soul_logs | [OPEN] Mission 157

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[OPEN] Mission 157

Characters: Open to participants who signed up here.
Location: Nocturne Bazaar
Rating: Gen.
Time: April 5th.
Description: The battle to destroy the last of the three Madness Emitters is upon us.

It happens early in the morning: a strange and lingering air of disquiet, almost imperceptible even to those trained to recognize it for what it is, quickly rising to a mind-shattering crescendo. On the floating island above the city, black liquid bubbles up from the cracks in the cobblestone streets and materializes into tall, thin, clown-shaped creatures. Oversized carrion birds take wing from the rafters of buildings, trailing dust from their dirty wings. The screams of civilians are clearly heard even from Death City so far down below, waking its citizens up from fitful, nightmare-filled slumbers.

The Witches are here!

It doesn't take long for the defenders to rally: Kid sends out the call to arms and, after admonishing all but the most skilled pairs to stay off the island, instructs those attending Mission 157 to prepare to get on the gondolas which still remain the only way to and from the Bazaar.

The streets are not as packed as they were the past two days, but there is no less commotion. The carnival workers and residents, fleeing from the marauding monsters, clearly have no hand in this deception. In between trying to save their lives, striking down the Black Blood-formed clowns and avoiding the talons of swooping bird familiars, the pairs certainly have their hands full.

At the epicenter of the battle is the yellow-bricked fortune-telling building. Waves of Madness emanate from it with an almost physical force. If you aren't careful, you may run into the black-feathered Witch guarding it…

By the end of the conflict, the island is incapable of supporting its own weight. With the help of volunteers shuttling civilians and fighters alike from the Bazaar to the ground, everyone must race back to the gondolas before the entire rock crashes in the sands.

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The medics' tent is a familiar staple in these missions, and they waste no time in setting up their tents by the gondola docks so that wounded can be quickly shipped down to the ground (mostly) out of harm's way.

Still: for all the guards assigned to the caretakers, it's a dangerous spot to be. They're no-less threatened by crow familiars aiming to catch and fly away with patients and medics alike...

The progress he'd made in beginning to overcome his weakness to Madness had been the only thing that prevented his descent into darkness. Cloud had been at his side in that same instant, and the ex-General hadn't hesitated in transforming himself to his Weapon form.

He felt the pressure of the Madness disappear the moment Cloud's grip wrapped around his hilt, and the relief that came along with it. Aligning his wavelength with that of his partner's, Sephiroth focused his entire attention on the hordes of enemies they were about to face in battle. This was nothing in comparison to what either of them had already been through in life.

"We're not going to talk about my leg, Sion," Akiha snapped as the gondola zoomed them up to the skyisland.

The meister was taking the moment to wrap an ace bandage tight about the padded shin 'armor' she'd found - yes, it was a soccer shinguard, shut up - to protect her still tender leg from further damage and added support for her ankle. She already had the strongest non-hospital issued painkillers available working through her system as she was unwilling to sit out this mission.

It wasn't just a mission. This was a direct attack. Death City may not be her home, but she'd be damned if she was going to sit by and let the enemy preventing her from returning home invade where she was forced to stay. She just... had to deal with her ankle.

And her partner.

Edited 2012-11-03 01:27 (UTC)

[She had learned her lesson about allowing Keroro out of his Weapon form when there was Madness about. As such, she'd forbidden him from transforming back until things cleared up.

Up ahead, she saw a couple of civilians and...what was that? It didn't look like a Kishin Egg...

But there was no time to think about it. She ran, pushing her body to move faster, afraid that she won't make it in time. As she did she pressed the Realization button.]

Shield!

[ Of course.

Of course there would be an attack.

Why is anyone surprised?

Saya isn't, but she curses because she seriously hoped they could have few days off. The girl feels specially annoyed, actually. And she knows what it means, she has felt it before, and she has dealt with it before. Madness.

But Saya is sure she can handle it. She must. She isn't weak and no one ought to tell her that. Ever!

She still hasn't turned into her Weapon form, mostly because she is in the middle of a panicked crowd, which only makes her mood worse. They need to leave this crowd and get going .] Sendo! We need to get the hell out of here!

[ Demona went mad.

Of course she did. She is susceptible to madness, probably more than anyone else. While completely out of it, the gargoyle ended up losing her partner, Londo, somewhere and honestly, she couldn't care less. She just wanted to kill them all; all of those filthy disgusting humans.

No matter how much she tried to kill them, there was always someone ruining her plans. How long will it take until she destroys them completely? How long will it take until she can take her revenge? They are murders, poison, cancer! They need to be purged from this Earth.

And she will start with those.

Demona's eyes glow red as she fixes on someone, perhaps carnival workers. Who cares who it is, she just wants to end them. She readies her claws, growling loudly and a smirk comes to her face

"Goodbye, humans."

but before she could strike down her target, a bird came at her and Demona has no choice but to attack it instead, viciously killing it. While she has no qualms with birds, she will kill whoever gets in the way of her revenge.

[How utterly predictable. Near doesn't know who he should feel the most annoyed with: Shibusen, for not seeing something so obvious coming, or the Witches, for choosing such a predictable moment to attack. The former, probably, because having an enemy with predictable attack patterns is always a good thing, and he and Mello do want to make it out of this war alive.

Unfortunately, the predictability of an attack doesn’t make it any easier to bear, and it doesn’t make the madness any easier to resist, either. But Near and Mello’s partnership has evolved to a point where the madness wavelength is less difficult to resist, and like he did in the last mission they went on, the Weapon lets his mental barriers down immediately after Mello wields him; they have no time to waste, and with an attack this strong, they have to do everything they can to fight back.]

I hate birds.

[The thought sounds almost petulant, but Near has come to hate birds bigger than a seagull for a very good reason: he was kidnapped by similar creatures a few months ago, after all.]

Bakura's breath was a little heavy as he sprinted, Yuugi's in Weapon form tightly in his hand and two birds messily disposed of behind them. Swinging a longsword was harder than it looked, even with it being a bit lighter than it would have been if it hadn't been Yuugi.

But they had managed! That had been the important part, after all!

Still, he was greatly looking forward to switching from acting as Meister to being his proper Weapon self. It was nerve wracking and terrifying to be the one doing the fighting and not be the one providing the energy for the fight...! It was only the fact that every fiber of his being wanted-- no needed to protect his friends that he was able to pull through. For Ryuzaki. For Psii. For Yuugi. For everyone. It was a solid, iron will of determination that wouldn't bend for anything.

"Takuto-kun!" he called, spotting the familiar figure as they approached. "Over here!"

Winters didn't care about this war. He really didn't give a fuck about anything unless it had to do with fighting and killing. Natsu had known as much when he agreed to partner up with him. They might've actually been a good team if the little bastard had managed to stick around at all...but no. That shitling ended up disappearing twice on him, so there was no way in hell he would ever accept him back. He better be gone for good this time.

He didn't even know why the hell he kept thinking about that asshole so much. It was the Madness though. He could feel it in his blood. He was boiling over with the chance to kill. Maybe that was why he had no problem with the guy that happened to be with him. It wasn't a bad match-up really. They did okay with te training bullshit and scared some people. Right now he wouldn't mind killing the guy just because he was here. He was pretty sure the feeling was mutual.

All he had to know was that they were either gonna kill each other or whatever the hell they ran into. Maybe both and Winters wasn't just gonna roll over and fucking die if he didn't have to. The boring part was that most of the people were not even in the street anymore. The next thing either of them ran into was probably dead. No...definitely dead. He was just itching to spill a little more blood and he didn't need this wave of Madness to provoke that.

It just made it so much easier to put blame on something else.

The resonance from Yuugi and Takuto was as close to a miracle cure for the influence of Madness as Bakura could hope for, keeping it to a very quiet nag in the back of his mind that was easily pushed aside, which was why when he first spotted the hint of his double in the fighting, he ignored it, thinking it just another attempt of the Madness's manifesting.

But the laughter was wrong. It was distant and muted, far from his mind, and was openly gleeful.

No wonder the Ring's voice went on missions... the chance to cut loose and fight freely with no consequence...

He was about to push it aside and refocus on his own partners when there was another rumble under their feet.

Not good... if this was at all like when the earthquake hit...

He wasn't sure what caught his eye first, the familiar shock of white hair or the sound of something shifting that should not have. A creak. A crack. The start of a slow movement in something that should not move as the building near the cackling maniac that wore Bakura's face began to collapse.

Panic flooded him and he instantly broke off from Takuto's hand, tumbling down and transforming in midair to hit the ground running. "I'll be right back!" he shouted over his shoulder before sprinting towards the grumbling building. He could feel the pressure of the madness around him as he ran, the sound of the building's supports snapping echoing louder in his ears than they should have been. Closer. Closer now. He could see his double more clearly, back facing the building that was starting to drunkenly lurch towards him like a dying monster.

He wasn't going to make it. He wasn't fast enough, go faster, damnit!

There was a final burst of speed as the adrenaline meshed with the Madness around him to all but propel him forward.

"BAKURA! BEHIND YOU!" he shouted.

wasntgoingtomakeitwasntgoingto--

Nanami had managed to figure out partial weapon transformation after her chat with Zero and currently being a partner-less weapon, it was the best she could do until she ran into a Meister who happened to need a weapon. She would just have to hope they resonated well enough. The mission was much more chaotic this time with multitudes of enemies both above and below and it there wasn't any time to be picky.

Speaking of above, Nanami glanced up upon hearing a commotion somewhere above her and to her surprise she glimpsed a gondola plummeting toward the earth far too close in her general vicinity for comfort.

Lee rushed along with Tassadar along a dark alley between several of the food stalls, doing their best to be stealthy as they stalked along. Several of the civilians running the stalls for the carnival were still trapped, either frozen in fear or driven momentarily insane by madness. While their services had been called in for battle, there was also the option of using their skills to protect the innocent lives put in danger by the appearance of the Witch.

"Tassadar-san?" Lee glanced back over his shoulder at his temporary partner. The protoss had been exceptionally quiet since they had met up and that worried Lee. If Tassadar was not focused on their mission, they could run into some bumps along the way.

Returning this morning, Rosalia wouldn't have expected a fight of this magnitude to occur. Seriously, the carnival being a Trojan horse for the Witches? There was little she could do in the chaos; she didn't even remember when the medical bag had been thrust into her hands. Had she passed a fellow clinic employee at some point? Perhaps her brother?

No matter what had occurred before now, Rosalia blinked, abruptly remembering what she was doing now. She was jogging behind Dirk, the kit slung over an arm and the unmistakable sounds of battle on every side. Worse, the island had begun shaking some time ago. It was going to fall out of the sky at this rate, but she couldn't focus on that. Her head was hurting like it had the day before when they saw that clown...

... Ah, that was it! Dirk said he had wanted to come back to the Haunted House. Then this pain must be due to the emitter raising the Madness levels. Right, he wanted to see if it was there, but would it be? Rosalia shook her head again to concentrate. If it was there, Dirk would have to fight and she was the Weapon available. Even if she didn't like her ability, she had to help him.

Obito crept silently along the top of the stalls, using his skills learned as a shinobi to mask his steps as best as possible even on the worn wooden panels. He felt a thrill inside. This was his first mission where he would actively participate in the war as a fighter, not running in fear or just hopping around the medic tent. His thoughts traveled to Kakashi and Gai, the other shinobi, and some of his other friends for a moment, wondering what role they played in this mission today.

While it was a little dangerous to travel from stall to stall without the grip of chakra in his feet, Obito knew that height would work to his advantage in this battle. It gave him a nice vantage point and possibly some edge over their enemies. Possibly.

"Ready for this, Barton-san?"

[Edgeworth never thought he would return to this accursed floating carnival, but here he was, stepping back onto the ground from the gondola, taking several deep breaths to calm himself (he was several feet above the earth, but he had been in equally dangerous, if not more dangerous, situations before; this should be nothing new, and he had learned so much about fighting over the past months and from the previous Emitter missions) and glancing around warily.

He gripped his head as the Madness threatened to ruin his reason, to destroy the sense of logic that had often held him together, and swallowed hard. This was mind over matter. As long as Edgeworth focused on the mission at hand and their goal, and remembered who he was and that fears were only fears and could be forced back into his subconscious, he would be okay.]

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MEDICS

[Cloud + Sephiroth | Closed]

Akiha and Sion [Closed]

[ Eve and Keroro | closed ]

[ Saya & Sendo | CLOSED ]