"Quiet." The word punctuated scuffling feet, shifting clothes, pressured breaths. Another draw of boot on gravel formed an answer. Another grunt, a reciprocal slap of skin on skin, and quietude followed.
The alleyway, long and bland, remained unoccupied to most. Its mouth was meant to be forgettable, for no arch brooked the distance between a watchmaker's shop and the cheap and airy boutique moved in next to it. Each building offered enough to look at with their grandiose name displays, the second floors housing entirely different businesses, the first floors showcasing their splendorous new wares, gauzy spring dresses demanding as much attention as the new Rolex pieces next door, and each still well lit deep into the night. Those who passed had their own business to mind, and kept their business locked away from the open, warming air.
Faustite relied on this benign indifference. As his hand remained clutched over the throat of his victim — a woman no taller than he, with slender shoulders covered by a natty cardigan and hair twisted up into a quick clip — he heard no outside help come to her rescue. Perhaps she knew by now that struggle risked more of her life, that calling for help down that long and narrow throat of business would kill her and put more at risk. Whatever her reason, she ceased her noisemaking.
The pair faced the opening to the street — her in front and him in back. Thin wisps of smoke petered up toward the night air, undisturbed by the tension in their collective struggles. Faustite loosed his guard enough to pull energy in brilliant gold strands down her body, sweet runnels dripping with potential action, where they coalesced in his free hand as a glaring violet orb. The tension in her shoulders was wicked down into his hand thusly, and he raveled together part of his next quota.
But a watchfulness lingered where only stars wandered, and Faustite's concentration slowed as he paid it wary heed.
seiana_zi
hope this works!
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 2:18 pm
Not everyone was indifferent.
It was Encke's job to not be indifferent, really. He was a senshi of order. It was his job to keep the Negaverse from doing anything horrific to the residents of this city who, for one reason or another, continued to remain in this hellscape. (Encke would admit, as much as he would miss his mother and sister, he wished they would just move already. He sometimes even wished that his partner would move, even if that meant he would have to be left behind.)
He supposed the war remained relatively unseen, and that was the reason why so many could overlook it in such a large city.
Encke couldn't, though.
He felt the presence of an agent that seemed to be an approximately equivalent level, even if something was strange about the aura he couldn't quite properly place. He had snuck along the roofs to pursue it, keeping a distance initially to make sure that the agent was just wandering around and not doing anything unsavory or murderous at worst. When he noticed the presence seemed to stop moving, settling itself within an alley, Encke got a bit closer, peering briefly over the side of the roof he stood on.
Were those ... smoke stacks?
Coming out of the agent's back?
It seemed this agent was similar to that agent he had met with the light bulbs on her head. What did the Negaverse do to their people that they turned them into ... monstrosities?
It didn't matter; the Negaverse were monsters, in themselves. He pulled back and evaluated the best approach, realizing that sneaking up like he might have preferred would be next to impossible with the smoke that billowed up from the agent's back. Of course, it seemed he was choking a civilian, so just jumping down in front of him wouldn't be very effective, either. He didn't want to accidentally crush her in the process of trying to save her.
Behind him it was.
Encke picked up a plastic bag that had drifted onto the roof, pulling it over his ears to make an attempted mask.
Then, he jumped down, and if that amount of noise didn't make him obvious on its own, he moved to swing out at the agent's legs.
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Works for me!
Seiana_ZI
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:20 pm
"Are you looking for my attention, Super Senshi? You followed for a while now." Are you fascinated? Do you want to pick at my scraps? Do you call it a job-well-done when you carry an exhausted civilian home?
Fingers worked to pull thicker lengths of energy from the girl. That she slackened more and more expressed her inability to go for help. But a senshi was upon him now, skulking through the dark casts of the night, looking opportunistic in all the ways the evening's events lined up to greet him. Here's your opportunity, they whispered, and this senshi-of-the-night rushed into the chance. Ever the savior, he looked for the monsters that ate their way through Destiny City's ever-fattened innards.
No words came to greet him. A whisper of a discarded shopping bag, taut over an object, was his only answer to thoughts unsaid. His grip shifted and tightened. Energy orbs received their dismissal to subspace. Two hands settled on her form.
The woman loosed a wavering, impotent cry for help. For the rest of the far-off street to wake up and fulfill its civic duties. It was drowned by the siren's wail that shrieked over the top of everything until that, too, faded into background noise.
The low kick caught his thin ankles, swept Faustite off his feet, led the civilian to fall with him. The ground's jarring blow rang up his side, hummed out of steel. Faustite felt his wince crawl over still-ringing teeth. But he pulled himself up as quickly as he could, rocks still clinging to the rare snippets of exposed skin, and stumbled into a turn. He stepped over his victim's prone form with a peculiar care, however.
Then he faced his bagged opponent, starless eyes searching his appearance. Halfway to suffocation. Convenient. Flush with new resource, he vanished in the quick of the alley to his senshi's hind, eager to seize those handles for a few seconds of restricted breathing.
seiana_zi
Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 10:15 pm
The momentary victory he felt when the monstrosity fell to the ground was quickly overridden when he realized that, in the process, he likely hurt the civilian more. Encke winced and mouthed a sorry if she happened to look at him, but in short order realized that getting distracted with the state of the civilian with the enemy still very clearly nearby was probably not the best idea.
Especially since he didn't seem to have actually disabled him.
He got up way too quickly for Encke's preference, but he really shouldn't have expected anything else, seeing as the other was also decently powerful and also seemed to be a literal monster. Getting a close look at the others eyes, even for just a moment, was enough to send a shiver down his spine. It was inhuman. He literally had nothing but black for eyes, a color that seemed darker than the smoke coming from his back.
As much as he had no interest in actually feeling bad for the Negaverse, he couldn't help it when he saw a monster in front of him. What had the Negaverse done to this --
Wait, where did he go?
Encke's wandering mind caught him flat-footed once again, and he felt his head suddenly yanked backwards by the sensation of something tugging very hard. He let out a bit of a strangled scream, flailing about in surprise for a second before realizing the much better idea was to get the other guy off him.
Knock the wind out. Monster's short.
Encke pulled up his arm and attempted to slam his elbow into the kid's chest.
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Posted: Tue May 01, 2018 5:15 pm
The woman remained prone, no songs of sorrow leaving her windpipe. No twitch of fingers to pull her to safety. No vibrant struggle to paint DC's dull, grey conflicts.
Encke's elbow struck Faustite squarely, forcing out breath and canceling his grasp on the bag handles. Imminently came his own magics — a flicker heralded the smoke explosion from the captain — as he retreated under the veil of pain. A few steps back, arms crossed over the residual throb. A telltale shift in his chest marked with a painful jolt spoke of more than a bruise. Straightening dragged that pain through his body like a bad habit.
That smoke would buy precious seconds, he knew. The surprise faded in breathless moments and this senshi would know forevermore never to stray within arm's reach of the captain. He would know to watch his breath, to keep his distance, to tease out all his penchant for magic before engaging in close combat. He would start to strategize. He would learn to turn that smoke against him. But weariness from magic use seeped like lighter fluid into Faustite's bones. Faustite needed the time — he needed the space. He needed the chance to breathe.
He needed the moment's reprieve to pull the woman's starseed through the deepest sanctums of space and into the palm of his hand. Reticent, he fought the ratcheting pressure in his heart to surmount those fears — that another starseed meant another quarter-inch of black chasing up his hands. Another few pants and he could swallow those weaknesses whole.
seiana_zi
WHOOPS
Dispersion ;; Range: 3 foot radius with Faustite at the epicenter. Duration: 30 seconds Use Count: 3x Miss Chance: Circumventing magic, stepping out of range. Effect: Faustite draws his hands together, and a sound like an opening lighter may be heard. Smoke pours from Faustite in a deafening blast. Those caught in the initial blast endure a ringing in the ears and mild disorientation. Breathing smoke causes burning lungs, stinging eyes, and frequent coughing. Ringing ears and coughing symptoms linger after leaving the smoke for 5 seconds. Any lasting damage is defending player's choice.
Posted: Tue May 01, 2018 8:04 pm
Encke nearly fell forward when he felt he was let free, the plastic bag, now loosened from his body, falling to the ground rather uselessly. He reached down to grab it, realizing that he might still need it, but not in time to block his lungs from a further assault.
Nor his ears, the ringing causing him to stumble slightly further off-balance, hands nearly missing the bag in the process. He coughed, hard, and his lungs felt like they were on fire. His brain had the brief thought of what in ******** is in that smoke but ponderings on what it actually was were cancelled with another round of coughing and another fresh burning sensation that felt like it was coming from deep inside. It tore through his throat.
Breathing in this air hurt.
He haphazardly pressed the plastic bag back to his mouth, stumbling out of the way of the monster and perhaps giving him far more space than he would have preferred. He had to get out of there. Had to get away.
Three feet felt like three miles before he could breathe in fresh air again. As soon as the air seemed to clear up from the black sickly mess that had been hanging within it, Encke tore off the plastic bag and took in a deep breath, accompanied afterwards with a rather loud cough. He keeled forward, panting and coughing, grabbing at his top and yanking it forward as if loosening its grip on his body might allow him to breathe better.
"Mierda," breathed Encke, facing the ground for a few more moments. Smoke rose, right?
He had gotten too far away from the monster, or at least, too far for his own preference. His brain registered that using his ability in such a proximity to the monster may not have been the smartest move, but he couldn't let the other have too much time to breathe. It was breathless and staggered, but Encke managed out a, "Full," pant, "Ionization..."
Strickenized
"Full Ionization!" - The closer a plasma gets to becoming fully ionized, the hotter the plasma becomes. This is essentially the same attack as his first one, except the burning has become more prominent. This ionized 'air' is hot, and along with the shocks, this attack now has the potential to cause damaging burns. (Uses: Twice per battle. Duration: 30 seconds Range: 10ft radius around target Weaknesses: This attack does not really discriminate. While it does not affect him as badly this time (it seems he has developed a resistance of sorts), if Encke is within the ten foot radius, he will also feel the shocks and begin to burn.)
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Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 2:03 pm
Ionization. He knew the word from chemistry. The air fizzle-cracked hummed deep of old, foreboding tunes. Faustite sucked in a battered breath and began to move for distance, but a fan of sparking stars like the midnight air lit across him. They lit like great burdens, sitting heavy on skin where they bore-burned through what they found. As he jerked an arm out from under their probing touch, he found another gather of sparks grasping and grating. Like soldiers, they marched up the muscles of his body. They waded through his meat.
And they found, in his turn, all the hardware they could ever need. A shower of sparks caught and wrapped each pipe before shooting down their length. They crossed his ribs as a highway, exchanging on the bolts easily, and raced their burning brilliance towards his sternum and deep into his core. There, hotter mixed with hot and contact sears wrote their psalms over his body. Pain flared and burnt his body, his eyes, his fingertips, his back. Faustite collapsed not from the heady toll taken on his body, but from something worse.
Paroxysms. Spasmodic muscle cramps where plasma tugged like invisible fingers. The starseed clattered uselessly from his tensing and flexing hand, meters still from its cage of flesh and bone, but further still from its gaoler. Teeth gritted, jaw locked, torso twitching with besieged, long muscles, Faustite could not reach for it. Could not reclaim the burden he sought.
And he hated it through all the pain, through the burning, through the festering weakness from his back. A thin ink pool escaped his mouth from where lips would twitch and bare. Bitten tongue, he knew. Cracked rib. And now contact burns would spider their way through his body like a lightning strike victim.
Schörl would laugh.
seiana_zi
Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 2:47 pm
Encke gasped.
It hurt. It hurt.
It rang like a mantra, and it reminded him how much his comet both loved him and hated him. The crackling in the air didn't affect him nearly as badly as the monster, but it didn't leave him alone either, zapping exposed skin and leaving red marks where the lightning seemed to particularly agitate his skin.
He coughed, hard, lungs still aching, as he finally turned around to face the monster. It seemed his attack had entirely brought the other down, flopped onto the ground useless and twitching. As he observed him for a crucial few seconds, a voice in the back of his mind reminded him of the pipes, and the fact that those pipes seemed to be made of metal. Electricity and metal got along like a house on fire.
His attack had, for the moment, crippled the other.
Something gleamed nearby, perhaps due to the flashes of light in the air, catching Encke's eye. He turned his head, drawing another cough from his lungs at the quick motion, and found what he would have been looking for.
Starseed.
Not letting the monster have any further chance at it, Encke swiped the soul from the ground, wincing as he felt another spark shoot up his arm. The starseed hadn't lost too much color yet. In that case, the easiest way to keep the starseed out of the mouth leaking black was to give it back to the civilian on the ground, but he had to make sure she was comfortably away, because he would eventually recover.
His lungs were screaming. The zaps against his skin were only a slight distraction.
Encke took what time he thought he had left to uncomfortably make his way to the civilian, scoop her up, cough loudly, swing her over his shoulder, and attempt to make his way deeper into the alley.
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Posted: Sun May 06, 2018 2:44 pm
When the pops of stars faded from his surrounding, Faustite felt sorely burnt. His skin seared in areas touched, contact burns beginning their careful cultivation over his body, and he smelled his own roast on the air. Faustite snarled for as much as his stiff, tired muscles allowed.
Wrenching himself from the floor, Faustite spat ink on the ground. It spattered like a dolorous Rorschach. It spoke of a future, a psyche, a state miserable and foreboding and he slipped his hand into its messy form as he rose. Somewhere, elsewhere, the senshi stole away body and starseed and self. Somewhere, elsewhere, he shuttled away his good deeds in private. Somewhere, elsewhere, he practiced his ritual samaritanism to preserve this futile world. Faustite jerked as he stepped, muscles still humming with livewire. Even his back twinged as the effects slowly wore away.
Distantly he felt the remains of that super senshi, shimmering into a fade on the horizon. He made great distance in the uncounted seconds that Faustite lay incapacitated. And rather than end his life when the senshi had the chance, he retreated with the body of the woman scorned. He prioritized precious, fleeting, unknown, unaware life over certain threat. He valued all life over the potential for saving countless more by ending him. This senshi, it seemed, thought with his heart. Let the Blood of the Martyr fill his veins in ready supply.
And Faustite had a few suppositions about martyrs. He breathed steady, called to hand the violets collected off the girl. One, then two, broken between teeth. He breathed their lilting brilliance back into his life's cadence. Only when he was certain he could spare the energy did he risk another snap foray near the edge of his auric perception.
Once there, now here. A blistering gust of air greeted him, rank with industry. Faustite started into a run, reading movement out of the senshi's changing trajectories as he tried to reach his subject. A hop over a roof, a sprint along the top of a skybridge, and a dodge around HVAC systems brought him scantily closer. But when he was certain that the senshi encroached on a vast space, he spent his gamble by teleporting into his direct vicinity.
Think with your heart, my Martyr.
seiana_zi
Posted: Sun May 06, 2018 3:06 pm
Perhaps if Encke was less focused on saving lives and more focused on extinguishing the Negaverse, he may have attempted to end the piped monster right then and there.
As was, though, he was singularly focused. He wanted to get to Destiny Memorial, and drop her off close to the emergency ward. He knew she was likely to remain at least relatively safe there, in comparison to being out here, where Chaos auras were still lurking. He didn't know if any Chaos auras lurked in the hospital. He figured there likely were some there. But they could not act there, lest they be caught actively killing someone.
He hoped.
He felt the Chaos aura growing further away rapidly until it stopped, and then grew closer after a sudden blip. He felt it at the back of his mind, but he attempted to keep his mind singularly focused, knowing that dividing his attention would only result in slowing him down. He couldn't have been too far away from the hospital now. The fire in his still burning lungs told him as much.
But it didn't matter, for the captain was back in front of him.
Breathlessly, Encke stood by, adrenaline still slamming through his veins. He was somewhat surprised that the monster did not just leave while he had the chance. Encke had just left him there. Arguably, he could have escaped. Left. Came back another night. Maybe never came back at all. Truly preferable.
"Glutton for," a cough, "punishment, eh?"
His grip on the civilian hanging over his shoulder tightened protectively.
He needed to get the civilian to the hospital. None of this nonsense mattered if he couldn't save at least one life tonight.
So he needed to get the monster out of the way.
There was the brawling way to do it, a way that was tempting, but there was another, easier way he knew that would at least temporarily cripple him. That would be enough for now. He could manage with that amount of time.
Encke murmured another, "Full Ionization," directed at the monster, before bolting away in the other direction.
It felt like his lungs were boiling.
Strickenized
For convenience:
"Full Ionization!" - The closer a plasma gets to becoming fully ionized, the hotter the plasma becomes. This is essentially the same attack as his first one, except the burning has become more prominent. This ionized 'air' is hot, and along with the shocks, this attack now has the potential to cause damaging burns. (Uses: Twice per battle. Duration: 30 seconds Range: 10ft radius around target Weaknesses: This attack does not really discriminate. While it does not affect him as badly this time (it seems he has developed a resistance of sorts), if Encke is within the ten foot radius, he will also feel the shocks and begin to burn.
Seiana_ZI
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 8:20 am
"Am I?" He asked with a c**k of brow. "I wonder." And so should you.
But the senshi clearly spared no time for the thought. As Faustite chronicled the many parts of his opponent's ensemble, his opponent shouted another attack. Telltale sparks formed around him, dancing like starlight in the sky, each one singing their buzz-song in his ear. A brief glance around confirmed that the magic centered on him.
But before he grasped the breadth of that firefly cloud, one lit upon his shoulder. It shocked, it burned, it sent him forward into more of its ilk. And more. And more. And all the while, sandwiched between pain and burn and involuntary jerks on one side, and the native song in his bones to escape on the other, he had to collect data. He had to count. He had to spend away the silvery seconds on the wherewithal to do his job. On the deep and desperate search for better information, for more tactics. And if his senshi counterpart was only so focused on his latest nameless save, then this was Faustite's singular opportunity to learn the breadth of these motions.
Four, five, six… Collapsed to the ground now, the shocks tapped their way across his pipes, forming a haunting hum through the hollow. And while his body jumped as mischievous sparks played their game, his dark eyes were free to roam. The senshi's path they followed, winding, distant, beyond his sights but not his awareness. He wanted to continue running powered.
How foolish, Faustite would have thought, had he the time to do it. Instead, he knew only the dull count of seconds in his head, desperate for their punctuality. Another wave of plasma washed over him. He gritted his teeth against it and tasted his own copper in his mouth. Black, he knew. He wrote those observations with the ink in his mouth.
Ten, eleven, twelve… The night grew monstrously long.
seiana_zi
fin from me, we can call it a close here unless you wanna tag again!
