Fantasy New Oasis: Four Heavenly Kings

[tityanya]

𝑵𝒂𝒐𝒎𝒊 𝑺𝒂𝒕𝒐

CS Link

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Railyard, Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

Tri, Peyton, Miriam, Kanna, Javi, Meirin, Ottilie

Outbreak

The soldier went down so easy, Naomi was almost shocked. He screamed as she went for his eyes, but she barely heard the sound. She wasn't fond of violence, so her consciousness was on a beach somewhere far away while her body did what it had to do to survive. And boy, did the serpents sure know how to fight for survival. Once she stood up, she saw the wreckage that her fellow gang members (and Miriam) had wrought on the soldiers. Those poor boys really didn't stand a chance against a small team of HPs, did they?

A whistle broke Naomi out of her dissociative state. She glanced up, to where the soldiers above had been, and was shocked to find that there was a woman standing there. She threw one of the soldier's guns down at them, and Naomi quickly snatched it up. Better at this moment to shoot the soldiers from afar than to stab them so close. Naomi stood with her back to Tri, her gun trained on anyone who got close. She whirled around at the sound of a woman's voice, calling to Tri. Naomi raised the gun at her, but didn't shoot. She knew Tri's alias, and his propensity for mess. She wasn't a serpent. Who were these people who had come to their rescue? Naomi's eyes narrowed, debating the consequences of shooting the woman right then and there, when her hand grew to massive size, blocking bullets from another gun.

Ah, another HP then. Her gun was useless. She dropped it down, instead choosing to focus on the soldiers. But before she could even get a shot out, she heard the cracking noise of the Earth beneath them literally splitting open. What in the...? Naomi's wide eyes traveled over to the woman, whose foot was now proportionally outsized with her body. She began yelling, saying that anyone who raised a weapon was going to taste dirt. Naomi let the gun fall to her side. Those soldiers who remained ran. All that surrounded them now was the bodies, both alive and dead, of the soldiers that had surrounded them.

The gun fell out of Naomi's hand. She took a deep breath, trying not to just fall to the floor. What the fuck just happened? Who were these two women? Naomi wheeled over to Miriam, ready to lay into her, when she noticed that Miriam was looking elsewhere, speaking to someone unknown. A brown-haired woman and a man following her, texting into a phone. What the hell was going on? That thought only got stronger and more urgent as the clearing began to fill with light. Naomi glanced at her hand, entranced by the glowing light that surrounded her. She quickly scooped the gun up again from the floor, unsure if this was some new kind of attack, making them beacons of light and easier targets.

But that wasn't quite what happened. Wait...what happened? Naomi blinked in confusion, rotating in a circle as she looked at where they were. Some place...underground? Had they just been kidnapped? "What the actual fuck is going on," Naomi groaned, all the internalized confusion and rage coming out in her tone.

POST NOTES​

((ooc: ))
((outfit))
((Reptile))

Elenion Aura @Saturn_moon @ATurei @FabulousTrash @Damafaud @QuirkyAngel @Coyote Hart

 

[Elenion Aura]

The Hospital

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

Eleanore, Leaf, Noa

OUTBREAK

As the sprite led them, the group eventually arrived at the dilapidated hospital. Their footsteps were the only sound echoing in the dark as the tiny butterfly fluttered through the shattered glass doors, beckoning the Phoenixes to follow.

The once sterile halls of the hospital were coated in a patina of chalky white drywall and strewn with abandoned medical equipment, warped and ruined to the point of uselessness. The walls and ceiling bore strange scratch markings, as though something large had squeezed its way through here at some point... Ever on the ghostlight of Roland's faeriefly guided them through the ruins of the hospital, as an eerie stillness settled over the face of the world. The musty scent of decay mingled with a faint chemical tang. The hospital's walls, once pristine, were now marred by cracks and peeling plaster. The floors were riddled with dust and debris.

The ghostlight cut through the darkness, revealing overturned gurneys and shattered vials. Tattered curtains fluttered in a phantom breeze, while the distant drip-drip of promised a burst pipe, or a leaky faucet, somewhere ahead in the labyrinthine gloom. Amidst the ruin, they could've salvaged what little they could find: tourniquets, vials of antibiotics, bandages. It would scarcely be enough, and said nothing of those who remained missing.

The hospital funneled them towards a vast hole in the tile floor, gaping ominously in what used to be the main ward. Echoing up from its depths were faint, desperate voices. The cavern swallowed their words, but the intent was clear: they were pleading for help. The air grew heavier, earth mixed with fear. The vast chasm yawned, a cavernous maw in the hospital’s heart, its edges jagged like torn flesh. The scent of damp earth wafted up, mingling with a faint, unsettling odor of something unknown, something wrong.

"You'll need to go down," Roland's voice appeared, distorted as though he were speaking through a closed door; the starlit butterfly twinkled with each syllable, hovering lazily in the air beside Eleanor. "With any luck, this'll lead you exac—"

A rumbling reverberated through the hospital's bowels, cutting off the rest of the faerie's message. The sound was primal, weighty, something large moving with purpose through subterranean tunnels. The group paused, a breath held, feeling the vibrations from below. Dust fell from the cracked ceiling. Another deep, guttural rumbling resonated through the ground, vibrating up through their feet and setting their teeth on edge.

Then, with a suddenness that stole the last semblance of calm, the creature emerged briefly into view below them, filling the sinkhole with its girth. A leviathan from nightmares, its scrabbling claws tore up the tunnel, making it anew. It all but ignored the trio of Phoenixes standing over the tunnel mouth from which it had, at one point, burrowed up from. Clasped in its formidable jaws was a small woman, her body limp, either unconscious or too terrified to struggle, her clothing stained with the earth through which she had been dragged.

The creature's path was clear – it was taking her, as it had likely taken others, to its lair deeper within the earth.

 

[Elenion Aura]

The Underground

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

Javi, Ottilie, Kanna, Meirin, Tri, Peyton, Naomi, Kisara

OUTBREAK

As the light faded, everything came sharply into focus.

Centuries of decay had been haphazardly erased. Vaulted ceilings, carved with intricate, obscure markings, arched over the cavernous space. The air was cool and tinged with the musk of earth and old stone. Along the curved walls, empty rows of stone seating rose in concentric circles. A ring of braziers flickered with ghostly azure flame. A hidden place, a forgotten place. Recently uncovered. Put to use.

In the arena's hallowed heart rose a solitary greystone altar, its surface etched with markings, worn and weathered. Atop its stone platform was set a ruby pearl, bobbing lazily in the air above its surface like an apple in water. It emitted an ethereal glow, bathing the surrounding stonework, and the shadowed faces of those gathered around it, in spectral, scarlet hues.

"It's nearly time," a man's voice said. He was nervously thumbing the lapel of his suit jacket. Around him stood similar minded handwringers. They had all risked much—wealth, status, their very lives and livelihoods, all owed to the very power they now stood to betray—breaking with the status quo as they were. This act had been strictly forbidden. "Perhaps we should—"

"Should what, Matthew? Turn back? When the end is in sight? I think not." All eyes shifted to the source of that voice, sure and confident, standing in stark contrast to their sudden apprehension. Anton turned his gaze from the opalescent Phoenix Eye to the gathered crowd, his co-conspirators, cowed by the conviction in his words, and the steel of his resolve. "Fear not, my friends. Our sacrifices will pale next to the rewards."

Above the ancient stone floor, halos of light began to shimmer into existence, each a pulsating portal from elsewhere. One by one, figures materialized from out of these aureolae, their bodies coalescing from light and stardust. They found themselves within an enclosure ringed by motes of that selfsame light, pulsing rhythmically, humming power. Water dripped from somewhere overhead, pooling in cracks and crevices beneath their feet. The air was cool; the light gave no warmth.

"Ah, the guests of honor have finally arrived!" Anton turned to face the corralled masses, Serpents and Dragons among them. Last to join their ranks was a horned girl, engulfed by shadows. Extending a hand, Anton beckoned the dark. It obeyed, slipping harmlessly between gaps in the prison of light that contained the rest of them. It reached out a flickering hand and was subsumed into Anton's waiting palm. He breathed a sigh of relief, as shadows danced behind his eyes.

Heavenly Tiger’s Trivia Hour

Anton Velling Bower: Once an obscure member of the Cult of the Sleeper, Anton's ambition and ruthlessness allowed him to ascend the cult's ranks quickly. After stealing an artifact from the cult's vault, he harnessed its power to continue the chimeric transformations, becoming a man-shaped mass of shadows in the process. His ultimate goal is to complete the failed ritual to awaken the Sleeper, believing this will grant him unimaginable power!

"And not a moment behind schedule, I'll mention," a woman's voice cropped up from within the crowd, as Jennifer shouldered her way to the edge of the golden bars that barred her passage as well as anyone's.

"Ah, yes, well done. These will do."

"It was easy. Now, mind lettin' me out of this?"

"Oh, my dear. It is too late for that." Ignoring her outburst of indignant rage tinged with mounting terror, Anton turned his back on the cattle. The true prize, the rewards that would be bestowed upon him for freeing the One Who Sleeps, was right before his eyes. He need now to only reach out his hand, and take what he deserved.

 

[thebigfella]

The Docks

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

Charlie, Hitoshi

OUTBREAK

Pebbles fell from the rubble, and rain continued to fall. It trailed down between the crevices of bricks to finally splash against the ground. The splatters of drops took the place of silence, the stillness of the after-battle.

Slowly, faces peered to gaze at the aftermath. The two Phoenixes stood, the marks of battle upon their bodies, their soaked forms posed amongst the elements. Worried looks were directed towards the pile of destruction where the monster’s still body rests. They watched the bioluminescence fade from its flesh; muscles had long since gone limp.

The workers gawked in disbelief, but the feeling of relief overwritten any sense of doubt. The warehouse door opened, and slowly, bodies began to flow out; those who had found their hiding spots amongst the metal containers around the dock came to join them. While many still tried to catch their minds up to what had transpired, others were starting to survey the damages, examining the ground beneath their feet.


“Y-You saved us…” One of the longshoremen breathed out, barely audible, but before the natural continuation of thanks could leave his lips, a tremor of the ground left the dockers stumbling.

“Shit! The ground’s giving out!” Someone shouted, and just like that, the panic emerged, and quickly, everyone was darting off in every direction.

Cracks in the ground tore open to make valleys, dragging everything down with them; metal containers were pulled into the void, cranes tipped over, and metal bending and creaking before they slammed into the ground. More and more ground was torn open, spreading across the docks until a giant sinkhole had formed. Hitoshi and Charlie weren’t free from its swift expansion; any attempt to escape it would find their feet falling from under them until they were swallowed into darkness.

The sounds of everything falling and slamming were disorientating; their bodies bounced and bumped into rocks and debris through the air before finally impacting against the ground, submerged in darkness, the dust of dirt clogging their lungs. When everything settled, the sounds of running water were faint in the distance behind them; the softest man-made light gave them a glimpse of what looked like the beginning of a sewer, rusted pipes decorating the cement wall.

What they were in was certainly not part of the sewer; bedrock walls made everything echo, and there was nothing but mud below their feet; something or someone had dug a hole into the sewer system, leading to the weakening of the ground above by consequence.

To add to the mystery, voices reverberated through the tunnel, coming from behind them. It was unintelligible, but it came in many volumes and tones. They would have to follow them if they wanted an answer to the mystery.

​

 

[thebigfella]

The Towers

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

Areith, Deirest, Sang-Cheol

OUTBREAK

The crow monstrosity’s feet braced against the ground, and the mass of thorns coming towards it made its talons outstretched in preparation. It met Deirest head-on as she used the other chimeric as a medium for her attack; its clawed hands slammed to stop it, beaks opened from its fingers, gripping the barbs and pecking through them to dig into the flesh underneath. Its numerous heads joined in the effort, tearing out barbs and stabbing into muscle, tearing through tendons. It attempted to eat through the problem in its way, tearing out whatever fiber it could get its beak around.

With its body getting gouged out, unable to escape, the spun chimeric did the only thing it could do. The air began to vibrate, and tremors passed through Deirest and the crow chimeric, bouncing off their bones and digging and traveling through their bodies to the floor. It continued to grow more and more in intensity until their brains began to rattle in their skulls.

Blood began to pour out of the crow’s head; blood burst from behind the eyes and leaked from its ear sockets; slowly, its mass began to fall apart, its body breaking off into the various crows that made up its shape as blood began to burst from across its body as if it had been punctured. A pool of blood grew at its feat, and the quivering bodies of dead crows joined the heap.

Nevertheless, the vibration continued. Nearby metal began to glow orange, melting at its thinner ends. The ground quivered like an earthquake, the glass began to shatter from the continuous oscillation, and the ceiling started to cave in as debris fell loose.

It all came to a crescendo as a booming creak echoed across the sky; it reverberated throughout the buildings, so poignant it stuck to one’s eardrums as it grew louder and louder.

Slowly, gravity shifted, the floor beneath them going sideways, tipping further and further, leaving them to slide towards the broken windows that decorated the tower's walls.

The heat had weakened the metal of the floor they resided on, and the building had begun to fold in. Everything fell apart as everything tore apart, beams snapped, and bolts out of sockets.

And then, everything fell.

All of them spiraled through the air with the falling building, their bodies lifting off the ground as momentum carried them along with the collapsing tower, left to the whims of fate as they came careening towards the ground.

The sound of the impact sent a small boom through the surrounding streets, the shockwave knocking loose litter and debris. Smoke flooded the abandoned streets and soaked into the other dilapidated buildings, obscuring everything in a cloud that hid the impact.

The crash of the tower had torn through the ground, the mass of stone and metal going through the layers to reach underneath the crust. Scattered amongst the debris were those favored enough by the powers above to survive the impossible odds or dead bodies.

The lights from the surface above barely peered in within a dark hole, but that wasn’t the only illumination source. Something other than natural light glowed across the rubble of the destroyed tower; it beckoned them deeper into the darkness, flickers of unknown light that led into the unknown.

If they could carry their mangled bodies a bit farther, maybe they could find answers.

 

[Elenion Aura]

The Underground

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

Javi, Ottilie, Kanna, Meirin, Tri, Peyton, Naomi, Kisara

OUTBREAK

Spoiler: Code

Tri
Peyton
Ottilie
Kanna
Naomi
Kisara

The cultists gathered, as they had practiced. Anton conducted them, his choir, as they prepared to unleash the very worst of what had yet to come.

Tri didn’t like it. He liked playing only when he was in control. He also didn’t appreciate being teleported out of nowhere, so he made himself glow as he patted dirt off his coat. Detectives could be dirty, but they ruined his play. He was no longer a detective. He couldn’t get dirty, but some of the stains were difficult to get clean. Tri stared at Tristan.

”Uh- boss?” Tristan looked about, uncertain.

”Pat me clean.” ”Uh?”

For Peyton, who was still quite disorientated by the sudden teleportation, his attention wasn’t on Anton or his co-conspirator cultists. He was far too enraptured by where he was, and what company he was sporting.

Ironically considering that he had no clue where he was moments ago, Peyton felt like he knew where he currently was. He had read it in all sorts of stories, all with varying descriptions. Now that he actually stood there, the stone beneath his feet, Peyton realized it was nothing like what was in the books.

He was in the crypt of the Sleeper, wasn’t he?

After he finished gawking at just how bland the crypt turned out to be, Peyton turned his attention to the smattering of Dragons that had arrived with them. Among them, he saw Meirin. Questions to Miriam could wait, at that moment, Peyton felt excited to get to see his former boss. He slung his gun over his shoulder and bounded forward to give Meirin a hug.

”Mei! It’s been a long time! I missed you! How have you been?” Peyton was exuberant with genuine joy and was completely unaware of Meirin’s soured attitude towards him.

Meirin blinked at Peyton’s audacity before quickly recovering. ”H-hmph!”

Arms folded, she turned away from the attempted hug. ”You seem to be doing awfully fine for a supposed hostage, Pei.”

As Meirin turned, her eyes took in their new surroundings and connections began to form within her relatively smooth brain. Memories, that weren’t hers, emerged; An underground mine. A ritual. Even the clothes of the cultists. Not everything was the same (certainly not the golden bars, red jewel, nor even formation of rocks in the area), but Meirin would have to be blind not to notice the similarities between the two underground ceremonies. Was that why he’d asked her about the ‘Sleeping God’? Did he know something like this was still going on beneath Lower Central? She’d have liked to ask her ex more about the things he and his ‘spelunking friends’ saw, but the earpiece Lu gave her wasn’t working.

She didn’t know how to get it to work.

She was still trying to piece together her new surroundings after being teleported–not all that different from running into Ruri’s portals, really.

Thunking sounds drew her from her thoughts and Meirin’s eyes flitted to where a horned woman seemed to be pounding her fist against the golden bars. Meirin was tempted to do the same. To test her fist against another’s potential. To shrink her body until it was small enough, slip herself between the gaps in the prison, and punch out their captors in one go. To deck Jennifer Lawson for betraying them, as the news anchor’s words to their captor revealed.

However, instinct told Meirin this wasn’t the right time.

She wasn’t even sure if Elias’s memory was reliable; Perhaps she was simply making connections where there are none.

Elias was about as trustworthy as a snake in sheep’s clothing, after all.

”Is everyone alright?” She remembered Ottie having a panic attack and Javi helping her.

Javi gave Meirin a little half-smile accompanied by a meager thumbs up before checking back in with Ottilie who was still rooted to the spot, her heart still beating like a jackhammer. On the positive side, people weren’t shooting at other people anymore. On the not so positive side, they were now being held in some sort of human death cage by psychotic cultists in who knows where.

Gripping on to Javi’s sleeve for whatever ounce of comfort it might offer her, Ottilie closed her eyes in an attempt to block out everything else that was happening around her. In… Out… In… Out… She chanted in her head, inhaling and exhaling as she went.

Meirin remembered a battle and soldiers running away prior to being blinded by golden light. Those she knew to be facts. Her eyes landed on the individual who had brushed off Lawson. ”Where are we? Why have you brought us here?”

”To die, of course!” Anton answered gleefully, though he did not turn around. He was transfixed, studying the hovering pearl, as though he were waiting for something. ”Your blood will be the key that opens a door locked for millenia.”

”I would really like not to die.” Ottilie quipped up softly to Javi, who gulped but otherwise remained silent. With her senses slowly coming back to her, the young scientist began doing what she did best. Eyes darting around, she tried to take stock of everything around them.

To her credit, the horned woman with the pink hair clambered up to her feet quicker than most, slamming her fists, still coated with wild energies, into the bars of light that trapped her within her cage. She was not unlike a feral beast, her unintelligible growls and roars reverberating through the air, providing a wild melody to the tempo provided by her fists colliding with her cage. She retreated, stepping back, pacing about behind the bars, her eyes glaring holes at the man whom the shadows belonged to.

”Don’t waste your time.” Anton continued, an air of snide superiority creeping into his tone. ”You gave me a bit of fun, earlier. But that’s all over now. You will die here, but know that your sacrifices will not be in vain. For through you, we usher in the dawn of a new era!”

”You FUCKING prick,” Jennifer spat, eyes wide and wild.

The Dragon Jack was the next to recover from their senses, standing up on her feet. Her eyes looked around as Kanna took in their new surroundings. She had no idea if they were still within the bounds of New Oasis, or within Amestria in general. But that mattered little now. From what she could now piece together, the chaos that occurred in Lower Central wasn’t random. It had been planned for who knows how long, and certain people were in on it. Including who Kanna assumed was just an egotistical news reporter reaching for new heights in her career.

The jack’s eyes looked towards Jennifer, now questioning how much she knew. But now, even she had been cast aside by those who employed her to lead the Dragons here, to die like the rest of them. As some would say, karma is a bitch.

Kanna navigated to where Meirin and the other Dragons ended up, ignoring Peyton who was nearby, making sure they were alright for the most part. Once she was satisfied their limbs were all in the right spot, the jack’s attention looked towards the man stood near the ruby pearl. Now it was her turn to ask the questions.

”And what sort of era would that be?”

So many questions and so little answers, Naomi thought. This…psychopath in front of them was going to sacrifice them…for a new era? What kind of bullshit was that? Naomi’s teeth ground together in frustration as she looked around the golden cage they found themselves in. Peyton had thrown himself on one of their rescuers, Kisara was there for some reason…

The words were taken before she could ask them. What kind of era would that be? ”What makes you think we’d even be worthy sacrifices?” she added, in an attempt to fish more information out of him.

”What excellent questions you have! Good, that’s good.” For this, Anton wheeled away from the Ruby, but not before issuing a curt, non-verbal command for a pair of cultists to take his place at its altar. ”You would've made wonderful students. Unfortunately, it is not the lot of the sacrificial lamb to seek knowledge, only to perish for the sake of its betters.”

Despite Meirin’s tsundere attitude, Peyton had wedged himself onto her with a hug, and he remained like that, simultaneously pouting from being ignored and also delighted in what he interpreted as her cruelty in ignoring him.

”I guess this is where we die,” Peyton said, taking Anton’s words at face value. He wasn’t scared of death, if he had, then he would’ve been much more careful to avoid injuries during his six years as a gang member. He snuggled up against Meirin even despite the fact that she didn’t want the hug, letting the situation go on as he reflected on his time in the Serpents, “Oh yeah, I guess I have been doing pretty well! Having my loyalties be decided for me is actually pretty freeing! If we escape this, can I sneak in the ENP to hang out and help out? I promise to be well-disguised!”

Kisara McDowell, who had only previously been pacing back and forth within the cage, glaring out at Anton with every intent to pulverise his body if she were to break free, suddenly spun around at Peyton’s words, her hand stretched out and directed straight at his face. Her eyes glared into his, her teeth bared in a snarl. She held her hand for a second longer, as if she were hesitating if she should shoot him there and then, before turning her back to him. “Pathetic. The Heavenly Beasts of New Oasis are pathetic,” she growled, marching back to the bars. “I’m not going to die here. Not in a cage.” Her hands clasped onto the bars. “If I’m going to die, it will be a glorious death, in battle with the Gods, not as an appetiser to whatever this wacko is trying to summon.” Purple flames reignited upon her arms, rendering what remained of her jacket into ashes, as she began to pull upon the bars. “FIGHT ME YOURSELF, COWARD!” Her voice pierced through the air, aimed straight at Anton. “Or are you so weak that you need shit like this to put me down?!”

Anton rolled his eyes. ”It's a sad thing, when one doesn't know one's place. If I were you, I'd—.”

”Purification.”

 

[Elenion Aura]

The Underground

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

Tri, Lorette, Missy, Hiachi

OUTBREAK

Spoiler: Code

Missy
Tri

A few minutes earlier...​

A plan’s success had many measures. By all rights they had failed in all of them. She’d managed to snatch the child away and place him down safely before it all went to shit. She heard herself calling Hiachi’s name and realized she’d been the one screaming.

“Fucking piece of shit! LET HER GO!”

With only the warning of her shout Missy was running after the monster's escape. She refused to let her friend die without at least trying to do something about it. Her power may be useless but she’d claw the other out if she had to. At least that was the plan, which had carried her through the subterranean tunnel systems that appeared to precede the arrival of the Chimerics by a long, long time…—before she was dodging falling bits of floor as half of it eroded away. She managed to pull herself away from the collapsing floor just in time to spot people below.


Everything had gone off the rails in no time, and Lorette was too cynical even to be surprised. Somewhere along the way, while she was huddled behind rusting machinery, the other two Tigers enacted her half-cocked plan and fumbled the ball. A surge of frustration arced through her as soon as the thought entered her mind. No, there was no one to blame here but herself. Where did she get off blaming her Juniors for struggling beneath the weight of her orders?

It was by far the worst aspect of her Potential. So ingrained into being were the laws of nature. Understood by all beasts, the one that she became was no different. Even as she fought the urge to cry out in pain, as her bones splintered beneath the weight of her power. Even as the sounds of bullets missing their mark and shouts of terror filled her ears, Lortette could only hear the mantra of her voice whispering inside her head. "It's your fault." She didn't have the means to fight back against what she knew to be true.

Lorette surged out of the shadows in a single leap, roaring impotently as the thing scuttled away with something in its jaws. For only the briefest moment did she catch a glimpse of its prize. A short cropped head of hair attached to a little too small body. She'd been too long. It had taken Hiachi.

The creature paid no mind to her as it slunk away into a vast hole in the floor, no doubt the entrance to its dwelling. Lorette had no doubt she'd find what remained of the thing's previous victims down there.

Her head snapped up at the sound of a voice. It was Missy, her cries raw and unfettered as the other girl was taken away. A cursory glance told Lorette that, yes, the Child was safe. But they'd simply traded one problem for another. One that Lorette did not know if she could resolve without significant cost.

Lorette made to follow the thing down into the dark, tossing aside all concern for anything else. Their mission. Helping the strange Child. It was all pointless because Lorette had made a promise not long ago. She'd promised a scared and uncertain girl that she'd make her into a Tiger with fangs and claws to rend every challenge easily. Hiachi had believed her. She had trusted her, and Lorette, for all her arrogance, was spurred on by the heartbreak that would follow if she failed the young Tiger.

Together, woman, child, and Beast pursued Hiachi's kidnapper into the depths, until—

"LORETTE WATCHOUT THE FLOOR'S COLLAPSING."

Missy was certainly loud, but not so loud as the sound of concrete and bare earth giving way beneath her paws as the hole their quarry had escaped into widened into a yawning chasm. Lorette briefly wondered if the weight of her form had caused it but just as quickly discarded it as ridiculous. It was everyone else that was too heavy. Not her.

She crept warily to the edge of the newly enlarged hole and peered into the dark. The dust kicked up by falling rubble made it hard to see at first, but soon enough, she could spot the forms of multiple people standing in the gloom. Lorette couldn't tell if they were friends or foes from her vantage point. Killing them was undoubtedly on the table, but they might have been taken like Hiachi, stolen away by some random freak of nature for reasons that she didn't have the stomach to consider. Chances were the sudden cave-in had them all preoccupied anyway. It was as good an opportunity as any for them to get Hiachi back.

Her head shot around at the sound of a familiar ringtone, and Lorette moved swiftly in Missy's direction. She'd given the girl her phone, and her husband was calling. Lorette raised a paw and gestured at the other Tiger to indicate that she should pick up. Richard would not have called for anything unimportant. Then, she registered the steady sound of thumping overhead, and Lorette canted her head back to stare at the high ceiling.

Richard was often as curt as Lorette when the need called for it, and he didn't bother with saying hello as the other end picked up.

"Watch your head."

A brief command with almost no time to react as something substantial and metallic crashed through the corrugated steel roof of the ruined canopy and toward the floor. It landed point first into the ground, cleaving through concrete like a spade through soil and kicking up a high column of dust. It was the previously requested package meant for Lorette. A weapon to turn the tide of battle in her favor, and only meant to be wielded by a master of peerless strength and skill. A massive sword, almost as tall as Lorette was long.

How it was forged and by whom was a question never to be answered. It didn't matter. Like the woman who wielded it, Raumspalter was but another weapon in the Tiger King's arsenal. It was the sharpened edge of ruination that could only be brought about by a beast that would never be made to kneel.

Lorette peered upwards through the cloud of dust to stare at the chopper overhead, zipping away as quickly as it had appeared. Flying into the area was a massive risk already, and countless strings had to be pulled to afford them only a few minutes long window. There would be no other assistance for the Tigers. No rescue, no backup. They were on their own once again.

Lorette approached the blade, and she reached out to take hold of it in her clawed grasp. There was nothing fancy about it. It was cold metal with a rubber grip meant for a monster, not a regular person. Its sheer size made Raumspalter imposing, but it couldn't do anything alone. Only when the Beast hefted the blade and wielded it no differently than she would if she were an ordinary woman would the weapon become impossible to contend with.

Fortunately, the Beast had opposable thumbs; she needed no outside help strapping the sword to her back with the array of kevlar belts attached to it. Getting the system right had taken quite a bit of trial and error, but Lorette was glad she didn't have to run around with Raumspalter clenched in her teeth. She was going to need those as well.

Having wasted more time than necessary, Lorette grabbed Missy and the Child by their shirt collars like a pair of misbehaving kittens and sat them on her back. If either of them were wise, they'd grab hold of the straps securing Raumsplater to her or risk falling off. She bounded towards the hole in the floor and down into the darkness without glancing backward.

Sharp claws found easy purchase on the rubble lining the newly opened tunnel leading deep beneath the earth, but Lorette was still forced to step carefully. Loose earth and stone could only be told apart from more secure pathways once it was too late. A fatal fall would be a swift and embarrassing end for them.

As she descended, Lorette's sharpened hearing sometimes picked up wailing from somewhere in the darkness around them. She pointedly ignored the despairing sounds. Even if there was something she could do for them, they didn't have time. Hiachi was gone, and the deeper she went, the more Lorette felt something else was at play. Something far worse than the thing they'd run into up above.

Her fears were realized the closer she got to what looked like the bottom. She could hear voices. Some shouting, others murmuring in the background. But one rose above the rest. Fanatical, confident, and strong. The man spoke in a way that told Lorette all she needed to know.

He would brook no argument, and he would not be swayed. That he would turn away from his chosen path would be as inconceivable to him as walking on water. There would be no talking their way out of whatever the hell was going on.

That was just as well; Lorette couldn't speak as she was, so she had a convenient excuse for tearing him to shreds. It always felt nice when things worked out in your favor.

She'd finally reached the end of their descent and leaped into the strange room without hesitation. Crumbling columns of stone and runes carved on nearly every available surface were the first things to greet her. It was old that much was certain. Older than her and perhaps older than New Oasis herself. The Colesium thrummed with hidden energy, a power strong enough to make her fangs itch. If there ever was a source to all the madness that had overtaken Lower Central, she was standing in it.

Lorette looked warily around, spotting a cage full of people. People she didn't know, so she wasn't under any obligation to free them. If they were stupid enough to get put in jail, they'd undoubtedly be too stupid to be useful to her. The Beast nodded in mild satisfaction. She was right, of course. She'd never been wrong once in her life, and she certainly had never been to jail because she was really good at doing crimes.

A group of bedraggled and confused people aside, the only other thing worth noticing was an altar upon which a gleaming red gem rested. It glowed, perhaps through an innate property she didn't understand. And it was floating, which effectively pushed the situation into the realm of weird shit she didn't want to deal with. Worse still, a group of people surrounded the altar as if waiting for some ritual to begin. Based on their location and the sheer malice Lorette could smell on them, it would involve something nightmarish. It occurred to her that she may very well be standing at the epicenter of the crisis overtaking the city. No doubt the people gathered were the architects of the madness shed been made privy to up above.

Why and how were good questions to ask. And Lorette might have asked them if their nonsense hadn't inconvenienced her. Leaving one or two of them alive would benefit her, but that could only happen once she cleared out the other rabble. The Beast slunk forward, her dead gaze on the man closest to the altar. He'd be first, seeming so close to enacting a plot that it'd be impossible to stop once started. There would be time to figure out what was happening after she crashed their party...

... The answer was a “huh” that turned into a “Purification.”

Tri T-posed while Tristan patted his coat from dirt and dirt and all else. The underling was nervous and really kept glancing about the room, which definitely didn’t have the vibe of ‘time to care about coat cleanliness’, but Tri’s indifferent gaze forced him to do what he was asked to do. The Boss was always right even when it was clearly wrong.

As Peyton hugged a Dragon, Naomi faced the cultist, and the other Dragons also sensibly paid attention to the definitely dangerous guy, Tri’s gaze wandered to the ambiance of the cave. Very nice and cult-like. If he was starting a cult, he would want a place like this too for his dark ritual, completely with a monster like that.

Tri blinked. “Huh.” That monster wasn’t there before. He pointed a finger gun at a far corner, ignoring the cultists who were clearly building up to something.

“Purification.”

White glow surrounded the Beast and illuminated her immediate surroundings. It became clear that the monster was huge and could definitely kill him on a rampage. Tri smirked, self-satisfied as he successfully neutralized a threat by ignoring the plotline that was happening with the cultists. Go him. He also smirked at Meirin. Look at the Deacon at work, lady.

 

[Elenion Aura]

The Underground

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

The Finalists

OUTBREAK

Spoiler: Code

Charlie
Hitoshi

A few minutes earlier...​

Getting back on his feet proved to be nothing short of a herculean task for Charlie. The adrenaline having abandoned his body by now, and the glow in his body having dissipated in its entirety. It was quite the scare that fall. Looking up, he could gaze at the dark sky glimpsed through the large hole above. “Aniki, are you alright?” Asked the boy to his friend, overjoyed by his seemingly alright disposition. He couldn’t see any of the workers having become victims to the fall themselves, which was also quite the relief. On the other hand, the sea monster was nowhere in sight, and given previous evidence, there was no way to tell if it had any energy left to cause more mayhem or not, one could only hope.

By all accounts, Hitoshi was alright - save for the wound in his side that the rebar had punctured earlier - as he looked around. Like a dazed cat, he was trying to get a sense of his surroundings and get a grip on his bearings. The vista had changed from the surface to the depths, as Hitoshi gripped his side. His hand was slick with crimson blood, accompanied by a dull throbbing pain, before turning to Charlie. “I’m… uh… as well as I can be.” the veteran said, a bit incredulous that the rookie would be asking such things given how much of a beating he had taken himself. His attention then snapped towards the darkness before them as faint voices could be heard. “...you hear that?” Hitoshi asked.

Charlie’s gaze raised to meet the direction of the voices, far deep into the tunnel before the two. “Yeah, we’re definitely not alone here” A moment of silent pondering passed as the rookie considered their next step. “Something tells me there’s something off going on here, some of those sounds…They don’t sound human, I think there might be more infected chimeriks here.”

The cerulean haired man extended a hand at his senior. “We do need to get that wound of yours treated, though, can you stand?” Even though he himself was coated by his own blood, Charlie was confident he wasn’t in need of immediate medical intervention just yet, Hitoshi’s sake was his priority right now.

“Huh?” Hitoshi managed to get out, before shaking his head. “Oh, this is nothing. Trust me, I’ll live.” Planting his feet firmly into the ground, he pointed into the abyss with determination: “ALLONS-Y!” Without consulting Charlie, he dashed off into the darkness beyond to the voices that echoed in the air. He wasn’t even sure if that was proper Liberese, but he went with it anyway as his neurons fired on all cylinders. “Ah, wait for me!” The rookie was quick to follow behind the veteran, their wet steps echoing through the tunnel of unknown length.

Spoiler: Code

Missy
Tri
Kanna
Kisara

The Cultists
Anton’s surety faltered as the situation took one unexpected turn after another. The other cultists, now numbering close to five-and-twenty total, were on high alert. The horned one’s bombastic threat, followed by the beam of white, seemingly-harmless light, which in-turn illuminated a previously unseen presence: that of a massive, sword-wielding tiger. That last one proved itself the most immediate concern.

Anton slashed a hand through the air, barking at his followers to engage and subdue the unwelcome, unfettered, oversized house cat and her riders. In the ensuing chaos, none of the cultists noticed when the Phoenix’s Ruby began to glow more violently than before.

Tri
"Gay," Tri said to no one. It didn't make much sense and didn't need to be. It became apparent that the monster kitty wasn't with the cultists. It also wasn't a Serpent, so Tri was happy to use it and the rider as a distraction. He blew fake-smoke off the tip of his finger gun.

Kanna & Kisara
Kanna looked upwards to where the giant hole was. While dark, she could tell that the streets of New Oasis were on the other side. So they were in fact, underground and thankfully, not in an alternate dimension.

Her attention now turned to the newcomers, a group composed of a woman, a giant lion… and was that who she thought it was? She had to get out of this cage.

The Dragon jack moved towards the beams of light that acted like jail cell bars, containing her and the others within them. With no other idea in mind, Kanna reached out and gripped them. With all her strength, she tried to bend them outward to make an opening big enough to slip through. At the same time, she activated her potential, hoping that in some way the beams could be influenced. Though her hopes weren’t high.

“What's that face for?” The horned woman beside her spoke up through grit teeth, her arms still straining against the bars. “You wanna die looking like that?” She grunted, and the purple flames on her arms blazed brighter, yet no heat emanated from them. “You're better than these pathetic excuses of gangsters- put your game face on, woman.” She fired a glare towards the others behind them, who were so ready to accept their fate they can only watch, her gaze boring especially deep into Peyton and Tri.

“The rest of you can just wait to die, by that man's hand, or mine.”

Kanna looked over towards the woman next to her, who shared the same sentiment of wanting to get out by any means. Though she wasn’t fond of her open threats to kill everyone, Kanna understood that for now, they’d need to work together if they wanted to escape whatever was going on here. Once the larger threat was dealt with, Kanna would worry about the others.

The jack reached over, gripping the same bars that the horned women had in her hands, and helped her trying to pry them apart. Like before, Kanna applied her potential to hopefully make them budge in any direction. Her eyes narrowed in concentration as her teeth subconsciously clenched tight. The stranger was right. It was time to get her game face on.

Meirin & Kanna
Staring dumbfoundedly at the idiot King that smirked proudly at her following the sudden (almost nonsensical) use of his potential in the midst of a cultist’s evil rant, Meirin rolled her eyes before letting out an elaborate sigh, not even bothering to resist Peyton’s cuddling up to her with an oddly cheerful perception of death; She wouldn’t deny that she enjoyed the physical contact–at least a little–either. Same old Peyton. Maybe he belonged with the Sable Serpents after all…when it came to rule-breaking behavior and deviant(morbid) kinks anyway.

Then again, such stereotypes hardly mattered when it came to actual gang initiation.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Meirin replied bluntly to Peyton's suggestion; He wasn’t only putting himself at risk by sneaking back into ENP, but his former co-workers as well.

Besides, she had no intention of dying for some power-hungry creep.

As her attention wandered to the newest attraction in the room–a large cat with a sword, the monstrous beast Tri “purified”, etc, etc, Meirin’s eyes widened at the small figure she spotted on the cat’s back.

“Xuefeng!”

What was Ruri’s adopted kid doing here?

Meirin, admittedly, didn’t know much about the orphan Ruri and a few other Dragons had found and taken in. She only knew little details here and there. He was an HP with multiple potentials. He was being chased by some bounty hunters. He didn’t like Shen (surprisingly). He was a decent little runner (the one time Hou had taken him to visit her temple for some light exercise while she trained the rookies).

That was it.

But even so, she couldn’t let the child get hurt on her watch.

Seeing as Anton’s attention was no longer on his captives, Meirin glanced at Kanna struggling with the golden bars–along with the enraged horned woman that insulted the gangs of New Oasis–before her body started to shrink from Pei’s arms. And shrink. And shrink. Only when she was the size of an ant did Meirin scurry her way to Kanna, climbing onto the Dragon Jack’s shoulder until she neared Orbit’s ear; Just walking between the bars was enough for her to escape.

“I can try to find the key…” By that, she meant catching them by surprise punching out the cultists until she happened upon whoever was maintaining the cage. “Or grab that important-looking red pearl that looks like it’s about to explode.” She had zero clue how the ritual was even supposed to work, but it was pretty, glowing, and breaking it would probably mess up the cultist’s plans to kill everyone. Then again, so did breaking the ‘sacrifices’ out. “Or join you guys! Dunno how helpful I’ll be ‘cause that creep seems pretty confident it won’t break, but I’m also pretty damn strong when I’m big.” It’d also cause the cage to get a bit…crowded…if she were to use her full strength. “Watcha’ think, K-Jack?”

The Dragon jack contemplated the options put forth by Meirin. She thought similarly in that finding a key would take too long, and there was little hope these bars were capable of budging. Kanna nodded towards the ruby gem hovering above the altar. She spoke quietly so that it was hard for anyone else to hear.

“Get the gem, try and bring it over to me. Throw it if you have to..”

Meirin nodded and hopped off, dashing between the golden bars.

Missy
Hiachi would have to quickly become second priority as she’d never expected to fall into a cult ritual. She didn’t even know there were giant cult underground’s in the city, and she’d rather go back to living in denial. Regardless now that Missy was here she was going to need to at least ensure she didn’t fuck up and make herself, the kid, and Lorette the next sacrifice. Giving the kid a pat on the back she hopped off Lorette’s back and did what could be classified as one of the stupidest moves she’d done so far. Get ready to brawl with cultists. She dug into her pockets and pulled out a flick blade as she brought it up as threateningly as she could.

“DON’T COME ANY CLOSER!”

Lorette & Missy
An error within the realm of her control was something that Lorette intensely disliked. Failure was not permissible in her line of work, particularly for a woman her age. But she could at least get over it. If the failure was her responsibility, then so too was correcting it. Mistakes were unavoidable. All the world's power, money, and vigilance would not change that. Lorette had learned as much early in her life and adapted accordingly. Her anger would serve no purpose there.

When someone else made a mistake, Lorette was, unsurprisingly, not very forgiving. Being inconvenienced by others was something the woman barely tolerated on the best of days. Being forced to pay for another's shortcomings was unacceptable in every regard. A higher cost to someone else's failure only ensured a more profound resentment towards them from the old Tiger.

Shining a near-blinding spotlight on Lorette while she prowled the shadows for an opportunity to ambush the people gathered around the altar, thereby exposing her to everyone in the vicinity, was not a mistake. It'd been done for the express purpose of fucking her over, and at such a crucial moment that it bordered on disbelief. She'd been exposed, and as a direct result, she'd be putting more effort into killing everyone than the situation warranted.

A ripple of panic coursed through the steadily growing number of people with whom Lorette had long since lost any sympathy. That panic wasn't enough to keep them from charging straight towards her like lemmings to a cliff's edge at the behest of the man who seemed to be leading them. Lorette almost admired their dedication. Regular cult meetings did something for people that a paycheck couldn't draw that sort of loyalty out. It was a shame that the same loyalty would be sent to an early grave.

Provided that none of the people attempting to encircle Lorette and her two passengers didn't pull out any ridiculous moves, the Beast was positive that she could kill them all with minimal effort. She was a grossly oversized cat, after all.

If their rage-fueled shouts were a misguided attempt at scaring her, it didn't work. If they were a means to inspire courage in themselves and each other, Lorette didn't allow it to go on for much longer. This was rectified once she began doing what came naturally to her when people misbehaved. Screaming. A lot.

“DON’T COME ANY CLOSER!”

Missy, small and unassuming, had beat her to it. The roar of a terrified, weak, and unrepentantly defiant girl whose only weapon was the switchblade in her hand. Lorette wasn't even sure what kind of Potential the girl had or if she even had one at all. That didn't stop her from standing before Lorette and baring her teeth like a cub trying to protect its elder from a more significant threat. Foolish, perhaps, but no less determined. The girl would not sit idly by while others bore the brunt for her. With that, Lorette found her respect growing for Missy a little more.

A roar, of course, was not in the same realm as a mere shout, but why overcomplicate the matter? Sudden, loud noises freaked people out, and Lorette was good at producing those. The Beast inhaled, a dry, wheezing noise that would have seemed sickly if coming from any other creature. But whatever Lorette was, it wasn't a defined creature within the realm of science. The rattling breath filling her lungs seemed like it would be her last—a final, defiant act in the face of its mortality. Whatever Lorette was, it was a living thing. Whatever Lorette was, it was a mockery of that exact life.

The noise that she produced was explosive. And that, too, was alive. Alive with the countless howls of nameless Beasts like her. Wailing in the dark of the old coliseum and gnashing their teeth at the stones that made its walls. The roar was the roar of dead things—the cries of things that had died suddenly, violently, angrily. The space provided in the chamber allowed those spirits to spread and give voice to the absolute hatred they felt for living things. The noise that Lorette produced was unnatural. Lorette's roar was undeniably hers and belonged to no one else. That fact alone was enough to let terror hook its jagged claws into the hearts of more than one person who would oppose her.

"Actually fuck this, I'm out."

One man, clapping both hands together, backed away from Lorette and his remaining associates.

"This shit is not on the agenda at all. We were straight-up promised the exact opposite of whatever this is was supposed to happen, and honestly, I'm not with it. I tried the whole cult thing. It didn't work out. I am no longer involved in this bullshit. Lose my number."

He left without a single backward glance, disappearing into the shadows without a sound. Lorette cocked her maned head curiously and let out a puzzled growl. As far as she understood, getting free of a cult was incredibly difficult, but the man had made it seem so easy.

"Not all mid-life crises' are created equal." She thought.

Lorette's head snapped back towards the remaining cultists, and the one who had the misfortune to be closest to her began to speak up.

"Maybe-" She was dead before the word fully left her mouth and long before her lifeless body smacked into a crumbling stone edifice with an uncomfortably wet thud.

The average human reaction time was about 0.5 seconds. The act of blinking took about 0.1 seconds. The time between Lorrete's paw striking out and subsequently ending the woman's life was much shorter. If the Beast had been able to speak, she would have relayed this information to the people swarming around her. Then, at least, they could at least take comfort in knowing that she literally hadn't seen her death coming. Thinking on it, Lorette decided that perhaps the fact wouldn't have comforted them. But they'd joined cult that had them meeting in an underground dungeon. They should have seen all the problems involved with the decision coming, at least.

For a slim moment Missy let herself be distracted as she realized the kid she picked up as a tag along seemingly had some form of adult supervision, though clearly not enough if they’d let him be caught up in all of this. Unless the captive was just nuts and mistaking the kid for another kid. Considering where she was she wasn’t sure which was more likely. She didn’t have time to think further before cultists were upon them. She swung her knife out, getting one of them clear across the eyes before ducking under a punch. She wasn’t the strongest fighter but she was a slippery son of a bitch and she wasn’t gonna sit back while they got ganked. Each and every one of these psychos were an obstacle to finding and saving Hiachi.

“Watch out on your left! Three more! Kid if they get too close to you kick ‘em with all your might and run! Don’t be stupid!”

Lorette took a second to use her back paw to push the Chimera Child back and away into the shadows. He'd survived on the streets, and she trusted him to know when to get out if things got too heavy. Surging forward, the Beast stepped directly over Missy, noting with satisfaction how cleanly and effortlessly she was able to blind one of her attackers with her blade. Children, indeed, were the future.

Once it became apparent Lorette was the most immediate threat, there was an attempt to rally and push forward by the Cultists. The Beast, ever precise in her killing, darted its head forward to snap her jaws shut over the top half of one person. She left their legs to crumple on the ground as she reared her head back to spit the unfortunate person's torso back at their still-living compatriots. The taste of human blood was innately disgusting to Lorette but not wholly unpalatable to the Beast. It was the one internal battle she would never win, no matter how desperately she wished otherwise.

That didn't stop her from biting more people, but concessions had to be made in the name of personal safety.

Despite the trio’s best efforts, the cultists’ sheer numbers meant that some managed to slip past their guard, a pair of them wielding sickle-like blades had made their way behind Missy and the Child, weapons raised high and ready to strike down. Or at least, that should have been the case, had it not been for an airborne figure delivering a spinning kick, hurling them far away and hitting the hardened soil that made up the inner walls of the chamber.

Landing on the ground, amber eyes stared back at the two, had his own face not been coated in minor bruises and his own blood, Charlie could have appeared a lot friendlier than he currently was. “Are you both alright?” He was probably going to do some explaining soon, almost as much explaining as he was going to demand, such as how they managed to get one of the infected beasts to their side. But right now his priority was on keeping his guard up, countering another incoming cultist with a gentle dodge and a fist to their gut.

Kisara
The horned woman relinquished her grip on the bars, and slammed her fist into it. A deep thrumming growl escaped from her bared fangs. “Step back.” Though her muscles were tensed, she managed to nudge Kanna gently to one side. The air around her crackled and sparked, and the smell of thunder and rain began to seep into the gilded cage.

They shouldn't have left gaps in the cage. Every claw that could reach through would be their undoing. To the Serpents who knew her well, to those who have done battle with her before, the recognisable high-pitched screech was their telltale sign to duck for cover. She opened her jaws, an orb of concentrated energy forming between her jagged teeth. It expanded, then compressed itself, its pitch reaching a fever high. All at once, it exploded, sending forth a roaring beam of energy, carving a wide crevasse upon the earth that it ran through. The stray cultists that remained in its way as it was sent straight at Anton were rendered into ash, including the one that had attempted to flee.

Anton
There had been no time, if not ample warning. The wave of destruction caught him in the back, sent him sprawling to the cold stone floor, trails of black smoke billowing behind him. The golden bars flickered, then faded away. The hostages were free to join the fray.

The Ruby
The ruby, for its part, continued to float there, ambivalent to, and unperturbed by, the chaos that unfolded all around it. Then it pulsed scarlet, and the ground trembled in response. Though it had no language of its own, the meaning of the pulse, of the tremor, was abundantly clear to all.

Soon.

Anton knew this all too well. With zealous fervor, he dragged himself along the floor until he reached the altar. If he could just reach out and take it, then he would have won. Through hazy eyes, he could see it, its glow warmed him, encompassed him. He could see his hand, shakily reach out, fingers flexing to feel the cool, smooth stone within his grasp. Just... A little... Closer.

Something was wrong. Through the fog of his addled mind, Anton perceived the flash of movement. Two flashes? The next thing he knew, his hand had been swatted away. The chance he'd sought, the new world he'd wished to create... The vision was beginning to fade. Not yet.

Enraged, he gazed up at the altar, trying to spy who it was, exactly, who'd stolen his glory from him. Inky black shadows pooled under him, enveloping him.

The Child
Stay back, the women had said. The Child was not a very keen listener. Once he saw the flash, saw the man go down, saw the Ruby. He knew he had to move. As a new woman, or man?, arrived to help Hiachi and Lorette, Xuefeng scampered along the edges of the battle, remaining unseen, as he'd been told... Until the opportune moment came, when the villain's plans were nearly come to fruition. That was when Xuefeng launched himself like a speeding bullet. He kicked the man's hand away before he could claim his ill-begotten prize before landing on the altar himself. Unbeknownst to Xuefeng, though, he hadn't been the only one who had their eyes on the Ruby. Turning to take it, he found it already claimed by a... Very small woman? He cocked his head to one side. Did he... Know her?

The momentary question left him exposed as the shadowman emerged. No longer a being of flesh and blood, Anton channeled a nova of darkness to fall on the altar, and the ones who would deny him his destiny, as the ruby pulsed, and the temple shuddered all around them like an oncoming stampede of thundering hooves.

 

[Elenion Aura]

The Underground

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

The Finalists

OUTBREAK

Spoiler: Code

Charlie
Hitoshi

In an abandoned hall near the ritual chamber...​

Eleanore & Leaf
It had been such a nice night, too. A lovely tour of an abandoned and ransacked hospital, all the way to what she was just sure was the standarized Hospital Sinkhole. Eleanore had been left alone in her head, full of lines of logic and annoyance and forward thought, that she had almost neatly contained the chimera threat until it was thrust back to the forefront by the creature's rumbles. That had tipped her off to bring her shotgun out, and then getting immediately blown away by just how large the damn thing actually was.

There was not going to be great effect of blindly blasting at something that was apparently having a grand time tunneling and hadn't actually gone to kill them yet, so Eleanore took a step back and split up with herself, sending another version of herself down the hallway in case things went... poorly. “Great. Back you all up, think we can take it?” The less cowardly one took a short breath before trying to scope out any weaker points on the chimera.

Thin ceramic squares popped and jutted out of the hospital floor like a shed of scales, the creature passed below them— and the red-haired man could only hiss out a tense breath as it did. He’d felt the same goosebumps at the chest before. They always came with a tingle in his red eye, and a heat that spread across one side of his face.

It meant something. A bad omen They were neck-deep where they shouldn’t be. ’37 had warned him about it, two-to-nine ways to Sundays he’d told him. ‘Don’t go chasing your own reflection too much, kid.’ Do it long enough, next time you round a corner, you’ll see it chasing you. Next corner, you’ll see yourself dead.

Funny how only seeing the shadow of that giant monster lurking beneath had made him chicken out this far into it. Was it worth it? To go chasing his tail this time around?

Fuck no it wasn’t.

Leaf’s head swiveled to the others, and before he could utter a single word, cold steel swished through the air, a sword came off its sheathe. When he turned to 26’, the crazy bastard was already jumping into the sinkhole “Tch—shit…! Wait up!”

Deirest
Meek and meager, the caw of a crowd broke through the dark. Within the guts of New Oasis, little was quiet. Each of the wounded bird’s squawks reverberated through stone walls, and trailing close behind was the shrill sound of bone scraping against the hard earth.

Deirest grit her teeth.

She could see nothing in the dark, but it did not press back at her. Absent was the suffocating claustrophobia of the casket. Lascerated and caked in blood as it was, her body was still her own, and now these things were too. Both of the chimera that had intruded upon her expedition to the Towers lay gripped tight in her hands. The bladed one trailed behind her, limp and trailing blood, whilst one of the myriad crows struggled helplessly within her grasp.

Squawk, squawk, squawking as she went, Deirest marched further down the tunnel, until the putrid stench of another breed of beast met her, and her nostrils flared.

“More and more…? You have friends?” She grumbled at her captive beasts. “Come out, come out…”

She was back on the hunt.

26
A loud thudding drop echoed, bounced across the tunnels over to Deirest.

Then, amidst the pen-drop, anticipating quiet…an obnoxiously loud, cheap cover of Killing My Love by Leslie Parrish blasted through the speakers of an even cheaper smartphone. The eurobeat strangled out of the speakers until 26 finally plugged his earbuds in, popping a bead into one ear and letting the other hang freely.

He eased his katana on a shoulder, stuffing the leftover earbud inside his shirt. He groaned, twisted his hip, stretched the back— he’d felt that heroic fall right on the spine “I’m getting too old for this shit…”

That’s when the faint steps caught his ear. He didn’t turn to the sound, only flicking his sword at it while his other hand fidgeted with the phone “You comin’ or what? We ain’t got all day.” The red-maned dragon called out to the hole he’d dropped from, clicking his tongue at seemingly nothing in particular.

It was hard to fully swipe into your killer playlist with just one hand, y’know?

The Horde
26's question was answered by a grim chorus of screams. Wailing, gnashing, hateful beasts poured towards the source of the sound, the light, the life. It was almost hard to believe that such things existed, that anything could hate you that much...

Blood ran in rivers through the ancient corridor, the blood of both man and beast. With a thud, a chimera with the face of a goat and teeth like razor wire fell down, dead. In its place were legion. Droves upon droves of once-sentient civilians of New Oasis, now reduced to slavering, mindless beasts, poured up from the depths, throwing themselves at the Phoenixes and the Serpent. Somewhere screams that were decidedly more human echoed. They had taken people alive. Why? No answer presented itself. Only more bloody death.

It was a tide of flesh with no end, until it ended.

It started with one. A mottled fleshy chimera, quadrupedal and roughly the size of a horse, stopped itself mid-charge. Its back straightened, as its misshapen head cocked to one side, as if it were... Listening. There was no sound that any who still held onto their wits could hear, but soon enough the same strange stasis afflicted more and more of the horde, until the battlefield grew silent as a crypt, save for the screaming, which by then had reduced to dull, hacking sobs.

Then the earth trembled.

Then, one by one, the Chimerae turned away from Leaf, Eleanore, 26, and Deirest, even if the latter continued to hack away at them. Then, all at once, the horde fled down the corridor in the direction opposite of the monster slayers as the ground shook again, though this time it was by force of stampede.

 

[Elenion Aura]

The Underground

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

The Finalists

OUTBREAK

Spoiler: Code

Eleanore
Leaf
Deirest
26
Areith
Sang-Cheol
Hiachi

In an abandoned hall near the ritual chamber...​

Areith, Deirest, & Sang-Cheol
The spates of flesh and bones squished and crunched underneath her feet as she wandered underneath a rain of blood. Crimson dripped down her habit, warm blood seeped between her clasped fingers.

She had been guided, her wander was a voyage. Her eyes followed light, her ears traced sound. The dull throbbing of pain had been subdued, the gashes across her skin and bruises that decorated her body slowly began to be replaced, cells swallowed, regurgitated with more layers and thicker bonds, thicker hide that wouldn’t be damaged so easily. Spots of darkened flesh speckled across her body, reminiscent of deep scarring.

“Lost lambs, do you hear His message?” Areith questioned, slits within her neck opened to reveal squinting, bloodshot eyes, they darted around, taking in the people, the surroundings, absorbing the deluge of viscera all around them.

The eyes all narrowed in different directions, before they shut like they were never there, the holy woman’s pale hands unclasping.

“Not yet ready to receive His will..such a shame,” Areith remarked, as she continued to walk forward, calmly following behind the swarm of chimerics as if she was one of them her own, as she continued to speak cryptically.

“O God, show me the future ahead. The path of ascendance is fraught with difficulties, and I will witness it with my own eyes.”

If Areith strode as a shepherd, Deirest rode as a wolf. Amongst the dull groans of the chimeric hoard, another howl beckoned at their invisible siren. Reinvigorated by the song’s call, the Tower Chimera bristled with new life. It wriggled within Deirest’s grasps, now blind to the woman whom it had been so eager to kill. The grip upon its nape tightened as it surged forward, scuttling up and over the horde of chimerics, but never did the Deirest’s grip release.

As the beast scaled the wall, she went with it, eagerly straddling the beast’s back as if she were some sort of fel horsewoman. A bloody, red rider beckoned by the piercing squawking of a crow. With each shrill cry the beast made for whatever it was that lured it a blow to the head was its reward, and in turn, each of Deirest’s lashes bought with it another shriek in return. Again and again, the beast howled, each one of waves of nauseous heat.

Just as in the Towers, whatever metal that was in the tunnel turned red and hot at the chimeric horde’s approach. A omen of disaster, to be sure.

At the same time, a groan escaped the midst of rubble as Sang-Cheol surfaced from it. “Damn… Where the hell am I?” Currently he had the world’s worst migraine and felt like he had been run over by a truck. Injured, irritated, and doped up on the hardest hitting Serpent Drugs, Sang-Cheol wanted nothing more than to leave.

But he had to stay.

That monster from before could contain the answer to his question. The question that would accomplish his goal. No matter what, that monster was essential to his progress as a scientist. Alive or Dead be damned, Sang-Cheol needed to get something out of this.

Though as Sang-Cheol stumbled out of the ruins, the scientist found his resolve quickly tested by the big, black, ‘thing’ in the distance. It towered over the many buildings to the point that even Sang-Cheol could see it just by looking up. Sang-Cheol considered the possibility that he had accidentally taken hallucinogens, but quickly discarded the idea.

There was only one way to find out what it was.

“No pain without any gain,” Sang-Cheol incorrectly stated as he ran straight towards the monstrosity in the distance.

26, Hiachi, Leaf, Eleanore
The iron tang of blood wafted, heavy, like the walls of the tunnels themselves would come to remember such a stench a couple of years down the road once it settled. And he remembered it well, that taste of copper. Like an old, stubborn, senseless bad habit— a blind remorse he still had from all the blood he’d shed in his prior gang wars, back where he was from.

He'd dulled his blades since then, left the warring for the other world, but now… “Fucking hell…” 26 was feeling like he was standing at the starting line of a grand race, just like back then. Heart’s roaring, crowd’s thundering; and he could feel his hand clam tight on the hilt of his sword.

Taking a pose out of instinct, rooting himself to the ground as he was taught in his dojo. Letting the adrenaline tear him free from that constraining common sense, like a damn race car bolting off the grid at full throttle.

He wanted this, didn’t he? To feel the bite of something tearing into his flesh again. To feel like a Dragon, messy with blood and sweat all over him.

In an almost unpickable moment of raw, cave-man-brain tick of primal release, 26’s mouth kicked to a grin. A chink in his usual, stoic shell, cracking to reveal something unhinged. Something that flickered in his red eyes. Quiet, immutable. Urging.

Had him ignoring the blood-drenched nun and the shambling woman. Nothing mattered, really. He just wanted to see if his sword would cut nice through one of those monsters.

He snapped his sword up in the air and spun it with a flick, catching it in a reverse grip before running off— wherever his animal instinct carried him. Surely enough, it led him to the loud bang of gunshots echoing down the tunnels.

A red blur pushed past Aerith, barreling down the tunnels like a professional track-runner zooming by jogging pedestrians.

Hiachi has been through a lot of bullshit during the past three months. She had been forced into a gang, accrued a debt worth more than her dead body, got severe burns after being attacked while drunk, witnessed a police massacre, nearly killed a man, almost lost her brother, and got sucker-punched into a river.

As such, there is no levity in her saying that this is the worst thing that has happened to her.

Her sight was heavily capacitated, as the constant movement and darkness blurred her perception. Any and all sound was drowned out by guttural breaths and air dispersed with mists of saliva being sucked in and out of its lungs. With the lack of oxygen and the constant flow of air, it was near impossible to breathe. Even within the darkness, Hiachi felt a vignette of darkness creeping around her vision.

As the monstrosity descended, Hiachi tumbled down onto solid ground. Slimy, gummy, horrible ground. Before she could tumble further, she scrambled for the wall and grabbed onto whatever structure was in front of her.

She instinctively jerked her hands back. In response, the chimera’s tongue shifted, but didn’t lob her to the back of its throat. Her eyes twitched as she tried to wipe her hands on her clothes, only to feel that they too were slick with monster saliva. It was hard enough as it was to forget the warm wetness against the writhing tongue of the chimera.

Her stomach dropped as she started sliding back again. She reached again, higher, for the shaky outline of what she hoped was a tooth. Thankfully she had guessed correctly, and now she was practically hugging the large mass of bone.

Grabbing onto stability did nothing to ease her. Vertigo seized her brain, and nausea seized her throat. She dug her heels miserably, unable to think anything but mental screams about how awful everything was. Her brain was screaming, her nerves were screaming, and her skin was screaming. The only part of her brain that remained functional was the quiet resolve ensuring that she wasn’t letting go of the tooth for anything.

She couldn’t think of anything that would help. Even as she prodded her feet against its gums, she was barely making any distance. Even if she shot it from the inside, what would one, two bullets do to a creature of this magnitude?

Hiachi needed to get out of there, before she got unlucky and fell down the chasm that was the chimera’s esophagus. She took in weak and shaky breaths from the humid air. With her right hand, she patted around her abdomen. Tension eased around her jaw as she felt the familiar outline of her handgun. As she gripped her body tighter to the tooth, she emptied the mag of the gun and cocked it back into place.

Hiachi aimed outside the mouth, but to nowhere in particular.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

She shot blanks until she heard clicks, and then she reset the gun and started shooting again.

The chimera physically jumped with surprise. It thrashed around its head like mad, startled by the noise. All according to Hiachi’s raw plan. Only, to her immediate dismay, it quickly clenched its teeth instead of spitting her out.

It was slow enough that Hiachi had time to lunge over the tooth and throw herself out of the mouth. In poorer news, the chimera had been considerably tall—and Hiachi wasn’t given enough time to consider it. And now she was falling from that height into a stampede of other chimeras with the same size and force as the one she had just escaped.

She braced for impact, but the landing was still brutal. She rolled onto her side, only to be kicked around midair before falling again. She tried to lift her upper body up, but her arms went limp halfway through. Black spots speckled her vision. It was considerably colder now, especially now that she was covered in slime.

Once Hiachi dropped, she would’ve felt a strong grip tug her at the slimy fold of her shirt’s collar.

That same force hefted her up like she was a light barbell. She was on 26’s shoulder now, disorienting as it might’ve been with him still running straight into the horde of monsters instead of turning back.

Before he could aim his sword at the creatures, however. Someone’s voice echoed down the tunnels, a shout from the bellows of the wretched place “July 12th, 2026!”

The air around them shifted, disfigured, and something sucked them in. A wormhole, an ugly tear in the world’s visage, in the timeline— something he’d felt back when Leaf’d called him for the first time. Everything went dark, deathly quiet. Then the sounds kicked back, their feet were on the gravel of the tunnels again.

They’d retraced their steps, now sitting at Leaf’s feet. The kid was huffing, panting when he turned to glare at 26 with a nasty look “The fuck do you think you’re doing, man!? Don’t just run off like that…!” Leaf was still catching his breath, they were just a few feet from the sinkhole in the hospital.

“Those things are headed somewhere. Where all this mess originated from, I figure. Didn’t have to call me back like that…” 26 cackled, once. Easing himself on a knee before finally sparing an apologetic look at the girl “You good?”

Hiachi’s head lolled from the end of her limp neck. She hacked up her choked breaths and took in gasps of old air, full of dust and debris. She felt the rapid echoes of her heartbeat drumming back into herself—and yet her limbs remained slack.

At least that was over. She used her little reserves of strength to tilt her spine upwards and turn her head to address the person who grabbed her.

“What the fuck is going on…?”

Leaf turned to look behind him, hoping that Eleanore was as dumb as they were and had followed down the sinkhole. Hell, even Roland’s butterfly would’ve been a welcome sight.

Pretty dumb,

“Are we done blindly splitting up?” the whole lot of them. She wouldn't call it that if asked, more so tactical cover someone's blind charge, but it hadn't taken much time for Eleanore to ditch both the tactical advantage height gave and any lingering worries about, not getting eaten or chopped or whatever else these things were capable of once the passageway really opened up to them. Roughed up her hands sliding down the tunnel wall, fired off a blast that should've either been completely inaccurate or ruined her wrist that instead did neither, and catch up with Leaf safely at the bottom of the sinkhole. One of them by that point.

It was all seeming to work out, if you took... being ignored as working out. In the case of not getting torn limb from limb by a horde like... this, it was working out. Eleanore had even sent off a few splits of herself for some nearby recon, feeling just safe enough. Some things were... absolutely more confusing than others (some of these mutated creatures seemed much more humanoid, sentient and, from what she managed to have picked up, religious?), but the main goal of keeping herself and any Phoenixes lucky enough to be in her radius alive had resulted in her discounting things that did not try to leap at her face. 26 didn't precisely leap with whoever he was carrying, but...

“Would've been nice to know anything about them before we walked right in here, but that'd be too much to ask for, huh. Bunch of wild animals...” A rack of the shotgun.

The Horde
Further down the cavernous paths, the tide of misshapen bodies staggered on, an avalanch of flesh and rage, barreling towards an unseen goal, one that led the front-runners of the pack headlong into the shear stone face of the end of the passageway. They fell like waves against the rock, each impact like a crack of thunder. Broken bodies piled high as more scrabbled for purchase. Little by little, the cracks began to form. A large chimera, nearly the size of the creature that had taken Hiachi, threw all its weight against the crumbling wall, shattering it with a deafening roar.

The army of mad creatures flooded into the new space, where a pitched battle was already playing out.

The Newcomers
As the Phoenixes and rescued Tiger licked their wounds and planned their next course of action, whether to forge after the herd of chimerae or retreat, a new group emerged out of the gloom of long abandoned tunnels. The two groups came face to face. A path forward must be forged in fire.

 

[Elenion Aura]

The Underground

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

The Finalists

OUTBREAK

Spoiler: Code

Charlie
Hitoshi
Missy
Tri
Kanna
Kisara
Peyton
Naomi

Meirin
The journey to the jewel had been surprisingly easy, given the chaos and the distraction of cultists as they tried to subdue the new arrivals. Tiny as she was, Meirin remained unnoticed, and though her tiny form decreased the HP’s strength, it raised her stamina such that the great distance that the ant-sized girl had to travel to the altar wasn’t too exhausting; Not very exhausting at all, in fact.

She was, after all, still an HP.

The world was very different when one was tiny; Things previously unnoticed became more prominent. There were more dangers to look out for. More stampeding feet to dodge. However, it also opened up a whole new world, hidden to those too big to see it. Had she not been given orders to obtain the red jewel, Meirin would’ve taken the time to explore the newfound sights her smaller size allowed her to see; Check out crevices and cracks. However, as it stood, time was of the essence. And so, Meirin bounded across the ritual chamber in the way that only a tiny HP (with training) could.

Perhaps the only thing slowing her slightly was the giant beam of energy that forced her jump to the side, lest she end up a pile of ash on the ground. Maybe. Meirin didn’t know what would’ve happened had she stood in the path of the wild energy, but she didn’t want to risk it.

On the bright side, the beam also cleared a path for the ant-sized girl, for it had downed many cultists blocking her way to the altar.

The satisfaction of seeing Anton tossed against the wall had been worth it as well.

Clamoring on the altar, Meirin hopped up to claim her prize, prepped to slap away the large, looming hand of a sore loser…when a sudden kick did her work for her. Instinctively flipping back, tiny Meirin blinked as she watched Xuefeng leap in from the shadows. On one hand, she was glad the child still seemed to be doing well. On the other hand, she was worried about the risk he was taking by picking a fight with an older, and probably more experienced HP.

“Hey kid! Do you recognize me?” Meirin called as she settled on the floating red gem.

However, before they could even get a good conversation in, the Cult leader (Anton) got up, shrouding his body in shadows.

“I guess we can talk later–”

She felt the pull of Kanna’s potential around the time that beams of energy flew towards Anton.

Were they already free? Damn they were fast.

Peyton
Peyton felt slightly empty, being left without a Meirin to hug. Their reunion, in Peyton’s eyes, was short but sweet, albeit a saccharine sweet. Even if she told Peyton not to be an idiot, he was still going to be one. The others had made efforts to kill the cultists, and Peyton wasn’t about to let them all get the fun.

He began to painstakingly reload his gun, the process involving him having to sit down on the ground to take apart his gun. That was the downside to his powerful HP gun. It was an absolute pain to reload. And in case there was no way out of their cage, Peyton needed his ammo, as he would be limited to providing ranged support.

“Miriam! You still holding up alright?” Peyton asked the professor. He knew from firsthand experience what taking the life of someone else did to the psyche, and he wondered if the professor would be fine. “Do you think your tentacles are strong enough to break us out?”

Miriam started as Peyton called out to her, perhaps shocked by the sound of her own name, or perhaps hoping to go on unnoticed until all of the craziness had blown over. Her tentacles writhed nervously, as all she could offer up was a confused, “Hm?” Had he not noticed that their cage had dissipated?

Kisara
Kisara McDowell stepped down from the pedestal that once held the cage, her eyes locking on upon Anton. He had shrouded himself in his darkness, and brought the earth beneath her– no, around her to tremble. The darkness flowed around her, threatening to drown her beacon of indigo light, but she continued forwards. She readied her fists, flexing her arms, easing her muscles from the struggle of attempting to pry the bars of the cage open. Through the consuming dark, she marched forwards, her footfalls a slow rhythm, slowly building up its tempo, until she was sprinting. Like a burning flame of a torch cutting through the dark, she blazed through the wave of deep blackness.

She can hurt him. She can kill him. Her left arm went up. Multiple beams shot forth from her fingertips, spiraling straight at Anton. She will kill him.

Kanna & Meirin
While the horned woman occupied herself with the man, Anton, who seemed to organize this whole event, Kanna immediately sprinted towards Meirin and Xuefeng once the beams of light faded. Her hand outstretched towards the ruby gem which made its way over to her, carried by Meirin. Once she was close enough, Kanna scooped up both her and the gem, placing Meirin on her shoulder before wrapping her fingers around the gem, forming a fist.

Next was to get Xuefeng out of harm's way. How he ended up involved in all this was a question for another time. Another question Kanna had in her mind was what the hell Ruri was doing to let him out of her sight.

Once Kanna was close to the altar, she reached out with her free hand, grabbing Xuefeng by the collar of his shirt before kicking off from the ground, pushing herself away from the altar as shadows came down on it. Her potential activated as they drifted through the air at a faster speed back towards the group of other HPs behind her. Now what worried Kanna was whether or not they were friend or foe. So far, it seemed that everyone shared a common enemy. But that could quickly change once they were defeated. She’d have to be prepared for that moment, if it does happen.

Perched on Kanna’s shoulder, Meirin’s grip tightened on the Jack’s clothes, wind blowing her hairs at the speed they were going. “Where to now? Do we let that horned girl fight alone? Also, you’ve got some explainin’ to do Xuefeng! Why are you here? What’s with the large cat?”

The Child wrinkled his nose up at… Down at Meirin. There was a glimmer of recognition there, which was followed almost immediately by heart-dropping guilt. There was no time to stew on those emotions, however, as the villain rose up again. Xuefeng braced himself for a hammer stroke that never fell, whisked away in the nick of time by another familiar face. He hid his face as Meirin ‘scolded’ him, stealing glances at the Ruby, all the while absently thumbing an unusual imprint in the fold of his tunic.

“I’m not angry at you,” Meirin could see the boy hide his face. Sliding off Kanna’s shoulder, Meirin landed on the boy’s head, surrounded by a forest of white hair . “But if I could ask you one thing…the people you came with…” The cat monster hadn’t eaten the boy despite the fact that they dropped into the chamber together. Given the risks that the kid had taken, it was a miracle he was still alive. “...are they your friends?”

Xuefeng nodded.

Missy
The funny thing about danger is once you get enough adrenaline going there’s the real possibility that you can notice more than you can deal with. It’s for this reason that when a screaming blue bullet came flying down to drop kick the man coming after her and the kid with a scythe she was just glad that kick wasn’t aimed at her.

“We’re fine.”

A lie, at least for her but if she kept saying it perhaps it would become truth. She saw another cultist approach and lashed out again with her knife. This time getting them in the arm dragging down to the wrist forcing them to drop their weapon. She leapt back dodging his other hand coming around for a fist.

The blood and bodies accumulating was sickening her. She’d never seen sights like this. It took all she had not to fall to her knees and throw up. It was clear her fear stopped her from going for the kill as her hand shook. Still there was no running from this.

“Keep going!”

Whether she spoke to the newcomer or made the demand of herself was unclear. Another approached her and she repeated the same song and dance of Slice Dodge Slice Dodge hoping her blade did not fail her yet fearing its success.

Charlie
The incoming waves of darkness, yet to cause any sort of pain on him, still felt foreboding enough to get Charlie’s full attention. He felt it in his very core, should no one stop that shadowy figure at the middle of the room, things could go bad…real bad

Bracing through the umber mist, the phoenix rookie leapt from his far away position, the ground trembling as his heavy frame landed. From beyond the darkness and the man in the middle, a bright pinkish tint cut through the intense black, one Charlie had already seen glimpses of just mere moments ago. Whoever that was did not matter right now, for they both shared a common goal. Unbeknownst to him, the amaranth glow emanated once more from his body, but this time, his head was far clearer, unbothered by the lust for battle, and hopefully it would remain that way.

Tri
Once again, Tri’s attention wandered. Kisara already took the limelight against the cult and that Monster wasn’t something he could do anything against. The Dragon also already took care of the altar, so he didn’t have anything to do there. Actually, he hadn’t done much aside from bringing light to the gay monster. Tri felt like an audience. Even his heart wasn’t racing.

This sucked. If he had his cigarette, he could at least still do a feignance of indifference. He needed to do something. He was the King here. He needed more presence.

Tri turned to another entrance. Something seemed to be rushing close. The ground quaked. Softly, yet enough for him that wasn’t doing anything to notice. Something… bestial.

“B-boss?” Startled, Tristan belatedly ran after the Serpent King, clutching his now useless submachine gun. The influx of HPs left the gangster nervous. He was thankful that Tri hadn’t been doing anything, so the sudden rush came with worry.

The vibration grew. Tri reloaded his Sleeping Agent (name changing) as he left the ground in a whirlwind. He had a feeling his time to shine would be soon.

Literally.

Anton
The shadowfiend’s attention diverted from the thieves upon its altar as familiar energy crackled around it. Amorphous tendrils sprouted where its arms had been, as it charged to meet its familiar enemy head-on, its face now a yawning, black void.

Charlie & Kisara
As it was to be expected, the shadowy figure shifted into the offensive, and the phoenix’s instincts kicked it immediately after, the ground crack under his feet as he lunged forward. He might have lost his tonfa during the fall at the sinkhole, but he didn’t need any tools, he was the true weapon. Catching up from behind what used to be a man, Charlie’s fist connected with his back, the sensation against his knuckles was unlike flesh and bone, stone or metal, yet still familiar nevertheless, as Revenant’s armor shared the same nature.

Unaware of the Phoenix’s presence, Anton was unprepared for the sudden blow, he was pushed forward, his ethereal feet raising dust in the air as they slid against the ground. As he was pushed further, he turned around. Tendrils growing larger and more erratic in shape, what little sanity from the man who once was slowly slipping further away. He didn’t even need to charge forward this time, as the appendages shot forward, spinning together into the shape of a thorny drill. For Charlie, there was little point in attempting to dodge an attack approaching that rapidly, so instead he did what he knew best. Forearms clashed against the darkness, the otherworldly shadows pushing in an attempt to dig into his adamant skin. The rookie grit his teeth, it hurt like hell, but he remained steadfast.

The assault didn’t last long- another impact from a left hook collided with the back of Anton’s head. He stumbled, and his pressure on the Phoenix rookie relented. The indigo flames pressed on her assault, delivering another blow straight into where his abdomen would be. Whatever thoughts she had reserved for killing the shadowfiend alone had dispersed. So long as whoever it was that was assisting in her assault on the beast did not impede her, she was fine with it.

Anton
The shadows wavered, then gathered up once more, redoubled. It had lost much of its man-shape, as it reached with snapping tendrils at the Serpent and the Phoenix assailing it. In one fell swoop, the shadows caught hold of one of them. Pressing its advantage, the creature that was hardly Anton at all willed its sinuous appendage to squeeze, constricting the vessel in its grip with more might than it could bear... Only for the sound of a thunderous explosion to draw the entity's focus.

The Horde
Stones blasted inward, showering cultists, gangsters, and soldiers in a spray of rocks, dust, and pitched debris. There was no quiet space, no breath held, before the beast tide tumbled through the opened doorway. They were teeth. They were claws. They slashed, and clamored, and bit, and hacked, and raged across the surface of the ritual chamber like a forest fire over dry kindling.

Everything was chaos.

Missy
The sound of the stampede made her instantly shoot to look at the direction the kid should be. When she found him gone her eyes darted around the room only to find that he’d gone to the center of it all.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Lorette the kid’s got a death wish!”

She wanted to go home. Back to her little 600sq ft studio and pretend this never happened. Invite over Hiachi, Ezra and Vissa and pretend she was doing well.

“…and now we're surrounded”

Lorette
Clear as day, she heard a single note.

All else faded. The sounds of battle. The screams of confusion, rage, and fear. Missy was there beneath it all. Her voice was muffled, growing ever fainter as if she were sinking beneath the waves. The Child was gone.

She could see the gem there, glowing hot like an ember in the dark. It vibrated with barely restrained power. It beckoned to her with unspoken promises. It sang in a voice with no body and in a language with no name. But its intent was as clear as day.

"There exist no words or time enough to say how much I hate you."

Lorette stood at the shore of a sea that had never existed and never would. As far as she could see, black sands stretched into nothing on cyclopean shores, and the tide drew the woman. She marched through the waves, and they parted for her as easily as if it were a grass field. She sank into black waters, deeper than she had even the means to reason, and nothing but endless malice surrounded her. In the depths, no light existed at the end of the tunnel and no path to the surface. Hope was not a word that existed in that place.

Lorette did not persevere. Her arrogance, mightier than any weapon she'd ever wielded, was nonexistent. No amount of delusion, no manifestation of her rage, would ever compare to the absolute loathing that flowed into her.

It floated there with her in the dark waters. The gem shone like a single eye and bored straight into her soul. A sense of familiarity struck her, and Lorette was no longer rendered mute and numb.

"Is that what all this is about then?"

It was a question answered by the dimming of the jewel's light and the rasp of cold steel being drawn. Somewhere in the dark, there jutted a tower of jagged metal. Countless upon countless blades. Alight with the hot glow of the forge to those rusted and decayed beyond use. The presence at the peak of it all pulsed with that same hostility as the red jewel, long recognized as an exact mirror to its single burning eye.

"I said that I would find you, thief."

Lorette wasn't sure if the song beckoning to her belonged to the stone that'd since become the goal of several parties. Or if something else had used it to call out to her. It didn't matter. She'd been enthralled by it long enough to become a target of something that had a bone to pick with her. That something was likely not involved with whatever the hell else was happening around her, but it was capitalizing on it.

She could hear them coming long before anyone else could. A horde stampeded through tunnels and passageways sprawled beneath the city. All were directed towards one place; each beckoned by the unmistakable chime of steel striking steel. She'd been under for no longer than a second, yet so much had happened since then. Cultists had surrounded them, and Missy couldn't fight them all off alone. Despite the girl's bravado, Lorette could tell that the act of killing pained the younger Tiger. Unfortunately, given the circumstances, a lecture would have to come later.

Whatever the stone was, Lorette wanted no part of it. Yet it was clear that it possessed something that countless others would kill for. And countless more were swarming towards them like a horde of locusts to devour them all at its behest. The Beast sighed loudly. She was getting too old for this shit.

Lorette quickly scooped Missy up in a paw and cleared her from danger. She was down a second kid and wouldn't be winning Mother of the Year at the rate she was going. The ground trembled, and she knew that the army closing in on all of them was made up of some genuine heavy hitters. They wouldn't be swatted away like flies. She was going to have to put some work in.

Deciding to ignore the absolute shitshow going on at the altar in favor of preparing for a real fight, Lorette positioned Missy to her shoulder, knowing the girl had enough sense to hang tight—one thing at a time.

The Beast stood. Four legs became two, and the mockery of nature that she was twisted into a fiend playing human. There was nothing Lorette could do to hide what she was, and she wouldn't try. A clawed grasp reached around and found the hilt of Raumsplater before drawing it. The sound of unsheathing metal was far too loud and went on for too long. The sword, like its Mistress, was a freak of design. It was not for Human hands, and no amount of polishing and sharpening would ever change that.

It fit Lorette's grip easily as if a sword held by any regular person. Catlike grace added a fluidity to her movements that should have impressed upon the mind a sense of awe. A true master wielding a tool meant only for her hands.

It was almost sickening in that respect. Years of practice and experience bubbled forth, and it only begged the question of where and how a Monster had come to arm itself in such a way. God had not allowed something Like Lorette to happen. And that was why it twisted the gut when the Beast held her cursed blade aloft and settled her footing into something reminiscent of a proper swordsman. Whatever Lorette was, she'd not allowed it to overshadow the fact that she'd been a duelist before she was anything else. That alone shone her prior actions into a stark and unwelcome light.

She'd chosen to act the part of Beast. It was neither instinct compelling her nor a grasp barely maintained on her power. A woman, a Human had engaged in the feral brutality of the Animal Kingdom as a matter of mere convenience. The blood she'd spilled and the blood that stained her claws and fangs were the mark of someone who viewed the devouring of another Human as no different than putting a bullet in their skull. Raumspalter was, to her, the best tool for the job at hand because biting that many foes would be too much work.

When they came, streaming through the opening at the opposite end of the arena like water from a newly opened dam, Lorette did not merely wait for the Horde to fall upon her. She charged to meet them, a line of warped creatures that one could almost tell used to be human. Lorette planted a foot and brought Raumspalter around in a neat horizontal swing. The Beast was slightly miffed that her targets didn't die so neatly.

Their varying heights meant they weren't all bisected in the same place. Those tall enough not to have their skulls cleaved through fell screaming to the stone floor, bones splintered like kindling and leaving their organs to rupture. Lorette paid them no mind as she stepped over them and left them to thrash weakly on the ground. Their brothers were too caught up in their bloodlust to be of any assistance. It was kill or be killed.

Lorette refused to be killed and was so set to the task of culling the endless drove of Chimeric freaks. They'd been people once. She didn't care. She'd robbed and killed more people than she could ever count in her lifetime. Being reduced to the slavering beasts that they were, the old Tiger was doing them a service.

One large Reptilian Chimera met her head-on. Its scales were hard enough to keep it from being reduced to mere ribbons like its kin, and its great mass allowed it to push back against Lorette. The Beast huffed as great clawed hands braced against Raumspalter, sickly yellow blood flowing freely down the blade. Lorette did not shove back. She lunged forward, jaws opened wide, and sank her fangs into the other Chimera's lower jaw. It screeched in impotent rage before the sound dropped off suddenly into a wet, gurgling cry when Lorette tore its bottom jaw off and spat it back into what remained of the creature's face.

A small pack of Chimera hoping to encircle her immediately met their end as Lorette cracked her tail like a bullwhip, sending them scattering away. No part of the Beast wasn't made for killing, and Lorette was a lifelong expert in all matters concerning murder. An army made of things entirely like her, sent to ravage anything in its path, was not an existential threat to her. It was an opportunity. Lorette was fully immersed in her element, killing with impunity and seeing no reason to stop before she was ready. Given the number of targets presenting themselves to her, that would not be for a long while.

Hitoshi
Hitoshi barely had any time to get a read on the situation that he and Charlie had arrived to when the latter jumped into the fray. Letting out a sigh, Hitoshi looked around at the grand mess that was unfolding: chaos reigned, fists flew, and monsters ran amok. It was a total madhouse, guaranteed. Charlie was already getting into it with some others from another gang likely, and so Hitoshi sought to make himself useful.

Something glinted in the distance; Hitoshi squinted his eyes to get a better look and saw what appeared to be a ruby. “The heck…?” Hitoshi muttered, trying to get a sense of what was going on here. Why *was* such a valuable jewel amidst a sea of creatures? Must be important to them, and *them* being bad news. As the gears finished turning in his head, there was only one course of action he was directed toward: take that gem.

There was of course, the problem of *getting* to it in the first place. But Hitoshi felt an unusual confidence fill himself as he leapt down below. There wasn’t a chance he was fighting, so he had to make himself inconspicuous. Using his lithe body and the edges of this place, he began to make his way past the rampaging hordes so focused on other chaos nearby. Just like that one one movie, Escape from Nova York, he would squeeze past rushing monsters like Serpent Plisskin did with all those goons.

As he got closer and closer to his goal, he then saw someone come and practically *take* it. He had to do all that work, and they just walk up and *take* it! “Goddamnit.” Hitoshi muttered, as he was already this far into it. Taking a deep breath, he then took the only logical next step.

Make your battle cry heard, my liege!

With a sound that one could only describe as being a mix between a dying cat and a rampaging crow, Hitoshi let loose the air from his lungs as he leapt off a hulking body of one of the chimerics nearby and catapulted himself much closer to the vicinity of the gem’s current wielders. Rolling towards them semi-gracefully he came to a stop and pointed at them.

“HEY! NO TIME TO EXPLAIN BUT YOU PROBABLY WANNA STORE THAT GEM SOMEWHERE! YOU GOT A PIECE OF GLASS OR SOMETHING REFLECTIVE!?” he shouted to Kanna and Meirin.

Kanna & Hitoshi
As the Dragon jack came to a stop, she turned to look towards the new voice, her feet planting themselves back on the ground. A once-over told Kanna that he seemed friendly enough. Probably another person that got roped into this mess somehow. At the mention of the gem, she glanced down at it in her hand, now having a moment to actually inspect it. Immediately, a sense of familiarity came over her.

This is… Yo’s?

How her necklace gem ended up down here was yet another question Kanna would have to answer.

For a brief moment, she contemplated listening to the man’s instructions. It seemed like he knew more about the gem than she did, which seemed off to her. But right now, Kanna could only trust herself and the other Dragons.. After what Jennifer pulled and the sheer amount of unknown factors, Kanna couldn’t risk it.

She closed her hand around the gem once more, keeping a tight grip on it as she shook her head, calling back to Hitoshi.

“No, I don't!”

Well, she wasn’t lying at least. Her eyes remained on Hitoshi in case he did anything suddenly.

“OKAY! Plan B then… uh…” Hitoshi stumbled on his words for a moment, trying to contemplate *what* Plan B was in the first place. He didn’t have one. I really should have thought through this some more. The veteran thought to himself before a lightbulb went off in his mind. He looked behind him to see that the monsters were still charging towards their targets almost single-mindedly and pointed in that direction.

When in doubt, do the same thing but backwards.

“We can go the way I came! Sneak past them.”

Tri
There, Tri saw it.

A mass of brainless muscles and velocity with a thirst for flesh. Chimeras came in waves like a flood of zombies in apocalypse movies, with appearance too similar to one another for comfort. Even with all the HPs in New Oasis, it was a city-destroying disaster.

Electric ran through his spine. Jackpot. A grin crept to his smile.

“Tristan, camera!”

“Euh?” Tristan stiffened. Tri’s expression darkened and Tristan wanted to cry. Tri always demanded he bring a camera, but never asked for it. Of course the only time he was asked was the only time he forgot about the camera.

Tri snorted and threw his phone over. Tristan scrambled to catch it.

“Miss anything and you’ll miss your head.” Tri threatened before he dusted his clothes, combed his hair, and put on a solemn look that he thought pious. Tristan held the phone, stiff as an icicle, not daring to even tremble.

“What’s up New Oasis, Deacon here and today I’ll be saving the city in the name of Heaven.”

He gestured to the incoming horde. "These Chimera would kill everyone and everything-"

It's coming closer. "-that got in their way-"

It's really coming closer! Tristan wanted to run! "-and there has been no way to save the people that are turned-"

The leading Chimera leapt with thick, meaty claws and Tristan held back a shriek. "-until now."

White light expanded like an oceanic flood, swallowing the horde whole. The glow was fast and seemed never ending in its vastness and scale. Not one part of the tunnel was free of the purification glow.

Tri raised a nonchalant arm toward the hoard, hiding laborious breaths and shaking legs out of frame. It was the first time he used his Potential at a massive scale in decades. It pressed on his chest and pulled at his stomach. It demanded his body to creak, to tighten, to twist inside.

It was a little price against the awe-inspiring sight of the light that purified all.

Kanna
Kanna considered Hitoshi’s alternate plan. She couldn’t quite place it, but there was a gut feeling that he knew more about the gem than she originally thought. And he was pretty adamant of getting it out of here. Which was the only thing Kanna could agree on. However, she wasn’t keen on letting go of the gem just yet. She didn’t want to leave the others behind either.

She spoke quietly so that only Meirin could hear her.

“Get to Javi and Ottie, make sure they’re fine and then follow me. We need to get out of here.”

“Fine,” Meirin was back on Kanna’s shoulder. An order was an order. “But if I may first say something, I don’t think running away will solve anything. We came here for a reason, after all. Or, at least, I did.” To put an end to the Chimera Crisis that was plaguing Lower Central. Or at least, find the source and stomp it out. Meirin still didn’t have all the dots connected. “If we leave things as it is, the hordes of Chimeras will only move to the surface. Then what? We run away again? Leave the city? Besides, there are still other people down here. Innocent victims kidnapped by that psychopath. Soldiers. NPs.” Meirin rarely killed unless given the order to and, if she thought they were weaker than her, or if they ran away, she let them. “I don’t intend to just save ourselves, Javi, and Ottie.” She glanced toward the gem Kanna clutched, which still pulsated with some strange, unearthly energy. Didn’t they interrupt the ritual? Why was it still glowing? Why did Xuefeng keep looking at it? “We took the rock to mess with that crazy, shadow-man’s plans of sacrificing people, but there’s no point in doing it if we just leave everyone to die while we save ourselves. If that rock’s only good for being part of a ritual that would kill everyone, if it has no other purpose, then it’s useless garbage. Better off broken.”

Meirin finished her tiny speech before jumping off to do as told.

Kanna waited until she felt Meirin jump off her shoulder, before turning back to Hitoshi. She shifted her grip on Xuefeng’s shirt and pulled him up, tucking him under her arm like a football. She nodded in the general direction Hitoshi came from.

“The gem stays with me. Lead the way.”

Hitoshi would save the questions later as he waved Kanna over; from there, the duo would stick close to the edges of the chasm as the fighting drew attention away from them for the most part. “Ok,” Hitoshi then whispered as the two hid behind some larger rocks. “Let me find a route in a bit.” The scene was getting trickier to navigate from whence he came as chimerics continued to flood like a meat wave, complicating the issue of reaching the rest of the way to where Charlie and the others were.

“Shit. We’re gonna have to wait for an opening.” he then whispered before turning attention to Kanna. “What’s the deal with the rock anyway? Gotta be something bad if worse people got it in their hands before.”

Naomi
Naomi could only stare in shock and awe. What…the hell was happening? There was almost too much information to process. A giant cat, shrieking a sound of death. Wreaking a path of destruction through the cultists. And Kisara, fed up with being trapped firing her deadly beam. Naomi wasn't sure she'd ever seen it up close, just heard the stories. It was beautiful.

But for the most part, Naomi just stood there staring at everything with her mouth open, the gun useless at her side. She wasn't a fighter. She wasn't…whatever this situation needed. But she was and observer. She watched as the ruby was plucked away from the evil shadow man by their rescuers. That thing…was important.

Naomi wasn't sure she could wrest control of the ruby away from that group, though. Not now, with all the chaos and the monsters that were too confusing for her brain to comprehend. She'd have to think of something later–the more pressing issue at the moment was the shadows filling the arena. Think, Naomi, think! What could she do?

There! The group of dragons were trying to make their escape, unaware that Naomi's attention had been focused on them and not on the monstrous forms flooding the cave. No, for Naomi's own sanity she wasn't going to look at that. So she rushed over to their group, working up tears in her eyes.

“Are you guys escaping? I want to leave too!” She cried at them, the perfect picture of devastation as tears streamed down her face. Hopefully Tri would understand that she wasn't actually running away, but trying to figure out what the hell was going on with that ruby.

Kanna
“Your guess is as good as mine.”

Kanna stared ahead as she replied to Hitoshi absently. Meirin’s words were echoing in her mind like a voice of reason, conflicting against her original desire to just get the gem out of here.

Before she could dwell any more, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of crying, as she glanced back to see a dark-haired woman run up to them, tears running from her eyes. Kanna immediately recognized her as the same woman in the slums that were under attack from unknown gunmen, before they all got transported here. Though, the jack knew better. The gem she held was attracting attention. Sooner or later, Kanna could very much be the next target of interest.

Her eyes looked towards the opening. It was right there, and she could escape this hell hole easily with everyone’s attention somewhere else. But when she glanced back towards the others, the jack had a change of heart.

She looked back at Hitoshi.

“Forgive me, but I’ve changed my mind.”

Kanna pushed off from the floor and away from Hitoshi and Naomi, flying back to where Meirin was. When she got close, she lowered herself back to the ground, setting Xuefeng down. She’d need both hands free for what she was about to do.

“Wha- wait!” Hitoshi then said, turning as Kanna leapt away. A sudden wave of pain radiated from his wound from the sudden movement, causing Hitoshi to grip his side for a moment. Gritting his teeth, he then made his way back - again - to where they had started shortly thereafter.

Putting one hand over the other with the gem inside, Kanna pressed it in between her palms. She could feel the hand on top getting heavier as the gravity of it increased exponentially. At the same time, the hand underneath got lighter, almost trying to fly upwards.

Caught in between the opposing forces, hairline cracks began to form on its surface.

Kanna had no idea what this would do. But in that moment she decided: No one should have this.

Hitoshi saw this too and his eyes widened from concern: “Listen I’m all for keeping it out of these weirdo’s hands, but what if destroying it is *bad*?” The Child opened his mouth in a silent scream.

The gem shattered without fuss. The thread of prophecy, severed.

In the very same moment, the room became awash in a halo of silvery light.

All was still.

 

[Doctor Llamabean]

The Shanty Town

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

Hector, Yong-Yut, Hide

OUTBREAK

”A disease?”
Hector’s grip tightened as more metal grew out. It seemed upon hearing this, he sought to distance himself just a little bit. He shook his arm, hoping to detach the man’s hand. He wasn’t trying to be Princess Diana here.

”Oh, we’re not going to leave you here, but I got a couple more questions for ya first.” Ideally, he could bring this guy home, but he didn’t know how well he’d hold up, and how long this disease would leave him so docile. ”What were you trying to get aw-”

[Buzz]

[Buzz]

Stupid. What do they want. He looked to his pocket, grabbing his phone. He shot a warning look at the man before seeing what was up.

Yong-Yut?

Probably better news coming from her than if it were from Hide. He answered.

”What’s up?”

There was some impatience in his voice.

”Bad news.”

The impatience was shared.

Yong-Yut weaved between the creature’s attacks. A precious balancing act for her attention between the freak and the phone. ”It—” Its voice— she paused in her speech, shocked that it could even talk. What the hell? ”Did you hear that? It’s-it’s some bug person.”

As it scuttled onto an awning, her eyes followed. ”It’s all—

“...Oh, holy shit, Hector. Give me a second, givemeasecond.” She ducked behind cloth arms stretched into a shield. She flicked the wool sideways, aiming to throw the creature away. ”Sorry. It grew spider legs.”

On Hector’s end, the sickly man squirmed in place following the abrupt occurrence of a new affliction. The black veins in his face and along his body wriggled, growing, and the pain was evident in his scream. Nevertheless, he made no attempt, willing nor willful, to harm Hector. He only endured. And the wave ended after a few seconds.

Exhausted still, the man slumped once more.

”What was tha—”

”C’mon Yong-Yut. Is it something you can handle by yourself?” Hector sighed, exasperated, his impatience somewhat fuelled by concern. ”I got a guy of my own to deal with,” he looked to the man, wincing at the sight. ”An’ I don’t know how longer he’s gonna stay with me for, gotta get him back to HQ if we can. You can call back if you really need me, or try Hide.”

The creature respected Yong-Yut’s aim and went with the flick of her wool; however, the outcome did not serve in her benefit, as the creature twisted through the air and bounced back using a nearby wall as a springboard. Beneath the force, the wall shattered and splinters sprayed.

As she watched the creature soar back and then forth, Yong-Yut sighed. ”I just thought you should know. I’ll be fine. Okay-bye.”

[Beep.]

The creature hit the ground on two legs and kept low, sprinting full speed—only, this time, it made a split-second decision and leaped over the Phoenix rather than for the Phoenix. In the blink of an eye, the creature was behind them, Yong-Yut. It spun, seeking again to puncture. If that missed, it fell forward with its mouth wide, mandibles dripping, prepared to bite.

Yong-Yut’s attention was now fully on the thing. She turned to face what was now behind her, given only moments to back up away from the limbs. They held an arm out in shielding. A bad idea, as evidenced by the coming bite of the creature.

Teeth perforated her sleeve and skin. She could feel blood soaking her shirt.

With one of their clothen hands, they grabbed the creature’s head and pushed it into their arm. They sent the bit of blood-soaked wool down its throat, a clear attempt at asphyxiation.

Its eyes bulged with realization of the disadvantage it had drawn. At first, it bit harder, commencing a test of who could hold out the longest; however, the creature’s withdrawal was inevitable as its lungs became desperate for air. Sharp teeth escaped the Phoenix’s flesh as the beast fought to get away, succeeding. It ripped at the cloth in its throat, leaping backward, and spat what appeared to be a voluntary disgorgement of webbing in order to unblock its windpipe. Yong-Yut’s wool fell to the ground. The creature leaped and scaled the nearest shanty, fleeing in the direction whence it’d come.

Hector paused for a moment as the hang-up tone echoed around the room before falling silent. Did she sound like she was fine? Hector didn’t know. It didn’t matter, he wasn’t going to abandon their lead to save her. But it did matter. He didn’t know where in the maze of the town she was, so he just had to trust her- trust Hide too. He hadn’t received any news from him, but no news is good news, right?

Back to him.

”Alright, where were we?” Metal pinched the sickly man, holding him tighter in place. ”You have to stay strong for me, okay? And you need to tell me exactly what happened to you. What caused all this.”

But the Phoenix Queen’s question was lost on the sickly man as he seemed to gaze beyond their current surroundings, trembling in sudden fear of something only he could perceive. Pupils misshapen, jaw dangling as chapped and bloody lips quivered, the man’s clutch tightened around Hector’s arm as he continued to endure the experience.

When a moment passed, softly, a whisper left him, “What is this city?”

Images of monsters unimaginable flashed across his mind. They wreaked havoc on the district; it wasn't just the shanty town. Glimpses of death and pandemonium that a civilian like himself was never meant to witness. It was like looking through another’s eyes, but he could hear their heart pounding, their breath wheezing. He could feel their- its bloodlust and hunger.

“I can feel it…” he said. “The thing that- that infected us…” His voice was dry. “It’s like… Like I’m con-... nected to it. I can sense the others, too.” His eyes darted this way and that. “It’s after something, the original. And there are others alongside it, all... they're all moving further in... toward the center of the district. I don’t know… It’s hard to-” He paused briefly before: “It’s calling us to it… The others are-” Blood poured all of the sudden from the man’s eyes and his lungs were exhausted of air by the release of an agonizing cry. They looked as if they’d pop out, his eyes.

For a while, the man squirmed, kicking and screaming, ripping handfuls of hair from his scalp where blood bubbled from the follicles. And he begged—begged to die, a change of heart from earlier. But the Phoenix Queen’s questions only multiplied. The man would have to wait; cooperation was now his ticket to the sweet release of death.

The Underground

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

The Finalists

OUTBREAK

Spoiler: Code

Eleanore
Leaf
Deirest
26
Areith
Sang-Cheol
Hiachi
Hector
Yong-Yut

Spurred toward the eye of central...​

Hector & Yong-Yut
They’d been running for twenty minutes, having chanced upon each other in the web-blanketed labyrinth miles behind—Yong-Yut alongside Hector who piggybacked the sickly man. He was their compass—their fading-in-and-out-of-consiousness compass, but a compass nonetheless.

Every now and then he’d wake, spout some nonsense laced with worthwhile information and directions, then he’d black out again.

First it was the description of something inexplicable drawing the desire of ‘the original’ and other chimerics like it toward the nucleus of lower central. Next it was visions of more blood and widespread battle as beast battled beast and civilians trapped in the midsts cowered for their lives, all seen straight through the eyes of ‘the original’ which the man could give no detail of other than the live ongoings he was experiencing against his will.

Moments ago, all he could muster was: “They’re underground.”

“They're under-” Hector shook the man, slightly, though he was worried that even that would be enough force to off him. They must've been close now, he just needed to hang on. “What do you mean underground?”

He looked to the floor. They were as under as the city got, he thought.

“How do we get underground?”

He shook him again, impatiently. He hadn't run all this way for the destination to be inaccessible, but surely it wasn't. If there was a way for these things to get down, there was a way for him too.

”Come on, Yong-Yut, maybe we just need to go further.” He couldn't give up on the lead now. Hector kept running through the dark streets. And they had company. The arachnid creatures from Shanty Town had been sprinting in the same direction as them all this time, driven by their own connections to their ‘original’ who beckoned them.

It was unfortunate but at least it meant they were heading in the right direction according to their compass.

The man stirred once more, muttering something incoherent, more incoherent than the rest he’d been saying all night. “...down” And all at once, as if the gates of hell themselves had opened around them, chimerae of all shapes and sizes emerged from the shadows, narrowing in and enveloping a single point at the center of the road like cats after a laser pointer. Hector and Yong-Yut did the same without expectation of what was to come.

Altogether, as the Phoenixes and chimerics met in the middle, the Earth turned to quicksand beneath their feet, like it’d been expecting them, and down they went, an avalanche of cement and bodies with not a chance of escaping. The only thing they could do was obey gravity and hope for the best.

Two surfaces, they broke through. The first was above ground, then it was darkness—pitch black, the eyes were useless as they fell. Then the second. It crumbled as the Phoenixes and chimerae descended upon it, a ground beneath ground, then there was light. Not much, dim, but light. Without waiting, the chimerae stumbled and scrambled from the fallen debris like sailors for the siren’s song—a song that Hector and YY could not hear—and charged down a yet unseen path.

When the dust settled and the Phoenix Queen gathered himself, hoisting his human compass from the bed of broken rock and pipe and disaster by the arm, he acknowledged his surroundings with quick keenness despite slight disorientation. They’d breached a new level of central. A new nether of antiquity. Ancient walls that stretched high formed a ceiling that opened up to reveal the abyss from whence they’d come. However, there was little time to marvel when the sight of familiar faces made for quite the most unexpected rendezvous.

“Leaf?” Hector looked to the girl in Leaf’s arms, then to the unconscious—probably dead—man dangling by the arm at his side. It resembled the image of a child dragging along their oversized teddy.

Eventually, from the wreckage, Yong-Yut, too, emerged to take in their circumstance.

 

[Elenion Aura]

The Underground

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

The Finalists

OUTBREAK

Spoiler: Code

Charlie
Kisara

Charlie & Kisara
The horned girl was now trapped within the shadow's wildly morphing grasp. The shadows convulsed and twisted violently as the shape of a man was further gone. Fortunately Charlie knew better than to stay idle, landing a barrage of quick jabs at the figure after closing the gap. It was hard to tell just how effective his blows were, but the phoenix was confident in the power behind his fists, and no matter the surface he was facing, it would eventually be brought down. The dark would cave in and be pushed aside, remorph and shift incoherently.

Anton was about the counterattack, but it was then that everything turned to white, catching the attention of everything and everyone, no matter how inhuman they might be.

While he would've loved to go into detective mode and try to figure out what exactly was the cause of that massive flashbang, Charlie's focus was still entirely on the dark beast, and the captivity it enforced. Planting a foot on the writhing mass, the phoenix launched himself upward, getting right above the large tendril. Rising leg up as he leapt, his heel hammered down on the appendage, splitting it in half.

Once on the floor, his ears caught wind of Hitoshi's voice, calling for him. "Aniki, I'm alright, don't worry about me!" He dashed forward, delivering a one-two punch at the shadows. "I'll catch up soon!"

The release of the tendrils offered the horned girl a moment of breathing space, quite literally, as she rubbed her neck, a wince of pain clearly visible on her face. She held it well, but the telltale rivulets of blood that escaped from the corners of her grit teeth indicated some internal damage. Still, she pressed on, resetting her stance almost as quickly as she had lost it and resumed her oppressive pressure, delivering a kick straight into her target's legs and swinging a wild haymaker into where she supposed its head was.

“Eyes on me,” she hissed.

Gurgling sounds came from the creature as Kisara landed her blows, there was no real voice making them, that shadowy body held a windpipe no longer. It was merely the sound of the shadowy substance writhing from the trauma. The being of the night winded up another blow at her, appendages blitzing about in a mindless frenzy.

The Phoenix wouldn’t let such plans go through, however, as delivered a front kick at the creature as it stumbled his way due to Kisara’s attacks. Charlie thrust his arm forward, grabbing a hold of what used to be an arm at the base, herculean fingers sinking into the ethereal flesh, before delivering more blows with his free hand.

It was almost harmonious, the way the boy predicted how the girl would strike, pieces of the puzzles neatly falling into place in a rhythmic pattern. He wouldn’t even be surprised if she had a similar gut feeling.

Like an accord between two musicians of an impromptu band, it was a rhythm of call and response. Neither the Phoenix nor the Serpent relented on their attacks - each time the shadowfiend turned its attention away to face the other, another blow would connect with him from the neglected party. Rear hook into left uppercut, front kick to the jaw to a liver blow, knee into hammer fist. There was no rest, only a constant barrage of blows and strikes designed to ensure the next one that landed was at its full impact and effect.

Anton had been reduced to a completely helpless status. Erratically flailing its appendages around as it was subjected by the brutal beatdown from the duo. Sharp ends would clash with the skin of the fighters, grazing and cutting, hitting and bruising, as by now they had foregone defense, all for the sake of their merciless assault. No words were exchanged, no emotions were shown, only sheer determination and reckless abandon.

Standing next to each other, the serpent and the phoenix stared at Anton, now reduced to a stumbling, writhing mass, overwhelmed by the symphony of violence it was subjected to. They shared a very brief side glance, amber meeting emerald in unspoken agreement.

In unison, the two stomped forward, the surface beneath them cracking and sinking under the pressure of their barbaric stride. Energy coursed through their bodies, sparking and simmering as they focused their final efforts on their fists.

With matching shouts, they thrust forward, their punches connecting with the center of the shadowy mass. The earth and stone gave in further from the tremendous force of their blow, and finally propelling Anton at blinding speeds towards the walls of the chamber.

The crashing was brash and disorienting, the loud sound of the impact being similar to that of a full on explosion, with a massive courtain of dust rising in its wake.

They waited for seconds that felt eternal, letting the veiling cloud clear. As it turned see-through, they could spot a newborn hole, deep and pitch black, an indicator of its impressive depth.

Amidst the streaks of crimson coating his face, Charlie’s expression remained stoic for one last time, before a long sigh came from him. “Well, guess that’s it” He wasn’t sure if his attack had finished the shadow creature for good, as it was impossible to make out anything from within the pitch-black hole, but if it didn’t resurface by now, then the battle was most certainly over. “Either he’s dead or escaped”

He took a moment to take on his surroundings, it was a bad habit of his to develop a serious tunnel vision whenever he focused on a tough opponent. He hadn’t even realized that the influx of wild chimerics had stopped on their tracks, seemingly under a deep trance. It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together, and that the outbreak, and whatever was going on here, were deeply connected. “Uhm…” He turned to the girl of pink locks, the tone in his voice having now returned to its usual mild and soft fashion. “Do you…know what happened here, exactly?” He wondered just how much of a fool he looked like by asking such a thing.

Her flames were flickering, dying. She looked haggard and worn. She grimaced and rubbed her fists, the skin of her knuckles having peeled off from the impact of her own blows. “No.” Her voice was hoarse. “I came to fight, not to understand.” She turned to Charlie, and there was something akin to admiration in her eyes. “We're warriors, not thinkers. Think too much, and we slow down. Slow down, and you won't be able to keep up.”

The phoenix scratched the back of his head. She was a lady of theatrics, that was for sure, however, he understood her words completely, clear as a mountain lake. “Yeah…I guess that’s the same for me, huh? I just wanted to help since I knew there were people in danger and, well…At some point I ended up here?”

He continued his pathetic attempt at making himself more presentable by patting his jacket. Nothing short of a fool’s effort; he was drenched, covered in dust and mud AND bloodied to boot, but finding an oasis in the desert would be easier than getting the habits out of this boy.

“The chimerics…They’re completely still. It’s kind of eerie, don’t know what’s gonna happen with them now” He shifted his posture to face the girl, an awkward smile presenting itself for her. “Well, either way I feel I could pass out if I get into another fight right now, so for now this is about as much as I can do, my friend needs medical attention, too”[/b][/color]

He extended his closed fist at the horned gal. “I’m Charlie, by the way, you were pretty cool just now”

It may have been a trick of the light, but for a moment, it almost looked as if her dark eyes lit up, and the dying flames produced a little spark. Both quickly faded back into dour dimness, as she reluctantly stretched out her arm and pressed her fist against his. “Kira,” she introduced herself. There was some hesitation in her voice. “I hope to see you again in battle, either as friend or foe.” From the tone in her ragged voice, it was clear that she meant this as a compliment.

“Take care of your friends. I'm going to finish what I started.” She rolled her fingers, and stalked towards the crater where the shadowfiend was last seen.

Kisara McDowell came to a halt. Black ichor decorated the crater that she and the one that called himself Charlie had punched the shadowfiend into. Though it looked more like someone had dropped a giant inkblot upon the ground, she could still just barely make out the silhouette of a man, the darkness peeling away from him. She held out her hand, drawing forth one more blast from her near-empty tank. Her scales upon her arms vibrated and thrummed in anticipation, glaring light pouring from the cracks between them, and she closed her hand upon the gathered energy within her palm.

Then she released it, hurling an orb the size of a baseball atop the sprawled figure. It rolled beside the body, and stayed still for just one second, and for that one second, there was silence.

Then it cracked, and fissured, streams of light poking through the seams, and in the next moment, it exploded into a white searing light.

 

[Elenion Aura]

The Underground

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

The Finalists

OUTBREAK

Spoiler: Code

Hitoshi
Tri
Kanna
Peyton
Areith
Hector

Meirin
As soon as her feet touched the floor of the chamber, Meirin grew. 10 feet. 20 feet. 30 feet. There was more than one way to find two individuals within a chaos of cultists, captives, chimeras, etc, but the easiest--at least in Meirin's mind–was to make oneself as noticeable as possible.

“JAVI! OTTIE! PEI!” The giantess boomed as she marched forward, kicking and punching away any cultist or chimera that got in her way. “If any of you can see me, and are able to, make your way over here!!!”

Punch!

Her primary goal, of course, was to find her friends. However, with the appearance of the chimeric horde, she instinctively knew there would be many deaths. She knew the sheer numbers alone would make it difficult for any HP, let alone NP, to escape. She knew she did not want to see the stampede of chimeras make their way to the surface to where Jun, and anyone else she cared for lived.

Punch. Punch.

So, once she found her friends and made sure they were safe, she had every intention of staying behind to push back the herd of monsters; Use her body as a shield if she had to. After all, what's good about a large body if one can't use it to defend one's allies?

Crunch!

She decided that she would not let the underground chimera breach the surface, using any means necessary.

But fate seemed to have other plans.

As she snatched a winged chimera from the air, prepped to hurl it at the group fighting the cat-lady and Xuefeng's supposed friends, Kanna flew in.

Meirin blinked. “Wha–?”

Before she could ask what the Dragon Jack was doing here, Kanna did something that Meirin would ultimately come to respect; To Meirin (and perhaps Meirin alone), a jewel, no matter how powerful or glamorous, wasn’t worth protecting over the sacrifice of individual lives.

At–nearly–the same time, a bright, strangely familiar light, washed into the chamber, forcing Meirin to shield her eyes. She didn’t didn’t know what the luminescence was, she didn’t know the source, but, for some reason, the irksome image of the Serpent King as he smugly shouted ‘Purify’ popped into her head.

Tri & Areith
As the light faded, the scene came slowly back into focus.

Statues. Or they may as well have been. The Chimera Horde stood motionless, maws slacked, tongues lolling, eyes staring ahead. Tri’s purification had interrupted the signal which had driven them until now. Their minds had been wiped clean by the holy nova. Did anything of their former selves remain? Would they ever regain consciousness? It was too early to say. For now, they were merely still.

Finally, all was over. Tri's legs were creaky beams, but it didn't beat the smile on his face. His gaze returned to the camera. Unearthly glow highlighted his feature through an ethereal halo.

"Come North if your loved ones are in need of salvation."

He was so fucking cool.

“Yes. For His Mercy shall come to them just as it has for you.”

Areith’s voice joined Tri’s in agreement, though their mindsets couldn’t be anymore disconnected. The nun had walked her way through the horde without a second thought, amongst the rampaging monsters like she was one with them. Areith had walked up to one of the deformed chimerics, her hands running through its black fur as it stood frozen. She allowed her palm to brush against its skin.

“As His chosen, you have been gifted. You all will survive the cataclysm,” she spoke, stepping back to look across the numerous chimerics, their forcefully transformed nature was beautiful to her. It was a reward they had been selected to carry.

“Rejoice in his vastless kindness,” She once again clasped her hands together in prayer, “[/b][/color]For you shall be spared from His wrath. You have absconded, ascended to the next stage of evolution.”

The holy woman continued to prattle on her gospel, even as the world continued to shift around her.

Tri vaguely remembered the nun. Serpents hosted a myriad type of madmen and he liked her aesthetic; usually, it was not his style, but today, particularly, her preaching complemented the subtle atmosphere. Tri joined her, crossing one arm across his chest and uttered solemnly,

“May He save us all.”

Tri relished in the pious atmosphere, but Tristan really couldn’t appreciate it. His arms were stiff from holding up the phone, his legs were getting numb, and the worst part was, he really needed to go to the toilet. his legs. His face crumpled uglily as he held the urge back. It looked good but his pants were in danger here.

Tri, naturally, did not notice. His gaze grew distant beyond the corpse, seeing through mortality and death as he emulated the body of his dusty namesake, Deacon.

Kanna & Hitoshi
The Ruby’s remnants crumbled to dust between Kanna’s fingers and were taken away by a southward wind. Her eyes followed the tiny shimmers in the air until any trace of the gem disappeared from sight. Kanna looked around the room, seeing what had changed. It was definitely much quieter. She stood to her feet as she noticed that all the chimerics had frozen in place. At least the ones that were hostile.

Her attention shifted towards Anton, who was still engaged by two others. From what she could tell, he wasn’t affected by whatever that light was, or from the gem shattering, leading her to believe he was an HP like the others. But that remained to be confirmed. For now, she didn’t worry about him since he was already pre-occupied. Kanna turned to Hitoshi.

The veteran Phoenix was patting himself down, making sure all parts of him were still in place as he looked around with bewilderment. Aside from his wound - still bleeding - he was intact. For a brief moment he did feel like something *bad* happened. But looking around, Hitoshi saw that the chimeric problem had seemingly been resolved in a flash and he let out a chuckle. “Well… guess we got lucky.”

The Dragon jack nodded.

“It would seem so.”

Her attention switched to Meirin and the others to make sure nothing adverse happened to them, as well as Xuefeng.

“What was that?” Uncovering her gaze, Meirin looked around to see…stillness. The chimeras seemed to be frozen, lifeless eyes staring ahead. The end of carnage only brought more questions as the giantess studied the paralyzed winged creature in her grasp, poking it. Was it once a person? What sort of trickery could cause such a loss of senses? Perhaps the shadowy psycho would know since they all seemed to rush in from…his basement? At least, one would think he had some form of control over them since he seemed to have planned a ritual near where hordes of Chimeras were nested…

Meirin glanced over to where the horned lady and a blue haired girl dueled the Shadow Freak.

Then again, such was a leap of logic Meirin wasn’t sure she should make. She looked back at Kanna. “I don’t know what happened…but I guess it’s a good thing?”

A win was a win.

She almost felt pity for the creatures that didn’t really have a chance at a fair fight, whose blank, statue-like gazes felt more lifeless than death…when a sudden thought crossed her mind. Her brain hadn’t yet processed it; The similarities between Xuefeng and Chimeras she fought, why he was in Lower Central, why he kept looking at the rock, etc, but somewhere deep down she’d felt the connection and her panicked voice worked before her brain did. “Where’s Xuefeng!?”

In the meantime, Hitoshi looked around for any sign of the blue-haired rookie before shouting: “CHARLIE! YOU THERE?”

Peyton, Kanna, & Meirin
"Hm?" Peyton mirrored Miriam's confused words. He looked around in confusion before realizing that Kisara's earlier discharge had caused the cage to dissipate, and as Peyton was reloading his gun, the others had already jumped into the fray to cause chaos.

He was missing out on the fun! This was no good. Losing all the carefulness that he had previously exhibited, Peyton jammed in the magazine of the gun into the gun, knocking away his old magazine in the process causing a jingle of metal on stone as the bullets fell out of it. He gave Miriam a waving motion, “Come on! We can’t just let them horde all the fun!”

In the midst of the frozen chimeras and the fighting, Peyton spotted a brunette doing her best to escape from the scene. It was the gal that had gotten the group of them in the mess in the first place.

“Hey! Come back here!” Peyton snarled, bounding forward to close the distance between them. With a savage swipe of his bayonet, Peyton rended Jennifer’s torso completely from her legs with a sickening crunch. Nay but a single cry of either disbelief or pain came out of her before her body flopped limply onto the stone ground and splattered blood on the stone floor and Peyton’s sneakers. Peyton waved to the Dragons there and proudly said, “Hey Kanna and Mei! I killed the gal that betrayed you guys!”

Kanna glanced over to the sound of Peyton’s voice, her eyes immediately drawn to the pool of blood that formed under Jennifer’s lifeless body. While she would’ve preferred to have questioned the reporter about how much she knew… Kanna also didn’t mind that she was dead. If not Peyton, she would’ve ended her life later.

Though she’d heard Peyton’s call, Lawson’s life was the last thing on Meirin’s mind as she frantically looked around for the boy that may or may not be a chimera. She eventually found Xuefeng behind some rubble, relief flooding her at the revelation that her worries were for naught. Shrinking back to the size of a normal human, Meirin scooped the quivering child into her arms. “There, there. You’re alright.”

If his behavior shift was strange to her, Meirin pushed the thought to the back of her mind for now. Whether he was a chimera or not, whether he had some strange power or not, he seemed to be unaffected by the light that had flooded the room, paralyzing all other chimeras into statues, and that was the important part.

Meirin looked to Kanna, embarrassed. “Sorry about that,” Not quite sure how to explain her sudden worry, Meirin opted to skip the explanation altogether.

“Guess you, uh, didn’t much like the rock either, huh? Thanks for coming back….” Even if she hadn’t intended for it, it really did mean a lot to her that the Dragon Jack had her back. “Looks like the fight’s over though, so–”

An explosion interrupted her.

Hector
“Yong-Yut, are you alright?”

Hector turned to look at her while he adjusted his hold on the limp man, he didn't wait long for an answer though. The situation didn't allow for standing around and chatting.

“You. What the fuck are you doing here?”

Then, he turned back to address the group that surprised him. The last people he thought he'd see, with their own tag along looking worse for wear. It was completely baffling

“I didn't need more people getting themselves into this shit. You need to just get-” he clenched his fist, exasperated. How the hell did they get here? How the hell do they get out? “Just get the fuck outta here, or do something useful.”

“Alright. You still with me?”

Hector reached a free hand to tap his navigator’s face, but it seemed he could find his way without instructions now. The growing fear now was that he had bitten off far more than he could chew.

Noa
Noa was a bit behind the rest of the group to say the least, she had refused to go down in such a manner as the others did. Jumping down a hole into the unknown was not something on her to do list, and they had opted to either take a alternative route or get a really long rope. Regardless it did set them back quite a bit, and Noa was no fan the crevice, the place looked like a battlefield, but luckily their were no bodies that she recognized on the floor. Which was quite the relief to say the least, still it took a while before she was able to find her old compatriots. Walking in from behind she simply asked “Soooo, what just happened?” Tyr kept position in front of Noa, figuring the area to be unsafe. But was calm enough to where he saw no need to draw his blade yet.

 

[Elenion Aura]

The Underground

SCENE:

Outbreak

LOCATION:

Lower Central District

PARTICIPANTS:

The Finalists

OUTBREAK

Spoiler: Code

Hitoshi
Tri
Kanna
Peyton
Areith
Hector

There was no more time. The police were on their way. What good was catharsis behind bars?

Chikage
The tunnels had started tight and grew wider, dark and grew faintly brighter to better reveal the formation of black-clad figures that stalked in steady unison through the undercity bowels. At the forefront of each cluster, riot shields led the way, footsteps falling like feathers despite the pace at which they advanced.

Elsewhere, a supernatural darkness swallowed all—an abyss—save for the gleam of helmet lights providing glimpses of the etchings upon an ancient cylindrical wall at the center of an expansive circular room. Heavily geared officers were lined up in rows along the back wall, awaiting order, visible only by their helmets, like disarranged eyes peering on. More of them filed out of the room, all facing one direction and waiting just the same. Their numbers stretched on through the maze they’d traversed to get here—no single space big enough to fit them all.

Less ancient than the cylindrical wall were the blinking red lights placed around it at measured distance.

“Say the word, Captain,” said one, hovering his thumb over the red button of a small device.

Without wasting time, the Captain responded. “Go.”

Click.

And the skies to the ritual chamber exploded. Plumes of dust raced down to pervade the suspended battlefield. Heavy duty nets descended, blanketing whatever lay below. Wire ropes dropped fast, ridden by tactically-geared forces. And one-by-one the soldiers filled the chamber. Not only from above, but the riot shields and their accompanying, too, poured in through the tunnels around the expanse. The zip of projectiles quite unlike the pop of gunfire was unleashed—all at once, it was a sound like the swarming of millions of wasps and cracks of electricity. The gunfire came with the next wave, and would serve most useful against any struck by the first devices...

What happened next could no longer change the outcome. Fate would spin along on its new course... For better, or for worse.




























Outro
In the ensuing chaos, as roving Chimerics were summerily hunted down and neutralized, the Grants watched the television and cursed their misfortune. Anton had always been a loose cannon, a thorn in their sides. It had been his zeal that had drawn many to him. His zeal had also been his undoing. This charade had not only set their plans back by months, if not years, but it had cost them dearly. The Ruby was lost to them, either destroyed or in hands other than their own. The rituals and rites were clear. It was a complete disaster.

In the mayoral estate, high above the rampant death and ruin of Lower Central, the First Family of New Oasis stewed and plotted, plotted as they stewed. As outside, the wind gathered... A storm blew open the grand doors as lightning clapped in the kitchen. And out of each peal of thunder, a voice emerged.

「誰が王国の鍵を渡したの..？君は弱すぎる」

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