[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/200921/a0d9f0c951eb4c885b4ac93efc0f5799.png[/img][/center] [center][b]Lost Haven Rooftop[/b][/center] In the French Quarter, aliens patrolled the streets, looking for humans hiding in abandoned restaurants, coffee shops, and any other commercial building that wasn't already partially collapsing. A few poor souls were shackled by the ankles with what looked like shackles, if they had more neon lights and caused painful electric shock if you slowed down for even a moment. These people were executed on the spot. They seemed to be all converging towards a carrier that the local capes hadn't yet gotten to, just yet, presumably for offworld transport. Lo lowered a pair of binoculars she had procured from a sports shop, and said, [color=d9094b]"Battlefield Earth it is."[/color] She withdrew a pda from inside her leather jacket, and said, [color=d9094b]"Ground travel is not happening. Teals are taking men and women to what looks like a carrier."[/color] Little Lo chimed back, "The apartments to the west aren't clear either. Teals are moving in and checking every room, they're even killing the children. From what I can see with our remaining drones the rooftops are mostly clear, no sniper or scout equivalents. It's possible their culture finds such things dishonorable, or they're just committing slavery and genocide." [color=d9094b]"Looks like slavery and genocide from up here."[/color] Lo sighed, then, crawling over to the eastern side of the roof, lifted her binoculars again and looked across a banks wide open parking lot. If anyone were watching, it'd be a kill field... She heard a the door to the rooftop opening. [color=d9094b]"Mā de...give me a moment."[/color] She threw her binoculars strap over her shoulder and strapped her pda to her waist, rose, then stretched her arms and her fingers in a rolling motion; then turned around to look at who had come up. It was a a male Teal (as far as Lo could tell), holding what looked like a cross between a flail and a halberd. On one end, the flail, though this one was hollow, with some kind of red energy in the center holding separated metal pieces together. Its spikes glinted and suggested cruelty. On the other end, the halberd, which looked more like the removed talon bone of some celestial beast. He wore what looked like extremely durable purple metal armor, its near chrome like gleam reflecting off what little light there was coming from the stairwell entrance. There were exposed areas at his sides, likely more of a result of the cost of the armors metal than anything else, or possibly to allow more freedom of movement. The Teal screamed something that must have been a battle cry and charged forward. Lo dodged the first swing, which was a decapitating strike with the halberd end an inch from her nose, then sidestepped under the flail end and struck where she hoped a kidney would be. He didn't seem to have one, or didn't seem to react and instead threw its elbow back towards Lo's face. She was was prepared for something like this and moved back. If she wasn't sure of her enemies anatomy, there was only one certainty, poison and even this wasn't certain. But she wasn't going to risk getting struck at with that damned weapon twice. So, she ran towards the stairwell, alien in tow. ---- [center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/200924/11473930583c59542421158dfb4ae213.png[/img][/center] [center][h2][b]Lost Days #2[/b][/h2][/center] [center][b]Contested Region, Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, The Past[/b][/center] My hand held the grip, olive toned sweat beading on my forehead, and the blade called. "In all my aeons" came a voice in my head. "I have never met a mind as pliable as this." It drove it's way through my consciousness like a nail as it forced me, and I could feel it, the little tingles of nerves acting against me, to lift the blade from it's pedestal and casually slide my palm across the surface of the blade. As it parted my flesh, leaving a clean line red line from the bottom of my palm all the way up to the very tip of my middle finger, blood seemed to spread across the blade evenly. I stared at my palm. The pain, for the previous moment distant, began to assert itself. My legs grew weak, I fell to the floor, blood dripping from the wound in my hand to the floor in sporadic flicks as my hand trembled and closed in my panic. Minmeing was holding both blades, Murusamas black blade darker with my blood, staring at it with narrowing pupils and a slow clenched grin coming to her normally sweet features. She was muttering, "How pure this child is, to have never seen the sun." Over. And over again. I pushed myself up, leaving behind a bloody handprint and I tried, foolishly, to grip Marasuma by the pommel and the guard, to pull the accursed weapon from her. Another voice, lighter but no less hostile, no less overwhelming my mind, repeated words that seemed to enter my mind and slip through almost as quickly as I could understand what was said. Eventually those words coalesced into images, similar to the spots after a camera flash. I had shutter quick images of prosperity flash before me. A well tended garden. A festival. A wedding. I was present at each of these, my eyes somehow focusing on me, focusing on me in the now. When I managed to pull away, falling onto my back with Murusamas pommel gripped in my hand. Startled, I let go and it clattered to the floor. Mingmei was speaking, her jaw distending. "I am a vessel of death. I am the harbinger of the end. I call and the living answer." She approached me, raising the blade and in a voice just, so painfully close to her normal sacharine tone, "It will be quick, Lo." I rolled as she swung the blade straight down. The tip came in contact with Marasuma and there was a massive explosion of pure force, that sent Mingmei and me flying across the room and into a stone wall. I must have fell unconscious, because I awoke back in the barracks. --- Uncle was not happy and this made my guard equally unhappy. They shoved me towards The Gardens with no gentleness which, given the punishment they would receive for failing to see two young Petals reach the Eastern Wing was what could loosely be called a lashing with a meteor hammer, I forgave them. Of course, Uncle was as like to beat me for what I had done. I was just glad Mingmei had seemed to forget the whole event, which was likely the only reason she wasn't being dangled by her feet and repeatedly dunked into a well until she passed out. The Gardens is an interesting place. I've been told that it doesn't actually exist on Earth and instead exists...somewhere else. I could never get either my parents or my uncle to explain exactly where it was. But, from the two moons that rose at night in that place, and the fact it was often night when it was day on Earth, and the very different constellations, I would say another planet. My Uncle sat, cross legged, in front of a small pond. He swirled a bamboo stick in the water and through skill alone, made two koi fish dance. I was set beside him, facing the same direction he was. He started with, "It seems simply explaining to you that room is full of abhorrent weaponry that even our most seasoned swordsingers are hesitant to wield was not enough." There was a long pause, as we both contemplated how hard exactly he was going to kick my ass. Then he said, "I'm going to kill Mingmei." My heart fell into my chest. I turned my head by micro rotations, afraid of looking at my Uncles face to see the reality of his arched features, his thin smile, cut in half by a hawk nose, all focused on murderous intent. There was nothing scarier. Of course, he was looking back at my with far more lighthearted grin which was only somewhat less terrifying because I couldn't be sure it was or was not the facsimile of a smile. "I'm not really going to kill her." he said. My spirits lifted for but a moment before he said, "But I will, if this willful behavior keeps going along. You'd do well to remember that." I gave a weak tilt of my head and a strained, [color=d9094b]"Yes, Uncle."[/color] Then, he gestured back towards the hall, which stood in the field as out of place as the world around it, "Now go." ---- [center][b]Lost Haven Rooftop, Present Day[/b][/center] [color=d9094b]"Little Lo, are you there?"[/color] "Oh, sorry. I was busy remembering something." [color=d9094b]"Remember later, I need help!"[/color] "Where are you? Last I saw of you, you were on the fifth floor and I think that creature had just thrown an entire sofa at you." [color=d9094b]"Yes, he is surprisingly strong, no need to remind me."[/color] I scanned the building from an adjacent buildings rooftop, which I clung to on my eight metallic legs. Turning on my thermals, I located Lo, who just happened to be making her way down a fire escape, very, very slowly. Just above her, looking out from a apartment window, was the Teal, who looked at the fire escape and noticing the sound of slightly moving metal, looked down, saw Lo, and immediately leapt out. His weight shook the stairwell, causing Lo to lose her balance for a moment, but she quickly caught herself, jumped into a nearby window, and disappeared inside. The alien followed not long after. I commed in, "Lost you again." I started to move down the building I was clinging to, rapidly maneuvering myself down smooth glass windows onto street floor. [color=d9094b]"No worries, I love near death experiences and being hounded by Nemesis, it's fine! Can you make your way to the eastern emergency exit? Just kind of, wait above the exit sign."[/color] "Sure. What's your plan?" She gave a perfect impression of Orwell, [color=d9094b]"Why the same thing we do every night Pinky. Try not to fucking die."[/color] --- [center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/200921/a0d9f0c951eb4c885b4ac93efc0f5799.png[/img][/center] [center][b]Apartment Complex[/b][/center] Which was easier said than done. Sometime during the commotion, four more Teals had found their way into the very hallway she needed to cross to reach the exit. Each were holding what looked like stun batons, the universal language of we're taking you alive. When the first one swung, she swerved to the side, grabbed his wrist with one arm then placed her forearm towards the shoulder and dropped her entire weight down. His arm brought straight along her right knee, she rose and then flipped her left leg over his arm and struck him in the head, which left his arm straddled between her thighs. Curling her right leg as a grip on his arm and pushed on his back with her right arm and brought him to the ground. With his wrist in her grip she pulled back, hard, breaking it, then grabbed the baton and swung it wildly first the next opponent. The Teal moved back from the swing and she pulled back and jabbed under his guard into his stomach, which caused the baton to pulse and send the alien flying back with extreme concussive force for what seemed like the entire length of the hallway. [color=d9094b][i]I might need to re-evaluate non-lethal.[/i][/color] She let go of her held alien then casually smacked him in the back of the head, which caused his head to audibly crack from the impact on the ground, blood pooling where he lay. The next two were more hesitant, standing side by side. They were looking behind Lo expectantly. She said, [color=d9094b]"What, is this the part where I'm supposed to turn around?"[/color] She smacked her baton into a nearby apartment door, sending it flying off its hinges, and ran inside. --- [center][b]Just Above A Emergency Exit[/b][/center] I was just preparing a needle to fire when Lo, came into comms, [color=d9094b]"Little Lo, right side of building, three windows down, prepare to fire."[/color] I moved, skittering like a bolt towards the side of the building where I instantly saw Lo go flying through a window, shards of glass raining around her. The big hulking alien earlier came following soon after. I aimed, I fired. A small, thin, glint of metal, came flying from my carapace, a barely noticeable blip in the air and connected into the large aliens head. At first like it seemed it did nothing and Lo had to quickly rise and take a direct hit from the center of the weapon, a staff blow, which lifted her into the air. The alien let her drop at his feet, kicked her over, and scoffed. It said something, a prayer, an insult, I'm not sure which, but after it did this, it lifted its brutal weapon for a killing blow. But it stopped, too weak to continue holding its weapon or from the looks of it, support the weight of the armor it was wearing, which seemed to bring it down. The two aliens she hadn't managed to beat unconscious or to death, came outside tentatively. I shot them both as well. --- Lo could hear metallic clicking through the pain that seemed to rack her whole body. She muttered, [color=d9094b]"Don't probe me, I'm still a virgin..."[/color] Little Lo, said, "Yeah and I'm still upset about that. How can you be that perverse and still..." [color=d9094b]"Shut up."[/color]