Spirit Operations Unit Leviathan (L3 | Open | SF/Fantasy)

[Venom3001]

Jake Uso expending Synchronization Point.

The door flew with quite a shocking degree of force, in the sense that it tore an arm off of the Pistol-wielding Illuminated. Jake made a mental note to check whether hardening himself against that sort of thing was the same as hardening himself against bullets, knife points, or knife edges.

Then he slammed his fist directly through the skull. And part of the train floor. He wasn't totally sure how to react to that, but Gi took some of the heat off him by popping out into the corridor and firing his sawn-off at the other shotgunner, sending him flying over Uso, then firing from its second barrel to send the other pistol user flying, leaving only one sole enemy left for Uso. The one-armed Illuminated was too busy fussing over his missing limb to shoot, it appeared, and the two who'd been launched were disoriented from their sudden flights and hard impacts with the environment.  

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Uso trod the three measly steps to loom over his final victim, grabbed him by the dome and the chin, and SNAP. Dead. Blood that had been freely flowing from the dead man's shoulder now heavily stained Jake's right pant leg, but the brawler paid it no heed. His eyes were fixated on the door between cars. It was unlikely they would come charging in; they would believe they had the advantage by lying in wait. Still, he kept his body facing it at all times while rummaging through the weapons and praising his host. "Good shooting."

Every so often he glanced down at the shotgun he had claimed. A shotgun was Uso's kind of gun: just point and click as they say. And if by some miracle- or magic- they survived, they'd be tenderized for a good pummeling. He chose this one in particular based solely on the merit that it had less blood on it than the other. He inspected it for any visible signs of breakage- there weren't any- and made sure he was familiar with its mechanisms- he was. Satisfied, he rose to his feet, weapon in hand, the twin muzzles resting over his shoulder, eyes ever affixed on that door.

"Shall we see what's behind door number two?"
 

[Venom3001]

"I have a better idea." Gi inspected the hinges between the cars. "Take a look at that connector. If you think you can punch through one, I have an idea. Boost me up to on top of the next car, I haul you up after me, we run to the last car and then disconnect the other ones before they realize what we're doing. Think it'll work?"

The connector was reasonably strong by virtue of its purpose, but Uso was confident he could break it with his spirit form power.  

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

"It'll work," Uso assured Gi before giving him a lift. Next he passed the shotgun. Then they grasped each other's forearm and hauled the scrawny Japanese-American boy onto the roof. As if Jake wasn't odd enough in his fighting habits, he also was a left-handed shooter, as evidenced by the manner in which he carried it. With his right he gestured forward, beckoning Gi to lead so that Uso might follow.
 

[Venom3001]

Gi checked both his guns, slung the rifle over his back, and sprinted down the train.

Go go go go GO

The pounding of his boots and Uso's shoes atop the train was surely alertin those inside. Gi's plan was for it not to matter. He took a running jump and landed on the next car, with Uso right behind him, then again at the end of this one, and then once more to the final car, his duster fanning out behind him in the wind as he landed and spun, leveling the sawn-off shotgun at the door.

Drop! Gi kneeled on the edge of the car. Break! "I'll cover you!" he vocalized over the roar of the wind.

With any luck, the enemies on the previous cars had been too slowed by their numbers to catch up.


Damien showed up to the debriefing room half an hour early. Not everyone was there, but nonetheless, he walked into the conference room, sat down, and sighed.

Judging by his past behavior, he didn't always scowl as much as he was currently scowling. That was probably a bad sign.  

[umbraja]

Rachel gave Leon a subtle frown for his words. "I am afraid it is about luck as much as loyalty. Nikoli does not recognize my authority but had Mr. O’Byrne called him back he would have heeled. And I do believe the other unfortunate was following an order. If it were a question of loyalty then Nathaniel would have died a long time ago," she paused to shake her head slowly. "No, I am afraid luck is the foundation of it. Luck and leadership. Both of which failed us today," she gave a slight glare at the thought.

"It was ridiculous to send a new team out unvetted. I suppose as things are it could have been much worse. Only two casualties," she paused with a subtle frown then glanced to the door where Nathaniel had disappeared to. "I won't grudge him for how this encounter played out. The odds were stacked against and he was not the only one to make mistakes. He'll have another chance to prove himself. Hopefully everyone will," she grumbled slightly then glanced toward the hall to the briefing rooms.

"I've reports to write," the doctor sighed taking a step back. "Will need to speak with the coroner and close the deceased files," a hint a of tremble shaded her voice but she covered it with a politely smiling nod as she turned away. "See you in the briefing room."

Then Dr. Miles began a quick walk to her office where she closed the door firmly and locked herself inside. To any that saw her along the way she looked urgent but collected, cold, professional as ever. Appropriate for a woman who had important work to be done immediately. Inside she was shaking. It bothered her how Nathaniel had accused her of a relationship with that dumb dog. It bothered her even more how much his sudden death was affecting her. Never mind the unsettling strangeness of the whole situation. From everything she had ever read that was not a demon attack but it could not have been just an Illuminated either.

There was so much to study, so much to report. She needed to make sure the labs collected samples before cleaning the field. She needed to be sure there wasn't some sort of pathogen at work. She needed to give the surviving team a close physical to be sure there wasn't any unnoticed affect. She needed to speak to Nathaniel about what he saw in there, how Niko and the other were killed. She needed to talk to the coroner and close Niko's file. . .

She ended up spending the time until the debriefing sitting at her desk and staring at a small, velvet lined box. The gold rim of the lid's lip and hinges was chipped and faded, the soft velvet rubbed bare on the corners as she held it loosely in the palm of her hand. She didn't open it. She'd not opened it in years. But she dug it out of the back corner of her locked bottom drawer and just held it, staring as the time ticked slowly by.

Five minutes before the briefing she locked the tiny box back in the bottom drawer of her desk then took a moment to fix her hair and makeup in the mirror by the door before she straightened her jacket and walked back out, made another purposeful walk to the briefing room where she simply took a seat in the back row, farthest from the others that the seating would allow. She was calm again, collected, and cool, with a smug little curl of her lips and slightly closed eyes that could only look down on others. She was herself again, as if nothing had happened at all.  

[explodingstaples]

Nathaniel looked up at Damien as he walked in. The man seemed to be scowling. Nathaniel brushed it off as nothing and leaned back in his chair, "That's fascinating." he mumbled to himself more than to Richard. Nathaniel could only imagine what he would do with that ability. It made him smile a little. He sat in complete silence, contemplating his own abilities and comparing them to the other magic users in the room. Then, he remembered Niko, and the jealousy he felt at the idea of the other man having a relationship with the doctor, But... she cares about me, right? She wants to help me. He didn't matter. How could he, when she has me? he wondered, beginning to come to terms with the situation. He realized that she was delicate, not one to handle the stress of somebody dying. That made complete sense. He shouldn't have snapped at her like that, he knew that now. He also shouldn't have chased the target and left her unprotected. He regretted that.

Nathaniel looked up as Rachel walked in. He was happy to see her, despite his previous anger. His face didn't betray his happiness. It just remained that mask of boredom. The thin man only looked at her for a moment before turning to face Damien again. Nathaniel understood. Dr. Miles didn't need to tell him. He looked around the room, "Anybody know where O'Byrne is?" he asked the room. Though, from his tone, he could have just been thinking out loud rather than actually directing the question to anyone.  

[SirBayer]

Eamon said nothing as he wandered into the debriefing room. If anything, he seemed more lucid than before, which was a tad strange. If anything else, he seemed in a slightly darker mood than before, which was less so. He didn't walk past the doorway, choosing instead to lean against the wall beside it and stare at Damien, waiting for something to come of this.  

[Venom3001]

Damien sighed again - the only noise he'd made in the last twenty minutes. "What the hell happened out there?" He stopped, calmed himself. That wasn't going to help. "We need all the data on that thing we can get. We went right up to asking other cells and even the Administrators, and SOUL hasn't seen anything like them before but they've popped up, quite suddenly, just now. We've lost eighteen personnel to them across units in the last two hours. Any data you can give us can help us reconstruct what that thing was - and possibly why Bedier, against every indication on record of how he would act, attacked like he did."  

[explodingstaples]

Nathaniel shrugged, still looking extremely bored in spite of the fact that he could very well be punished for how this debriefing played out. He didn't care, "It was big, strong, and fast. And it... changed." he squinted at the wall as he spoke, "At first, it acted sort of like a demon. Attacked anything close by, destroyed vehicles, caused general mayhem. Abnormally strong, definitely stronger than anything I've ever seen. But then it just ran and took cover. No idea why. Nikoli and the little Japanese looking one, I never got his name, chased after the target and engaged it in a store. I followed them to the store a few moments later. Watched them die. The target practically cut wolf-boy in half and stabbed the kid through with that big a** sword." Nathaniel frowned as he remembered the scene. He may not have listened to orders, he may have gotten lost in the addiction, but he knew what he saw.

"Then, it just changed. Like, the black and red just faded away and a full blown ******** knight was standing there. Armor and mustache and everything. He bowed to me and disappeared in a beam of light." The thin man shrugged once more, "No idea what the hell it was, but it was not a demon. Too strong and too smart to be a demon." He was all to happy to shift the attention away from his own mistakes and talk about whatever it was that they had fought. Besides, he reasoned, he was too valuable and powerful to be punished. Even if it did get out that he had disobeyed orders. Yeah. He would be okay.  

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Uso gripped the shotgun in both hands then plunged headlong into the gale, taking advantage of what little slipstream Gi's frame provided. As they cleared the last jump and came to the end of the final car, he tilted his body back and dropped onto his a**, sliding over the lip and landing a little off. Nothing sprained or twisted, but it could have been much smoother.

"Here goes." With fresh energy coursing through his body, it was a simple matter of steeling his fist, cocking his arm, and plunging it straight through the coupling. Then he stood and trained his shotgun on the door as well.

There was a moment of scuffling before one of their enemies opened the door. Uso felt the rush as the first one out the door - whose selection was probably the cause for the delay - received a barrel's worth of buckshot. Gi then fired from above, his enchanted shotgun causing a visible slowing of the disconnected cars. Behind them, there was a screech of tearing metal and a man with short black hair and brown slit-like eyes levitated out of a hole in the top of the train, globes of flame around his hands.

"Really, Gi? Again? Why even play this game? You can't win it. Look at that phantom! Has he ever held a gun before? Better that you just submit to the Empire like the others. Cease this exercise in futility. Surrender now." He sneered. "Or die. Again. If you feel the need."

"How nice: you can deliver cliché monologues and whine like a b***h." He talked the tough guy talk, but mentally, Uso was taking note of a few semi-relevant facts: one, Gi was familiar with this system because he too had died; two, the Empire to which he previously referred was in fact of this particularly dusty world; three, this clearly possessed man was a goddamn fool.

Jake punctuated his own retort with another shotgun blast, and followed through with an augmented punch to the face. He also made sure to reinforce the rest of his front, as the Big Baddy would undoubtedly retaliate in some fashion Uso could not possibly predict or avoid.

The buckshot crashed against the demon, reasonably accurately but quite harmlessly, or so it appeared. The demon did not, it seemed, expect Uso to run up and punch it in his face. It drew back, clutching its nose. "Feisty. Better than the last phantoms he's roped into his suicide," it snarled. It waved its hands and released a wave of fire, then another wave released-
ACID!! The Sign carried surprising urgency. Uso took a step back, but realized he had no place to go. Gi dashed in front of him and threw his hand forward. Uso nearly fell forward when the wind he leaned into disappeared.

"I don't think it's accustomed to melee attacks. I'll cover you as best I can!" Gi called back verbally. Uso noticed portions of the upper side of the train bubbling dangerously, but did not himself melt when the wind returned. Gi took a shot with the rifle and the demon scarcely flinched at the bullet to its forehead.

Uso heaved a sigh of relief and fell into a fighting stance: knees slightly bent, hands raised, palms open, and feet lightly bouncing. The posture made him look like something of a new-age monk and really accentuated his Asian features by some unexplainable power. "If you can keep it up, this won't be a problem," he reassured Gi. Jake closed the distance again, leaped, and brought his right knee high as though he were about to kick, then lashed upward with his left heel, driving hard for the Big Baddy's chin.

Jake Uso expending Synchronization Point.

The demon was tough, Uso knew, but it wasn't Indestructible. It had arrogantly taken the kick, not expecting the feint (nor how it sequenced into a strike that snapped its neck back). It stumbled and raised an arm to cast. Uso's fist snapped out and shattered the forearm. The demon hissed with frustration.

"What trickery is this? What manner of weapon are you?" it demanded through gritted teeth, clutching the forearm. Uso didn't give it an answer. This demon's head on a platter was his ticket home. Gi put a round in the surprised demon and the med-student-turned-street-brawler-turned-interdimensional-warrior lashed his foot out with inhuman speed, snapping the demon's other forearm the second it ceased cradling the first one. The arm changed directions so fast that the fingers were almost a full second behind in following. The arm was left with a sicking ninety-degree bend in the forearm.

Absolute Power

His fist lashed out once again, crushing the demon's throat. Bound in a human body, the demon remained dependent on its functions, and with a crushed windpipe, it would have no oxygen. Like a human, it would suffocate. With Uso's next kick, it was amended to "suffocate with its knee thoroughly broken, with fragments of bone and cartilage emerging from the skin."

Standing over the broken enemy below him, Jake Uso saw the terror in its eyes as it beheld the blue phantom standing over it - understood that it was coming to terms with its death, with its souls being siphoned to Gi and Uso - as the blue faded away, leaving Uso presiding over its dying moments in his restored body, feeling the rush of the soul power becoming his own.

Gi made the hand sign again, the V with his fingers and the short slide of the sign. Good job, he mouthed in foreign words that Uso still found he knew.

The light overwhelmed until it was no longer light.

Welcome to The Terminal. Obtained: Acrid Demon's Soul

> _  

[Venom3001]

WELL. That had been... Uso couldn't pin it down to just one adjective. Exhilarating. Educational. Fun. Fascinating.

Enough of that though. "Explain the Acrid Demon's Soul, how to obtain more blue and black tokens, and the first two Fragments." If he remembered correctly, the first two Fragments were always available and were related to him personally. Perhaps they could get him back to his 'homeworld' and back to work. They would want to know all about his little adventure.

Acrid Demon's Soul: Obtained from an acid-wielding demon from the Frontier.

Demons' Souls may be consumed directly to provide a large amount of additional soul power, or may be developed into
... parsing terminology...
Demoncrafts.

Blue Eye Coins and Black Eye Coins may be found within Fragments by those with access to The Terminal.

The Dreamweave is the First Fragment. It is always accessible.
Your Fragment of origin is always accessible to you.

Now THERE was an exciting idea: Demoncrafts! "What sorts of Demoncrafts can this soul develop?"

The Terminal cannot provide this information.

"Who can? And once answered, ship me back to my Home Fragment- preferably the SOUL base, if possible."

You can.

Entering Fragment.

Uso found himself guided to a place he'd been shown but had not seen in person - the garage with the exit and entrance of the San Lazaro SOUL base.  

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Another deep breath- this time for real. Jake gave himself a once-over: it was definitely him in his body. Now the question was: was it the same body or a new one? Only one way to find out. He marched inside, and asked around for his team. Apparently they were in the debriefing room. Oh. OH. This will be good. He grinned while speed walking down the hall. Jake was practically shivering with excitement. Normally he wasn't one for pranks and the like, but coming back from the dead by teleporting to another world and beating the everliving s**t out of a demon? Jesus didn't have s**t on Jake Uso. Hell, Jake didn't even wait three days. From the looks of things it had been more like three hours.

When he got there, he didn't even break stride. He barged in, throwing the doors wide. He held his arms aloft, displaying all of his clearly living self lacking any sort of a wound, and with that same grin asked them all, "Did you miss me?"

Classic.  

[NativeForeigner]

Richard glanced at the door, alerted by the voice, and in an instant Richard was standing with his handgun was out of its holster and pointed at Uso's ******** ZOMBIES!

"You're not taking my brains." Richard stated firmly, his expression stern.

A thought struck Richard and he took a chance to glance around at everyone to ensure that they all saw Uso as well. It wasn't uncommon for him to see dead people, but Uso was particularly vivid.

"You all see him, right?" He asked, not daring to lower his firearm.  

[SirBayer]

Eamon sat quietly and listened. Nothing said was inaccurate. He had nothing to say, nothing to add.

And then it happened. The dead returned. Impossibly. Improbably, actually. If it were impossible, it wouldn't be here. And beyond a doubt, the casualty was standing right before him. Eamon had seen it himself, this man impaled, dead on the ground. He hadn't checked, but the mark where the weapon would've been was gone. And... well, there was no question it was the same. The aura was the same. He was the one.

"Bender, stand down. Tha's not a zombie." That was an obvious statement, but evidently Bender didn't agree. "...Yes, as a matter o' fact. We do see 'im. And we did miss 'im, more or less. I would normally rule this out as impossible, and I may be more drunk than I s'pposed, but here ye are. Mind explainin' how?"