Welcome to Gaia! ::

Corrinne reveled in his flustered response to her closeness. The way he arched his eyebrows up in surprise made her smile mischievously. Somehow, he managed to evade her attacks by rolling sideways onto the ground. Suddenly she felt like a character in a cartoon, the flirty vixen chasing the bashful protagonist. Then suddenly he caught her wrist and gave her a look that spoke volumes. Returning her playful banter, he grabbed her and flung her through the air in the direction of an oak tree. The imagery of the cartoon continued in her mind as she felt her body flying through the air.

She wondered, in a moment of weakness, whether she was playing this wrong. But she caught a glimpse overhead of her staff. Luckily her body never reached the tree, it fell short a few feet away with just enough room between her and Satoru for her to reach her staff. Scurrying back up to a standing position, she dashed for the staff and felt better once it was back in her hands. “Ah, reaper staff, how I missed you.” She seemed to purr at the staff and it began to grow noticeably brighter in color, apparently it had missed her too.

“Well then, that was fun, shall we continue?” Corrinne spun the staff in her hand and dashed toward Satoru. She continued to spin the staff, to leave him questioning where she would strike next. And in a change of tactics she made a hard kick towards his hip before following through with the staff to his right shoulder. This battle was causing her to become more imaginative in her strategy.

LINES: 976





OOC: Oh what fun! =D

xxxxx◈Location: Arena ◈Company: Corrinne ◈Mood: Calm, Enthusiastic, Motivated





{OOC: Sorry for it's lacking of lines.}

Acel had died...twice now. And as his body was fading away, he had seen the look on Sarah's face, as well as the look on Akio's. They had been bothered by it...they had been bothered by the fact that he had been killed, and that was enough for him. They hadn't been happy, or complacent when faced with his demise...they didn't dislike him after all. But, there was that lingering frustration with himself. That stomach-clenching feeling of disappointment in himself. He had gone out there for two missions now...and over all that effort, he had managed to die against his foes twice. At least he had actually taken one of them down before he did it this time...but the fact still remained. He wondered where Dal'Mori was...what he was doing. He wondered how many he had already defeated. The man was a machine...and he wouldn't be as pathetic to lose every single battle he faced. He had even lost the fight with Dal in the tournament that had been hosted before his first mission. He couldn't win anything...he couldn't survive and protect what he wanted to protect. He was damned useless! By the time that he realized it was strange to be thinking so many things while you were still in millions of little bits of code, floating through the air, he was already arriving at the B.A.I.T.R Headquarters. He could feel himself in the code as it moved--instead of being completely oblivious to it like most baiters. Most people wouldn't even remember the trip from their corpse to the rebirthing center, but he did. He remembered every bit of it as if he had never died in the first place.

He felt the odd magnetic pull of his cells being restructured--an indescribable feeling like his entire being was a black hole--sucking everything into itself with no way to escape. The cells all packed themselves back into his body neatly, and the first physical sensation that he had was that of the water on his skin. He felt the cold feeling wash over him as his eyes snapped open and his head beat like a drum. The light in the room was frying his retinas and when he peered through the tank that he found himself inside, he could see a familiar face staring back at him. The middle-aged woman that he had met before--the one who had kicked him clean through the last damn tank that he had woken up in. his stomach clenched when he saw her, but he managed to hold back as much of the horror as he could. He had just been beaten savagely, and he most certainly did not need to be beaten again. His whole body hurt like crazy, and he noticed the red tinge to the water around him. His blood was still flowing from the open hole in his side, but as he remained in the tank--unable to breath, but unaffected physically by the lack of oxygen--he realized that the wounds were slowly closing. Whereas he had woken in a blaze of rage the time before, this time when he came to consciousness, even though the initial fear had been unsettling, he remained calm. Most people would not wake until their bodies had been repaired fully, and the tank was drained, but Acel was not just anyone. He knew this now. There was an odd fuzziness that he felt as he came back together and he grasped a small piece of metal in his hand as it drifted down through the water that he was suspended within. When the wounds had closed, the tank drained, and he slid to the floor until the capsule opened up and he coughed, sputtering water as his body readjusted to being in air instead of liquid.

The woman looked at him with an accusing glare and he smiled weakly as he stared up at her. "And what makes you think that you've got anything to smile about?" The woman asked, annoyance all over her face as she glared at him. Acel just sighed as he reached up and grabbed the lip of the capsule, trying to pull himself from the floor into a standing position. His body, however, did not like this. Every muscle hurt so bad that it was agony just to make his way to his feet. His lungs burned when he breathed--obviously it was a side effect of having a man literally tear through your lung with his bare hands. "Well, I figured out bits and pieces of what has been happening to me...and you told me to come back when I knew why it was a disappointment to you." The woman's placid visage was shaken for a moment, and he almost laughed, but he couldn't bring himself to do it while his body hurt so bad. "The disappointment...well, that's not exactly figured out yet." Her face screwed back into an annoyed, angry expression that had Acel trying his best not to break the laughter dam. "Then what in the hell is it you feel you've figured out, you piece of ******** trash!?" She growled. Acel's eyes widened--surprised by the level of emotion in the woman's response. "Jeeze, with that kind of attitude, why would I want to tell you? Look...all I am saying is that I figured out that I am not exactly human. That my body...is created like the A.I. instead of like a regular human being. In the middle of my fight, during the last mission, I was taken over--possessed in some way--by the 'Angel of Despair', he called himself. So, either I have something inside my body, messing my body up, or I am something I don't understand, and I'm already really messed up." The woman looked on, calculating and cold as always, but when Acel finished talking, she merely nodded to him. She walked forward and grabbed him by the wrist--firm but gentle all at once and hauled him to his feet, half-carrying him over to the table and lying him down. "Did you see them again, this time, when you died?" Acel shook his head. "Have you forgotten them?" He shook his head again. "No, I won't ever forget Jasmine or Lidia. They were my life...my reason for being. Love like that doesn't just go away."

The woman half-smiled and nodded as she set the medical bench up. The thing went over his body, scanning every little bit of it as it caught any errors with the initial reconstruction and changes. Then, after his body was fully healed, it re-built the clothing and equipment that he had been carrying, in perfect replication. He took a deep breath and nodded to himself, already, the burning in his lungs felt more manageable. He stood up from the bench and he looked at the woman. "I will figure out what it is that connects us...and when I do, I will pay back whatever disappointment that I have given you." The woman chuckled and shook her head. "You can't." She said simply before she turned and walked away, leaving Acel to ponder the woman's words. Every step that he took caused immense pain to radiate through his entire body, and he knew that it was time for him to relax. He had been killed twice in no time, and he didn't feel like facing another death so soon. Not yet. He needed a little reprieve to let his body regenerate a little bit. Everything felt like open wounds. His legs and arms and ribcage felt like ground beef. He moved with the speed and urgency of a manatee as he shambled through the halls toward the exit of the main facilites. He had heard a couple of people gossiping here and there during his time in the city about Gondora's retreats. Apparently there were some incredible hot springs and spas near the library. Perhaps he could soak his body there and gain some sort of relaxation. It was worth a shot.

Line Count: -127

OOC:

STAND BY______________________________________________

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Deep within the B.A.I.T.R Headquarters, within a dark square room, sat Faelan McBride. Currently he was sitting with his legs crossed and his eyes closed. There was a struggle running through his mind. A battle of chaotic wills. One dark, violent, and urging to bathed in the death of millions. The other bright, quick, almost electrical, but more importantly it is incredibly unyielding. The two wills collided over and over again. It had yet to turn into a full on war. Each side was still feeling the other out, and yet neither side gave an inch.

The room in which Faelan was currently sitting in the middle of was large and rectangular, but for all the space within it was actually sparsely decorated. In the far corner of the room was a bed separated from the rest of the room by a long parting wall. Along the wall, on the opposite of the bed, sat a single couch. It was ornate, and styled in an old English fashion. In front of the couch was a small table littered with various books and magazines. It made that section of the room feel more like a waiting room than something akin to a bed room. The floor and the walls were made from the same white stone like material. The walls where covered in weapon hooks and racks. Some of them were filled, but most of them where empty. A sort of promise for the future. On the stone like flooring below Faelan a large Taoist 'Eight Trigrams' formation was engraved into the floor, It took up the exact center of the room and Faelan sat atop the Yin-Yang symbol placing him directly in the middle of the formation. The formation itself seemed to glow and move about on the bottom of the floor making the scene of Faelan's silent meditation a bewitching sight. Not a sound was made, and the only light that seemed to be within the room came from the Eight Trigrams formation. Meanwhile within Faelan's mind the white and black forces of Will continued to fight at a standstill.

“You b*****d child.” A cold snort came from a man within the darkness. His golden eyes visible within the chaotic and chilling darkness. The cold words seemed to illicit no response from the figure whom currently sat within the warming white light. The warming figure looked almost doll like as he sat there with porcelain skin and piercing blue eyes. Snow white hair fell down past his shoulders, and his clothes could be considered plain. Still a sort of elegant air swirled around him. This was only the second time the two forces had done battle. In the beginning there was only the darkness, a cold and bleak darkness, it swallowed the mind and only sought out death. When Faelan had collapsed just before his fight with Dal'Mori something within him had fundamentally changed. Various choices were now being created. The choices would become the paths in which Faelan would have to choose from, but it was now more clear than ever that he was no longer the same as he was before.

As the two forces collided against one another, a whole other battle was beginning within Faelan's body. Guided by a tinge of purple electricity a strong violent force was sweeping through every inch of his body. The forced cracked bones and tore muscles. Everything the force touched it shredded into nothingness. As the force swept on throughout Faelan's body a black sludge was slowly being pushed out of his pores. This sludge was none other than all of the impurities resting within Fay's body, but after a short while a deep red began being pushed out along with the black sludge. Shortly after the chaotic energy swept through a part of Fay's body and all of the impurities where forced out a calming forced began to shine forth within that area. It began to refine and repair all the damage the previous energy had caused. Except, when the calming energy fixed the damage it also seemed to strengthen that area as well. This process of destroying and rebuilding continued on and on for half a day. The black sludge and blood mixture had hardened atop his body creating an almost black and red like scale pattern all over his body. Even his hair had been mostly matted down and covered in this weird cocoon. The current Faelan could be described as a demon-like statue stuck to the floor of his room.

It wasn't until another half of a day had passed, making it a full day since the start of this meditative like process, did a change actually seem to appear upon Faelan's body. A purple surge of sprung to life atop the 'scales'. A few moments of being refined by this violent purple lighting and the scales had become almost a glossy black before finally starting to break and crumble into nothingness. Even the ashes of where eventually burn into nothing by the purple lighting. After the scales were shed Faelan's body was once again revealed to the room, but he was now stark naked. The clothing he had been wearing before had naturally been destroyed during this refining processes. Although it was a minor annoyance there wasn't much that could be done about it. This was the most suitable process of refining his body that Fay could find within Xiao Feng's memories. It required the Baiter to withdrawal all of the power within his body into a single point before sending it violently surging out over and over again, and then allowing for the code to naturally heal the wounds as they appeared. It was truly a ruthless and painful method of body refining. It was almost a frightening thing to think of, someone being so ruthless to themselves. Just what would this person do to others? Still to stabilize his body in the shortest time possible this was Faelan's only option.

Now that Faelan had finished refining his body he still needed to adjust himself to this new state. Sadly this was only a half-transformed state and he would have undergo a similar experience later upon gaining more strength. The most notable changes though had appeared within Faelan's eyes. Normally Faelan's eyes were a deep blue, and only after he had taken berserk and further integrated with Xiao Feng's code did they turn to a menacing gold color. However, Faelan's eyes had now taken on a even deeper gold than before, and the effects of Berserk should have already worn off shortly after he entered into the meditative state. Although his eyes were not the only changes to. Faelan's white hair had taken an almost wild posture, some ends slightly sticking out. It was as if an electrical current was constantly being run through each strand. Oddly enough the wild look of his hair seemed to fit nicely with the sharp and violent aura he was currently giving off naturally. It was as if he was not actually human, but a weapon that had just been refined. Even his skin had taken upon a jade like quality. Still the change had done nothing for the color of his skin, it could even said to be worse than it was before as he was even more pale than he had been. In total his current appearance wasn't much difference if he placed the mask back upon his face, but he now much taller than he had been before. Standing now at five foot eight inches instead of his five four from before. Luckily Fay had taken this factor into consideration before hand and had sent for a suit to be made similar to his current one that should now at least loosely fit him. All he had to do now was wait.


▽▽▽ Lines : 75


OOC: I will post the second half later on ~ But enjoy the struggles of poor Fay.

Dal'Mori Cestrol Menne

The first thing that registered was the screams.

The horrific, unending screams. He had come to remember them each, so well in fact he could probably list off who's scream belonged to whom. He didn't want too, and tried to fight against it as best he could, but his eyes snapped open anyway against his wishes.

It was the same. Everything was the same, down to the last excruciatingly painful detail. Including the joy in his chest at being around his family and friends in this celebration. That is probably the part that kills him the most when he has these dreams. It always starts at the same place, him laughing at something an elder had mentioned to him. A full, true laugh. An eyes closed, shoulders shaking laugh. His chest was filled with delight, happiness, and love, the amounts of which both filled him from head to toe, but now also crushed him under their weight.

As his eyes came into focus, he recognized everything. The house where he grew up sitting right across the way, a simple two story house made from the forest itself by the hands of his father. It was always the first thing he saw, always the first item that filled his vision.

It always broke his heart.

It was like living torture, knowing what was going to happen, wishing with everything he had not to see it again, all while not being able to do a damn thing about it. He knew what was coming next, and no matter how hard he tried, how much effort he pumped into it, his head turned to the south end of his village where the screams had originated from.

It was instinctive.

No real thought. A built in response. His whole body knew what it was meant to do, even while his mind fought furiously against it. He was up and heading in that direction before he even really knew what he was doing. Well, his body was, he had lived this before. He knew what came next. A sight unlike anything that had met his gaze before. His body sped faster than he had ever moved, so much so he could actually feel his muscles burning as they pressed harder and harder.

His body worked of its own accord. Driving him forward towards a hopeless outcome. He whipped out his weapon and planted it firmly in the spine of one of the smaller beasties. At the time he had been surprised by the fact he had one shot one of the monsters, but he couldn't care less at the time. He was busy trying to save his home. Now though, now he knew exactly what was going on, he wasn't killing them. He was basically putting them to sleep so they could come back and get stronger and kill more.

He knew what was coming next. He couldn't prepare himself for it. No matter how hard he tried.

Just like the day it happened, when he reached the peak of the hill, the sight that greeted him was equally as gruesome as he remembered. It wasn't something you could forget. Bodies lay everywhere. Cores sent fire, acid and electricity towards everything. He was witnessing, first hand, the destruction of his home.

He had no idea how long he actually stood there, but it was long enough for the images before him to be engraved into his memory for the rest of his life. A scream to his right, one of his own name in fact, called his attention away from the carnage. He immediately snapped out of his stupor and went to work attempting to save all that he could. His body was simultaneously burning in pain from the exertion, and increasing his levels of adrenaline to ignore it. His body was moving faster than most humans could ever dream of, and yet it still wasn't enough. He landed another lucky shot, right into the neck of one of the beasties, once more sending it into this never ending cycle, but that was the end of his luck.

It was here when everything turned. When everything finally hit him, both literally and figuratively.

He had no idea what hit him at first, one moment his spear was whipping around him in the deadliest display of proficiency and skill, and the next he was flying through the air landing roughly on his back. The problem was he felt nothing, which he knew to be a bad thing, as it meant he either took too much damage, or his body was essentially over dosing itself on adrenaline.

He didn't have time to get up, or recover before he was accosted by four of the beasties. For one single moment Dal'Mori thought he would be free from this terror, allowed to join his perishing family and friends. For that one moment, he thought he would find peace with a warrior's death. One in battle.

He was wrong.

He was so wrong.

Instead, they pulled him to his feet, forced him to watch the destruction for a second or two, before turning him around. He knew what he would see, he had seen it so many times already, but no matter how many times it crossed his memory, nothing could stop the feeling of his stomach dropping, his lungs being violently emptied as they were crushed in a vice like grip, and the tightening of his throat.

Have you ever had a moment in your life that filled you with dread? Terror? Mind numbing horror? How about a moment in your life where you want to move your body so bad, but it simply will not respond? Well, imagine that moment, and then multiply it by a dozen or so.

There, before him, were the few people who meant anything to him. His mother, her shirt torn and face bruised, looking as defiant as ever. His father, both of his arms broken, blood pouring in large amounts from between his lips. His best friend, a slash across her face, but she wasn't much of a combatant, and thus probably didn't put up as much of a struggle. The village healer, who had to be actually held up, the damage she had sustained was substantial. It had to be given who she was. Finally, there was the elder who favored him enough to personally train him. The old man looked as full of despair as Dal'Mori felt, but he was standing proud despite being manhandled.

All of them were spewing some form of obscenities at their captors, true to the Menne spirit, but even they silenced at the sight of the beast that came sauntering over. The thing was a hulking mass of muscles and fur, akin to a gorilla in stature and movement. Its fur was black with yellow slashes along it, like a tiger. It eyes were the most prominent feature, as it stared directly at Dal'Mori, making its target very clear to all present.

"You are a filthy pest." The voice was surprisingly sophisticated, with some tones that suggest aristocracy, but as far as they were concerned it simply sounded high and mighty, like it was better than them. Like they were worth less than the dirt that held the creature on the surface of the planet. "A stain on this planet. You don't deserve the ground you live on. You hardly deserve the lives you have."

As it spoke, in a very slow manner, dragging out the pauses between sentences to punctuate them with the continued sounds of the screams of death and fear, as well as the destruction of every building. Like it wanted to savor every moment. As if the sound of the village dying was a symphony, and him the composer finally seeing it come to life. The struggling from Dal'Mori increased almost two fold when he realized what was happening, his eyes open only because he refused to shut them, a trait he picked up from all the people before him.

However, something changed this time around. Something that left Dal'Mori reeling. Everything froze. He stopped fighting. His eyes were focused in a whole new way, watching now of his own volition. The speech was the same as that day, the words exactly the same down to the very last syllable, but the perpetrator of the events around him changed into something that caused honest horror to fill his chest.

"You all think you're something special." The life left the healers eyes, as she was felled. "Unique in your own way." The elder was next, blood flying from his mouth as his life was ended. "You're not." His best friend fell to her knees, struggling with all the life in her body to recover from the killing blow. "You are all vermin. Disgusting monsters." He felt the roar rip from his lips like always as his father fell to his face, the life long gone from his eyes by that point.

"I will wipe your kind from the face of this planet, even if it takes me an eternity." The figure finally came to a halt behind his mother, and his struggling increased further, the roar ripping from his throat increased in volume, enough to be considered a bellow of rage. "Except for you. You I will let live, forever alone, with the knowledge that you were simply too weak to do anything about it." Those were the final words his mother ever heard, and the world shattered around him, no amount of training or preparation could prepare him for seeing his whole life destroyed before his very eyes.

Even less could prepare him for watching them all die by this new figure.

The being that took the place of the usual beast, the thing that struck horror right into the warrior's heart, the monster that took the life of his whole family? It was himself. The giant core that controlled everything, turned into Dal'Mori himself. He watched as he killed him family, he watched and could do nothing. One might think his subconscious was trying to tell him that revenge was not the route to go, it could turn you into the very monster you were trying to kill.

Not him.

As his eyes snapped open in the hospital room, and his body immediately rose to a full sitting position, he had an epiphany. He realized what the dream was telling him, and couldn't help but feel that volcano of rage erupt once more. His mind had known, and now it was finally telling him. He was too weak. He was too weak today, and he was too weak then. He was so weak; he was the reason his family died. They might as well have been killed by his very own hand.

He couldn't stand it! He was pathetic! Even at the height of his power he was still too weak!

He stormed out of the hospital area, despite the protests of the doctor to take it easy, despite the aching in his body. He didn't care. The pain was fuel. His plan? Check for his newest weapon, grab it if it was there, and then go train until he simply couldn't move anymore, and then keep going. The only way to get better was to push your limits, even if it was well beyond their maximum limit.





Ooc:

Line Count: 9

The morning was very quiet. Akio woke up rather early, but remained on the couch until he smelled the glorious scent of pancakes waft in his direction. It had been a long while since he had pancakes, usually going for something with more protein in them, but for some reason, those pancakes smelled like absolute heaven to him. And when they finally sat down and ate them, they were. He had no issue with them speaking sign language with each other, translating everything to him with ease as they spoke over breakfast. It made him curious, though. Perhaps it would be a good idea to learn it himself, if only to make communication easier.

He shrugged the idea off, though, continuing on with the morning. He would have liked to have a cigarette, perhaps do his morning Tai-Chi, but they needed to get on their way. Sarah had gotten dressed in something that was actually pretty formal, which surprised him until her mom apologise for not having any causal wear in the house for her. “You look nice.” Was his only comment, saying it in a rather off-handed way. He meant it, though. She did look beautiful in the outfit, the colors complimenting her rather well. Then, he waited for Sarah to finish her farewells with her family before heading out. The taxi was already there, Sarah’s mom having called it, so they were off.

Of course, the taxi ride to the train station was rather quiet, neither of them really speaking to each other. It wasn’t much of an awkward silence, neither of them really wanting to talk to each other. At least, that’s how it felt on his end. While he did turn to her eventually and say “Those pancakes were really good,” hardly any other words were really shared between the two of them. Akio merely peered out the window and watched the city go by, fighting the urge to fall asleep again. He already had a decent amount of sleep, for once, and didn’t want to be groggy for the rest of the day. There was also something in the back of his mind that craved a cigarette. A burning aching feeling that he knew he couldn’t shake for the life of him. He’d have to have one once he got back to the head quarters. He wasn’t ready to quit any time soon, even though he knew it would be a good idea to do so. It wasn’t time for him.

By the time they reached headquarters, those were the only words exchanged between the two of them. Then, they both parted ways as if they hadn’t gone through what they did, only waving in response to her farewells. As she walked away, though, the Trooper said something to him that was rather interesting. ‘The princess’s fool wants you to know that they appreciate fighting beside you.’ He then gave a slight pause, then added. ‘And she’s apparently too dumb to say this.’ To this Akio let out a short laugh which he quickly covered up with a cough. “Right.” Akio then turned to face Sarah and cupped his hands over his mouth to shout, as she was walking away, “Yǔ nǐ bùcuò gōngzuò yālì tài dà!” He said with a grin, knowing she would know exactly what he said. He still found it very interesting to know that she spoke Chinese as well.

Akio lingered for a moment, debating if he wanted to go back to the training room, or if he wanted to go to his apartment and change into something more appropriate. Eventually, he chose his apartment, just so he could have the cigarette he so desperately wanted, and to finally wear some normal clothes, and wash the blood covered ones.

His trip to his apartment was wildly uneventful, simply a trip. When he got to his new home, the lonely two bedroom apartment which was the standard issue to the Baiters, only to be welcomed by the mounds of boxes that filled his place. With a sigh, Akio walked out on his porch for a cigarette. For the ten minutes it took to finish his smoke, he reflected on the mission and what he had learned. For some reason, rather than thinking about the battle, he thought about Sarah and her family. How oddly comfortable it was to be there, and how welcoming her family had been. It was such a large family, he almost expected to feel awkward being there. To be left out of the conversation, or simply feel overwhelmed by all of the people. Somehow, that wasn’t the case. They included him, even though they had to translate most of what they all said. It was… Nice, actually.

Akio shook his head, putting out his cigarette in the ashtray outside, then walking back inside. After a couple hours, his apartment was in order, things were properly placed, and Akio was dressed normally, and he was out the door again, heading for the training room for some Tai-Chi, and a good workout. Perhaps he would pick up a new mission while he was at it? He didn’t quite know yet. Or, he could work on his Holo-Trainer, finally getting it up and running.

When he made it to the Training room, Of course Kiki was waiting for him, and let out some rather loud and excited beeps when she saw him. “Yes, hello Kiki. I’m excited to see you too.” he looked around to see a mostly empty room, then back to the rolling robot he called a friend. “Did you wait here all night for me?” Akio asked, patting it on what would be the head. Kiki beeped in response, rolling around Akio. Dal-Mori was already in the room, obviously having some sort of issue with himself. Akio didn’t let it consume him, continuing on with his business. While he was curious as to what was wrong with the man, he also knew that Dal-Mori didn’t like him. It would be unwise to agitate the man further.

So, Akio did Tai-Chi, a slow moving martial arts that served to keep his center balanced, and his mind in order. He needed it, after that hell of a fight he was in the day before. Seeing someone die in front of him did more to him than he liked. It was a reaction he never expected, and never wanted to experience again.

And so, he went directly from his Tai-Chi into working on the Holo-Trainer. It wasn’t very difficult work, though it was on the more time consuming side. Kiki helped as best she could, dancing around him and grabbing him tools when needed. The E-Trooper would every so often add snide comments, telling him to make one change or another. Akio worked rather efficiently, managing to get into the small nooks and crannies for the rewiring. The hard part was changing the programming. Having to locate the code that was meant for specific fighting styles, as well as the code for collisions, was a little harder than necessary. Even still, he managed to locate it, then copy it to another section for altering.

This also took a while, and when he managed to have a testable prototype, he closed up the panels, stood back and activated it. “Kawaguchi-san o kangei shimasu. Sutairu o sentaku shite kudasai.” It said, a figure appearing in front of him. Of course, he selected the new style he set into it, and tested a few swings on easy-mode. Of course, this worked fairly well, so he kicked it up to medium and tested a few more swings. These ones, sadly, didn’t work nearly as well as he liked, so he went back to the drawing board, figuring out exactly what it was that failed in the code. Once fixed, he went back to testing. This went on for a while before Akio stood back to look at his creation.

But he wasn’t satisfied… he needed a control test before he could say it was completed. But who would willfully agree to taking on this machine to better themselves? Akio slowly turned his head to Dal-Mori, who was still working his a** of to become better. A slow smile spread on his face as he thought about it. Perfect. “Hey, Dal-Mori? Wanna test out a new fighting style?” He asked, keeping his tone light. Akio didn’t want to spook the man, but Dal-Morin would be the perfect person to test it out. And he was right there! It couldn’t get more perfect than that.


Lines: 8333
Ooc: Sorry not sorry for the novel lol


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Quote:

B.A.I.T.R Standing: 163
Health: 1500/1500
Control Limit: 736

Skill: 116 [128]
Strength: 110 [---]
Defence: 100 [---]




Quote:
Tactical Advantages


Acupuncturist - Level 6 - Your blows hit pressure points, causing the foe to move slower and be less proficient with their attacks. When you deal damage, the foe suffers a -12 to their Strength stat for the rest of the fight



show spoilerhide spoiler

Sarah Hartwell

Sarah felt her face go hot in embarrassment as Akio called out to her, knowing all too well the Trooper had told Akio what the Guard said. This was going to be a problem if this kept up. Who knows what else the Guard will do. 'Don't worry Princess, I don't plan on telling every thought to everyone, just ones that actually need to be heard. Since you're so quiet and all.' The Guard said, chuckling a bit. “And you're going to be the judge of that?” She asked, doubtful. 'Of course.'

Sarah could only shake her head as she walked down the halls toward her apartment. She needed out of these clothes, she was sure there people looking at her oddly due to her clothes. Plus she was thinking about songs she wanted to play. There were various ones in her head, some serious, some love songs. She felt good, almost better than she felt in a long time. She entered her apartment, quickly closing the door and locked it. She walked into her room, quickly removing the formal clothes, standing in her lingerie as she stared at her closet. No one could see her, and it was her room, she could do whatever she wanted and she wanted to decide what to wear in her bra and panties. She smiled a bit, before pulling out a tank top first. It was white with the skeleton of the torso on it, rib cage, spine, and toward the bottom a little of the hip bones, but it was very slight. She pulled it on, wondering where she had gotten the top. She couldn't remember as she pulled on some dark blue torn jeans and a jean jacket, also torn, to go with it, putting on her weapons belt soon after.

She turned away, smiling when she saw the rest of her luggage had in fact come. Her family said they would send her things, though they couldn't say when it came. But among the suitcases was her guitar case. It was to heavy for her to carry with her violin, so she asked if they could send it when they could. She picked up the heavy carry case, though it wasn't as heavy as it usually was. She must have been stronger, that made her smile a bit before carrying it to her bed and opening it. Inside sat a brown wooden looking guitar, it had buttons for different settings, electric, acoustic, or bass. She took the instrument out and pulled out the amp she had, hooking it up. She set up her tablet, ready to hit any song that had it's guitar bit left out of the song. She sat down on a chair that she had dragged from the kitchen, flicking her guitar pick in her hand as she thought about what to play. Finally she settled on a very old song, a song called Blaze of Glory by Bon Jovi. She pushed play and readied herself, strumming along with the song. It was an easy song, the difficult part was switching to the appropriate guitar for each part. She breathed easy, feeling her shoulders relax, the tension from the fight yesterday slowly leaving her. She played a few more songs by the Jovi man before scrolling the playlist on the tablet, pushing going to a different artist. She played for a while before changing to one that had no vocals, and began to strum to the left over music on the tablet. It was a love song, but it held no meaning to her, she could very well say it was just for practice.

'Really? You fight for a living and you play a love song?' the Guard asked finally after his few minutes of actual nice silence. She smirked, shrugging her shoulders. “I could play this really annoying song about some doll, Barbie Girl I think it's called.” She said, quietly like she was talking to herself. It was hard to accept that there was something inside her mind other than herself. The Guard was quiet for a bit before making a choking sound. 'Please don't.' He said, in what seemed almost desperation. She giggled before strumming a few cords, thinking about what to do next. She played a few more girly songs as the Guard was seeming to call them, sometimes singing along, other times just playing the guitar part. Her phone buzzed not to long after the short conversation, giving her a reason to put her guitar down and let her fingers rest. She smiled when she saw it was from Jenny, asking how things are going. She thought about what to say.

'Things are okay, but I'm having a little guy trouble.' She sent, figuring she might as well let Jenny what all was going on with her that way she didn't complain that she was holding out information on her.

'Like, his dead body won't fit in this bag kind of problems, or you like him problems.'

Sarah looked at the message in shock, the Guard bursting in laughter inside her head. She could only shake her head, wondering what ran through Jenny's head to make her say these things. 'Neither! There's just this guy that keeps sneaking up and scaring me.'

It took a little longer for Jenny to respond, making her a little leery about what her best friend was going to say this time. 'Boo, that's boring. He's just flirting. Is he cute at least?'

Sarah gave up, locking her phone and raising her hands to defeat to no one. She wondered why she tried with Jenny, she knew she wasn't looking for a relationship. Why ask if the guy she's having a slight problem with if he was cute? Sarah wasn't going to answer because it wasn't important. She sighed, looking out her window. Her thoughts began to replay the fight yesterday, biting her lower lip as she thought of all the hits Acel took and she couldn't stop then all the hits she took. Was she that weak? Was it possible she was making a fool of herself for trying to fight? She trained, she really did. For years until she was sure she understood how to use each of her weapons. But maybe that wasn't enough. She rested her forehead against the glass, unsure what to do.

'Run a mission on your own.' The Guard said calmly.

Sarah raised her eyebrows at the suggestion, waiting for him to continue and explain why he would say that. 'Doing a solo mission will help you understand how strong you really are. Teammates are great, but you need to know your strengths and weaknesses yourself, that way you can actually know how you can help the people you can and not be in the way of others, since that's what you're thinking in the back of your mind.'

She hummed at herself as she thought about it. It made sense, a lot of sense. She pushed away from the window and headed out of her door and straight to the mission area, keeping her head down to avoid eye contact. She couldn't think about it too much, she knew that, or else she would talk herself out of it. Going on a mission on her own was scary the first time she had tried to attempt it yesterday, that was until Acel and Akio were pondering where Chicago was. This time she would go on her own, no matter what. She just needed to get the office where the missions were and accept one. It was easy. Right?

Sarah felt her nerves start to tighten as she stepped into the elevator, taking in a few deep breathes, slowly pushing the button to the office floor. She stepped out of the elevator looking around her nervously. It was all the same from yesterday, that was good right? She slowly walked up to the desk, giving the woman behind the desk a small wave, before lowering it quickly, feeling silly. The woman smiled at her, asking her if she wanted a mission. Sarah nodded, looking at the computer in front of the secretary when she turned toward it. Sarah waited quietly, fiddling with the very bottom button of her denim jacket.

“There's a mission in Australia, at the Ruins of Perth, they want someone to search the ruins and see if they can find any documents at a building they think may hold some information.” She said with a smile.

Sarah nodded, figuring she shouldn't be too picky. Besides, she wasn't sure what the other missions were, and she didn't want to waste the woman's time by listening through all of them. Besides, the woman might have chosen that mission for a reason, possibly a good one.

Akio took notice to Dal’s reaction as he came into the door. It wasn’t that he particularly liked that Dal hated him, just that it felt right. Better than being liked, at least for the moment. So he continued with what he was doing, fixing up the machine he was determined to finish and test out as many times as possible before going out on another mission that day, which he did want to do. Kiki helped in every which way she could, giving him tools, and lifts, and jolts where he needed it. Kiki was a good tiny medical droid, and she honestly made him happy. It felt good to have her and her help around.

Not only this, but it still felt good to do the work that he had a degree in, and was raised for. Sure, he wasn’t an engineer anymore, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t systematically improve the training modules in order to better train the baiters that all worked with him. And there were a lot who used the training room, though he had only met a select few. Sarah, Dal, and Acel being only a small part of a large network of people. And of course, those were only the people he had recently encountered. That didn’t count the other people there, who he had met or fought in the tourney. So, he continued working hard to make sure that his work was good enough to test, even if it was a prototype.

When his conditions were met, and he called Dal over, he half expected for the much taller man to say no. To say that he was busy doing whatever it was that he was doing, and that he didn’t want to socialize with the likes of him. Which, honestly, was a fair response. But Dal soon relaxed ever so slightly and walked over, obviously at least curious about what it was that Akio was doing. Akio tried to contain his excitement over what seemed to be a seasoned warrior testing his little machine, and took him through the activation sequence. It was simple, really. All one had to do was pick out a language, this time he went with English, and then select his mode. The code was set to build up as the fight lasted, learning as the person using it changed and varied his or her fighting moves. The stance would always start out as more aggressive, the hologram of a warrior raising its hands above it’s head, then bringing it down to its waist, then beginning the attack. It had wonderful guard, and forward foot movements that allowed it to be both swift and powerful.

Akio watched the fight intently, keeping track of both Dal and the Holograms movements with ease, picking out every single success and failure he could see. Though, he did hope that Dal would give him feedback, knowing that the man was powerfully skilled in the very same movement types as the program he used. Even if it was a different style. Dal’mori finished off one battle, winning the first fight with ease as he wrapped his sword around the opponent's neck. This was to be expected, this was the Holo-Trainers first battle, and thus would be slightly difficult to lose. Unless you were of a poor skill level, of course.

But then came the second battle. Again, Akio watched the battle intently, keeping track of all the movements that both Dal and the trainer made. This time, the trainer worked it’s magic and gave a harder fight. Dal’mori was giving the trainer his all, and as to what the programming said, the Holo-Trainer mimicked him. Not only mimicked him, but knew when to use what move, and then use his own style against him. That was good, and Akio was pleased. This was exactly what Akio had wanted out of the battle. Oh, everything was working out exactly as he wanted to, and he couldn’t help but be excited. Akio smiled as he saw the realization on Dal’mori’s face when the movements changed, adapting to his methods as they happened. This round, Dal’mori lost, the Holo-Trainer managing to get at Dal’s neck. This was perfect. With a win ratio that was now perfectly even, Akio could tell that he was absolutely on the right track to perfecting this thing.

Then Dal requested him to ‘pause his magic’ for a moment to grab another weapon. Akio wanted to laugh at the way he spoke about the weaponry, but he didn’t doing as Dal’mori said. He paused the Holo-Trainer and allowed Dal to pick up his normal weapon. ‘Awesome. He’s taking it seriously.’ Akio smirked, watching Dal come back and ready his weapon once more. When Dal made the motion, Akio turned it back on, and the trainer attacked. ‘This man is good. Really good. Kind of glad I didn’t die to him.’ Akio nodded in response, watching Dal with intent, eyes moving back and forth between the trainer and him once more. This battle lasted much shorter in time, ending with Dal being the winner. Akio cocked his head, thinking on this for a moment. After a short period of calculation, Akio came to the conclusion that it was probably normal. After all, this was a program against a human being. While the program was learning, and had at least 1 petabyte of memory, that was still lacking in comparison to humans. The only thing that came remotely close to a human was an AI, though he wasn’t actually too sure what their memory storage was.

‘Most vary, but I have about 8 petabytes of memory.’ Unable to help it, Akio began to cough in surprise. ‘Are you serious? That’s almost a thousand years of memory! The Trooper laughed, ‘Yes. It is.’ Well, that settled it. He was never playing chess with the Trooper again.

This time, rather than continuing on and battling the trainer again, Dal asked Akio to pause it again. Then, Dal turned to Akio, which was mildly unexpected, and told him exactly what was wrong with the machine. This took Akio aback for a moment. It wasn’t that he was surprised that his programming had flaws, but more that he was being so polite about it. The thoughts showed on Akio’s face without falter, unfortunately being very expressive, it was hard for him to hide any emotion he felt. But he quickly got over this feeling and nodded, turning to alter the programming slightly, hoping that Dal would stick around long enough to test it again. “Were there any other flaws worth mentioning? Loss in strength, speed, power, whatever?” Akio asked as he made the changed, hoping that Dal would continue helping him make it stronger. When Dal said no to each question, Akio nodded, making the fixes that he mentioned previously.

Then, when all was completed, Akio started the Holo-Trainer back up again, all without saying a word. Dal’mori then worked his magic, battling toe to toe with the trainer once more. It was fascinating to watch the man work. While he could tell that Dal wasn’t exactly skilled in these particular weapons just yet, but he already knew them so well. Akio watched intently once more, watching for the faulters that Dal had spoken about previously. And, honestly, he didn’t quite see many more faults. That pleased him greatly as he watched, crossing his arms and cocking his head ever so slightly. The fight was short, just like the first few, ending in a win on Dal’s end. Akio remained neutral about this win, figuring that it would be off an on between the two anyway.

The next fight was more interesting, lasting ever so slightly longer than the previous one. This time, Dal struggled. Fighting the trainer had grown slightly more difficult, and it was dragging on Dal. Not that he couldn’t still fight the thing, but that the trainer was besting him ever so slightly, resulting in a loss from Dal. Slightly disappointed in the outcome, Akio frowned. But when Dal told him to pause his magic again, Akio did, and watched him switch weapons again. This time, to his staff. Akio turned his frown into a smirk as he watched Dal pick up what he knew to be his preferred weapon. This was perfect. He was going to get so much data from this one person, from various types of weapons. It was what every scientist needed and wanted, and what every engineer needed as well.

So, when Dal squared up this final time, he went hard. Fighting the Trainer with all he had, giving the final few test runs all he had. This was good, very good. He watched as Dal swirled and swung his staff, fighting with it like he’s been using it for his entire life. Which, as far as Akio knew, he could have been. And it was downright fascinating to see. The way Dal moved was absolutely graceful and powerful. He knew where exactly to put his staff to do the proper amount of damage, where it needed to be. It was beautiful, really. If he were capable, he might had fallen for the man right there. But, at the moment… He was closed off to any such feelings. As he thought.

So, when Dal came up with two wins, and only one loss, he wasn’t surprised in the slightest. It made him excited to see it, but he wasn’t surprised. “I may just have to beef these up before I finalize them, just for when you do that.” Akio said with a small laugh, then asking once again if there were any faults in the way it worked, asking the same basic questions as before. Dal answered him to the best of his ability, which Akio greatly appreciated, and wrote everything he said down.

“You can continue fighting it if you want, but I’ve gathered all the data I need. Everything else is just for fun.” Akio went back to fixing the programming, fully expecting Dal to leave. There wasn’t much to fix anymore, just a few tweaks and it was perfect. So when Dal spoke up and asked if he could make it harder… Akio simply grinned, and turned up the level. “As you wish.” Was all he said before he let Dal have his fun with the Holo-Trainer.


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B.A.I.T.R Standing: 163
Health: 1500/1500
Control Limit: 736

Skill: 116 [128]
Strength: 110 [---]
Defence: 100 [---]




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Tactical Advantages


Acupuncturist - Level 6 - Your blows hit pressure points, causing the foe to move slower and be less proficient with their attacks. When you deal damage, the foe suffers a -12 to their Strength stat for the rest of the fight



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Shards of Myself