Chaos Sonic

It was a faux summer this day... and right now, Victor couldn't be bothered with this day... least, not at first. He had just handed over a computer tower back over to it's owner and after that, closed up the shop early. Of course, he had his reasons to do so... after all, the end of the world was incoming soon... hopefully it wouldn't if he had something to say about it. He adjusted his glasses and headed down to his workshop, to where his tech already started whirring back to life. "P.I.X.E.L., how we lookin' today?" he asked, getting behind his work desk and flicked his wrists slightly, a series of holographic screens started to activate. "Everything is operating at normal capacity, sir." Victor nodded, pulling up a few things on these screens. One showed a few G3 Database files, with one opening that happened to just be nicknamed "Tinker", while another showed Ophiuchus of the Zodiac, while a third... the third simply had more files on various Tinkers and Thinkers. "Alright my Scottish voice of reason..." he said, as a small holographic orb appeared near him. "...until the Director tells us we have another mission, we're doing some investigations on our own... which may or may not end up having some information of ours stuck close to our chests." "In reference to Cassandra's Circle?" "Correcto." he nodded, crossing his arms as he looked at his screens. "We need to do something for the time being, until we get everything fully analyzed, specifically with that video. We have currently three options... Option One: We talk to our ol' buddy "Tinker"... see if we can get any new information on things. Perhaps if we show him the pendant that Sarah gave us, we may get more information." He moved his hand slightly, shifting screens. "Option Two: Relay information to Ophiuchus per our agreement... but this means we need to keep the Circle's information top secret and classified. If they find out this stuff on their own without knowing we're apart of it, that's one thing... but this information is stuff I'm keeping with us to the grave... or in your case to your trip to the Recycle Bin..." "I appreciate the attempt of a jest, sir." "Those are my two biggest choices, while Option Three is just go down our extensive list of Thinkers and Tinkers to try and figure out what we do about the end of the world... maybe find others who think like myself in this regard." Victor sighed, taking a quick swig of a drink. "Your thoughts?" P.I.X.E.L. was quiet for a moment, seeming to process the situation, but spoke a few moments afterwards. "If I may, perhaps locating with "Tinker" again and conversing with him in regards to having a bit more information between the two of you, thanks to Sarah, may be the best bet." "And this is why you're my co-pilot, bud." Victor chuckled, swiping his hand to the right, the other screens being flung away and disappearing and "Tinker"'s information laid there in the front. "Now, time to find our ol' pal..." "His last known at the North Market." P.I.X.E.L. said, giving Victor a ping on a map for him. "Shall I prepare the suit immediately, sir?" Victor thought for a moment, before chuckling and turned on his heel to grab the watch that held his nanites before swapping his glasses for a pair of sunglasses. "I'll take it with me, but I feel like this is gonna be a situation where I'd much rather not want to draw attention to myself." he chuckled, grabbing his keys and of course... the pendant and put it in his pocket. "Let's just talk to him as ourselves." Upon arriving at the North Market, which wasn't too far of a drive, Victor exited his vehicle and looked around to see if he could find the guy in question. Luckily, there he found "Tinker", he was at a burger stall and he had quite the group of people behind him who seemed quite upset and even annoyed with the Cape. Could it be that he had about two bags filled with an inordinately amount of food? Or maybe the fact that he was holding up the line in a sense? Honestly, he couldn't tell... but he didn't care at the moment. "There he is... let's get to work then." Victor said, casually but cautiously, approaching "Tinker", removing his sunglasses some. "Think you got enough grub there, bud?"

As if on cue, or perhaps answered by the divines themselves, Ziun looked to his other compatriot and proceeded to cast a Mage Armor on him. Like with Lana a few moments earlier, an ethereal armor began to cover the squish parts of the human. "Wouldn't want you both to get injured whilst on this adventure anymore than you have to, right?" he laughed a bit, doing his best to move backwards while he watched the two cultists try and navigate around his pool of acid...meanwhile, he noticed the crossbow ones were simply...waiting. More than likely, he figured, that they were waiting for their allies to pass the acid. "Now, let's try and keep ourselves away from these interesting individuals..." he said, immediately casting Acid Splash again, keeping the dagger wielder to his right trapped with the new pool of acid. Now while he planned to do the same on his left, Ziun watched as this dagger user started to rush him. "I'm sorry, but I believe you need to wait your turn!" he said, firing off some icicles at the dagger wielder. The dagger one was injured, bleeding quite a bit but they kept going...albeit slowly...with dagger raised. Meanwhile, Ziun noticed about the crossbow users...they were preparing their next bolts and took their aim at the bard. "Let's move slightly...give me a bit of leverage..." Ziun said, positioning himself to face the dagger wielder, now using him as a sort of human shield. In the meantime, the bard took aim at the dagger wielder's dagger hand and launched another icicle at the hand, more specifically his wrist. It struck true and knocked the dagger out of the hand, so now he was weaponless. Now came a different idea, this time for the crossbow users. "I think I have something for you..." "Hear the verse and rhyme that I sing... Come forth and assist thy master..." To his right side, materialized and formed a couple of bats flying around him. "Go take care of those crossbowmen, if you please." Ziun said with a smile, watching the two bats flutter and fly off. But from where two...there started to duplicate and multiply...more and more appeared around the two bats and they swarmed the cultists and started flying around them. What happened in actuality? Simple: Ziun utilized his Summon Creature with assistance in a Minor Illusion, creating more bats to confuse the enemy. "How are we doing back there you two?"

1. Now this is an interesting question, as each one has their own quirks and ups and downs. But honestly, between the two...I prefer the Spider-Man villains. My reasoning is that while the Batman Rogue's Gallery has heavy hitters within the mob families (Falcones, Maroni, the Sionis Crime Family, etc) you also have the psychotic killers (Joker, Professor Pyg), immortal warrior (Ra's Al Ghul), a steroid user an assassins (Bane technically and Deathstroke), and then some of the more...outlandish ones (Poison Ivy, Clayface, Man-bat). On the other hand, the Spider-Man Rogue's Gallery has almost everything from every walk of life: many people in tech suits (Scorpion, Vulture, Rhino, Doc Ock), the outlandish ones (Morbius, Sandman, the Lizard, Electro), various machinery out to squash the spider (the Spider-Slayers), "mystic ones" (Inheritors, Mysterio...cause there are ones where he actually does get mystic arts)... Those galleries of villains from both sides are memorable in their own rights and give both characters various challenges that they need to navigate through. Personally for me, it's Spider-Man's gallery of villains that I prefer more. Maybe it has something to Spider-Man relating to me somewhat (honestly, I've always sort of gravitated towards this series of comics more than any other ever since I was young, so perhaps there's truth to this but I digress), or maybe it's the overall design of the villains, but they've always been a favorite of mine. 2. Now, as to favorites of each, I can work with this, I'll at least give a few favorites of each: Joker & Green Goblin: The most obvious of the two for sure, yes I'm aware. But lets be honest, these two are the heroes arch-nemesis. They're the two sides of the same coin, as it were. Both can be incredibly psychotic, both are the initial go to villains for these respective heroes, you get the gist of it. Now both have seen their shares of a Face Turn (Joker with the White Knight series and Osborn with his current run as the Gold Goblin...after his time as Red Goblin...I swear he needs to go back to normal), but honestly these both are better as villains. Mr. Freeze & Dr. Otto Octavius: Contrary to popular belief, I adore these two as well. For Freeze, it's the human aspect of it all. He did everything he could for his sick and dying wife, even after his heart grew cold (literally) and kept doing what he could to save her. One of the more relatable and most human Batman villains for sure. On the other hand, Otto has been a genius, only to be rivaled by Parker's genius. Same time, Otto is one of the few villains who understands what Parker has going for him. The man took over Parker's body and learned that indeed, great power = great responsibility and that the man has actually held his punches back. It gave him a bit of insight into things and even as Parker, he did his best to be a superior Spider-Man (title drop).

With the group of Drengr defeated, Gene was thinking they were going to sneak for the next part... but was immediately proven wrong when Sabrina walked right into one of the buildings... He wanted to bash his head against a wall, but that would've defeated the purpose of the whole "stealth" thing. But nevertheless, she did it, and now they had to own up to it. He sighed and just went in too... and well, he was surprised. "Lacking? I don't lack anything! I'm the legendary hero Dracona! The one who will save the entire world! Maybe your eyesight is lacking did you think of that?" “Legend? Legend…I have heard of no such Dracona before… My eyesight is quite fine! I see now, Storms blessing yes…you have four ears.” What, or rather who, Sabrina and now Abby were talking to was a buffalo man in ratty and tattered clothing... clearly not like the others for sure. But then, who or what was this individual? "Uh... e-excuse me..." Gene finally spoke up, kind of shuffling in. "S-Since you already know we're not going to harm you... w-w-would you be willing to answer some questions for us, uhh... I-I don't think we ever got your name either..." How did no one ask this guy's name prior? That's the basics to the whole party questioning thing... least in his mind. “Ah! A third! I see you have a whole army of lesser well known heroes…” the man mumbled for a moment before straightening his posture. “As for me, I am Enzo. Royal Advisor to the king. Or I was- am- is!” A royal a-advisor?? Gene thought, before clearing his throat a bit. "Y-You've already met them... I-I'm Gene... uh, no i-interesting title to that c-c-currently..." he rubbed the back of his neck some. "A-Anyway... w-why would a royal a-advisor be here instead of... well... with the king?" His expression turned to a glare as he said, “do you foreigners all live under rocks? Or perhaps all your hair is stuffed in your ears!” After grumbling to himself for a moment he said, “our king was betrayed by these heretics -savages all of them! None more so than that accursed knight Beryn…oh they want me to believe he was killed, that that rabid animal did him in but I know there’s no force on this world that could stop him!” "M-More like... we're just... not aware of c-current events..." Gene trailed off a bit with his answer to Enzo's first question. But nevertheless, he did take all this information before nodding slowly. "M-Maybe you can tell us about that a-accursed knight... Beryn? A-After all, we are h-here to take d-down the boss... m-maybe you might be able to help us too... y-ya know... if you wanted to. S-Since it sounds like you have some issues with them anyway..." Gene was trying his hardest right now. The buffalo was a bit of an imposing figure here, but with his mind on his many gaming adventures was working in overtime. Perhaps, since they shared a bit of a common enemy and goal, they could enlist Enzo in assisting them...like an NPC joining a party for a specific mission. Least, he hoped that's what this would turn into. “Issues - oh yes issues is a word to use - why I oughta…” trailing off again he remembered what he was responding to. “Beryn is beast among beasts - all of my misgivings with him do not change the fact that in body he was closest to Storm - a squandering of perfection. Thunder is his roar and Lightning are his fangs. His skill with his weapon, the sturdiness of his armor, the ferocity of his attacks…these rapid Drengr may as well be mice in the face of a lion.” Begrudging respect could be heard in his voice as he said, “that you supposed heroes know nothing of him must speak to how backwards your home must be for there is no nation that would dare to have fought Aersinn when he was loyal.” "...w-well..." Gene started, but paused, realizing what Enzo had spoken. He could hear the respect in his voice and the way he spoke highly of this accursed knight. The knight was the closest to Storm...the god of thunder and lightning... the Aeon Storm. This caused him to swallow hard, but after a moment... he finally spoke up again. "T-That may be true... b-but... that was when he was loyal, r-right? If t-this Beryn is no longer loyal to y-your king or even this nation... but stuck being an accursed knight... then... while he may be this figurehead in the physical sense... h-he's not the same hero you or these people once held in high regards... right? P-Perhaps the one that was the closest to Storm... has fallen from his pedestal..." “Pah! I see you have little sense in that hairless head of yours…but I can’t imagine Storm would look favorably on such a traitor, after all the king is closest in spirit to an Aeon. That’s what makes him king! Naturally the spirit would take precedence over the body yes, yes…” the man grumbled to himself, with it not being entirely clear if he was speaking literally or in metaphor. “But his body, all bodies of the Drengr, are from Storm’s blessing…yes yes, so it is up to all of you heroes to avenge the spirit and excise the blessing from these traitors!” His tone turned chipper as his demand was spoken. "S-Seems l-like that's a our job thus far for sure..." Gene chuckled nervously. He was hoping Enzo would say yes he'd join in the fight, but he figured this was as good as it was going to get.

Trevor, for the most part was still lulling everything over in his mind over the last few days. This morning's article read: "Plants In Pants concert delayed due to security being turned into pumpkins". No doubt, he had an inkling of a guess on what caused this, considering their run in with a witch who could control roots and vines: Morgan Reaperson. It was a farfetched guess, anyway, so he wouldn't have been upset if he was wrong. But it felt like the best kind of guess there was... Regardless, Trevor looked out his window, just staring at the scenery outside. The sorcerer contemplated everything. Since he arrived here, he was tested more than he ever thought possible. He flipped through the entries of his journal, only letting a sigh escape his lips. Fen... Grigory... Lacie... and now Morgan... These magic users, they exceeded his own skills greatly. He was an apprentice to Balthazar Blake, he who was already an apprentice to Merlin himself. Even still, his magic seemed like it paled in comparison to what they could do. Controlling roots, electrified brawling attacks... whatever Lacie and her teacups were able to do. Try as he might, Trevor just seemed to be back at square one with his magic... a simple street magician if he had to borrow the type of phrasing Morgan presented him. What could he change about himself or his applications of magic that could skyrocket him from this position he currently sat in? What could he himself do? Questions for later... Trevor eventually made his way downstairs, seeing Melissa making breakfast from the looks of it. "Good morrow, Meli-..." he stopped short, immediately noticing a newcomer that was in their apartment. ...a lot of that lately, it seems. How do they keep getting in? Trevor thought, shaking his head. More questions for later, he figured. "We have another newcomer? Interesting..." he looked at the newcomer and was surprised. It seemed like a snake... or maybe a lizard? He couldn't quite put his finger on it but the two horns out on her head seemed to indicate that she technically wasn't human, but rather just humanoid... what kind, he was unsure. Regardless, he snapped his fingers and had a blanket come floating in towards his hand. He moved and handed it over to the girl. "Here you go. Least I can offer at the present moment."

From a crypt like room, to a long hallway... it was a strange change of scenery for sure, but Ziun didn't think much of it. Luckily, the others weren't too banged up or injured, meaning he could still save the two healing potions for when it came time for it. If the last room of the day was anything like the day prior, then he'd be needing them for sure. Things, however, weren't all as they seemed with this hallway. As they got halfway through the hallway... it shifted. Zombie arms and hands emerging the ceiling and floor and if this wasn't bad enough, there were cultists with daggers and crossbows at the ready. To an extent, this was relatively better than the previous room, but this was still something that wasn't the best case scenario. He kept following after Lana, and heard her request: the casting of that mage armor that he put on her before. "A good a time as any, I would say." he said, putting a hand on her shoulder and immediately casting the ethereal armor on her again. "Let's give them hell." With the armor cast, he turned his attention behind him, seeing the cultists that were following. A quick conjuring of an Acid Splash right in their path was delivered. "I'm sorry, but alas, I don't take autographs from crazed cultists. Just my policies, you understand." he said snidely, watching the three dagger cultists stop their advances and even watched the hands and arms wither due to the acid. That would slow them down, however, the crossbow cultists now had aim and a line of sight set on the bard. "Well, I suppose I expected that...no matter!" Ziun decided to take aim at the cultists and fire off a few icicles. One moved and lost their aim on him, thankfully... but the other ended up getting hit and continued to fire. With a slight yelp, Ziun moved out the way of the bolt, though now had to forcibly move out of the grasp of the hands and arms. Through this though, Ziun noticed something. While he had done three spells in a row, he didn't feel... as tired as before. It dawned on him: these weren't strong spells, nothing like casting the same one three times. No, these were smaller ones and not immediately one right after the other. Perhaps that was the thing... if it wasn't in rapid succession and wasn't a strong enough caliber of spell, maybe he wouldn't feel so tired. He'd have to test this theory out...

“That’s interesting. The last we saw of Arcturus was out of the Horseshoe. She seems to keep popping up. But we haven’t seen head nor tail of Lucky Cat in the intervening time between those two attacks. It’s probably nothing, but it’s something to be on the lookout for. Arcturus may have her own allies, and our profile on her suggests, well, she’s ambitious, I’ll give her that much. But when I asked about this morning, I meant your dual pair of assignments. You were asked to interview the Archangel regarding Cassandra’s prophecy, and I understand you also have been commissioned by The Zodiac in general and Ophiuchus in specific to look into the matter. To put it as succinctly as I can before delving into further details, what are you going to tell him?” Override simply sighed at hearing what Sarah asked. "First: we interviewed her, she gave us the information in regards to the 'end of the world' prophecy via the whole Nihil versus Astra and Zorro..." he said, before shifting slightly. "...that's when we were attacked by the Gibbons, led by Hellhound. As for your second question..." Override fell silent again, before sighing. "That was Ophiuchus' request in order to sign the treaty for this truce. He wants to know why Cassandra and those helping them were willing to break one of the more sacred truces. That's it...and if memory serves, we needed the assistance of both the Fates and the Zodiac...considering the Gibbons are pretty much out." Sarah frowned. "Right, I remember reading last week's debrief," she said. "Ophiuchus also contacted you earlier today reiterating this assignment, right? I don't remember any of the Ophiuchi being particularly patient sorts. When he comes calling your way, are you going to tell him about the church? That you believe Cassandra was warning us about our lack of piety? Or maybe Cassandra had foreknowledge of Project Rubicon, and the aftereffects of this war? "More importantly, though, Cassandra had helpers, are you going to tell Ophiuchus about us too?" "I already gave him said information." Override shook his covered head slightly. "I told him, and I quote...'By this, it seems that Cassandra's prophecy and the religion we find ourselves in tune with here, may end up providing the same results. I understand it's not much, but, perhaps you may be able to gleam something more from this'." He moved a bit closer to Sarah. "You happen to be prying hard over here...I gave most of this information to the director, or rather P.I.X.E.L. did...so how about you delve into further details and tell me why it feels like you happen to be interrogating me." "It's important to get all this on the record. And he's going to ask again, for more next time." Sarah said, undeterred by Override's sudden advance. "It is a debriefing, after all." But then she switched off her recorder and fidgeted a little with a bit of string just visible around her neck, eventually giving in and pulling it out to reveal a small pendant -- a marble wrapped in wire. "I'll ask you again: how much are you going to tell Ophiuchus about us?" "I should've known..." Override simply said, looking at the pendant. Things were starting to click in place, not well mind you, but just enough. "That depends on one thing and one thing alone: who the hell are you, what the hell is that, and what does it mean? First the Tinker...now you. I'm going to need answers..." "I'm just Sarah, nobody special. It's just a pendant, a signifier at most. But what it means is a group of us trying to keep hope alive. And if Ophiuchus finds out, he's not going to want to play ball." "...that's not a lot to go off of..." Override sighed from under his helmet. "Secret organizations and the like, I swear...do you at least have a name for this?" Sarah blushed like Override had just stumbled on some point of contention within the organization. "It's just Cassandra's Circle. And don't worry -- we will be in touch. Perhaps, even, you'll find us." "Fair enough...fine...if anything, I'll omit anything from the reports dealing with the circle specifically." he sighed once again, before nodding. "You have our word." She took off her necklace and presented it to Override. "If you find someone you think is in the know, show them this." With that, and her debrief complete, she was off. Override simply looked at the pendant...contemplating for a moment what he was truly getting in the middle of... BGM Override was able to finally return to his workshop for a small reprieve... Victor finally recalling the nanites to his watch for a moment as he placed the watch on a mannequin, only to snap his fingers and have the nanites immediately cover the mannequin to present the suit. He needed to upgrade the suit's defenses...the one thing he was not expecting to deal with today was the "tech ghost" trying to hack into his suit. If something like that did exist, he needed to up his defenses on the NOVA suit. Shoving another bite of a cheeseburger in his mouth, he tapped away at the keyboard next to him, running scenarios of the footage that P.I.X.E.L. ended up getting from their mission today. All the while, across the room of his workshop...those words echoed once more... "In six months, the world will end." He looked at the footage that was still being analyzed, before glancing at the pendant he was given by Sarah...the symbol of Cassandra's Circle. That was something he needed to look into, but he doubted that anything would've properly turned up...even after P.I.X.E.L.'s initial search after his talk with Tinker earlier. That was one whole issue...but then at the same time... Nihil...Zorro...Astra... a trio fighting eternally for the fate of the world according to the Archangel... Now whether he was a believer in the faith right now or not, that was irrelevant...this was a huge issue that he was dealing with. He glanced over at his computer screen and looked at the files titled "NOVA". They were the upgrades he had put in place for just in case, of course he had his one project up...one he called NOVA Mk 18 - "DEUS Breaker". Victor sighed before closing that and opened up the next one...NOVA Mk 19...the one he called "Satellite"...it was an armor for deep space. It was an idea he was tinkering with but never implemented for the moment. However...the more he thought of what the Archangel said to him and the others...the more he saw Satellite as a potential necessity. "Looks like we're gonna have to work double time on things..." Victor sighed, before running his hands through his hair. "If anything we can make the nanites able to adapt and merge with the upgrades from the other suits. An instant transformation of suits by downloading the upgrade...guess we'll have to run some tests..." ...and hopefully it won't be too late...

In the meantime, while Melissa suggested that they inform Mauvache immediately and as Fen did so, Trevor proceeded to cast a quick Curaga on the rest of his teammates. Of course, they weren't as banged up as normal, but the healing powers of the Cure magic would definitely not only heal him and his allies, bit give them a bit of a rejuvenating feeling in order to keep going. "There we are, right as rain." he chuckled, letting out a content sigh. He of course was still thinking over it all. Such powerful magic users, and yet, he couldn't find one to potentially work with in order to better his own magical skills. Things were a bit bleak on that front, especially given Gregoriy... "Well, she uh, seems informed of the situation now though, Morgan does sound like a well, persistent problem for them. So, I guess we should keep on the lookout for her. Oh but uh, if she recognizes us maybe we'll be able to talk instead of uh, this. well, I guess our work is done. So uh, let's head back...team." "Naturally...seems like just one issue right after the other." Trevor sighed with a light chuckle. "Team Grand for one...that one tea saucer individual I ran into...and now miss Reaperson. I feel like we continue to make enemies...or just happen to have individuals who simply don't care for us in general." Not like Trevor wasn't too used to it. After all, his old allies and team he worked with back during his time in the Ever had it's ups and downs, especially traveling to each and every world they had. Trust wasn't a huge thing apparently...seems like that stayed true. "In any case, I say we did our best. Perhaps tomorrow will present us with better fortune than it did today."

Hmmm now that's a curious question for sure. Buuuut... Me personally: the humanity of a character. What I mean by this is a character that has believable human flaws that won't refuse to acknowledge their humanity. Otherwise they're making them just superpowered, perfect Mary Sue/Gary Stu. We don't need characters that are basically perfect at everything they do...I'd like to see humanity in characters, see their flaws show to basically have them be more relatable to. I tried...I really tried to like it, but it's not my particular field of fancy.

"Thanks for the assistance..." Ziun was glad Lana stopped the thrusting of the spear in his direction, but right now it seemed like the plan was now officially them moving in a circle to shift the change in direction and attention of the mummy...which now that it was in execution, it was sort of genius. At this point, it was on Lana...and then... “Rotate! I’m ‘it’ now, you two, uh, your turn to follow up!” Ziun took notice and rotated when he was told to, now he was able to get a different side of the mummy...though right now he was still trying to keep in mind his three spell in succession limit. While he did that, after Chris, Lana now had the attention of the mummy yet again. It was down by one arm now, but at the same time...it was obvious it was still going strong even after the dis-arm-ing... "Seems like I'm up then..." he said, immediately casting his webbing spell, trying to slow down the creature as best he could...but he knew one time wasn't going to be enough...so he cast it twice. If one web spell would hinder something small like the previous undead...then perhaps a version of this spell cast twice would do the same here. The webbing would coat the the mummy quite a bit, though despite this nuisance of the webs, it kept wanting and trying to attack and move...albeit just doing it all a bit slower. Which Ziun knew would play into their favor. If the three of them were faster than this creature, they could continue to rotate and change the creature's target up with relative ease. However, he knew another way to put the pressure on this creature in it's slow stupor. He exhaled slowly, before glancing at Chris and Lana. "Be mindful of your footing when making any other moves from here onward...I'm putting whatever pressure I can on this thing..." he said, immediately conjuring a puddle of acid beneath the mummy's footing. The webs would hinder it's movement and speed, while the acid puddle it was standing in would slowly start to eat away at it. And it was indeed doing that, sizzling away beneath it's feet. "I suppose, that should help for a bit..."

It really depends on the mood I'm in honestly.

So Sabrina took out the Worg...which honestly, impressed Gene quite a bit, almost leaving him motionless and speechless at the sight. Eventually, he did snap out of it in order to assess the situation right now. Currently there was one with a halberd and one with a sword. Between the two, the sword was his best bet. Guess that m-makes it a bit easier on me... he thought, before making a move. He went around Abby, who was near the Drengr with the sword and proceeded to make a simple basic attack. The Drengr, however, noticed his movement and had...electricity course through it's sword. A quick parry was done and it then proceeded to lunge forward to strike at Gene. In this moment, the young man looked at the creature's posture... ...it's...l-leading with it's right hand...it's right handed...meaning all the weight i-is on that front right foot. Gene thought, doing his best to dodge to his right...the creature's left. But the forceful and electrified parry left Gene a bit delayed on the dodge. The young man felt the electrified blade cutting him, right at the edge of the rib area. He winced in pain, but kept moving forward as he delivered a slash right on the creature's Achilles tendon. The plan there worked, the Drengr had an issue putting pressure on the leg due to the injury. Gene let out a sigh of relief, preparing for the next movement...which came immediately after the Drengr brought his leg forward and while gripping it's sword with both hands, swung the sword in a slash. Crap crap crap crap!! Gene quickly moved, trying to parry the strike, which was broken through and caused the young man to be a little off balance. The attack was diverted, however, but not for long as the creature went in for a horizontal slash this time. "I-I can do this a-all d-..." He parried again, but complete with him being off balance from the previous strike, the Drengr ended up knocking him down the stairs. The blade did find it's mark and cut Gene's side again, it hurt...but it wasn't deep and he was thankful for that. He groaned slightly, watching the Drengr near him and prepare a vertical slash at him. Though Gene did notice: it was straining with that injury it had, this plus the stairs. He decided to bide his time to find the right opening. He eventually gained his footing again and dodged to his left, missing the strike. Once again, the Drengr was determined and went for another side strike. "Now!" Gene moved forward, dodging the strike and immediately striking at the tendon once more. It was losing footing slightly, leaning ever so slightly. He took this opportunity and immediately shoulder checked the creature and watched as it tumbled down the remainder of the stairs. At first, Gene thought it was dead...either that or it was doing a good impression of it. "B-Better make sure..." he muttered, moving himself down the stairs, got right behind it and immediately stabbed it in the neck. If it wasn't dead before...it sure as hell was now. "T-T-There we go...j-jeez..."

“Oh yeah, you did a much better job than I would have. Whole floor would have been a wasteland, probably. Yeah, nice. Now there’s just Switchjack to deal with.” "Well...we each have our strengths...and tech is my livelihood for a reason." Override chuckled, his suit opening some vents as steam started to slowly pour out of the suit. He figured he pushed the suit a bit farther than he was expecting...either that or it was trying to get time to recoup after almost having it's systems hacked by these apparitions. Regardless, his concentration was broken by of course, the Director joining the room. “Keep your guard up. Knowing Switchjack, he’ll probably know to call it quits, but that doesn’t mean he won’t catch you slacking if he thinks he can. I was worried this day was going to be longer. That stupid robot out there just collapsed and is leaking steam everywhere, so unless Bard’s about to give me some real bad news, we can start focusing on reconstruction.” "Sounds like a plan to me..." he nodded, once the suit finished letting out the steam (literally), he stood up and gave the Director a thumbs up. "I'll be returning up to first floor...I'll let you guys take things from here. I'll have P.I.X.E.L. relay and send you the specs we have on our little encounter down here when we have a moment." With that, Override went on ahead past the others and proceeded to return up to the top floor and entrance. What he couldn't put his fingers on was one thing: what were those apparitions? If these were spirits, ghosts...whatever...they shouldn't have the capabilities to hack any computers like they seemed to do. Now he had heard stories around that there have been haunted computers, but he never once saw anything like that before. What's more, these apparitions could hack with the best of them...deploying firewalls, quick enough to keep up with him...which was a feat in itself already...especially with his power...and what was even more impressive was their capability to attempt to hack and take control of his nanites. It was almost unheard of...his creations were able to be hacked by an apparition... Once he finally got up to the upstairs level, Override was met with Sarah, which made sense why he didn't see her down with Sekelsky and the others. He gave the woman a quick two finger salute and nod. "Guess we made it out in one piece after all, eh?" Sarah smiled. "We knew you would," she said. She pulled a voice recorder out of her pocket and switched it on. "Now, Caesar will likely be dead soon if he isn't already, so we're trying to account for remnants of the Gibbons Gang and what they're likely to do in the power vacuum of the weeks to come. The main thing we're looking for in your report, then, is the location and impressions of your encounters." "..." Override was silent at this moment, after hearing that first part. He wanted to ask about it, but he figured he'd do it after the debriefing. "The casino, where we started, armed to the teeth with hired guns but all that was there was Tidebinder and Legion, no Caesar. We were escorted out, after Tidebinder practically flooded the place...received the Director's transmission here at the Battle Labs." The tech hero paused, before crossing his arms. "If I had to venture a guess, Legion or Tidebinder may end up taking over the Gibbons...but that's just a hypothesis currently." He cleared his throat a bit and continued. "Arriving at the Battle Labs, myself and Minos from Zodiac encountered who we believe to be Switchjack...as well as some apparitions with a knack for tech...I have the visuals on that encounter that I can have P.I.X.E.L. provide, like I mentioned to the Director as well." "That sounds like Morana," Sarah said. "It makes sense that she'd hole up in the tech building. What were Tidebinder and Legion doing away from Caesar, though?" "That's...the thing...according to Tidebinder, Legion was left in her care when Caesar went to finalize Rubicon. Left him in the server room for the broadcasting power...a broadcast beacon basically. Other than that, I'm...not sure why they were away from Caesar." "You were close enough to realize he was broadcasting something but couldn't manage to dig any deeper?" Sarah asked. "Sorry, I don't know how your power works or anything. Maybe you couldn't. But if they had a setup there, that's something we'll need to isolate." "Hard to do when Tidebinder had me gripped by the arm and basically freezing it..." Override sighed, shaking his head slightly. "But regardless, that's basically all I know in regards to that. They also seemed a bit surprised when we asked why Legion was there with her and why Tidebinder was just there. We originally thought the whole thing was a bait-and-switch, but they seemed oblivious to that too." "Well, we'll get working on that, then." Sarah turned her head and mumbled into her shoulder for a moment before returning to the debrief. "Now, what about this morning? We understand there was a little dust-up involving the Archangel Lailah, but we never did a full debrief on that." "Had some run ins with some assassin's basically...I know I namely squared against...I believe it was Arcturus. We ended up having the encounter stop after Lucky Cat was launched through the church ceiling."

I do. Been pretty much there from the very beginning, just haven't dipped my toes into Pkmn Horizons yet.

I've been meaning to get into that series, but I haven't read nor watched it yet. I do find the premise intriguing, I just have to find the time (and streaming platform) to watch it and/or read it.