13org

The Vanishing Kingdom

^@Jollan

Maeve listened with an alarmed expression, no wonder why Allard was in such a rage. Even though Allard was terribly wounded, he was still in panic due to not knowing where his daughter was.

"Calm down, Allard. You're already wounded, don't overexert yourself. Hildebrand knows how to take care of herself, it would be hard for them to capture her, wouldn't it? You taught her yourself, didn't you?" Maeve said as she tried to calm down the large man.

Truth be told, even though Maeve didn't know Allard's daughter, she seemed to be quite capable herself just by the way Maeve saw her moving herself while wearing her armor. Before she could say anything more though, she perceived, albeit a tad bit too late, that a few of the bandits were approaching them, sneakily going for Allard first as they tried to finish the wounded before fighting against Maeve herself. Much to her surprise (and at that point she was already asking herself if Allard was really human...), Allard, despite his wounded and weakened state, had enough strength to grab the head of one of the bandits and smash it full force on the stonework of the square, instantly crushing it's skull and killing him.

"It's impolite to interrupt someone while they are talking, didn't you know...?" Maeve said as she turned to the bandits with a scornful expression.

Calmly walking towards them with her rapier in her hand. After looking to each other, the remaining bandits smirked to themselves. For them, Maeve was just a noble lady that had too much of an attitude, even though she made a few flashy moves before, they would be able to take care of her easier than Allard, after all, the giant still had enough strength to kill one of the other members with his bare hand.

The second one of them approached her though, arcing his sword in an overhead strike, the second he went for the strike, he had just enough time to see his own hand, still grasping the sword, to fall on the ground as he felt the cold sting of Maeve's blade.

"So crude and unrefined... It seems I was expecting a bit too much from you all..." Maeve said, as she gave a step forward. Her rapier cut the air in an horizontal line, her movements were weightless and graceful, almost as she was dancing as she stopped beside the bandit in an elegant, dignified posture with her blade still extended in the position she cut the man. The unfortunate bandit didn't even have time to react as her blade slit his throat, leaving a thin, blade like ice trail behind her rapier. From his slit throat though, no blood came out, instead, his wound was completely frozen as he fell on the ground, gasping for his life, opening his mouth in a mute scream.

"If you don't have the talent to fight, at least have the decency to die." she said, looking to both of the other bandits.

Rushing towards her at the same time, the last bandit wielding a sword was dealt with swiftly, with a single lunge of her blade, piecing through the bandit's heart, striking him before he could even swing his blade. The bandit felt a terrible cold, coming from inside his chest. The beautiful blade wielded by the Isoli girl was much crueler than he could have imagined. There was no bleeding from the small puncturing wound on his chest, just cold. A terrible freezing sensation coming deep within his chest.

"An axe... So you think you can overpower me with raw strength? It will definitely be fun to watch you try... Amuse-me." she said, with a cold tone as she looked to the last bandit's confident expression as he held his axe.

Instead of killing him in one blow though, Maeve was clearly playing with him as she effortlessly dodged every attack the bandit gave, laughing as she replied with a single attack of her own, avoiding both vital spots and making too deep of a cut in order to keep the bandit alive. From each cut, the man would feel his flesh, blood and skin being frozen solid. With every movement, he would feel the pain of thousands of ice needles piercing his flesh and the pain of his frozen wounds cracking and breaking with his sudden movements.

After what seemed to be an eternity for the bandit, he fell on his knees. His body didn't have the strength to continue anymore. A multitude of wounds covered the man's body, ones completely frozen while the others had a terrible blue color from Maeve's cold blade.

"Disappointing." she said, as she slit his throat with a flick of her wrist. The moment his blood began gushing out of his throat though, Maeve gave a small jump away as she snapped her fingers, making it freeze in midair, creating a terrifying, but at the same time, beautiful scene. The bandit's frozen blood, reflecting the light from the burning buildings behind them gave the crimson ice coming out of his throat a particularly beautiful shine.

"My dress!" she exclaimed, looking towards her own dress to confirm it wasn't stained with the bandit's blood.

"Unpleasant, even in death..." Maeve said, turning towards Allard again as she sheathed her rapier.

"Come, let's go to the inn. Let me do something about your wounds. Honestly... I am surprised on how you're still alive..." Maeve said, as she tried to do her best to help Allard to walk, despite his weight exceeding her own a number of times.

Avalia

Time: Late morning
Location: Edena.
Interactions: Darius @FunnyGuy

The moment Zorrah said what Myra wanted to hear, indicating she did understand her request for meat, Myra gave a small happy jump, with a smile on her face. She was happy that the woman not only understood what she had said but didn't seem to have any problems with her request as well. Her eyes were almost shining as she discreetly licked her lips. She was indeed looking forward to the meat that it would be given to her. Plus, Zorrah's comment of not adding any vegetables made Myra even happier, she did remember the few times Darius tried to make her eat vegetables saying that they were good for her health. Sticking her tongue out with a disgusted expression when Zorrah mentioned the vegetables Myra nodded happily as she said she wouldn't put them on her meat.

Apparently, It wasn't that hard to buy Myra's trust. One just needed food... Well... A good amount of food and to treat her right.

With the matter of food having been dealt with, Kol continued his tour through Edena with both Darius and Myra. This time, they were heading to where both Darius and Myra would stay and sleep. Having never seen a proper 'room' before, Myra didn't know what to think nor she had any specific expectations, instead being simply curious about it. When they arrived there though, Darius' words sounded as surprised as Myra was at that moment...

She wasn't expecting something that big. Honestly, it not only had enough space for her to lay down on the ground with her tail fully extended and sleep however she wanted, but it actually had more space than Myra knew what to do with. Upon giving the first step inside the room, the carpet on the ground immediately drew her attention as she stepped on it. It's texture was strange, but not in a bad way. It was kind of fluffy and it tickled her feet as she walked on it. Raising her feet and then putting them down slowly, Myra examined the carpet, interested on it's strange texture.

The next victim of Myra's curiosity though was the bed. After finally getting over the initial shock that feeling the carpet on her feet gave her, she slowly moved towards the bed. At first, she got close, simply touching it. Upon realizing that it was not only incredibly soft but the fur thing on top of it also had a strange, incredibly comfortable texture she stood up, raising her arms and letting herself fall belly first on the bed, grabbing the fur thing with her hands, bringing it close to her body and covering her entire body with it as she curled herself inside the small 'cocoon' she had just made. Leaving only her face out of it, she looked at Darius, incredibly satisfied with the bed.

Blood's Jewels (High Casual Fantasy Revolution)

In the ruined town of Sharon, Shalador

"I see..." Mikhail replied, nodding as he heard both Xandar and Bellinar's words, considering what they said to him.

Not only their words made a lot of sense, but Mikhail knew very well that both Xandar and the Eyrien brothers knew how to take care of themselves and undoubtedly were able to protect Faeril. In the other hand, Jandar would already have his hands full by acting as a noble, so it would be a good idea to have someone else that could protect them. Knowing Mikhail's skills, there was no one better to keep an eye on them without attracting attention than him since they couldn't just take Xandar or others with them as they would attract a lot of attention.

"I'm counting on you." Mikhail said towards Xandar and the Eyrien brothers with a nod, trusting him with the task of protecting Faeril, before he walked towards Jandar, Fatima and Dareen. When he arrived, their conversation was already finished and Jandar himself was apparently getting back after using a sight shield to take a quick bath and changing his clothes.

The moment he got closer to them though, he saw Fatima going to where Faeril was, before clinging on to Xandar with a rather strange, fearful expression in her face. Despite Fatima's strange reaction, Mikhail continued to where Jandar and Dareen where in order to know their plans.

"It has been decided that I will accompany you to the town. There is no need to be concerned about my presence or even for a possible role for me, as my presence will not be noticed." Mikhail said, approaching Jandar and Dareen.

"I just need to know if the initial plans changed, so I can act accordingly." Mikhail finished, looking to both of them.

Mikhail did hear a bit and knew what they had roughly decided before he went to talk with the Eyrien brothers, but he didn't know if anything had changed from the previous plan where Jandar would act as a wealthy merchant.

UNFAIR MONSTERS [Spots Open]

Nori Hirai

The second the strange girl mentioned that they couldn't go walking around in their 'transformed' forms, Nori let out a smirk as he looked at his clothes.

"Oh, this? No, this is just my kimono." he said with a chuckle and a smile.

The rest of what the strange girl had said though was indeed a valuable information. The same rules that were applied to the monsters, were applied to them too due to their powers. The part about possible permanent damage to their own reality was definitely something Nori would want to avoid...

"I'm glad that you liked the idea! It's never a bad thing to just stop for a while and relax." Nori said with a kind smile, glad that not only the strange girl, but a few other members also seemed to like the idea.

---

After arriving on the Heaven's Rest, the group began asking for their orders and sitting down to relax or talk. Nori had heard about the place, but it was the first time he had entered it. It had quite a cozy and comfortable atmosphere giving the sensation almost of an old fashioned home. Overall, the type of place Nori wouldn't mind to spend some time relaxing.

As he gave a few steps towards the counter though, he watched the homeless girl, who was the 'other me' that the detective girl had told them about back when they had finished fighting the monster, looking at the display and the sweets within, nervously glancing around.

Luckily for her, the chains guy stopped in the middle of his order, saying that she could ask him what she wanted from the display.

"Don't worry too much about it. Just feel free to ask what you want. It's our treat." Nori said, approaching both of them and giving a friendly wink towards the girl, encouraging her before nodding towards the guy.

When the strange girl asked for a sweet too, Nori couldn't help but to chuckle at her honesty and straightforwardness. Even though she had asked quite an expensive dessert, it was clear that she was quite mesmerized by it as she looked at the cheese cake with sparkling eyes.

"You do have quite an expensive taste, don't you?" Nori said, teasing the strange girl with a thoughtful expression, while giving a discreet wink to the guy near them. He was already going to buy one for the homeless girl, so Nori could get one to the strange girl. Otherwise his generosity would end up being quite expensive for him.

"But... It is a 'special' occasion, isn't it? As long as you are willing to share it with me, I can buy it for you." Nori said, smiling before he went to the counter and asked the very cake the girl had asked for.

"I'm Nori Hirai by the way. Feel free to call me just Nori." He said, looking to the group as he finished paying for his order.

UNFAIR MONSTERS [Spots Open]

Will have a post done tomorrow!! :-)

NEOTOKYO: State of Disarray [Open]

---

Nina knew how... unusual her circumstances were, not only having entered Japan without a passport or anything, but also making quite a ruckus in the town's black market. Despite her background, they were still incredibly strict, going as far as trying to trace whom she had dealt with when buying things in the black market. She had to be quite careful regarding what she said on the interrogation, especially since she had still 'contacts' on Neo-Tokyo's black market. Sure, they weren't exactly people whom one would trust with a secret or promise, but they respected and trusted money above all else. Ironically enough, their greed was something she could definitely trust. Since she highly doubted the NSF would willingly give her some of the advanced cybernetic components and raw materials she would ask, it was good to at least have another 'source' for those. Still, Nina was lucky that everything went perfectly well, especially since if something went wrong, being thrown into a cell was the least of her concerns.

Nina was expecting the NSF to be so lax to let her just wander around the base whenever and wherever she wanted, especially after how strict the interrogation was. But there was no sign of guards outside her room, no devices to keep track of her or even locked doors when she arrived there. While that surprised her, it was somewhat understandable. After such a strict interrogation, they probably could trust Nina enough to let her go wherever she wanted inside the base. It was also fairly comfortable, more than what Nina was expecting. A big bed, television and enough space for her to keep her things and even a table she could probably use as a workbench after some modification. They were also kind enough not only to not ask her anything about the bio-cybernetic legs she had and even let her keep the semi-automatic crossbow she had.

After taking off the light armor she uses for most combat situations and the light armor plating in her legs she wore a simple olive green shorts and a very basic white t-shirt before she sat down on the small table to tinker with her crossbow a little. Since she had been informed that most of the NSF members were currently occupied with something, she didn't have much to do outside of waiting, in that case, she might as well fix that annoying jamming her crossbow was having some times.
She knew that the misfiring and jamming problems were, almost certainly due to a specific mechanical component in the trigger box and the feeding mechanism that were worn out. Since those two parts were the only parts that were still from the standard model, they weren't that compatible anymore. After all, Nina had pretty much made another entire weapon after modifying and completely changing most of it's standard parts. Before she was able to change them though, the whole issue with the NSF happened.

After taking out the magazine, Nina carefully opened the weapon as she begun the delicate process. After she finished exchanging the pieces and was just putting the cover back and closing the weapon though, she ended up pressing the trigger by mistake, which promptly made the crossbow shoot out a bolt, punching through the wall and ending somewhere between the next two rooms. She took a while to understand what happened, looking to the perfect circular hole on the wall, until she finally figured out.

"Aaand I didn't check if there was any loaded round, did I?" she said, asking herself with a heavy sigh. She only hoped it didn't destroy or pieced anything in the other rooms. It was relatively hard for someone to notice a small hole, but an entire bolt wasn't that hard to miss... Since the other members weren't currently there, there wasn't any possibility of an 'accident' but she couldn't do anything about the missing bolt either.

"Great..." she sighed. Depending of who were the owners of the other two rooms, that could prove to be incredibly troublesome to deal with...

"Might as well go to see the training room they told me about before the others come back..." Nina said to herself as she stood up, getting out of her room and making her way to the training room, according to the instructions that other NSF staff gave her when asked. Not only she wanted to see how it was and take a small tour by the base, but she hoped the training room had enough space for her to run and exercise herself a bit.

The Vanishing Kingdom

^{@Arceroth@Jollan}

Maeve listened to Sev's words as she watched the grim scene going on in the middle of the square. Indeed it didn't seem a thing common bandits would do. No bandit was foolish enough to keep going after Allard like that... They certainly had a motive for that attack. Just like Sev mentioned, it didn't seem like Kalla had that much wealth to justify such an attack...

"Is it possible that all this has something to do with the kidnappings and their goal is just to get Madam Valia?" Maeve asked, having difficulties to believe that was the case. Even though Valia was a master dancer... That attack was far too much just for that... Who could be the one responsible that had that many resources to waste on something that seemed to be just a whim...?

Interrupting her thoughts, Maeve watched as Allard headbutted a mage enough to crush his skull. The mage's previous attack, which used a chain to restrain Allard and a magical spear to pierce him, had wounded the innkeeper very badly, even more than he already was previously. Despite his strength and toughness, he didn't seem to be in condition to fight anymore.

"As an Isoli, healing magic is as natural as ice magic to me. That said, I'm not a master at it though..." Maeve said.

"If you need any help, just call me. I will try to take Allard somewhere safe. He's in no condition to fight anymore." Maeve said as she began walking towards Allard with her rapier drawn.

Anyone that tried to approach her was swiftly dealt with a single, fluid movement. Maeve's attacks were precise, graceful and deadly. Even her posture as she walked was elegant. Thanks to Sev's distraction, Maeve there weren't many to try and stop her as most of them were still confused due to Sev's trick with his illusions.

"Allard, can you walk? You're in no condition to fight anymore. I'll take you to the Inn and try to heal some of your wounds. Just stay there and I'll take care of the rest." Maeve said as she got near the wounded man. Taking a closer look at him, he was indeed in a much worse situation than she thought it was possible. It was a mystery on how he was still breathing and alive.

Unfortunately, the second Sev disappeared with the leader and they finally understood what had happened, all their attention turned to Maeve and Allard, who were still in the middle of the square.

"Stay behind me." Maeve said in a low tone to Allard as she assumed an elegant fighting posture.

The air around her suddenly started to become incredibly cold as a low, distinctive crackling sound of ice could be heard coming from her blade as it became covered in a thin ice layer. The fresh blood that was near her feet began to freeze, as the cold air around her and her blade was visible, contrasting with the building burning in the background.

"You interrupted my sleep and I'm not in a particularly good mood. Come. The faster we finish this, the better." Maeve said, looking at the bandits with an expression as cold as her blade.

The Five Senses

Karina Frost

^{@Pezz570@Jerkchicken@Typical@Fetzen@HokumPocus@Typical}

---

"The deterrent is still working, so I can't make the jump by myself. I can count on you to catch me, right?" Karina said, after DB asked if he should go where she was or if she would jump to him.

"It shouldn't be that hard. I'm not that heavy." she said with a chuckle in quite an obvious statement due to her size.

The moment she was about to jump though, she saw a quite suspicious figure going up the stairs. Without a second thought, her hands almost instinctively went for her rapier but the second she saw Lynx coming up together with the man, she knew that whoever that was, was together with Octavio and Chres.

"Don't worry. Lynx's presence is enough to make it clear you're an ally." Karina said as the man held his palms towards them in a clear sign of surrender.

Karina nodded after hearing his brief explanation of his abilities and side effects before she replied to his question.

"Yes... It is. I don't know what we'll be able to do to save him though... I can't use my abilities yet due to the deterrent. Octavio and Chres are outside according to you, but even with them... We're almost completely surrounded and there is a sightless here..." Karina said as she gave a few steps back, getting ready to jump.

"DB, I'm jumping now, catch me." Karina said as she dashed forward, jumping towards DB.

Avalia

Time: Late morning
Location: Edena.
Interactions: Darius @FunnyGuy

Myra silently watched as Darius introduced both of them to Kol before they started talking. She did notice the surprised reaction Darius had upon hearing the word 'bride'. It was the first time she had heard that word, as well as 'wife'. As Darius turned to her, Myra looked at him with a confused expression, trying to understand what those words meant. She knew very well what 'friend' was. Apparently, those two words had a different meaning from 'friend'.

The moment Kol started explaining about the garden though, Myra completely forgot about the two unknown words after being remembered of the wonderful garden in front of them. She really wanted to go explore it and see the strange flowers with colors she had never seen, but she decided to hear Kol's explanation first and try to understand what he was saying. Unfortunately for Myra, the very first words he said almost immediately destroyed her plans of 'exploring' the garden. Not only because they wouldn't be able to see it right now, but running in it was definitely a no-go, according to what she understood from Kol's explanation.

The next stop on their 'tour' was a castle. Even though Myra didn't understand some parts of Kol's speech, such as what Aklenroth wanted Darius to do regarding others like him, she did understand the words 'food' and 'rest' very, very well. Apparently, they would eat and rest inside that big castle. That moment, she remembered Skar's cooked meat and how tasty it was, but together with that pleasant memory, came a bit of sadness, since she knew Skar was gone and they probably wouldn't see her anymore. Even though she was one of those mean green things, she was... different from the rest. She was... most of the times... much kinder than them and did care about Darius and Myra herself, even though she had her own way of showing it. Myra would make sure to eat Skar's portion of cooked meat in the castle as well to remember her.

As Kol continued explaining though, he mentioned two words which immediately caught Myra's attention and made her clearly worried. When talking to Darius, he did mention 'fight' and 'kill', together with 'human' which she knew was what Darius' race was called.
Looking to Kol with a distrustful expression, she looked at Darius, confused. What were they talking about? What did Aklenroth wanted Darius to do? The fact that Darius seemed to agree with Kol only made her even more worried.

Before she could demonstrate her dissatisfaction further though, Kol said something, as if calling someone and in the following second, a strange blue skinned woman appeared in a flash of purple light. As he stranger's eyes stopped on Myra, it appeared to be intrigued by her presence. In return, Myra studied the woman with the same curiosity as she did. Before Myra could wonder the reason for her presence though, a single word the woman said immediately made it clear why she was there. The second the woman said the word 'food', Myra began looking at the woman, clearly expecting something for her to eat. The second she asked if they had any requests, Myra slightly opened her mouth, sticking her tongue outwards to see if she could discover where the food would come from.

When Darius mentioned meat for both of them, Myra nodded just after him, with a clearly happy expression. It was a good while since she had eaten something and she was starting to get very hungry. Looking to Darius and then to the woman, who introduced herself as Zorrah, Myra pointed towards her mouth and made a gesture with her hands, indicating she wanted a lot of meat.

---

Time: Morning.
Location: Roshmi City
Interactions: Cadence @Helo, Sakura @baraquiel

Ayita couldn't help but to smile as she watched how Cade reacted to Sakura teasing him. His point of view regarding magic was indeed interesting. The 'magic' Cade was referring to indeed did sound quite... well... not exactly bad, but far from what a warrior would normally do. Still, even though she came from a world where 'magic' wasn't a thing, the way Ayita's people used to honor the spirits of their ancestors, asking for protection and commute with the spirits of nature wasn't really that much different from Magic, at least in her limited understanding of what magic in Avalia was. For her, when she used her wind magic for the first time, running away from the undead dragon, it felt something almost... normal to her. It was completely different from the 'magic' Cade mentioned. It wasn't a conscious effort, instead it felt almost as if she simply stopped thinking to hard about things and started to just feel the wind on her skin and started running together with it.

"As a warrior, I do understand your words, Cade." Ayita replied with a smile.

"I still remember how happy I was when I went hunting by myself and for the first time, caught something with my own hands instead of having help from others." she said, smiling.

"We had quite a feast using what I had caught and the vegetables from the tribe's crops. We even received some of the alcoholic beverages that were made by a few of the elders in our tribe using wild berries and fruits." Ayita said, with a chuckle as she remembered that night in question.

"Oh, please do so. Taking a scenic route sounds like a wonderful idea. Surprise me!" Ayita said, laughing as she jokingly challenged Cade's skills as a guide.

NEOTOKYO: State of Disarray [Open]

Nina Hart

---

---

Name
Nina Hart

Nationality
English

Age
22

Sexuality
Heterosexual

Birth
April 10th, London, UK.

---

Appearance
With fiery red hair, hazel eyes coupled with a delicate skin and a cute and pretty face, Nina can be considered quite an eye candy with a 'wild' and 'fiery' charm. Standing at 5'9" (a few inches higher than what she would normally have due to her bio-cybernetic legs), she has a well trained body with perfect proportions. Despite her good looks, the most striking aspect of her appearance is maybe her bio-cybernetic legs. Made by Nina herself, the uniqueness in their appearance betray the uniqueness in their function and design. When off duty, she often removes the armor plating in her legs, allowing her to even use tight fit pants to cover them (even though she still cannot wear normal shoes).

Normally wearing lightweight armor while on duty, when off duty she prefers wearing light clothes that let her move freely. She is known to hate excessively 'formal' clothes but it is not uncommon to see her using summer dresses when going out or when she wants to wear something a bit prettier or, more commonly wearing things like shorts and other light, casual clothes. Even though Nina might prefer light and comfortable clothes to beautiful ones, she still cares about her appearance, mainly keeping her body in perfect shape, training and doing things like taking care of her skin & etc.

Height
5'9"

Personality
Normally, Nina is a very happy girl. Always seen with a smile on her face, she loves company (sometimes even having a tendency of speaking a bit too much), has a tendency to always see the good side of everything. Just like her hair though, she has quite the fiery temperament. With strong opinions, she isn't the type of woman who would go back on her own words or flee from an argument. Luckily, she isn't the type of person to hold grudges and is as quick to forgive as she is to anger. Even though it is considerably hard for her to completely lose her temper, when she does, she becomes notably hard to handle.

Curious and easygoing, it's not particularly hard to approach her, if she doesn't approach you first, that is. Despite her clear interest in weapons, cyberware and bioware, as long as one approach her with a sufficiently interesting subject, it is not that hard to keep her interested on the conversation.

Even though Nina's personality doesn't change that much on most cases while she is on stand-by on duty, when she finds herself in a situation that requires her full attention, she is much more serious and professional. Often keeping communication to a minimum when in combat, she always tried to be as efficient as possible in everything she does. Strangely enough, despite her highly inquisitive and curious nature, she doesn't question orders that often when in combat. Maybe a reflection of her training when she was part of the UK special forces.

---

Role
Recon/Assault

Despite her role being officially a Recon unit, in reality, Nina is quite flexible due to her equipment and skills. Excelling in mobility due to her legs, she can fill an assault role where speed and precision is needed above anything else, in situations where one would need a more 'silent' approach such as reconnaissance or scouting or even taking a more 'supportive' role in an operation, akin to a highly mobile designated marksman unit while also helping in gathering valuable information about the area for the main team.

Augments:

• Cybernetic heart and lungs: Due to the accident she suffered, her lungs and heart were punctured by metal shrapnel, making her lungs almost useless and her heart working only with a fraction of its original capacity. While the previous models were aftermarket ones, she found their performance unsatisfying and lackluster, ending up creating new ones with a much better performance than most models on the market. Due to those augments, Nina has a much higher stamina and lung capacity than normal people, being able to run by a surprising amount of time without getting tired.
• Bio-cybernetic legs: In the same accident that ruined Nina's heart and lungs, her original legs were ruined beyond repair. With most of her tendons severed and most of her bones, including her femur, broken and fractured in multiple places, complete healing was considered impossible, even with the current technology. The current legs Nina use were the result of her frustration and persistence after the accident and finding herself not being able to even stand up. Due to their ingenious and unique design, they are essentially part of Nina's own body, since her own nervous system is connected to her artificial legs, their removal is impossible without an incredibly complicated surgery. The drawback of having such an unique system and design is that repairing them is considerably more complicated. Nina is the only one that knows how they work since the pieces are almost all custom made. They allow the user to run at much faster speeds than they normally could.

Equipment:

• Semi-Automatic, scoped Crossbow: Semi auto, magazine fed crossbow modified by Nina herself. Even though this was once a standard model, it was modified and tinkered by Nina so many times that almost nothing of the original weapon remained. It is a mystery on how the NSF still considers this weapon 'standard' and lets her use it. The custom made parts and the exotic design makes it easy to wield and move around with. Silent, accurate and deadly, it boasts an unusually long range for a crossbow, as much as a DMR. It's penetration power is enough to rival common DMRs, despite it being completely silent. In return, it's ammo is limited.
• SMG 155

  Featuring an ergonomic design, an easy access place to store spare magazines while economizing space, this SMG is at the same time compact and incredibly effective. Due to it's compact size and special features, it makes an ideal sidearm for Nina, since she has little space to carry more ammo other than the spare magazines for her crossbow. She often uses it with a silencer, carrying at least one magazine with only subsonic ammo in case she needs to be silent.
  
• Standard issue NSF combat knife.

Previous Careers

• Bio/Cyberware field specialist on the UK special forces.
• Unemployed. Responsible for buying a suspicious amount of highly advanced cybernetic components and raw materials on Tokyo's black market. Due to this period of time, she has a few scarce connections in the black market. Far from trustworthy, but these contacts respect money.

---

Biography
Born in a relatively wealthy family, Nina was always an incredibly intelligent girl. Despite her wealthy family, her father, who was a retired officer from the UK Military was always rather distant. Still, he still provided her with the best education he could and raised her. Even though he was never the type of person to give her hugs and affection, she knew he cared about her. Enough to always tell her stories about his old days in the military or even to awkwardly try and start a conversation with her when she was too quiet or feeling down for any reason. All in all, Nina had a very good childhood, one that few people had the opportunity to have.

Growing in an environment filled with veterans, her father being one of them, it wasn't a surprise when Nina showed an interest in both weapons and bioware and cyberware fields. Many of the veterans she met had at least a few augmentations, from minor ones like cybernetic eyes to even entire limbs. Choosing to specialize herself in the Bio/Cyberware area, Nina quickly made a name for herself, being seen as a student with a promising future. That and, in a minor way, for being one of the best in gymnastics and track & field, going as far as winning some medium competitions. When she graduated herself, both her background as the daughter of a retired military officer and her thesis, which was an innovative view on cybernetic augmentations, including a fairly accurate system of a cybernetic limb that emulated the human nervous system, attracted quite a bit of attention, including from the United Kingdom Special Forces, who gave her a proposal to work for them as their specialist. Even though her father never said anything, Nina always knew that he was the one responsible for pulling a few strings in the background and speaking with a few people in order for her to receive such a good proposal.

The first years on the UKSF were harsh and difficult for Nina. Even though she was used in training her body and loved physical activities, the training she underwent was incredibly harsh. With time though, she got used to the routine and adapted to it surprisingly well. At first, while she was still in her 'training period' she mostly stood inside the HQ either offering support for those who had augmentations, researching on how to further improve the performance of the combat-oriented augmentations used by the Special Forces agents or even, some times, analyzing rogue or illegal augmentations that were apprehended from different sources. Due to her performance, her physical capabilities and the fact that she often tinkered with other agent's equipment and weapons upon request, raising their performance, she was quickly offered a position as a field specialist. Her presence on field would offer not only a tactical advantage when dealing with situations where knowledge about cybernetics was required and even being a surprisingly good designated marksman, but she also had a good effect on the team's morale due to her personality when off-duty, being quite a welcome to relief the psychological burden.

Unfortunately, in one occasion where Nina was together with the her unit in order to apprehend a cargo of highly illegal cybernetic parts after one of their informants told them where the supposed deal was going to take part, an unfortunate accident happened. The moment her unit approached the vehicle that was supposedly transporting such parts, she almost immediately went to the back of the vehicle to take a look at the supposed cargo after the driver was captured. What nobody could have foreseen was that, whoever was behind that particular cargo, was more prepared than they had thought. The cargo was armed with an explosive charge that would go off if whoever opened the cargo compartment didn't have a special identification device.

As the explosion went off, Nina's unit was mostly intact, but she didn't have the same luck. Deep wounds caused from metal shrapnel pierced both her lungs and heart in multiple places, while her legs became almost completely destroyed, having absorbed most of the impact from the explosion. Due to her unit's quick decision, her life was saved, but when she woke up, months later, things were radically different for her. Her lungs had to be completely replaced by a cybernetic one, which didn't have the same performance as her previous one while her heart, was functioning with only a part of it's original capabilities. She was unable to walk or even stand up and any effort at all would almost make her pass out.

For obvious reasons, Nina was discharged from the UKSF for medical disability. Nina quickly became deeply depressed. For her, being in that state was almost like being in a cage. She wasn't able to even run, exercise herself. She was useless... Using the pension she received from the UKSF and her father's aid, who blamed himself for what happened with Nina, she went to the only place in the world that enough advanced technology and it would be easy enough for her to get a hold of them. Neo-Tokyo. After the nuclear warhead that exploded in the old Tokyo, it wasn't much of a secret that things were like a powder barrel, with ultra-nationalist factions rising in power and fighting against the local government, it would be the best place for Nina to do what she wanted to do.

For the following year, Nina used all her money while hiding herself in Tokyo's suburbs and buying suspiciously high quantities of both highly advanced cybernetic components and raw materials as well as a good amount of medical supplies and bio-cybernetic parts. Having worked for the UKSF, Nina didn't expect that the NSF would ignore such a highly suspicious activity forever, but luckily enough for her, when they finally caught wind of it, most of the modifications she had planned for herself were already completed. After having to run from the NSF in several occasions, afraid for what they would do with her new legs if they caught her, Nina was finally cornered after a surprisingly long game of cat and mouse. Surprisingly enough, instead of being thrown into a cell or having her legs disassembled and studied in hopes of possibly reverse engineer them, the NSF gave her an unexpected proposal. Nina's skills, both regarding bio-cybernetics and her skills to avoid and run from the NSF for so long, coupled with her background did give the NSF enough information and understanding on her circumstances for them to trust her and instead, offered her a position inside the NSF.

Affiliations

• UK Special Forces: Previous employer. Still has some contacts and friends there.
• NSF: Employer, after being caught buying huge quantities from advanced cybernetic components from the black market.
• Elliott Hart (Father): Alive, still living in the UK. He and Nina have a complicated relationship.
• Victoria M. Hart (Mother): Deceased. Died when Nina was still young.