[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/5r7OTIh.png[/img] [b][color=Aquamarine]wordcount:[/color][/b] 3,022 (+4) (+4) [b][color=Aquamarine]Midna: level 9[/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aquamarine]///////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (50/110) [b][color=Aquamarine]Location:[/color][/b] Suoh [color=Aquamarine]Warp Charges:[/color] 1 [hider=warp locations] Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel) Vandelay Campus (Alleyway) [/hider] [/center] [color=Aquamarine]”Oh for the goddess’ love, I can’t stop messing up, can I”[/color] Midna bemoaned as Hanabi figured out who’d put the hit on them, namely the braincase of a man who she’d knocked out rather than simply ended the life of. She was not, it seemed to her, on the best streak when it came to her attempts at keeping casualties to a minimum [color=Aquamarine]”This is what I get for not murdering people who annoy me I suppose.”[/color] A lot of the following PSY-OFF intrigue discussed by the group went over her, a flurry of names she did not recognize/remember, but the last part about Raz being in trouble after he’d pursued a suspicious high ranking member of the organization, now that she didn’t need any additional details to know what to do about. [color=Aquamarine]”Agreed, let’s bail the kid out.”[/color] The appearance of the Others was something of a complication, however. It was also somewhat strange how they arrived, namely in bizarre vehicles that Midna mentally labeled as trucks rather than buses, that were suspended by balloons. [color=Aquamarine]”Is that. Normal?”[/color] she started to ask, because the Other having transports was certainly pretty different when compared to the weather phenomenon they were often described as, before shaking her head, slipping on her mask, and deciding to do something about the situation instead. [color=Aquamarine]”Vibrava! Fly up there and dragon fire those flying trucks and falling Others!”[/color] she commanded, as she portaled in the minion in question, launching it out of said portal to give it head-start. “Wait, don't!” Hanabi shouted in warning, having overheard her plan, before trying to explain “The Extinction Belt’s way too low, it’s too dangerous to fly up there right now!” when Midna questioned her about it. The princess took only a moment to heed her warning, unknowingly doing so just in time when the minion was mere moments away from doom, and recalling the pokemon via portal. It vanished from the sky, and reappeared next to her as she asked [color=Aquamarine]”What’s the danger anyway. Other than getting hit by stray bolts being fired up into it.”[/color] “I don’t know exactly, but they always ground air traffic when the belt is low, because no one who goes in ever comes back out,” the psychic explained as they kept moving towards the closest landing zone. [color=Aquamarine]”Got it”[/color] the princess agreed, putting the discussion to bed, for now, but internally still wondering what the exact reason was. That question, and the one regarding the out of place air busses, then got shunted all the way to the back of her mind as they rounded a corner and came across a horde of Other tearing up the town and hunting down the populace. They had places to be, and the other teams on the ground presumably considered them hostile, but there was absolutely no question about what they were going to do when confronted with this situation. Without a moment's hesitation, the princess shadow stepped into the fray, blinking ahead of the rest of the Seekers whom she’d been lagging behind anyway. In a breath, she appeared in the doorway of one of the buildings along the street, right next to a family of humans in the midst of being hemmed in by a stalking trio of Vase Paws. [color=Aquamarine]”Stand behind me!”[/color] Midna called out, echoing a certain lovable defender, as she leapt past them and into the fray. She dropped her Roadblock striker between the family, letting the Exosuit’s massive energy shield be their Braum, while the princess herself was all aggression. Lunging forwards into battle, she smoothly dodged under a flying kick from one of the Paws before spinning around and quick-drawing her volcano fragment and slashed that same Paws, all in a single smooth continuous motion. The obsidian blade more or less glanced off of the vase of the Other, but that didn’t really matter, because the hit promptly set it on fire, which was ever so effective against the plant portion of the foe. As the first burned and panicked, the second came in, trying to headbutt her with its thorny foliage. In response she met it motion for motion, swinging her own head forwards as if to headbutt as well, but instead launching her shadowhand up from her hair, slamming her palm against the head and grabbing it. They strained for a moment, till Midna first ditched her axe, before portal launching, catching, and finally unloading both her revolver and musket into it at point blank where even she couldn’t miss. The heavy rounds wounded and unsteadied the monster just enough for her to wrench it to the side and slam it into the ground, leaving her free to drop the guns back into portals and to close in and give it a flurry of dragon claw swipes with all 4 of her hands. Speaking of dragons, the third Paw was first blasted with Dragon Breath by her skirmishing Vibrava till paralysis took hold, at which point buzzed in and grabbed the edge of its vase with its claws, from where it began crunching its way through the foliage. There was a panicked scream from behind them, however, as the third Vase Paw stopped burning and slammed itself against Roadblock’s shield, only for it to be set on fire again as Hanabi came rushing in and delivered a burning beat down, arriving just in time before the striker’s 10 second duration was up. As the psychic put an end to that Paw, Midna did the same to the other two, the princess slamming a super sized wolves down on top of her one as it tried to rise, before turning and crescent moon slashing her sword tipped spear into the third in one clean motion, landing a final blow for her minion. [color=Aquamarine]”Street’s clear the way we came from”[/color] she instructed the family they’d saved, before offering Hanabi a [color=Aquamarine]”Thanks”[/color] for her part in it. There was still plenty for them to do, and the trio rushed forwards to help wherever they could. A little way down the road a number of armed citizens had either driven or pulled a car off the road and in front of a storefront, using it as a barricade to protect them from the Others. With improvised spears and a few handguns, they had, it seemed, managed to take down a Rummy, but where now being suppressed by a pack of Bile Pools that where hosing them down with their water blasts, allowing more Rummys to close in and start smashing at the barricade. Midna’s speedy vibrava arrived first on the scene, buzzing straight for the Bile Pool squad, weaving between watery blasts and then slamming down into the ground among them, sending out a radial shockwave that rattled the Others. Then it gripped the earth and began to buzz its wings, somehow channeling the vibration of them down into the concrete and creating more shaking, creating a localized earthquake that threw the Bile Pools into disarray. That freed up the civilians to start fighting back again, gunfire cracking and spears stabbing, though against the number of Other that were coming after them, it was only buying them time. Fortunately, a little more time was all Midna and Hanabi needed to catch up with their flying frontrunner and engage the Rummies. Armed with polearms wreathed in lightning and fire respectively, they both avoided slam attacks from their chosen targets, before slamming their polearms forwards, delivering an elemental payload to the chest of an Other. That’s where things deviated however, as Hanabi flicked her double ended weapon around to bash the Rummy with the other equally superheated end, knocking it to the side, while Midna repeated her opening strike, delivering several swift thrusts with her treespear’s long blade. The treespear’s own lightning did rather little damage on its own, as unbeknownst to Midna it drew from her faith, of which the Princess ironically had very little due to her direct interactions with the divine, but the additional electrical payload she had charged it with still did plenty. As did her comboing her shadowhand into the mix, the princess ending her stab combo with a mighty punch that sent the Other sprawling. She pulled the spear to her chest, salvaging some of the charge and recycling it back into her weapon, while at the same time opening a portal and calling out an enlarged Wolfos. The beast pounced on the fallen Other both paws slamming into it and crushing its weakened form, before it lunged forwards and bit another Rummy using its massive jaw, savaging the Other for a few moments before it had to return to the twilight realm. The savaged Other barely had time to recover before Midna rushed in and delivered an overhead chop with the sword-like tip of her spear, bringing a corresponding lightning bolt crashing down atop it for good measure, expending all the charge she had recycled. That lack of charge resulted in her follow up stab having far less bite than she wanted it too, the lack of staggering impact allowing the Rummy to recover and fight back, spinning on one of its pointy legs like a top and smacking the spear out of the princess’s hands in the process as the severed Rummy arm it used as a weapon smashed into it. [color=Aquamarine]”You think that’s all I’ve got?”[/color] Minda taunted the headless thing as she stepped away from its spin, only for Hanabi to come to her unneeded rescue anyway. The psychic came running over and with precision borne of experience against these foes, ducking low stabbing her staff under the spinning arm to strike the single leg the Runny was balancing on, causing it to tip over and fall to the ground. [color=Aquamarine]”I had that in hand”[/color] the princess insisted, before adding [color=Aquamarine]”But thank you anyway”[/color] to try and avoid being needlessly abrasive. Before the psychic could take things one way or the other, there came a loud crunch of metal as a goat like [url=https://i.imgur.com/qIJ2T19.jpg]Wither Sabbat[/url] slammed its head into the car protecting the civilians, opening the way for the Rummies to try and climb their way into the store. [color=Aquamarine]”Oh no you don’t”[/color] Minda said, before summoning Roadblock again, and having the exosuit pound a fist against his shield while the princess called out [color=Aquamarine]”Over here you twisted things, come and fight me!”[/color] It worked like a charm. It also attracted the attention of every single other in the local area, which on top of the Rummies and Sabbat, also included a small flock of [url=https://i.imgur.com/9cxQCrM.jpg]Plateau Pendu[/url]. The electricity slinging Other swooped in, blasting at Roadblock’s shield and undercutting Midna’s bravado as she flinched away from them, where she’d shown zero fear of any of the other Other. [color=Aquamarine]”Goddesses, not again”[/color] she gasped, briefly paralyzed by fear, and prompting Hanabi to ask her if she was ok even as the psychic moved to engage the closest Rummy that had been drawn to their position by Roadblock’s taunt. [color=Aquamarine]”I’m fine. I’m fine”[/color] Midna insisted, mostly snapping out of the fear, but still feeling her heart beating faster for a reason she still didn’t understand. Working under the stress, she summoned her initiate strikers and chilfos behind the shield, having them toss psychic/ice spears from behind its cover, while she herself used it to prepare for battle. Unfortunately, in having successfully drawn the attention of the hulking goat Other away from the civilians, she had prompted it to charged towards them instead, the Sabbat plowing aside one of its fellows before it slammed into Roadblock’s energy shield, cracking it. Midna responded by blasting it with her musket, again using the close range to compensate for her general lack of skill with firearms, even if practical experience was making her slightly better over time. The heavy metal slug wasn’t nearly enough to dissuade the goat however, which rose up on its hind legs, and then slammed its horned skull into the shield again, shattering it, and slamming into Roadblock in a single strike, causing the princess to yelp and stumble as she suffered recoil damage. The impact blew apart her little defensive line, all the strikers dissipating within a few heartbeats of the impact, and leaving the pair of ladies alone against almost a dozen Other. Bur only for a few seconds. Midna’s vibrava returned in just the nick of time, having slaughtered the last of the bilepools and now immediately laying into the Pendu upon its arrival, even more deadly against them due to being entirely immune to their electrical attacks. [color=Aquamarine]”Yes! You’re a better knight than the darknut will ever be”[/color] the incredibly relieved to not be dealing with those princess cried out as her (suitably green) defender tore into the source of her stress. Well, the unnatural source anyway, dealing with the ground based Other was still plenty stressful. At least their heavy blunt attacks were fairly predictable, and there was space on the long wide road for both Midna and Hanabi to backup and avoid getting surrounded. The princess did particularly well at this, skirmishing back, and blasting Rummies with her musket (and making sure to check what was behind them this time to avoid hitting any friendlies this time) till the goat like Wither Sabbat charged out of their ranks, splitting itself from the pack with its speed. [color=Aquamarine]”There we go”[/color] Midna said smugly as it did what she wanted, before calling over [color=Aquamarine]”Together?”[/color] to Hanabi and getting a nod in reply. The two ladies dodged to either side as the goat charged in, before lunging back in to hit it from both sides. As the psychic laid into it with her flaming quarterstaff, Midna (who had ditched her musket in a portal) crescent moon slashed a plain longsword into the world and cleaved it into the Other, not doing particularly much damage with the mundane blade but still redrawing its focus with another taunt. This prompted it to turn to attack her specifically and rear up to deliver a headbutt, but having expected this she was entirely prepared to dodge away. While Midna had its attention, Hanabi had plenty of opportunity to attack its weaker rear, culminating in her igniting the beast with her strikes. [color=Aquamarine]”I love it when you do that!”[/color] Midna praised a little too excitedly, having prepared for this moment by pulling out her sun on a stick earlier when she was taking cover behind the shield. Now that the Other was burning, she ditched the longsword and instead grabbed the bat with all four hands, dodged another headbutt, and then slammed the (rather short because of how she was holding it) weapon’s spiky head into its side. It produced that satisfying critical hit sound as it did triple damage to the burning foe, a sound that resounded several more times as she went to town on the Other, and ending its life just in time before the Rummies caught up. Hanabi was already ready for them when they arrived, and swiftly intercepted the front stumbler while Minda caught her breath. Once she had it, the princess stored her sun on a stick, and then glanced up to see that her Vibrava had added all the flying Other to its already impressive kill count for this fight, and was heading back to join her. [color=Aquamarine]”Alright, let’s clean these up”[/color] she declared, referring to the five or so remaining Rummies. She ducked past one, and behind the one fighting Hanabi and then raised her shadow hand up in the air as the other three closed in. At her feet, a ring of orange power filled with shadow expanded across the ground, engulfing all of her foes seemingly harmlessly till she had them all inside of it, at which point she snapped the shadow hand’s fingers. Orange lighting lashed out from the dark energy zone, stunning the remaining others, and marking them for death as her Vibrava swooped in and with lighting fast speed delivered devastating crunches to each and every one, killing the softened up ones in and leaving the few that remained heavily damaged. Certainly damaged enough that Hanabi was able to dash in and finish them off before they, Midna, or her vibrava had recovered from receiving/delivering the devastating attack. [color=Aquamarine]”Good job thing”[/color] Midna praised her pokemon as it buzzed over and landed on her shoulder, before offering the helpful psychic some praise too for good measure [color=Aquamarine]”and you too Hanabi. A joy to see you in your element”[/color] because she really did love that element (namely fire). Now that all the foes were felled, she quickly retrieved her treespear from where it had been batted away too (as well as grabbing and crushing a few spirits with her shadow hand, most notably the Wither Sabbat’s) while Hanabi checked on the well-beings of the civilians they’d just bailed out of danger. [center][hider=For Midna]Items obtained: [b]Prometheus Torch Type 3[/b] [i]The improved version of the Prometheus Torch bo staff uses the highest quality oil. This increases the quality of the flame and its temperatures. It incinerates weaker enemies in one hit. By adjusting its internal mechanisms, this torch is about two-thirds as heavy as a normal one. The lightweight design is easy to carry and wield. This takes the burden off the wielder's arm saving energy[/i] [b]Power Cell[/b] [i]A cartridge loaded with electricity. Its built-in converters mean that it can be used to fully charge almost any device that runs on electric power[/i] [b]Orange Gel[/b] [i]A sweet medicinal jelly capable of providing 33% instant healing when eaten[/i][/hider][/center] [color=Aquamarine]”Oh hey wait, is this…?”[/color] Midna began to ask as she caught the item she’d just made, one that seemed nearly identical looking to Hanabi’s own weapon. She gave it a twirl, finding it surprisingly light. Lighter than Hanabi’s? It was hard to judge when she hadn’t held the other one, and hard to know if that was a good or bad thing (and thus whether the psychic would benefit from a trade) without trying it out. [color=Aquamarine]”Plenty more Other to test it out on”[/color] she said to herself, as she dropped the gel and power cell into a portal, and then strode forwards into the fray once more.