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[img]https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/480159680509771777/726573157556813864/unknown.png[/img]

[sub]Direct Interaction - [@Lugubrious] - [@CriticalHit]

Also shoots a bit at - [@BCtheEntity][/sub]
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[color=Silver]	She watched cautiously, with all of the discipline as an automated sentry gun, and snapped her sights two and from. The situation was too recognisable. Yet the years of her memory fizzling to vapour had left her confused. One of them was [i]one of them[/i], yet it was hard to pick up on which one. Others turned up to the scene, with their noses far up the situation's arsecrack. Whipping her gaze to the first one who talked back, she eyed them. A guy - oh she hadn't seen one of those in a long while - with golden blonde hair. It was too bright. She didn't like it. It wasn't necessarily bad but-

	No, she had to focus. Her hunger deprived her of that initiative. The eyes laid on her, and she trailed the barrel of her pistol on their bodies. Some looked shocked, others rather fearful or just surprised. Her entrance was something of a nonchalant gatecrash, jumping in with excessive instability to someone else's journey. Their visit had thrown a spanner in the works, changing the norm of what the world was used to. It could persist. She wouldn't let it. Instead, she riled herself to the man shouting at her. He didn't seem to know anything. Useless, of course. How could he? But why wouldn't he? He was here, wasn't he? All those questions left unanswered. Hounds, shadows more likely. The ones that prowl the streets and hunt down in vicious pairs or packs. They were some of the worst shadows she knew of, at least in terms of their widespread population. Then the guy demanded that she told them stuff. At first, she considered it, but the tension of the situation left her unable to. She needed to maintain the power over the group. One of them was a shadow. She could sense it. But her scrambled thoughts and starving inside had left her judgement inaccurate. If she were to so slip up poorly, then she'd be one less potential ally down and with a lurking predator still amongst them. None of that could happen. For once, she had to maintain control, just to show [i][b]HIM[/b][/i] that she was capable of doing it. Never again would she face that doubt.[/color]

[color=FF5400][b]"N-no. No, no no no no. You listen. Stop fidgeting and keep still. I need...I need to figure this out. One of them. It's you. Or you."[/b][/color] [color=silver]She flicked her sights between the two white-haired girls. Instincts began to clear themselves up, removing the opaque veil obstructing her judgement. One of them. Without knowing the original, she could not discern them from one another. Something so vile and vapid about their aura would've given it away, but the eccentric behaviour of one could've been as true to her heart as the other. These were...purposes. Oh yes. A lack of purpose. One had it and one hid it. That was it. Her mind raced around in circles, trying to piece together the mystery that lay before her in a diamond crust.[/color] [color=FF5400][b]"Now...b-both of you. Sidestep away."[/b][/color]

[color=Silver]	The dressed one insulted her, nicknaming her the vile creature, and flared her with a terrible reputation. For once, she felt obliged to speak back, directing her gun towards the creature. They conversed more, the twins, and talked only of their control, their help for one another. One had the other by a leash. It was gut-wrenching to witness such a loss of control. The memories and the melancholy, all of it was a hideous recount of what had once torn her own life apart. A catalyst for the end days and the removal of freedoms as the world knew it.[/color]

[color=FF5400][b]"Call me that again, whore, and I'll-[/b][/color]

[color=gold][b]"Behold our supremacy. Peons; take her!"[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Tunnel-visioned by her own fixation on control, she barely noticed the eleven figures move into the picture, striding towards her with vicious intent. Tridents fixated their points towards her. The black ones were the first to move, shunning their violent doings toward her. She began to step back, flashing a gaze and the awe-struck, blander twin. The victim had been sighted. The controlling shadow had her around her little finger. She was nothing more than a pawn sat beside, watching. Even if she tried to protest, her words fell on the deaf ears of a soulless creature, one that smiled at the thought of the Raven's flesh being torn. The white servants began to arc around her. Soon, she would be trapped. All she had to do was play it smart. They were shadows. She'd fought countless numbers. Perhaps this would be no different.[/color]

[color=FF5400][b]"Don't just stand there, start fucking booking it!"[/b][/color] [color=Silver]With her blade and gun at the ready, she aimed the grapple to the roof she'd descended from. At the right moment, she launched herself to the sky, twirling in an elegant yet finesse manner. Like hell she'd let herself die to someone else's mishaps. They weren't her goal. If she were to die, it would be by [i][b]hIs[/b][/i] rage than anyone else's.

	Airborne, she pointed her firearm toward the ground and pulled the trigger. Nothing. Fuck, she forgot to put the magazine back into it. As she clambered onto a window ledge, she looked down to see the shadows physically crawling up its face, doing their greatest effort to reach for her. The black ones did most of the work, rushing her at full force. No time to waste. She drew a magazine from her seemingly bottomless storage and slid it into the chamber. A quick clip of the slider and it was all together. Beneath her cowl, she grinned to herself. The best part of being a lost soul was the carnage that she could inhabit. It was a disturbing feeling for the fleeting essence of a young girl years before, but she was different now. Even Igor had said it himself. She was not the weak one.

	A trident thrusted skyward. Two of its three forks narrowly missed the face of her mask, instead slotting either side of the beak and locking her to its grasp. From within her disguise, she glared wildly at their precision. Trapped in its grasp, the aggressor swung the trident rearwards, throwing her off the building. She had been tossed through the air, gliding between the buildings, before landing painfully against the lower rooftop of the neighbouring streetside. The mask was ripped from her face, crashing down to the ground. It dented itself as it hit the cold marble surface, just metres from Kirsty. And just as she did so, the Raven opened her eyes to a disgusting beast emerging from the shadowy light of the beautiful damsel.

	Against the edge of the roof, she tried as hard as she could to get to her feet, only for one of the more engaged whiter shadows meeting her landing point. With its trident raised high into the sky, it prepared to thrust it into her head. And yet, with a rather strange dexterity, the Raven raised her firearm quicker, unloading a full spray into its body. It didn't kill it but it sure as hell knocked it far back enough to leap down to the street level. Her balance was off and the fall crumbled her back onto her knees. They moved like dogs, hunting with coordination vastly missed from her years of scouting out the fogged world. And in that moment, she saw the shadow unveil its true form. It was terrifying. Ungodly. A mismatched show of distortion and fear. Muscle and tissue seemed independent of true evolution. A true shadow. A figure of fear. The lack of purpose within the white haired girl, all stood before them.

	Rampaged by its sight, she rushed to her feet and began to run towards the White haired girl, who stood with her eyes meeting the beasts. It stared down at her, pitiful of her very existence and denial of who she had encountered. First, there was the group she came with. They were baggage, a means of getting in the way, as the Raven thought, and so she drew out her pistol and fired at the ground, just before the others. Her shots missed, but by the grace of her own aggressiveness she hoped to just [i]scare[/i] them away. Whatever, or whoever, they were, she wasn't going to let them walk in the face of danger unarmed. After that, she lunged forward at the white haired girl, taking her by the shoulder and arm and running directly to the side of the street. Whatever little lamposts or podiums that were nearby, she threw her behind, stumbling beside her as she did so.[/color]

[color=FF5400][b]"Okay...okay...oh fuck."[/b][/color] [color=Silver]She breathed, reloading her pistol. She hadn't quite clocked onto the fact that her mask was missing, and on display was the [url=https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/480159680509771777/721898017934016582/fcb5e009f3da24476b1e27a27ca0fba0.png?width=468&height=665]sight she'd been hiding[/url] from human eyes for years to pass. She looked at the white-haired girl and frowned.[/color] [color=FF5400][b]"Bloody hell...uhm...stay put. I'll try to sort this one out."[/b][/color]

[b]"W-Wait, hold on!"[/b][color=Silver] Kirsty stammered, her voice little different from a strangled yelp, but piping up none the less.[/color] [b]"You saved me? You're here to help?"[/b] [color=Silver]She looked out at the chilling visage floating above the street.[/color] [b]"A-are you going to...to fight her?"[/b]

[color=FF5400][b]"Yes I'm going to fight her-...you-...which is her."[/b][/color] [color=Silver]With adrenaline surging through her body, she twitched like an unhinged door in the wind. She saw two of the service shadows moving towards their direction, tridents armed and ready. They didn't rush as fast as usual, with conflicting circumstances caused by Kirsty's presence hindering their charge.[/color] [color=FF5400][b]"Uhm...yes. Try not to get fucking m-murdered."[/b][/color]

[color=Silver]	For a moment Kirsty hesitated. Armed or not, the thin, cagey-looking girl before her -only a little older than herself, if she even was- stood barely any chance against even the ranks of trident-wielders before her, let alone the false idol. She wanted to tell her that this fight was suicide, that they should all run, but maybe the girl knew that wasn't an option. Plus, Kirsty couldn't deny a strange sense of responsibility. That thing, that...angelic monstrosity that her double became...it terrified her, but maybe even more than she feared it, she hated it. It stood as a bracing and incredibly on-the-nose culmination of all the worst parts of her. She couldn't forget about the other Kirsty's condemnation while it floated there, incarnate. It needed to go. And if it was a hopeless fight, Kirsty ought to die alongside this poor girl risking her life for her.[/color]

[b]"I'll help,"[/b] [color=Silver]she said, her voice remarkably resolute for how much her heart was pounding.[/color] [b]"Even if I ran, I can't live with that. Knowing its out here. It'd haunt me."[/b] [color=Silver]She balled her fists, watching the shadows.[/color]

[color=Silver]	With their time fleeting as the servants marched closer. The Raven had to make a snap decision. She couldn't just leave her defenceless, even if she ended up sitting aside whilst she did all the work. Either way, she'd find herself occupied and unable to help her that much beyond her own focus on the shadow. So, she drew her coupe-coupe blade and forcefully placed it in her hand.[/color]

[color=FF5400][b]"Don't hurt yourself with it. And don't attack the big one."[/b][/color] [color=Silver]As soon as she was sure Kirsty had it in her hand, she ran out of cover, diverting the attention of the shadows toward her. Now the real fight was on.

	It started with her switching the fire rate to semi-automatic on the handgun, clocking in a few rounds on the one she'd previously injured before. Spectacularly, and rather to her own surprise, the shadow was gibbed violently, reduced to nothing but smoke and ash in its death. One down. Ten and a big one left to go. If only it would be as easy as counting them on her fingers. With the flick of her wrist, she shot the grapple out forward, latching it onto the base of another lamppost. She lay on her back and allowed it to drag her in a quick slide, firing another few rounds off into a second target that lunged for her. Now within the centre of the road, she seemingly changed her entire fragility to one of prowess and unpredictability. Her eyes lit up, shining a lighthouse's beacon straight forward. Her voice rumbled and echoed as she called out the words that forever defined her graceful self.[/color]

[centre][color=FF5400][h3][b]"Tomapoe!"[/b][/h3][/color][/centre]

[color=Silver]	In a burst of light, looming over her shoulder, the great and more [url=https://www.worldanvil.com/media/cache/skyscraper/uploads/images/9c0ab402a60e8068c405754c920c3923.jpg]humanoid beast[/url] manifested into the sky with a defiant dance. From its back spread the wings of a ravenous, voracious avian, tipped with the voidlike darkness of its blackened feathers. Its stomach seemed ill-defined, malnourished beneath a plate of darksteel armour. It let out a screech from its pale lips before arching is back, casting an angled shadow over the woman herself. She exhaled, settling her gaze upon the great shadow and the minions that surrounded her. Alone, she would be exhausted at the very least, if she beat them. If by chance Kirsty or any of the other useless ones did something, then only god knew what would happen. These were vile creatures, violent and extreme to all measures. It took desperate defences to do what they could. And now, face to face with the street of someone else's beginning, she let out a call. Extending her hand forward, the persona behind her did the same. And from its fingertips, it began to grow a dark and brooding crimson red.[/color]

[color=FF5400][b]"Decay away, you pieces of shits!"[/b][/color] [color=Silver]A powerful gas, infused with a beam of blood-red tones, spewed from the persona's hands, splitting into three separate strands. The first hit the shadow of Kirsty, doing only as much as a temporary graze, whilst the other two swarmed two of the minions. They were engulfed by a raging swarm of the cursed element, dissolving their bodies without any ethical consideration. As the beam finished, she let out an uneasy respiratory temperance. This was it. She felt the fatigue from the single attack, knowing full well that this was a battle to do or die for. And with that in mind, and with her blade in Kirsty's hand, she let out a wicked smile as her hunger grew. This was a power she yearned for, the power she needed to kill the one who took it all from her.[/color]