Chaos Sonic

“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.

I feel like that is the understatement of everyone at this point. The current state of NCM: how do you feel about it?

HOW DID I MISS EITHER OF THESE?!?! Jeezuz H. CRISTO!!! From MAY?!?! Yeesh...okay lemme rectify this: By my command? That's a lot of power to be tossed my way...hmmmmm... Considering life nowadays could be construed as a "Slice of Life", I'd say my top choice: Mecha. You get a mech, you get a mech....EVERYONE GETS A MECH! My runner up: Magical Girl, only cause there's a small chance that it'll open the avenue up for Tokusatsu power ups...worse case scenario if not...Magical Boys. Blue, hands down blue.

How's life treating you, amigo?

Trevor did his best to keep dodging the burning roots, dodge rolling out of the way of two of them trying to smash him between the two, as he kept casting Firaga on them. It was rough for sure...to the point that he was getting a little worried, but he didn't show it on his face in the moment. However...the unthinkable happened: Morgan left. "Oh, no! There isn't much time left! If I don't get tickets in time because of you you'll regret it! You got lucky this time!" He watched the witch leave off on her broom and he was wanting to follow after her...oh how he wanted to. But no, he had too much on his plate right here. The sorcerer continued to burn away the vines that were around him and the others...knowing this was the best thing he could do right now, not trying to go after the witch. Between him burning them and Fen apparently hacking through them, the vines seemed to finally get trimmed as it were... "um, are you both alright? That certainly was, uh, something." "Perfectly fine, Fen...hopefully you are as well..." Trevor chuckled, huffing slightly as he sat down on a nearby downed vine. "...I think at this point we may need to be part-time gardeners with this, don't you?" "Well, I guess we can consider this solved? I should probably, uh, tell Mauvache about it or something tomorrow. so uh, what did you both make of her?" "Personally, I feel we need to inform Mauvache of the situation immediately. We shoot a message to her that way she's not waiting until the next day to deal with it." he said, removing his hat to wipe his brow slightly. "As for miss Reaperson, I believe she's a strong magic user...though she's never heard of Merlin, which is a shock...so her style of magic must be rooted in a world without the great wizard Merlin...it's fascinating." He paused, before putting his hat back on and sighed. "...it does, however, show that I'm still needing to work on my magic myself...as I feel like not much was done on my end to help. Perhaps my magic needs more fine tuning..."

The grip on the house phone he had grew tighter with each word that he was told on the other end of the call... Levi was livid, rightfully so. "I gave you that payment about two weeks ago...the hell do you mean that you need another payment?" Silence filled the air in his apartment, only the sounds of his teeth grinding against one another filled the silent void. "What do you mean that it's being raised? ...are you fu-...goddamnit..." he hissed out, before clicking the "End Call" button. Letting out a loud yell, he threw the phone against the nearest wall, watching it shatter. That was the third phone this month... Levi slammed his fist against the counter in rage, before letting out a deep, pain ridden sigh. "...I need to get out...need some air..." He stood upright, running his hands through his hair before moving to grab his jacket. He needed to blow some steam off...and he knew the best place to do it... BGM Thud...thud...thud thud thud... Levi's punches connected with the swinging punching bag. It seemed to have seen better days, but it was there for him...to take every ounce of his rage that he poured into each and every one of his punches. He didn't hear much of the sounds of his punches hitting against the punching bag due to his music being blasted over the speakers in this little rundown warehouse he "liberated". The rhythm of the music and his punches began to become one as the seconds ticked away... ...after the last job...tch...how the hell are we supposed to come back from THAT?! Levi bit his tongue slightly, recalling the escapades from the previous job that TARTARUS performed. That was the worst thing to have happen to us...I do blame a large amount of that on Trois...then again, we had a LITERAL monster that screwed us there too...so blame definitely on those two in my mind. I swear... Eventually, the little work out to get his mind off of things ended...and it was a good thing it did too. Seemed like Cordula had sent an important notice his way. "Urgent news? Hopefully this will be good..." Levi sighed, turned away from the punching bag. "Here's hoping we haven't lost the ability to get work..." It was time to put on a bit of a normal face...not this pissed one he had now. "VERITAS has work for us again!" Levi had a small sigh of relief escape his lips at hearing this. It meant they weren't out of the running for work...meaning he could still make enough money when it came time for it. He just kept his eyes on the prize, though here and now...he kept his eyes on Cordula and her explanations. "This here, is some kind of experimental device that I don't know what it does. Our job is simple: Take it! Security is gonna be tight, but because scientists are nerds who don't know shit about security, it's all cameras. Which means! We should be able to easily brute force our way through. After all, what are they gonna do? Record us? Once the device is snatched, we just need to bring it to the drop site, and we'll get one delectable paycheck in our pockets! If you've got questions, ask now!" He rubbed his chin slightly, looking at the information presented, allowing Trois to apparently throw shade at Min...or...whatever she was doing. Levi really couldn't properly read that woman, that was for sure. "I think if anything, so long as some people actually stick to any semblance of a plan...we should be fine." Levi gave Trois a side glance, directing it at her. "In any case, the boss did say that these people should be generally having cameras...but at the same time, they happen to be scientists..." he paused before, turning his attention back towards Cordula. "So boss, what kind of scientists are these folks? We know that first, we can find out if they'll just be nothing but cameras oooooor if they have some sort of laser weapon poised to take us down. Once we know that, we can properly formulate a plan, least in my mind."

Just when they were finished, another mummy appeared... and this one looked more important than the others, on the account that this one adorned in golden armor and held a spear. So this thing had a long range advantage from the looks of it, so this would be an issue to an extent. Ziun huffed slightly, shaking his head at this sight. "...I swear..." "So what's our plan for the big guy?" “We could, I dunno, flank it? One behind and two in front to keep it busy?” Ziun heard the plan from Chris, before rubbing his chin slightly, now this plan had merit... a LOT of merit. However, to his plan, the bard had to think of a different manner of it. Two in the front would indeed help, but he knew better... with this situation, things had to be a bit different. "Aye, I believe that plan may work... however..." he held a finger up before, looking at Chris. "...but may I suggest an addendum to that plan of yours?" Ziun paused before sighing. "Don't get me wrong... I love this plan, but perhaps tweak it? Let's be honest, the two of you are able to hit harder than one of us here... That being the case, I'll offer myself as the distraction. I can conjure something to keep it in place while keeping it's attention solely on me with the illusions I make. I can cast about three spells in succession... I'm starting to learn that now. But with its attention on me, you both attack it's rear flank. Will this suffice?" It seemed like a drawn out silence between the three, but he noticed Lana nodding at the idea. She was on board, but what about Chris? "Uh, yeah, sure," Chris said. "Just watch out for that spear." "Naturally." Ziun gave a smile, before nodding. "I'm putting my trust and life in your hands... don't disappoint me now." he said, allowing the others to get in position as he immediately cast the Webbing that he cast earlier and then proceeded to cast a kind of Hypnotic Pattern at the mummy, dancing shapes and colors... weaving into what would then be a series of dancers. "Now... let's keep your focus on me..."

"Fine then! I guess I'll have to teach you all a lesson. Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true!" Trevor was a bit surprised at the turn of events that was currently presenting itself before him and the others. Flaming skulls, building crushing roots and bones...oh my! The young sorcerer bit his lip slightly, not really thinking this was the best outcome in the slightest. Try as he might, casting a quick Firaga and Blizzaga on the roots and skulls respectfully turned out to show...they wouldn't be extinguished and dealt with that easily. "Well...guess it's time for a bit of a jog then." he muttered, turning around and starting to run away from the flaming skulls, bones and roots. Trevor needed a plan, but for the most part, it seemed like it would just be rapid casting of his magic that would end up saving the day and dealing with one issue at a time. He turned and began to cast Blizzaga in order to combat the skulls. He cut it close, pretty close...each explosion got closer each one he got...but he got them all taken care of. "...okay, now...what's next?" From the explosions, shambled out the bones...hands, feet, legs, and arms...Trevor bit his tongue again before having an idea. "Let's see if this works this time..." he said, casting... "Magnet!!" Unlike before against the huge skeleton, the bones began to swirl around one specific spot and be trapped in a gravitational vortex. "Excellent! Now, that'll make for a perfect shield against those ro-..." The roots immediately smashed through them... "...right...building crushing level...alright, fine then." Trevor spat some, before starting to rapid cast of Firaga on the giant roots. They were burning, but they were still coming at him, to the point of even knocking him back some. He knelt slightly, immediately casting Cure on himself to bring himself back up to full health. "Well...now where were we?" he asked, casting Firaga again, before noticing the roots start to encircle him. He jumped a bit, attempting to avoid the encirclement. "Anyone else in favor of trying to hire a gardener for all this?" he asked the others.

So where was Gene... OH right, dealing with a retaliating strike by a Drengr with a sword. ...shit... However, he felt himself being yanked backwards by a strong gust of wind...Abby no doubt. However, while she was dealing with this, apparently throwing the hammer she had at the Drengr he had crippled before...who then got jumped on top of by the Worg creature...that was a turn of events for sure. Same time, Gene watched that the Drengr was caught by the hammer's return to it's master's hand and she immediately dispatched it...it was a swift motion...almost too impressive for words. Aside from that, Marshal had joined the fray from afar in shooting the farthest one...that definitely would help too...considering the Overcharged Water Wall was now gone...perfect... "T-Thanks..." he finally mustered out the strength to say, before noticing another Drengr preparing to strike at him. Gene immediately parried the strike, both of them seeming to be on equal footing in terms of strength, which benefited him greatly. "Weapon Art - Quick Strike!" he said, recovering as quickly as he could in order to strike at the Drengr. Try as the creature might, it couldn't recover fast enough to guard it. The strike hit the creatures neck and it fell over...eliminated. "T-There we go...that's two down..." he said with a huff, looking over at the crippled Drengr with a Worg atop it, a perfectly healthy one and the one that now had a gunshot wound. "...four more to go..."

The Center of Gravity Levi's Notes and Thoughts on Team

The moment he and Minos swapped, the lights turned on immediately...which meant the apparitions that were dealing with the computers were harder to see now...least that's what the apparitions were probably hoping for. However, this wasn't the case when they were up against a tech based hero. But what was more worrying was that there was the following...a string of computers, seemingly at random spots throughout the office, had been destroyed, mostly by way of a kick to the monitor and a few more through the computer case for good measure...he had Minos to thank for that, but now was not the time to be passing the blame. There was more to his worries than just that alone. It was also the fact that the smoke was coming out of not just the ones that were broken, but the ones that were still intact. Things would be getting worse if they weren't shut down... Override cursed to himself at seeing the state of this. Not much time to lose apparently. "P.I.X.E.L., I need eyes on these 'ghosts'. Give me thermographic vision on this...we're gonna see if these suckers give off any EMF waves." Override said, already prepping to get into the fray. Within moments, his HUD was displayed in a thermographic manner, and there he saw the apparitions above the computers. "Hello there...I think it's time y'all stopped." he said, firing off a few pulse bolts at the apparitions. His plan and hope was to get them to dissipate long enough for him to deal with these computers. Unfortunately, while the bolts went through them, they didn't dissipate. "Damn...okay, so that plan failed..." he muttered. "Sire...it seems like these ghosts are dealing with the computers themselves..." "Elabor-..." he paused, before finally getting. "...they're hacking the computers...then I guess..." Override pulled up a holopad and immediately proceeded to jack into the computer nearest him. "Looks like we're going to have to do what we do best." "Aye sire..." Override stood there, pulling the holopad up and proceeded... 0v3rr1d3 connected to address ########## username: ********** password: **************** Access Granted... The moment he got in, there was firewall after firewall...and these weren't the normal ones he had come across before with Caesar's original systems. No...it seemed like... "Looks like our new 'friends' here are just as skilled in hacking..." Override chuckled, a smirk appearing on his face. With one firewall down, another sprung up within it's place. "Seems like a Hydra with these firewalls...that's some pretty impressive stuff...but you failed to understand something..." he muttered, knowing probably the apparitions were listening. "...hacking was my life back in the day...and you got to deal with not just me here..." Along with the one holopad that Override brought up, a few more splintered off and appeared as P.I.X.E.L. was working on cracking the hack on the other computers, attempting to expedite the process. The goal was to shut down all the available computers to keep these apparitions from doing anymore harm than they already were. How? They needed to hack into the central server. And Override knew one thing: these computers were connected to that server. If he could access it through this one computer, he could access it for the rest of them and he'd be able to take them all down that way. Apparently the apparitions took notice of this and started to mobilize. They were wanting control of what Override had used to gain access, and the moment they found out what it was...they were already starting to go for it. Override noticed it, seeing his holopad giving off a garbled signal...quite a few of them. "Are these things...trying to assimilate into my system?" he asked, hearing his partner chime. "If my hypothesis is correct, I would venture that this is indeed the situation, sire." "Tech ghosts...now this is something interesting." Override chuckled, already putting up a few firewalls to stall the apparitions. At the same time, he deployed a few of his nanomachines via the NOVA suit that was carrying an anti-virus program. "Let's see if you enjoy this." What he saw next actually intrigued him. The apparitions seemed to try and...hack into his nanites? "Well now, that's impressive...buuuuuut not greatly impressive that it isn't a threat anymore..." he muttered, before returning his eyes to the holopads. "P.I.X.E.L., buddy, they're trying to get access to the nanites!" "Understood..." P.I.X.E.L. simply left the hacking to Override and attempted to stop the apparitions from hacking into the nanites, providing more firewalls and even trying to gunk up the works by providing the likes of spam to it. It was a weird thing to do, but Override suggested to do it a time or two before...so perhaps this would work. It was a race to get into the central server...with the apparitions and Override being neck and neck with it. But it was a situation where one was just quicker than the other...and the Tech Hero was certainly that. He finally got through all the counter hacking and got into the central server where he-... "DUCK! LOOK OUT!!" Override heard Minos shouting this loudly from behind him. "Goddamnit!" he said, immediately ducking so as not to be tackled by her again. The moment he did, there was a knife that whizzed over his head. "Thanks for the warning! Almost finished here!" he said, getting back into the zone. He entered a command: shutdown /s. The server took the command and with the connection he had, it began to shut all the computers down at once. As they turned off, the apparitions began to slowly disappear and the counter hacking of his systems ceased. "T-There we go...damn...okay, that one was a bit more...fun than I anticipated." he laughed lightly.

The one Acid Splash he had delivered to that mummy did not hinder it's stride...quite the contrary, it actually just upset it more to the point where it reached Ziun and attempted to grab at him. "A-And this is what I was trying to avoid..." he groaned, preparing to brace for impact, but it never came. No, quite the contrary, it seemed that Lana came to the rescue and buried the blade of her axe into the mummy's skull. "A-A marvelous shot, my dear!" It was now focused on Lana for the time being, which gave Ziun enough time to attempt to do something. Best course of action...get it to fall over. While it chased the axe-wielder, Ziun immediately fired off another ice spell at the mummy, aiming for it's legs. Given the right angle he had, the mummy began to fall because of it. "Now...let's give you that treatment like your fellows..." he said, casting another Acid Splash right beneath the mummy, to where it landed in a puddle of acid. Unlike the others, however, it wouldn't immediately melt...unfortunate. However, the fortunate part was there wasn't any way for it to get back up without pushing up into the puddle of acid. A catch twenty-two scenario here...and Ziun was happy for it. "That should take care of this one..." he muttered, leaning against one of the coffins for a moment. Two...that was two back to back. His limit currently was three back to back...at least he was pacing himself. He glanced over and saw Chris taking swings at the other creature's tattered legs. That could in theory be the last thing they need, and they could rush off to the exit. Leave one legless over there and the other one in a perpetual state of melting due to the acid. "I-If you're about done there...we m-might be able to leave for the next floor..."

"Do you understand how outmatched you are yet, my dear?” Ordinarily, Trevor would've probably been worried about the skill and level of this magic user, and yet…the only thing this little bout was doing was making his heart excited. Aside from Fen and even Gregoriy, this was another magic user that he was facing that had quite the machinations in her form…and it was glorious and intriguing. To combat the five flaming skulls barreling towards him, he simple cast another Balloonra, watching the two opposing spells collide and create quite the large but elegant boom. As that was happening, Trevor took this moment and snapped his fingers, casting Thunder at the witch, while also surveying his allies. Not injured…or at least not injured enough for the healing…that's good. He thought, before turning his attention to Morgan who had created a canopy of roots to block the Thunder. “Smart work around…” he muttered, casting Firaga to burn away at the roots. "I have yet to see myself outmatched, Reaperson!" Trevor gave a smirk. "Quite the contrary, what I've been presented is a moment to see other magic users and how they work...to test myself to become stronger and better than I once was!” "You and that girl really are asking for it you know! I'm a kind lady and I don't want to bully a bunch of losers but if you're going to act like this perhaps it's what you deserve!” "Surely you jest. You seem like the kind of lady that will sooner scorch a man to ashes for simply looking at you wrong." Trevor snickered, firing off a few small Fire spells. She doesn't bother blocking these and the simply splash off her. "Perhaps I would yet that would be a simple matter just the same. Unless you think what you have seen so far is the extent?" She began to laugh, "Fufufu, I almost feel bad for you.” "Oho...you misunderstand me. I would be a fool to simply say that this is the extent of what you can do." Trevor simply tipped his hat. "For you, specifically, with magic such extraordinary and not solely reliant on being support for others...it would be a crime if this was all you could do.” "Well, you're right! But you're also still a fool because you're still standing there ticking me off!” "What can I say, perhaps it's all part of my charm." Trevor said, casting another Thundaga, this time having it aimed and directed upwards towards Morgan rather than having it strike from the heavens again.

Ziun found himself in quite the predicament, with Chris in the process of slashing a mummy's leg off and the other side was Lana being attacked by the skeleton. A bit further, was a crawling mummy and it was heading towards the closest coffin in order to right itself up. The bard took note of this and nodded. "Perhaps this will work then..." he muttered, before making a bee-line straight for the space between Chris and Lana's respective battles and he turned to deliver a strong ice spell right towards the skeleton. "This may get a bit cold for a moment, just bear with me!" he said in warning. The icicle strike immediately hit the skeleton's wrist and it broke it off...now Lana was free once more. "Perfect! Now...if you'll please...back up!" he shouted, delivering a shoulder check right at the skeleton, sending it stumbling back. Ironically it landed right on the mummy who had reached the coffin and was in mid motion to grab it. "Now...another set of acid on the both of you!" Ziun delivered another Acid Splash on top of the mummy and the skeleton. The mummy soon had it's head ate away and removed by the acid, while the skeleton was already banged up from the fall just ended up crumbling. "P-Perfect..." he said triumphantly, before noticing the coffin in the upper right corner slowly open up as another mummy began to rise. "O-Oh no you don't!" Ziun immediately cast another Acid Splash on the rising mummy, though at the same time, he was feeling the same feeling as before. It wasn't as bad, but he knew he needed to pace himself. "G-Goddess a-almighty...this is ridiculous..."

"Most recent reports say that weird shit is happening northwest of here. Likely a Sojourner, you know how it is. Wooded area spawned around it, with reports of horrific screams and strange creatures! Sounds fun, yeah?" That was their heading, but even still...it was something that Jet wasn't too keen on. Horrific screams and strange creatures...that probably wouldn't end up being very good if anything specific were to happen. But at the same time, Jet had a belief that he and these other two could handle this situation, whatever it was. Following after Zeru with the others, however, Jet caught something about their esteemed benefactor. They never spoke, but kept foraging...and yet, the constant glancing around at the various intervals in the opposite direction of the foraging... Jet knew the signs of this: anxiety. Zeru was anxious about something, but what exactly that something was, he didn't know...yet. "I don't know exactly where we're headed, but I doubt it'll be easy to miss. Stuff has a way of being found here, so if we keep heading this way, well... We should find it. For now, let's set up camp. It's important for ya to eat something before we arrive, and it's probably been longer than ya think it has." Setting up camp was a perfectly fine idea, especially when it meant that Jet could... The young man took the opportunity to approach Zeru, whilst Sakura spoke up to Cade. Those two could talk for a while, he on the other hand, needed to figure out what was going on with Zeru. "P-Pardon my i-intrusion into y-y-your personal b-business if it is..." he spoke, getting up beside Zeru. "...w-why are you anxious, Zeru...?" The masked figure stood silent as they continued to survey, acting almost as if they hadn't heard the boy... but a soft sigh soon escaped their lips. "Hyper-vigilant, aren't ya? I guess that tracks with what ya said back there." Zeru threw a glance over their shoulder to make sure the others were out of earshot, contemplating what they should say. "... Didja notice anything weird at the end of our talk with Deneb?" "I-I take it...p-p-potentially the 'sounds fun' p-part?'" Jet asked puzzled, crossing his arms slightly, putting a hand to his chin. "...i-i-if not, w-what was it?" "Deneb mocked my mention of dragons appearing as fantastical. At the end, they mentioned a strange creature being seen around where we're headed." He paused. Jet closed his eyes for a moment...and clear as day, that portion rang in his ears... "Sometimes odd things like dragons or monsters show up. They don't, y'know, exist here, but they seem to show up around Sojourners. It's how many of ya end up being lost. At least, that's a standing theory." "You really believe that bullshit? I thought you of all people would know better." "...t-t-they did..." he nodded, recalling that portion of the conversation. "...y-you still t-t-think that t-this creature...i-is a dragon?" "I don't know what we're dealing with. But I... that's enough for now. Just... think on it. The conversation as a whole." Jet was a bit worried now, but simply nodded, letting Zeru ruminate and keep their watch, but at the same time...now he was going to be looking around. And not only that, he was going to think about the conversation that took place. Something was misplaced and something smelt strange with this situation...he just needed to figure that out. He figured this would be his goal for the time being, or at least a side quest for him.

Override was a bit shocked to notice that the computers start whirring to life out of nowhere. He couldn't tell if this was the result of Switchjack, but it really didn't fit his MO if anything...no, this had to be something else. But he'd had to deal with that a bit later...the blip on his radar was getting closer and closer. "Well...guess I have a dance partner of my own right now...Minos, you'll have to deal with whatever that is yourself..." he muttered, watching the blip get closer and closer...until he saw a mannequin...with knives. Switchjack was the obvious answer...but at the same time, things weren't adding up. This didn't seem to match the results P.I.X.E.L. provided on the database for this one...so why? "Switchjack, I...presume? Not going to lie, you seem nothing like your database entry says... new features and everything..." The mannequin simply cocked its head to the side and simply raise one of its hands for a casual wave. ...eerily creepy for sure. "Not much of a conversationalist, I take it. Works for me then." Override lifted his hands in front of him, immediately firing a pulse bolt at the mannequin. The mannequin stepped to one side and the pulse bolt caught it's on the shoulder. Its arm, already several different pieces, gets blown from its body, but even in the darkness you can tell it's starting to reattach itself. "Okay, so you reattach yourself...that's annoying..." he grumbled, before proceeding to fire off a few pulse bolts in rapid succession, first aiming for the head and secondly the shoulder. The mannequin ducked, so the chest shot hit it's head and scatters off, but it slowly moves to reassert itself on top. Still, quite the creepy visual to watch. One of the knives leapt from the mannequin's hand -- like, it threw itself without the throwing motion from the mannequin -- and flew towards Override. He immediately deployed a pulse shield, while taking note of that. It wasn't thrown by the mannequin there...telekinesis perhaps? "So...how're you fairing over there, Minos??" he shouted over his shoulder, his gaze still squarely focused on the mannequin. The knife stuck to the pulse shield and acted as a mild-to-medium power drain for as long as the shield remains up. That was annoying... "Oh, I'm doing great!" Minos says, as the sound of four different computers crunch against the ceiling. It's difficult to tell if she's frustrated or enjoying herself. "T-Tch...you wanna switch?" Override asked, moving slightly to the left, dropping the pulse shield and firing another pulse bolt at the mannequin. "Uhhh yeah!" Minos called back. "Yeah, here, swap with me and go break some stuff." After a few moments, Override felt a tap on his shoulder, to which the tech hero immediately swapped places with her. ...okay, seems there's more to this than we thought. No matter...I can probably get some information via the computers here...