ferocious force as the topper erupts into a sphere of scorching flame, with any luck allowing her to knock the merc back and follow through with the swing's momentum with a chance to graze his chest with the sharp points of the weapon or merely just striking the arm before reverting back to the initial offensive position, taking and step back and flipping the staff around to her left side.
The Solar... Doesn't get some distance, instead she swirls her weapon around her as the glowing aura which had been dim to this point flares up in an instant, raging flames bursting from the artifact and slamming towards the tendrils. The fire would strangely, be solid enough to actually impede the progress of her foe's weapons leaving it down to a contest of brute force as Hikari's magic surges forward with incredbile power.
A fact which also means she's entirely too focused upon what's in front of her to dodge or block Aak's shots, so hopefully those things are helpful rather than an issue because there's little doubt they'll be slamming into her back easily enough.
"What the hell you doing back there you back-alley doctor!?"
She sounds as bit shocked to have been shot, but only time will tell if it's more good than harm she supposes.
as soon as Hikari's aura touches White Lightning's whip, rather than make direct contact, the whip uses her energy as a conduit, flowing through Hikari's aura in order to reach the girl directly, resulting in an intense pain that feels as if every nerve in her body were on fire. While its likely not enough to knock the girl unconscious, it would force her to flinch and allow White Lightning to push her, Aura and all, into the charging Asami, likely knocking down both members.
Lightning: "I wouldn't suggest trying another mana-based defense. I designed this thing to be able to strike Persona users through their primary form of protection, but as you can see it'll do just as well with any barriers."
with Asami out of the way, the five minor mercs, standing outside the main combat zone, take the new opportunity to aim their guns at the child, Yoshino, and fire. Ten shots ring out from the men's pistols, but none of them seem to hit their mark, simply bouncing uselessly off her dress.
Yet this was the point where many things start happening at once.
Mal's trap goes off, its sound covered by the ringing of gunfire. Lightning doesn't even think to react to it, with any ordinary metal failing to go through his heavy boots, leaving him to calmly stand atop his newly acquired high ground, more disappointed in his men than anything.
Yoshino, now vulnerable and in a panic, decides its finally time to run, fleeing the food court and turning left before fleeing in the direction of exits 5, 6, and 7.
As the target flees, an angry voice can be heard over the mercenaries' radios.
Mist: "What the hell just happened? I thought I told you not to open fire."
With a sigh, Lightning turns his attention away from the kids for a bit, bringing his left hand up to his helmet to reply
Lightning: "With all due respect Miss, you're not our employer. I mean, we don't have to follow your orders if its getting in the way."
While distracted, White Lightning lazily flicks his wrist, sending the three electric tendrils of his whip at Asami and Hikari, who have likely had more than enough time to get back up by now.
Like Hikari previously, should Asami fail to avoid the end of Lightning's whip, she'd be struck by an intense searing pain, as if every nerve in her body were on fire at once.
On the other hand, if the whip manages to make contact with any part of Hikari or her aura, she'd be struck by a different, more intense pain. Turning from the most intense pain she'd felt so far, to the most pain she could possibly feel. Given her association with the sun and fire, this would likely feel as if every nerve in her body had been flash frozen, horribly numbed for an intense second before returning to normal.
Draco hears the sound of gunfire coming from entrance 4 with the rest of the group, and can likely see Red Mist as she utters a curse from the area outside entrance 1 before letting out a sigh and finally running into the mall herself, leaving three of her soldiers outside to keep anyone from coming in and out, leaving entrance 6 as the only safe one left.
“Aw, and here I thought I could see some commoner blood spill onto this very patio. Ah well, I guess we can always try again!~”
{Using her deep voice, there was no more joy to be found in her speech. Instead, she utters her words with a slight sense of sadism, glaring at the person trying so hard to look like a person with half the wit to be competent. She laughs as she snaps her fingers once again, this time another flurry of lethal laced pop up from the ground.}
{Unlike last time, they weren’t the same as before. The evil presence comes back tenfold, not only helping to summon the spikes appear, but imbuing the spikes with a malicious energy that would make sure to penetrate his defenses just so that the blood can trickle. When she sees the very obvious fire being open at the child, she can’t help but feel disappointed that she really thought that THESE men would be the ones that would have gotten some money.}
“And to talk back to your own manager like that! Gee, I think I may as well send you and your men a little bonus package just to be safe~”
{Malloryn carries her umbrella, standing in a refined manner. Another snap from her fingers and some metallic looking boulders would fall from the ceiling and right beside her. She merely giggles as she points forward, looking past the men and at the generics in the back line. As the sound of a lever being pulled rings true once again, springboards would instantly appear below the two boulders, hurling them towards the enemies in a simple motion.}
{One would be aimed at White Lightning, the other at the nameless mercenaries. Both would instantly become oversized spike balls that aim to crash into the adversary as well as giving them a neat surprise. As this happens, the springboards would "disappear" in their eyes, but to Malloryn they would merely be invisible.}
(edited by Mals_Covet)
The Dracomancer can hear fighting, fighting that he doesn’t want Ketsal involved in - the serpent is horrible in close quarters - and takes the red-haired woman entering as a sign to move.
“Go!”
Ketsal roars and makes a sharp U-turn into entrance 6. Should the doors not be automatic, they’d be blasted by a hurricane-strength gust of wind. The dragon slows down slightly to avoid crashing in the new indoor area and, once finding a more open space, slows down to a halt on the chilled mall floor. While the Dracomancer looks around for the girl or anyone else, Ketsal prepares to take off at a moment’s notice.
Even though they're painful, the shots seem to also feel quite... Good. It's made apparent that they're not orange darts, but syringes filled with an orange liquid. Hikari would probably feel much stronger, and they would also probably feel like they could swing their weapon quicker, or at least that's what Aak assumes... Though there's the side effect of constantly tasting a durian for the duration the stimpack has an affect on you, which can either be good or bad.
"Hmm... No apparent problems as I can tell? Good stuff."
Asami, unlike her brother, was a relatively unable god. Thus, when Hikari was flung full force towards her, she didn't exactly possess the capability to jet away like wind. However, she was fairly strong and would be able to support Hikari's weight for at least a few seconds, pushing her left hand up against the elder girl's back. However, focusing on the enemy in particular, Asami would not exactly help Hikari up, instead trying to move away. As for White Lightning's next attack, it probably would've struck Asami if he gave her his full attention. However, the distracted lash would be easily dodgeable, which the young girl proceeds to do by taking a step back. Using this opportunity, she merely flicks a few spurts of flame at the mercenary, moving behind Hikari to allow her to act as Asami's shield as the latter looks around the mall for any sort of gardening store. A store which may carry similar products may work as well.
The girl is... Much less bothered than her foe might hope, it does actually hurt her, some. But the Aura isn't really a defense, and the flames of her bat aren't exactly connected to the young woman in the least bit actually.
The part that manages to hurt her a bit is some of the whip slipping past her barrage of fire, but that shrugging off incredbile pain seems like second nature to the Solar while she smiles over at her enemy. She can't stop herself from being knocked back, but she gets moving little worse for the wear with that inhuman speed.
"Ow, that was I'll admit kind of painful... But I'll be alright, you gotta do a lot more than this to do much to me man."
That lazy strike is still pretty good, but she's no longer so hyper focused as to miss what's going on with the others and would manage to evade it by relying on Mal's attack as cover. for a moment After that, her counter attack rushes through the air, with Aak enhancing her already inhuman speed even further it might even be too fast for her foe to see much of.
The young woman grips her bat with both hands, slamming it down from above with a hefty swing aimed straight at White's head...
She also launches an equally powerful bash directly towards the left side of his chest, and the right side. Not in order, rather in the same moment.
The fact that's impossible doesn't really seem to impair her much. From each of those strikes a powerful wave of raw energy shaped by her blazing Essence would emmit as well, likely slamming into the man if he tried to dodge backward.
"I do have to admit though, you're pretty strong... This is far more exciting than it should be if you're human, so what are you?"
AsAsami’s group is currently in the food court, all the nearby areas are simply filled with fast food and other small restaurants. She’d have to leave the immediate area to find anything that might sell gardening supplies.
Hearing the click of Mal’s second set of spikes, White Lightning effortlessly jumps back, letting Mal’s spiked ball crush the remains of their previous traps, as well as Asami’s lazy fire, clearingthe field with little effort while his men are finally forced to scatter.
Lightning: “Don’t worry little sun, the first strike is nothing more than a teaser. Its needs the chance to read your mana signature before whipping up anything truly sublime.”
Until now Lightning has been taking the group as nothing more than a collection of kids, leaving him thoroughly unprepared for Hikari to appear even faster than last time. He attempts to dodge back from the initial blow, but his helmet is unfortunately caught and begins sparking. He catches the bar aimed at his left side with his gauntlet, but is struck by the right, something he is forced to feel.
Yet the man simply starts laughing. He takes a step back in order to rip off his now useless helmet and reveal...
An older man, probably in his late thirties, with messy white hair. Despite his relative age, he seems livelier than ever, with a wild, energetic look in his eyes that rivals Hikari’s
Lightning: “you monsters really shouldn’t underestimate us humans. After all, we’ve had years to prepare for your kind. Careful study of the different types and flow of mana from different planes. It’s truly fascinating.”
Now that he’s starting to get pumped, White Lightning swings his three-pronged flail upwards, each head becoming active and working in tandem to corner Hikari
The rightmost tendril circles around to cut its prey off, while the left seems satisfied curving to take as much space on the left side as possible.
Which leaves the middle tendril that quickly fills the ground beneath Hikari before rising like a net.
As before, since the man has confirmed a single hit before, the ship’s sensation becomes personalized, changing from a generic intense pain, to one specifically crafted to hurt Hikari as much as possible without causing them to lose consciousness.
Meanwhile the man brings up his left gauntlet, waiting expectantly for the results of his flail’s maneuver.
Lightning: “where should I start.. Did you know that every living thing experiences pain differently? Just like sounds and smells, there’s a particular type of hurt that’s more effective than any other.”
For the time being he seems to have completely lost interest in the rest of the group, instead focusing on the one who gave him a fight.
Draco has to wait a few minutes before seeing a child wearing a rabbit hoodie cone stumbling away from the food court. The kid is looking back, as if making sure nothing followed her, resulting in their inevitable fall to land closer to the dragon than they would have liked.
It takes them a few seconds to scramble to their feet and realize the situation, letting out a little cry of fear as they try to backpedal away.
"Ah. Monsters. What a stupendous assumption."
{Malloryn would turn around as she held her parasol, letting out a laugh as if she had heard the funniest joke of the century. In reality, she was just more frustrated. Though it's never good to let that part show.}
{Even though this CLEARLY more "experienced" man is so awful to the point that he avoids everyone else in the team, she can't help but at least try and cheer on her teammate. Maybe that little girl can go back home before she gets wrapped up in anymore of this stupid human socialization BS.}
"Hikari-Dearie, do have fun with this blathering lunatic!~"
{She snaps her fingers once more, and in the direction of the other two tendrils would be a dark aura that follows all three wherever they go. Once Hikari decides to dodge them, the dark energy would turn into a thin wall that covers the tentacles when they extend their reach, similar to a perfectly shaped dome just for them.}
{The dome would enclose intself, making it's grip tighter on the electric tendrils before it bursts with energy that doesn't try and damage. Instead, it was merely aiming to dispel every effect it would have had normally, turning it from an electric weapon to a normal whip.}
"Geez, what's with this guy? Well, I suppose I can't say this doesn't make for an exciting duel. Hikari-chan, i'm sending you my spirit energy! Try and pull off some epic tricks!"
Asami would hold her hand forward and an orange aura would wash over Hikari, increasing the severity of her fire attacks and resistance to being knocked back while overall serving to amp up her battle drive.
"I'm leaving to check on Yoshino, you guys make sure Sparky doesn't get past here."
She attempts to bolt out of the food court, running straightforward while looking for Yoshino or the other guy that was with the party.
"Tch, hello? Anybody here?"
Ketsal rears up and prepares to bolt, but the Dracomancer shushes him and slides off his back. At the command of the hand on his feathery neck, Ketsal lowers his body until he’s flat on the ground to appear less threatening. The Dracomancer pats the dragon’s head and speaks softly to the rabbit-eared girl.
“Don’t be scared. Ketsal is nice. You can pet him if you want.”
He doesn’t make any move to approach the girl. In fact, he just sits down next to Ketsal and keeps stroking the dragon’s head.
Aak just watches. These... Interesting beings intrigue him, but of course he's not going to get too involved.
Dearie? Where the hell does this girl get off calling her that...? Hikari isn't sure at all, but that's not the problem now is it. Instead she'd focus on her on the fly made up attempt to evade this net, sorta reminds her of that Sayaka making a cage of swords, not the same at all, but she's considered things like this enough to have a few ideas at least.
"Monsters huh, what a narrow worldview. But changing your worldviews isn't my problem, I honestly just kinda wanna see how this will turn out Mr. 'Normal Human'."
The net would rise up... The other two do indeed try to cut off the space, but despite that? The Dawn seems to be learning about her foe just as fast as he's learning of her, not in attack but defense.
The girl's steps seem to be perdiecting exactly where each of his blows will go and stepping away mere inches away from each of the massive attacks, rushing under and forward with inhuman speed that would unless her enemy managed a sudden change in those attacks find them just barely short of hitting.
And find himself with her weapon rushing towards him in a brutal counterattack. If her predictions failed somehow on the other hand, she'd be left silently gritting her teeth for a few seconds in pain while moving much much slower, though still moving despite the horrfic feeling flowing through her.
As soon as Mal's dark tendrils approach one of the strands of Lightning's weapons, it leaps forward like an eager puppy, making contact with Mal's magic before surging through it, following the path her tendrils had taken to get there, relying on the lingering traces from where it had passed through the air, before chaining into Mal and giving them the same intense, burning pain Hikari had felt earlier, likely breaking the girl's concentration in the process.
Lightning: "Oh, you wanna feel it too? Could have just come a bit closer. I'm a little busy to go over there right now."
the thing occupying him, of course, being Hikari. He raises an eyebrow, somewhat impressed by the girl managing to take careful steps between the tendrils of the net raising beneath her. He had expected her to try jumping over.
Lightning: "Very bold of you, if nothing else. I mean most people are scared of pain but you almost seem to like it... Good. Long as we're both having fun."
The man's face twists into a wicked grin as he uses his more armored left hand to catch Hikari's bat. The blow's strong enough to push him back at first, however as soon as the weapons make contact the glove sends a surge of that same pain-inducing electricity through her bat. Dropping the weapon would obviously fix this particular problem, but Hikari only has to flinch for a moment in order for the earlier lightning trap to catch up, making it difficult to even think through the pain.
There's no one around to stop Asami, so she's able to run through the mall pretty easily. Though Asami was busy when the girl left, the only way for Yoshino to possibly go was to the left, so she's still able to follow after the other girl.
As Asami runs through the mall she finds various niche stores, watch places, a small store selling phones in the middle of the empty aisles, but it'd take a little longer to catch up to where Yoshino was.
The girl stops trying to run at the very least, slowly getting back on her feet. The girl refuses to use her left hand, so as to avoid dirtying her puppet, so it takes a bit longer, but one she does the girl just stares at Ketsal, not wanting to come any closer. It looks like she might want to say something, but the girl simply freezes instead.
Her hand puppet doesn't have the same issue. They both remember Ketsal from outside, and seeing this relationship shift has them suspicious
Yoshinon: "Hey, I remember you. You're not gonna lure us with an ugly pet like that! Trying to act all innocent so you can snap up a defenseless maiden. You should be ashamed of yourself!"
“Oh no, electricity! Whatever shall I do in this mortally perilous situation?”
{She said with an extremely disingenuous tone, the act of being scared for her life her dramatically overdone tenfold. After a few seconds of sarcasm, she simply makes the electric tendrils get off her one way or another, without even touching them, merely glaring in order for them to instantly whip back to their carrier. Malloryn would let out a sigh of exasperation as she turns around.}
“Ugh, how annoying. I’ve been drained of my will to care. Hey Hikari, remember to tell me your cell number after this...if you have one!~”
{The schoolgirl would turn around just for the sake of her classmate, who she flashes a wink and a jovial message which can be taken as a vague insult. Either way, it’s good to tell the friend that they were indeed friends, because she’s feel a surge of power come through her. A heat riser, of a sort. Malloryn walks away, grabbing her shopping bags in one hand and still carrying her parasol in the other, skipping away joyfully and presumably towards where the little girl’s making her conflict.}
(edited by Mals_Covet)
The Dracomancer frowns. For once, he actually looks irritated.
“Ketsal isn’t ugly. Apologize.”
He can hear footsteps in the distance but doesn’t move from where he’s sitting. He places a hand on Ketsal’s snout to keep the dragon still and sits in silence for a few more seconds.
“...We were curious. Did not mean to scare you then. Ice had all the roads blocked. Couldn’t get past soldiers without him.”
A few more seconds of silence. He takes his hand off the dragon’s snout ant points at entrance 6.
“Clear to leave that way. Won’t stop you.”
Yoshinon: "apologize for what? I'm just telling the truth."
The doll goads onward. Yoshino steps a little closer, but still stays a safe distance from Ketsal
Yoshinon: "If its so safe why don't you go? I'm not getting near that thing. What if it bites?"
Yoshinon points one of its little paws at Ketsal
Asami would take a detour to relieve the phone store of it's burdens, carrying as many batteries as she can in her pockets while discarding their former shells in the same place she found them. She would continue doing this for a few minutes before moving forward again.
(edited by Sunna)
OOC: just give it a bit Asami. Letting this convo go a bit longer before you get there
The Dracomancer gives the puppet an annoyed look, then sighs and stands up. He stares at the area behind the bunny girl.
“I was here to help get others out. But if they don’t need help I can leave. Don’t want Ketsal to be hurt.”
He makes a shooing motion with his hand at Ketsal. The serpent slithers toward one of the storefronts so it’s not blocking the way.
“There. Do you know where the others are?”
Hikari would groan in pain as his hand makes contact with her bat... But she doesn't stop, not in the least bit. Instead the man would find himself exploding in a horrfiying blaze of roaring essence that rushes off the bat, the fires along it die down for the moment but not before that massive blast engulfs him while the girl tries her best to keep moving.
The pain is enough to slow her down though, and beyond that powerful attack she has nothing else to add onto her offense for the moment, instead focused on trying to keep ahead of the net while hopefully keeping her weapon in hand.
Though if that fails she does have... Less effective backup options, if needs must. Though the magical enhancement Mal had provided before leaving would at least give her more speed with which to try and stay evading, not to mention adding on even more power to that attack and causing it to shine brighter still with the blazing Essence of her weapon.
"It wouldn't be accurate to say I like pain... Just that it doesn't scare me, can't really afford to be scared by it."
She'd speak that out through gritted teeth while smiling slightly, despite the pain of it all this fight really is fun to her, not that she'll say it outright at the moment.
Yoshinon: "They're fighting some scary guy back where we came from. Now we're getting out of here, come on Yoshino!"
With Ketsal out of the way, Yoshino makes for the exit. There weren't any guards out there so it seemed like she'd probably be able to slip away just fine... At least that's what it looked like for now.
This is when Asami makes it to where Draco and Yoshino are, to find the child trying to run by Draco, with his large feathered serpent out of the main path.
I guess Mal might arrive here too, though a little after Asami does. There's not much to note on the way there, save the discarded shells of dozens of phones that had been robbed of their batteries.
Now back to the fight. Lightning hadn't expected a sudden burst of flame. His armor glows a faint red. heating up, but not to the point where it wouldn't be able to handle the heat.
Unfortunately for Lightning, his face is no longer armored. Though the man jumps back, letting go of Hikari's bat as he does so, he is unable to guard his face completely, resulting in a flash of fire going across the right side of his face.
At the same time, there wasn't really anywhere for Hikari to go anymore. Her left and Right were being covered by the tendrils of Lightning's whip, while the net was rapidly closing from behind her. It only stings for a second before the device reshapes itself to form a cage over and around Hikari. Though she wasn't being touched, any significant movements or attempts to use magic would result in an increasingly painful shock as the device analyzes their reactions with each attempt.
Leaving Lightning to take a few deep breaths, the right side of his face now burned, possibly even scarred.
Lightning: "Didn't expect a kid to be the first one to hurt me."
Lightning touches the now sore side of his face, wincing a little from the pain before letting out a sigh. His hand moves to the second of the three cylinders by his belt.
Lightning: "But the fight's over now. I mean, those tendrils trapping you weren't really meant for continuous contact. Try to move too much and.. Well I've had complaints for leaving my targets paralyzed before. Lets see just how..."
Mist: "The hell do you think you're doing attacking civilians?"
The familiar voice of the red-haired woman in charge can be heard coming from the direction of where Hikari and the others had entered. In addition to the woman's long, black coat, she wields an orange sword nearly half as tall as she is, with an edge that glows a faint red.
The Red Mist stares down the White Lightning, the two sharing a look of pure disdain before Lightning replies
Lightning: "Why the hell are there civilians here in the first place? Put the greatest mercenary in the world in charge of setting up a perimeter and they let four kids stroll in unnoticed?
I'd almost think it was your idea..."
Mist: "Is that an accusation?"
Lightning: "Just an observation, though I can imagine our employer would hate to hear you've been sabotaging our job."
Mist: "We were hired to kill the monster that froze the entire street. I don't see how attacking random high-schoolers is supposed to help with that."
The two continue their staring contest for a bit before Lightning breaks away from Mist's gaze and into laughter. After taking a few seconds to calm down, he lets out a sigh
Lightning: "Your job was to kill a monster. Mine was to capture the target. I mean, I'm sure you're aware that subduing high-value targets is my specialty. I think its about time I continue my mission now."
Mist brings her sword up while moving to block Lightning from the rest of the mall. He was as big of a danger to the people she let in as to their actual target.
Mist: "I think you've done enough. I'll take over the mission from here, so scram.
Seeing the woman's willingness to fight, Lightning considers his odds for a few seconds. But in a straight-up fight he's not liking his chances. Certainly not the odds of not only beating Mist while already injured, but then still being in good enough shape to capture his target afterwards. He has no choice but to try to get whatever he can out of the situation
Lightning: "If I return to my employer empty-handed because of you, no one's gonna be happy. Two of us fight here, and who knows how many of the kids are gonna get hurt. I mean, neither of us are known for restraint."
With Hikari still momentarily trapped, Lightning turns to her with a grin.
Lightning: "How about I just bring her to Mr. Kohiyo. She's not the target, but as long as I manage something I'm sure he'll be happy."
Mist: "Like I'll let you kidnap people in front of my eyes."
Lightning: "Its not kidnapping if they agree to it. So how about it kid?
Are you gonna come with me, or are Mist and I gonna paint the walls red?"
Asami nods as she witnesses Yoshino make her escape, casually going the same way without saying a thing to anyone else there. She watches Yoshino, making sure no one attacks them as she follows a fair distance behind until Yoshino finally gets to an area of relative safety.
Hmm... She'll have to try and figure out a way to get out of this, but she isn't about to come along quietly. She's actually rather surprised by Mist's statement though, hadn't expected the merc to actually stand up for her, hell she wouldn't even blame Mist for leaving her all things considered. And at least the others will hopefully get out of her either way after this distraction so... She speaks up in a wary voice.
"Hmm... Can't say I really feel like coming along, so yeah kinda is kidnapping. What reason do I have to think I'm not gonna end up dead if I go with you, after all."
Maybe if Lightning had given even the slightest reason to make her trust him, she might consider it. But for the moment... She's just gonna watch, wait, and hope the upcoming fight presents a chance to escape. Or perhaps to help Mist since the girl's opinion of the woman has just gone up several notches.
The Dracomancer watches Asami pass by. She seems to be following the bunny girl so he leaves her be. When Mal inevitably arrives, though, he snaps his fingers and walks up to her with Ketsal slithering close behind.
“The other girl and the cat. Still back there? Need me to fly you or them out?”
He doesn’t have much of a grasp on the situation but he has a feeling things are rough back there.
The conversation is interesting and all, but Aak decides he's seen enough.
"You're all such interesting creatures. I look forward to observing more of your kind."
With that, he begins to leave the area.
Lightning: "Oh trust me, if it were up to me you'd probably be a pincushion by now. Especially for this."
Lightning gestures to the burn mark Hikari gave him.
Lightning: "But Mr. Kohiyo has some grand idea about saving the world. Me? I'm just glad to have someone funding my toys."
Mist: "That's enough. They said no, so beat it."
With Hikari's answer given, Lightning pulls out his second cylinder, flicking its button to bring out a single stream of power eight feet long. Though it could be mistaken for a lance, it was technically an energy rapier. One that Lightning could wield effortlessly due to its blade having next to no weight.
In the time it takes Lightning to draw his weapon, Mist has already stepped forward, grabbing one of the bars holding Hikari, and quickly slashing downwards where the energy lashes connected. There's a loud sparking noise before the barrier simply cuts off. Leaving Lightning stunned, Hikari free, and Mist with a confident smirk.
Mist: "There's a brief surge every time it attempts to change forms. Timing's tight but its not difficult to short-circuit."
it only takes Lightning a second to recover from the surprise, regaining his composure before commenting.
Lightning: "I invented the thing and never even noticed a surge... Guess that's why you're considered the best."
Still, losing a captive wasn't really Lightning's biggest problem. Since he had also gotten Mist's ire, it was nothing more than the beginning of his issues. As the two prepare to fight, Mist comments.
Mist: "You might wanna follow the furry's example. This isn't a good place to be."
"Oooo, I didn't know I'd get an uber ride for my troubles!~"
{The girl would almost jump for joy as she doesn't have to go through the minor inconvenience of calling someone or walking the distance herself. Of course, trying to show appreciation for a dragon might be a more mature way to show gratitude instead of celebrating early. She clears her throat before closing her umbrella, thinking to herself.}
"Let's see...I suspect Sir Aak will be coming anytime soon. But I do want to request that we go back for Hikari-San if she doesn't immediately return. Getting caught up in some crossfire of Miss Red Mist might be real annoying for the mental psyche..."
Asami follows Yoshino from a safe distance. As the girl makes her escape, its apparent that there was no coverage of this exit, no ambushes waiting or even a single guard. so Yoshino makes her way through the city, staying away from crowds as she attempts to weave through the city streets.
Eventually, Yoshino would slow down near Inokashira. It was a calm park with relatively few people, which gave Yoshino the space she needed to really feel safe for the time being.
As for Draco and the others, were Draco to head back towards Hikari, they would doubtlessly find Aak only a short distance in, seemingly fine as he headed towards their exit himself. Should Draco decide not to go it wouldn't be long until Aak made it to him and Mal's location. Its simply a matter of whether or not one wishes to go back for Hikari, or simply leave while they still can.
Hikari... Follows the seemingly more friendly merc's advice, she'd honestly like to help out Red Mist after that little display of doing the right thing even to the woman's own loss, but it's obvious she's outclassed here too. Even with the power flowing through her...
There's a difference between talent, and learned expereince that her inhuman might can't make up for. But it damn well can let her run away faster than any human ought to be able to while chasing after Aak, hopefully being able to catch up with him and the others soon enough.
Once Yoshino makes it out of the immediate vicinity, Asami sighs with relief. Her initial concern over the girl's safety temporarily satisfied, she takes to resuming what she said she came to do, amplifying the sun's rays (assuming it's still daytime, if not she'd create rays of her own) to where the ice would melt much more quickly than normal. Just then, she would realize she wouldn't exactly have any convenient way of contacting her new friend. She considered giving Yoshino a phone, but a stolen one would just be troublesome to keep. While on that train of thought, she realizes something else, deciding to head back the way she came and reconvening with the rest of the group.
The Dracomancer nods to Aak when the feline arrives, but decides to wait for Hikari before actually moving out. If she takes more than a minute or so he’ll have to search for her himself. Ketsal stretches his wings and lowers his body down to the ground. The Dracomancer crosses his arms, still looking at where Hikari should be coming from.
“Climb onto Ketsal’s back. We will leave when everyone’s here.”
Loud crashing noises can be heard from the direction Hikari was left in, with the poor storefronts getting trashed in Lightning and Mist’s fight, but since Lightning is far too busy to chase after Hikari it only takes a minute for her to arrive at the exit with the others, finding the rest of her group waiting, with Yoshino having vanished into the city streets.
Now it’s just left to the group to see if they want to discuss what they’ve seen among themselves before heading out. Once everyone’s ready I’ll write up the epilogue
Asami looks between the group, checking to make sure everyone was there, mainly due to a sense of general distrust.
"Yoshino managed to get away safely. We have no further business here. Besides that, uh, Hikari..."
Asami would pull out her phone and place the battery back in before facing Hikari.
"Do you mind giving me your phone number just in case something like this happens again?"
Aak shrugs.
"Alright, my dude. I guess I'll do that, then."
Really, he's just going along with everything at this point. This universe is strange. He climbs onto Ketsal's back.
{The girl was overjoyed to see her classmate arrive once again. The one that did "most of the work", if tolerating that idiot of a man was even considered that.}
"Ah Hikari! I apologize for leaving a bit early, I just felt agitated is all! I even asked to come for you if you didn't arrive, but that'd be impossible thanks to all those power ups we gave you. Come on, our uber's waiting! Oh, and maybe you can give me your number as well!~"
{Malloryn would gesture for Hikari and the others to follow suit before climbing up on Ketsal besides Aak. Sitting sideways like she didn't care about airline safety...but this is a dragon so everything's fine.}
Hikari is a bit out of breath as she climbs onto the dragon and responds to Mal and Asami's greetings, she... Isn't so sure about giving the kid her number, but it can't hurt. probably. And as for Mal, why not. She's wanted to get to know that one a little better anyways.
"Yeah sure, here's my number."
She would indeed tell them her number, her writer is too lazy to come up with so we'll just gloss over that. And then there's the other question on her mind...
"Anyway, where'd that Yoshino girl go? And also... Long shot but, does anyone know where I could find a good way to get more experience fighting? That White Lightning guy... He was good, too good for me to beat even. So I clearly need to get stronger."
She just sighs a little bit while looking toward the mall, wondering how that fight which is clearly out of her league might be going.
"Ah, well, I sorta lost sight of her but she went out this exit. As for fighting experience, there is this one place called GYM in all caps where people fight each other, but you may want to look for more serious challenges such as tourmaments. If you'd like, I could help you train too!"
Asami would have a sense of passion in her words as she was all too eager to train herself. She then notices everyone mounting the dragon, herself being the only one remaining grounded.
"Oh yeah, you guys can leave without me. I prefer to walk."
With everyone who wants a ride on, the Dracomancer climbs to the front “seat” of the dragon and points at the exit. Ketsal flaps his wings and, despite the extra weight, gracefully soars out of the mall. The dragon’s serpentine body results in a wobbly ride but it’ll get everyone out of the icy mall and frozen streets, leaving their problems behind... hopefully.
Despite the conspicuous nature of their escape, Draco and the rest of the gang would get out of the mall just fine, with no one seeming to show any interest in finding them.
This left Asami to walk home themselves, the coast fully clear thanks to Mist's interference.
The mall was blocked off for several more hours as the ice slowly melted on its own. After the dust settled, the place would have to be closed for a week in order to repair the inside that had been almost entirely destroyed.
But every store would be able to bounce back with little issue thanks to generous donations from Anemone Energy Industry, a company that rose to prominence only a few years ago.
Miraculously, there were no confirmed casualties as a result of the incident, despite large sections of the street being damaged by frost. None of the citizens caught in the initial blast received worse than 1st degree frostbite.
The group would never learn anything about the "30 foot rabbit" that had supposedly caused the incident. It was likely little more than a story made up out of shock. The only creature found at ground zero was the young girl they helped escape.
As for Yoshino, well. Later that night there was a freak thunderstorm that knocked out power in the city around Inokashira Park. The second abnormal weather pattern in that day. However, this time nothing could be found around its source. Its as if Yoshino had simply vanished into thin air.
Normal end
Weird Weather