[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/5r7OTIh.png[/img]
[b][color=Aquamarine]wordcount:[/color][/b] 1,438 (3+) (+6) (+6)
[b][color=Aquamarine]Midna: level 9[/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aquamarine]/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]/////////////////////////////// (69/100)
[b][color=Aquamarine]Location:[/color][/b] Arahabaki 
[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
[/hider]
[/center]

[color=Aquamarine]”We met Armstrong of all people, and he’d just assassinated president Shinra”[/color] Midna informed the team once they’d all regrouped, and were filling each other in on what had gone down apart, holding up the spirit of the old man [color=Aquamarine]”So the city’s lost its head as well as most of its armies now”[/color] which was a pretty dire state of affairs.

She could only hope that their sources were right, and that the robots were going to be coming straight for the heart where they were rather than spreading out to sack the city in general. If they did, well, Armstrong would be getting his wish. It would be a slaughter of unimaginable proportions. Hopefully her crushing of the president’s spirit after filling people in on his fate didn’t end up being predictive symbolism in any way.

[hider=for Minda]
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/NExEwrt.png]Shinra's Golden Gun[/url][/b]
[i]A very expensive-looking pistol with a black grip embossed by the logo of the Shinra Electric Power Company, and engraved golden body. It's only a golden veneer though, otherwise the weapon would be unusable. It's a small sidearm that fires 9mm rounds, just enough to kill the average person, but otherwise lacking stopping power. It has never seen expert maintenance, but then again, it's probably never been fired[/i]
[/hider]

They set off as soon as everyone was filled in and fighting fit again, as there was no time to waste, particularly because of the prediction that there’d be at least one Consul standing in their way to slow them down. Not to mention the master hand, assuming he showed up right before this Guardian as well, which Midna brought up as a possibility [color=Aquamarine]”Last time it more or less introduced a natural hazard, one that almost froze us all to death, but it seemed like showing up and interfering was a thing it had done before, and we should probably expect it to either meddle in some way, or be a sign that something really nasty is already up ahead”[/color]

After they descended deeper, bypassing what was meant to be an impassable door thanks to Karen’s help, both predictions of opposition unfortunately came to light at the same time.

At least the hand seemed to be polite enough to wait where it was initially, while the Consul sprung his trap all around them, the strange pods snapping open and revealing humanoid figures.

[color=Aquamarine]”Your first mistake was sending pawns to capture a princess”[/color] Minda shouted at the Consul even as she reacted to the pods opening by slamming her bo staff (already pre-filled with lightning) into the occupant before they could even finish rising. Electricity flared, wrecking the machine who’s own dying surge added to her own, and then the clone was down before it could even act.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for many of the rest who, as Midna stepped back from the one she had prevented from entering the fight, began to summon reinforcements of their own, namely hazy red shapes. Presumably these were similar to the ones they’d seen Nuron use before, though them being red rather than blue was initially a bit concerning.

[color=Aquamarine]”Don’t like the looks of whatever those are, but at least my skin isn’t crawling in their presence”[/color] she observed however, which meant she probably wasn’t being redshifted, which was something. 

Most of the shapes floated by their summoners, but others shifted under them to act like steeds, while yet more seeming to engulf them like armor. One of the latter proceeded to use strength granted by her legion armor to rip the pod she’d just emerged from the wall to hurl at the princess, at which was as good a signal as any for the carnage to begin.

Princess grabbed the improvised projectile out of the air and smashed it down infront of her as a shield to block an incoming blur, only for whatever that was to cleave right through the pod. She stabbed her staff half blind towards it through the gap it had made, and yet her weapon went right through the legion like it was a ghost. 

[color=Aquamarine]”What the? That’s not fair!”[/color] She barked in confusion as she stepped back, before shifting gears to the targets she could hit, raised the shotgun she had in her other pair of arms, and attempted to blast one of the unarmored clones. Yet when she did this, another shape swooped into the way, this one surrounded by a shimmering barrier that absorbed the shot.

Worse still, the foe that had sliced through the pod took this time to circle round her swiftly, wrapping some kind of invisible chain round Midna’s feet, trapping her in place. Then it promptly sliced at her, cutting a gash in her back.

Seeing a sitting duck, another clone came riding in on the back of a legion, looking mostly like she was floating air, forcing Midna back on the defense again. She blocked the clone’s x-batton swing with her staff, only for whatever her foe was riding to claw the shotgun out of her hands before she could use it. In response, Minda crescent moon slashed her Sharpened Volcano Fragment into reality, the obsidian fire ax sweeping through steed striking rider instead, and engulfing her in flames.

The clone bailed off of the side of her steed and onto the ground where she tried to roll around to try and put the fire out, but Midna caught her with a staff strike before she could recover, lightning slamming down into the lightly armored figure along with the strike. Then she kicked her shotgun to portal it home, as she started summoning strikers. The first were her chillfos, that finished the job on the downed clone, skewering her with their frozen and ending her life, which caused the shape that had been about to pounce on Minda to shrivel up into a much smaller and seemingly inert state. 

Roadblock came out next, taunting the legion that had chained and slashed her, causing it to wail on its shield instead of trying to strike down Midna. Then she summoned up her initiates who began trading fire with clones using long ranged legions to try and pick off Roadblock from behind.

Finally skywave fired a pulse of energy that healed Midna, and then struck a pair of advancing clones, blinding them and preventing their advance. All of this gave Midna the moment she needed to reach forwards, grab the spirit of the dispatched clone, and press it into her chest.

[hider=For Midna]Spirit absorbed:
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/WXZ377A.jpg]Clone of Akira Howard[/url][/b]
The host is a bit more average in all aspects, including height, looks, and build. Her skin (which has lost its artificial feel) is now almost completely flesh-tinted, tan in color, and her hair is both shorter and a less vivid, more brownish red, akin to maroon. Her tail is now completely gone. Her garb has been unified somewhat into a mostly futurustic, slightly fantastical suit of light SWAT armor, mostly black and red with a little bronze. Even her Fused Shadow is sleeker and more modern looking. Her personality is less strong. This spirit confers the Power [b]Mass-produced Legionis[/b], which allows her to use a legatus to summon a bound Beast Legion from its core, connected to her by an astral chain. She can also now see chimeric entities clearly. The Beast Legion is an agile close-range fighter and can be ridden or used to track scents. It cannot be seen or attacked by most enemies. The astral chain can be used to send it out, pull it back, pull the host over to the legion, or bind enemies by encircling them. The Legion can also be modified with spirits. This spirit also confers the Weakness [b]Born for One Thing Only[/b], immediately disabling all of the host's Strikers and spitting out their spirits[/hider]

The split second plan she’d made worked perfectly, as the princess’s sight suddenly filled with a second set of combatants, specifically 5 different kinds of red hued beings that seemed to be chimaras wrapped in armor with ‘neuron’ and ‘police’ branding stenciled on them. Unfortunately the side effect this new boon came with was greater than usual, as all of her strikers suddenly dematerialised before their time as a result of their spirits spilled from her body and onto the floor.

[color=Aquamarine]”Goddesses, stop taking things from me!”[/color] she complained, but there wasn’t much time to mourn the loss of power, as the legion that had been distracted by the now gone forever Roadblock now came for her instead.

[color=Aquamarine]”Please work”[/color] she prayed as she raised her bo staff, blocking the strike of the sword legion, and then swiping the fire ax under her guard to clip its leg, this time connecting. The legion burned, backing away in confusion that it was now targetable, at which point a grinning behind her mask Midna commanded [color=Aquamarine]”Sick him!”[/color] as a follow up to attack

Her wolfos burst into reality, only to look very confused, unsure of what target it should be attacking, for it was still blind to what she could see. What was not blind was the beast legion of the clone she had slain to gain the sight, which emerged from its core at her command and pounced on the sword legion right before it could move to strike the confused wolfos.

[color=Aquamarine]”What? Yes! Now it's an even fight”[/color] Midna cheered before promptly smashed a shadow fist into the sword legion, sending it careening across the room to crash into one of the pods. Unfortunately, she was very wrong about the fight now being even, as that demonstration of her new found ability to fight back against legions promptly put a massive target on her back, half a dozen sets of eyes turning to focus on her specifically.

[color=Aquamarine]”Alright then, come on then pawns”[/color] she taunted as she tossed her ax into a portal, one that conveniently ate up her dropped strikers (which she could always use for something esle after all), and then launching Erendira‘s Gun-lance into one of her free hands as she used the other to grasp and mount her wolfos [color=Aquamarine]”come fight fight me on an even playing field!”[/color]

Seval obliged, chagrin forwards with x-battons raised and various legions at their command, to which Midna responded by counter charging, guiding her wolfos with her hand while her new beast legion raced alongside her.