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Characters: Hal and Psii
Location: Tel Aviv
Rating: probably PG-13
Time: May 4
Description: Zombie-like Kishin Eggs have invaded Tel Aviv, Israel. Their government has sent out an urgent request to Shibusen for aid in defeating these monsters!

Last few days had been whirlwind of unavoidable and conflicting emotions for Psii. Thought getting away from Death City might help him see things more clearly.

Staying with HL had definitely helped. Knowing could defend self if need arose had calmed Psii almost back to normal level.

He was excited about mission itself, and significant step toward getting stronger it represented. After mirror deposited them in target city and they were ready to set out, he shielded eyes from sun, stronger than Arizona's even with sunglasses, and gave HL little grin. Surely anyone from their world was more than equal to challenges of this war.

"Should probably transform now, correct?"

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For his part, Hal would really have liked to explore the city. Obviously whatever universe they were in was a somewhat cartoonish iteration of the world he had studied all his life and pre-life, but that didn't make it any less fascinating. Also, just being able to walk around anywhere wasn't a novelty that had worn off yet, and walking around in a city on the other side of the planet was going to perk his interest no matter what.

But it could wait until after they'd done their job. That had to be the priority. Fortunately, from what he'd read about the mission before hand, they were looking at a standard zombie outbreak. He didn't have any plans to be fool hearty but also didn't anticipate much trouble.

He nods at Psii.

"Let's wrap this up quick. Then we can explore a bit before we have to go back."

"Okay." Only human city Psii had ever seen was Death City. He was curious about others, especially one as different as Tel Aviv seemed.

Their practice sessions had made him accustomed enough to being close to HL, physically and mentally, that Psii didn't hesitate anymore to take his hand. He did now, and turned to Weapon form. Reached out, with ease that was becoming instinctive, for their resonance.

Don't feel anything unusual in surroundings yet.

Hal tucked away his sunglasses, pulling Psii on smoothly, and looked around. He'd gotten used to the one red, one blue lens thing. And in the bright mid-eastern sun, he didn't mind the additional coverage. As for the connection of their souls, it was quickly becoming a comfortable habit. Other than a slight, energetic interest, he was perfectly calm and comfortable, focusing on facts and strategies.

He pulled out a map of the city that had several of the areas people had been attacked marked.

The most recent attacks were further north. I don't really like the idea of acting as bait, so maybe we can find a high point to wait them out.

Psii didn't like idea of being bait either, but also didn't like waiting for something to happen to act. Function here was to deal with threats before humans were affected.

Had looked up human definition of 'zombie' before mission, but hadn't found very illuminating. Seemed to indicate creature that had been reduced to serving needs of hardware, with no higher intellectual function at all.

But if could present more attractive target than normal humans from distance, could take them out before selves are in any danger.

Hm, morality. He registered it absently. It wasn't exactly a surprise that Psii genuinely cared about strangers. Hal didn't, exactly. His interest was more in doing the objectively right thing, because "Dirk Strider" was a good person, but the idea of someone being hurt while they were wasting time didn't bother him beyond the fact that it would technically be a failure.

But he wasn't so sociopathic that he didn't realize that he was the one that was 'off' for thinking that way. He respected Psii's concern, and nodded, thinking.

I don't know how to get their attention without also getting the attention of persons who we don't want investigating.

They might be here on request of the government, but that doesn't mean that local authorities wouldn't investigate a scene, or worse, the local citizenry.

SS had always been careful to shield, as much as could, trolls whose only crime lay in listening to him or sheltering family. Psii couldn't help but be aware of innocents who might be affected by mission. (Tried not to think about innocents in own world who'd done nothing more than live in her path.)

But he wasn't bothered by HL's attitude. Was pragmatic, and functionally equivalent to own, as would work the same way in practice.

Thought light show like when had first resonated would do the trick to attract Kishin eggs, but HL was right: that was only likely to also bring more attention than they wanted, especially considering unpopularity of guests lately.

You're correct. And can't do anything until have target.

He nods, reviewing the map again, since he no longer had a perfectly organized mind, and put it away. He started heading toward where most of the attacks had been recently. He stuck to alleyways and low traffic areas as much as possible; he didn't want to serve as bait in general, but if they ran into a kishin egg en route it wouldn't be a waste.

When you had your powers would you have been able to psychically locate them?

No. Couldn't read surroundings like that. Am sorry.

If saw them, could easily have affected them with old version of powers, and if knew where they were, would have been simple, though not advisable, to bring down hiding places. But even when was ship, had needed to access sensors to 'see' things.

Being Weapon was almost like that, in that Psii needed input from HL to know what was happening around them. It might have made him uneasy, if resonance hadn't been there, a reassuring, faint warmth that helped him focus on here and now, and not past.

No problem, was just wondering if that might be something we'd be able to access. I'll work on some other method. Wandering around waiting for something to jump out of the dark at someone is a shitty plan.

But they didn't have many other options at the moment, and any alternative methods he came up with would likely require some significant first hand experience on kishin eggs.

Yes.

Momentary flicker of embarrassment, because Psii felt should have been better at this. Had been most gifted mage in universe; if anyone ought to have been capable of finding way to do that with new powers, was him.

But self-recrimination was short-lived. Psii started to get sense of something that felt off, like dark blip on scanners.

Wait. Think there's something wrong, not far ahead.

"Hmm."

Hal tilts his head, smiling slightly, he had faintly 'felt' that through his connection with Psii.

Maybe you're not giving yourself enough credit.

And with that he continued forward, trying to move slowly and quietly. He didn't have Dirk's ability to flash step or even move particularly light on his feet, but it was the best he could do.

That was always a possibility with Psii, though he felt grounded enough, comfortable enough, resonating with HL that expected more of himself than usual, wanted to find own limits and push against them.

Still took conscious effort to open mind farther, but he tried to, to let HL see and sense what he did, something on mental radar that was darker than everything else.

There. See it? Think is down next alley, on right, but. Can't be sure, just have feeling.

Didn't feel like old powers, and was faint enough that Psii might not have mentioned, except for how that spot on mental map seemed almost to pulse with negative energy, and he focused his attention there, to show HL.

This was actually preferable, mapping blips on radars was just more his speed than pressing his ear up against walls and listening for specific vibrations, or pretty much any other sensory information his body was capable of giving him. He left his eyes open in case the blip came around the corner and tried to eat his face, but otherwise focused on what Psii was showing him, and then on what was surrounding it. A 'dark blip' might not mean much, but since it was the only place generating that sensation, chances are it would be something they were interested in.

Next problem was the approach. There was no easy way to get above, since he lacked his progenitor's ninja skills, and for that same reason he also couldn't guarantee that he'd be particularly quick if attacked. In that case, better to go in with a bullet in the chamber.

Charge up a round, Psii, grade 2.

Part of what he had learned when practicing Psii was when the amount of power he could plug into an attack when anywhere between "a little bit" and "everything" it was preferable to have some way to quantify what sort of power they were looking at. Grades so far went up to 6, though he expected that expand as they both got better at this. He expected it would be enough to cripple anything that came after him.

Had all gotten much easier with practice, and sensation of letting power grow, then handing off to HL, no longer felt as strange as at first. It felt natural, part of give and take of partnership.

They'd grown so much stronger so quickly that Psii was sure had only just started to tap potential. He sometimes had to hold self back, to keep from overexerting in excitement at how much they could do. Training was kind of refuge now, mental space with clear goals and order to it, set apart from frustrations in rest of life. Psii knew resonance had given away more than had told anyone about how helpless and angry he'd felt lately. But that was all right, because it also smoothed those feelings back down to where he could almost ignore them.

He let power build to level HL asked for, until felt as if were holding crackling energy in hand, ready to launch. Concentrated hard on blip, and felt jolt, as if something looked back.

Think it might know we're here.

Couldn't see it for self, but reached through resonance to 'see' surroundings and line up with mental landscape.

Just ahead, and coming closer. Am ready.

So it was likely that there was a connection between weapons and kishin eggs, something that innately let them sense each other's wavelengths, at least when they were nearby. Noted.

Hal quickly considered his options, and chose to rely on subtly, stepping back into the shadow of a building, behind some empty boxes and a dumpster. By far the largest advantage of Psii's abilities was that if something was in his visual range, he could target it. No guns to aim, no hand-eye co-ordination, no reliance on muscle at all. It wasn't that he didn't want to learn to the sword 'again'. It was important to him to one day obtain ninja status, but that desire wasn't going to drive him to pre-maturely start running into danger, risking himself, Psii, and the mission. If he could sit behind some shelter and wait for something to turn a corner and pick it off mercilessly without twitching, that was what he would do, as many times as it takes.

Granted, the red and blue flash from Psii's goggles once they were full of power didn't exactly lend to hiding in the dark, but all he needed, hopefully, was a moment.

All right. Just like we practiced.

This universe was first place Psii had ever had to worry about strength of hardware. Had always relied on powers to keep self and family safe before. Relationship with own body was still best described as uneasy truce, with Psii stubbornly trying to increase stamina and coordination, while hardware seemed to resist all attempts at upgrades.

One more thing really liked about missions was that none of that mattered.

Knew only few seconds passed between HL taking up position and kishin entering visual range, but seemed like longer to Psii, eager for first real fight.

Thing that emerged was human-shaped, but not like any human Psii had ever seen, shambling and rotted, with most of its jaw missing. He focused intently on it, and sent psychic blast out, letting it go so HL could direct.

Zombie. It fit the information he'd received from the area. Though he wasn't going to waste time finding out if this was the purely shambling or the 'modern' fast moving variety. Chances were high that the weak point was the head, and that felt sort of, right, in an incalculable way that was sort of unnerving. But he had decided to trust his body since he couldn't fully control it. Dirk had one and was pretty great, after all.

Without moving he focuses on the forehead of the zombie, just a bit beyond it, the brain and releases the small explosion of energy.

Psii felt rush he always did when everything fit together to make own powers and HL's work. Wasn't like being ship at all, when system had sometimes seemed to fight him just to be contrary. This was something had never felt except through their resonance, sense of making each other's powers better.

The creature staggered under the attack, disoriented, but didn't fall. Was obviously tougher than training dummy.

Am turning up power, Psii said, and loosened control reining it in, to go up to level HL had designated 4.

Of course now it was a little more motivated, and the stun doesn't last long. Still, Hal holds his ground, trusting Psii to get him the power he needs before his life is in danger. There wasn't really anywhere to go but back up anyway, and he didn't want to move this into a public area.

As the zombie regains itself a bit and launches at them -- not entirely the slow and shambling variety then -- the strategic choice of behind the dumpsters pays off in slowing it briefly, which is the time Hal needs to release the second attack, aiming once again for the head.

Power boost proved more than enough, and Psii watched through resonance as creature reeled away from them. And then its head exploded.

Would have grinned, if had been in own hardware, both from giddiness of success and at how beautifully HL had targeted kishin. It fell over backwards, leaving behind small, translucent dark thing, bobbing in the air. Psii looked at it dubiously. Seemed as if would taste terrible.

Have to... eat that now?

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[OK I PROMISE I AM DONE SUCKING AT THIS!!!]

[THERE IS NO SUCKING <3]

[NO I'M AFRAID THERE IS 8(]

[NEVAR]

[STILL GOIN]

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