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Axon [IC/Probably Not Accepting/PG-16]

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Screams.

Screams for help. Screams of pain. Screams of abject terror.

In a second, it was as if – no, the reality of the situation was that the entirety of Earth was consumed by fear. Even an individual with no recognizable extra-sensory perception would be able to feel the weight of the communal fear, bearing down upon the scene like a trembling, black fog.

It was a few seconds before the fog took shape. The shape of what could almost be likened to a human, if not for the more than obvious fact that it was completely incongruous with the reality it occupied. It hovered in place for a few seconds, staring at its own hands despite its lack of a face with which to stare, before slowly descending to stand in the center of the ruined street. With an unnatural, jerking motion like a skipping tape, it turned its head toward the crew assembled before it.

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Raising its hands up to where its face should have been, it began frantically scratching, letting out a noise somewhere between television static and rending metal. After a few seconds of its frenetic effort, newly-carved features were visible: wide eyes and a slack-jawed mouth. The being remained still for a second, before it's newly created mouth opened further, wrenching itself well beyond the ninety-degree point.

And then it screamed with the voices of billions.


The scream woke him. Though the details faded quick, one was difficult to shake. A PPL of infinity. Was that even possible? The man shrugged, assuming not. The scaling simply didn't make sense. He assumed there were spirits out there far beyond his own level, but something like that was a long shot. Besides, precognition wasn't his ability anyway. After checking the time and seeing his alarm was only a few minutes away, he shrugged, rolling out of bed. He got dressed without much fuss, brushed his teeth, and had a quick meal of a bagel and coffee. No need for luxury. Maybe tonight, if things went well.


1200, ToSoftware HQ, Megalopolis

The building was empty that day, almost all the employees had been sent away on a small team-building retreat out of town. The CEO had figured that was an easier explanation than telling them he needed the building cleared for an exorcism to take place. He stood in the center of the lobby, surrounded by a motley crew of those that answered a call for a freelance exorcist. The variety among the assortment was staggering, even including what appeared to be some form of macaque. It wasn't clear how that one had made it into the building.

"Th-thank you, everyone, for coming! We here at ToSoft care utmost about our employees, so when we discovered the presence of something… paranormal on our campus, we did our best to find any and everyone capable of handling it! Thank you for answering our open ad." He fiddled with a button on his shirt, eyeing those he had invited into the building in a ghost-induced panic. "I believe that the… the ghost is that of a former employee. While developing a game for us, he had created a 'boss monster' that the game balancing team deemed too difficult for our target market. Despite pressure from superiors, he refused to lower the difficulty in any way. Said it would ruin his work of art."

Beads of sweat were forming visibly on the CEO's forehead as his fidgeting increased, loosening his tie as his breathing sped up. "He refused to listen… we had to let him go! Everyone at a business like this has to be a team player, surely you all understand! Needless to say, he was angry, and… he crashed his car in a road-rage incident shortly after leaving the premises…" The suit was inching closer and closer to the exit, clearly having no interest in remaining in the building longer than was absolutely required. "Now the boss monster is here! It's been spotted on the top floor, and strange things have been occurring throughout the whole building in this last week! You need to help us, we haven't been getting anything done!"

A man stepped out of the crowd of would-be ghost hunters, addressing the client directly, "Alright. After a quick look around the room, I was able to see that my PPL was about four times that of anyone else here. I'm gonna be leading this if none of you mind." true to form, anyone who saw him and possessed extra-sensory ability would see that his PPL totaled at a whopping 1400.

"PPL..? What are you talking about, mister…" the client was flabbergasted, unsure if he had missed some form of exorcist licensing process when putting out his help needed ad.

"Don't worry about it. The people who can actually do something with that information know what I am talking about. As for you, I recommend leaving before you see something that renders you mentally disabled for the rest of your life, or worse." he chuckled lightly to himself as the ToSoft CEO scrambled out of the building, as if he had been given permission rather than an order. "As for the rest of you that are real espers, you can call me Aki. Any questions?

OOC Information

Your characters will all be those included in the few dozen that answered the ad for an exorcist at this location. The pay for the job is high, but your character can have whatever motivation you like for answering the call. As for the intro, this nightmare was experienced by all characters, though there is nothing that would lead any of them to expect such without outright examining another’s memory, so I doubt such a conversation would come up organically. Even so, if it does, that’s alright.

Let’s bust some ghosts.


 

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07:00, Southern Megalopolis Outskirts

Alice awoke that morning with quite a stir. She had just finished unpacking her things last night, and got woken up by a bad dream. Go figure! The dream about... the, uh... the thing. As those of dreams tended to, the details had scattered from her mind like dust in the wind in the short time it took to realize it was merely a dream. All but one. Whatever it was about, the thing had an infinite PPL. How preposterous! The highest PPL Alice had ever seen was her own comfortable 250. The only thing she'd ever seen even get close to 200 was the occasional ghost that was almost worth trying to exorcise. But Alice was going to leave exorcism to the exorcists. As she was right now, Alice imagined that the best she could do was "exorcise" a ghost by simply destroying whatever decrepit old mansion it was haunting.

Or at least, "leave exorcism to the exorcists" was the plan. But circumstances had changed.

For one, Alice had lost quite a few of her things on the way into Megalopolis. Nothing precious, but still things that had to be replaced. There was also another matter. A digital timer hanging from Alice's wall, gradually ticking down. 11 hours, 59 minutes, 24 seconds. Just beneath it was Alice's improvised desk. Because she used a laptop, she'd simply plopped her computer atop a cardboard box when it had to charge and called it a day, at least until she bought a proper desk. The wallpaper on it was a collage of pictures of an animated character, captioned with the words "Do it for her." The new banner unit. Rates, pity systems, and spooks all be damned, Alice was getting her! But, her funding from Mama Solari had been cut pretty hard recently. Something about it being well past time for Alice to figure her life out.

Which brought Alice to today, and the exorcism. If she couldn't rely entirely on family funds, she'd get her own funds to roll with too! She tried to find some reference material for what an exorcism should be like, but all of it was just big-shot horror films! What good was that gonna do for her!? She hadn't watched them of course; she'd just have to figure out this exorcism thing for herself. And the first step to doing that was to get going. Alice opened the curtains in her room, to be met with dark and rainy skies.

How much of this is me, anyway?

Alice had done her research for once before finding a place in Megalopolis. The southern tip of the big city got more rain than the rest of the city. Something to do with the rain shadow effect. And hey, it gave her some real pretty mountains to look at through her window! That was always nice! That was why she lived here, as far south as she could find a spot near Megalopolis. Not only was it easier to handwave the effects of Depressurize, but in a worst case scenario, the damage she could cause was a lot less than what could happen in a bustling urban area. And who didn't dream of living out in the countryside near a big city!? Plus, going out on a date just to bring a nice lady back to a comfy little house with few neighbors was a far nicer scene to set than in some cramped apartment right in the heart of the city. And from there...

The faint rumbling of thunder was a signal to Alice that it was probably best to not go off into some wild fantasy first thing in the morning. She still had an exorcism to get to, and if she wanted to make it on time she had to get moving! And then there was the new banner in... 11 hours, 58 minutes, 56 seconds. This is gonna be one of those days. Her first real job, even if it was just freelance, her first banner since the allowance cut, and she still had to go shopping for furniture. Alice predicted a fun, but stressful day ahead. Best to prep accordingly!

"Something functional," she mused, heading to and opening up her closet. "But it needs to look cute too! Big day in the city, after all!" No telling what or who she may encounter. Aside from ghosts and furniture stores, and later a gacha banner. Those were all a given today.


12:00, ToSoftware HQ

"Th-thank you, everyone, for coming! We here at ToSoft care utmost about our employees, so when we discovered the presence of something… paranormal on our campus, we did our best to find any and everyone capable of handling it! Thank you for answering our open ad."

One little detail Alice had forgotten about. The job was from ToSoftware! This wasn't some little old widow asking to have her husband's spirit put to rest, this was a big-name game dev studio! With a boss monster haunting the top floor! This is definitely one of those days. Today's mantra of "functional but cute" was going to pay off. Pink rain jacket, and rain pants to match? Check. Black rain boots? Also check. Cute and functional! And especially handy if this turned into a rooftop battle that Alice had to get involved in. That would be kind of cool though, wouldn't it? And depending on how it unfolded, a great publicity stunt for--oh right normal people couldn't see ghosts. Alice forgot about that sometimes. Normal people also couldn't see PPLs. Alice looked around at the other exorcists gathered here.

110, 170, 162, yes yes all weaker than... excuse me?

"Alright. After a quick look around the room, I was able to see that my PPL was about four times that of anyone else here. I'm gonna be leading this if none of you mind."

1400!? Were mortal men even able to reach into the thousands? Was this guy some kind of demon? If Alice at a happy 250 was able to create hurricanes and tornadoes, just what atrocities against nature was this guy capable of?

"Any questions?"

"Yeah, I've got one. Were you raised by aliens or something to get a PPL that high?"

"Sorry to break it to you, but some people are simply more special than others."

"I-I knew that! I just--but--for it to get that high... fine! I'll go look for the ghost." She wasn't going to get into an argument with this guy. The less Alice got worked up, especially here in an urban area, the better. Plus, the sooner this job got done, the sooner she could go shopping and then go home and set everything up, ideally before the new banner dropped. Already starting ahead, Alice continued "If anyone wants to tag along, be my guest. If I find it, I'll... hmm... just watch through the windows, you'll know when I find it. And then I'll lead it up to the roof."

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06:00, Megalopolis

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Awoken in a cold sweat by the strange dream, John jumped up from his hotel bedroom, attempting to process what he had just seen in that dream. How was such a high PPL even possible? Infinity? He knew some were in the higher spectrum of the triple digits, maybe even rumors of those in the quadruple digits...but infinity? That seemed more of just a general fantasy than anything else.

He glanced at the digital clock by the bed...6 AM. A bit early than his alarm was set for. He had thought of going back to sleep for another hour perhaps, but the sounds of the city beginning to stir and wake outside his window caused him to reconsider altogether. If he was waking up with a bit of a jump just because of that nightmare before his first case, then it truly was going to be a long day...he could just tell.

With a sigh, John left the bed and headed to shower and prepare for the day proper. That was...intense if anything. All my time as an ESPer and an ESPer Detective...I've never experienced anything like that before. John pondered. A premonition perhaps? Then again, those aren't my general expertise to begin with. Hell, I'm fairly certain my Divin-Vision would even give any insight in what that was...namely considering I could see almost nothing from that. In any case...best to just log this away for another time...

Once he finished with his shower, he walked over to the closet where his clothes hung awaiting for him. After he tossed them on and grabbed his trench-coat, John looked himself over in the mirror before exhaling slowly. "First case here in Megalopolis. Time to make an impression, Spencer." he nodded, before leaving...most likely to grab some breakfast before making his way to his destination.


12:00, ToSoftware HQ

"Th-thank you, everyone, for coming! We here at ToSoft care utmost about our employees, so when we discovered the presence of something… paranormal on our campus, we did our best to find any and everyone capable of handling it! Thank you for answering our open ad."

John listened attentively to the explanation by the CEO about the exorcist job that he and quite a few other people applied for. Though while he listened, he couldn't help but notice the PPLs of the others here. 110, 170, 162, 340, 205, 250...wasn't bad so far, in fact, quite impressive. These seemed to be the lot that definitely wouldn't have a problem dealing with something of this na-...

"Alright. After a quick look around the room, I was able to see that my PPL was about four times that of anyone else here. I'm gonna be leading this if none of you mind."

...and immediately there was an individual who was flexing their PPL. John was surprised of the number though: 1400. Seemed like this one here was a bit more gifted than the rest of them here. Nevertheless, the young man had no problem with this. One thing he learned about law enforcement and just being a detective, one had to work and play nice with others for the best results they could be granted. Though in this instance, those with a higher PPL leading wouldn't be a bad thing.

"Any questions?"
"Yeah, I've got one. Were you raised by aliens or something to get a PPL that high?"
"Sorry to break it to you, but some people are simply more special than others."
"I-I knew that! I just--but--for it to get that high... fine! I'll go look for the ghost."

John remained silent for this exchange, before clearing his throat after the young lady walked off, he looked towards Aki and proceeded to ask something. "I have a few questions. Do we know what the apparition generally looks like, namely by any eye-witness reports if any, or perhaps the description of what the Boss Monster looked like?" he began. "Also, do we happen to know if anything the former employee had on him remains in contact on the apparition?"

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•┈┈┈••✦ ♠️ ✦••┈┈┈•

Screaming.

It was always screaming... So many of her dreams in her life involved dealing with screaming and the awful situations that came with it. It was nothing new, it just got so... Repetitive... Not this time though. There was something awful about this, something primal, as if the Earth itself was screaming and crying out for help, shattering in half... It was positively dreadful, to say the least. The fog in the dream kept everything covered, hidden away from sight before it started to part. She was given the chance to see this awful creature jerk towards her direction. It didn't matter how human shaped it was, the lack of detail on it on the creature made it obvious this wasn't human.

Infinity

She wasn't built for this. This thing dwarfed her own power level to an absurd degree, it wasn't something she could handle at all, by any means. She had dealt with tiny specters and odd spirits here and there, but this was far, far beyond h-

___

Awake. Almost as soon as the dream got interesting, she gets dragged back to reality. The pounding alarm coming from her phone made that very clear. Her hand slowly reached over, grabbing the phone to tap the alarm off. 8:02 AM. She slept through two alarms already. It took a few attempts, but it finally happened and her room was quiet once again. She groaned out gently as she slowly rose up from her bed, her feet hitting the floor as she prepared herself to start getting ready for the day. She had plans to run downtown, maybe run a few tricks on some unsuspecting suckers out there.

Breakfast was quick. A quick granola bar was all she needed for the day coming up. There would be plenty of food later if this was a success. She didn't have anyone to bounce her scams off of tonight, her usual partner wasn't able to get to the city sadly... But that didn't mean she was out of luck just yet.

As she prepared herself, she made sure to pick some rather... Disheveled clothing, giving her a slightly scruffier look than what she would normally go with... And an obviously mismatched golden watch around her wrist, Vivian giving it a small adjustment to make sure it was nicely snug in place. This would do nicely.

___

It took her a good hour to get downtown. Normally she wouldn't go hitting up bars this early in the morning, it wasn't likely to really give her an opportunity to run a good scheme really, nights were when those places got active... But morning runs could work if there were some good business meetings taking place. A little spill was occasionally all it took to get a marks attention. The little bar-slash-restaurant was quiet this morning, which was beyond boring for her. There wasn't really any chatter happening, there was no one who seemed to be interested in playing a game of chance, let alone anyone who seemed like an easy target for a basic scam at the moment.

"Anyway, I better get going-"

"I'll see you tomorrow-"

"Urgh... It's all so boring..." Vivian mumbled underneath her breath as she propped her head up on her hand, her elbow planted down against the bar as she ran her finger around the rim of her drink. She had been here eavesdropping on people for the better part of an hour, maybe even bordering on two, and still she hadn't heard anything interesting. She was lucky the bartender didn't seem to care about her loitering around as long as she picked up a drink now and again... And gave a slightly higher tip with each drink than she really needed to. It was all an investment in the future after all...

But this wasn't it. She stood up, plucking a few extra bills out to toss on the bar as she stepped away. There was one other lead on something she could do today, but... It really wasn't an exciting prospect for her... You can't really gamble a ton on exorcisms. The sorts involved in them tend to not like it when you do that.

___

It was getting closer to noon and against all attempts to avoid it, she had wound up at that game studio from the advertisements. It seemed like people had been gathering before she got here, she might've been a late arrival, maybe she was just on time, she wasn't quite sure. She knew which she would bet on though.

"Th-thank you, everyone, for coming! We here at ToSoft care utmost about our employees, so when we discovered the-"

Urgh. Corporate talk already. Realistically, the company could have given two shits about their employees, it didn't matter. They weren't going to work when things started to going to shit in the building anyway! Best case scenario, they get a massive wave of people quitting and moving onto less haunted pastures. Worst case, the company faces lawsuits from what happens.

"He refused to listen… we had to let him go! Everyone at a business like this has to be a team player, surely you all understand! Needless to say, he was angry, and… he crashed his car in a road-rage incident shortly after leaving the premises…"

Oh there was absolutely more to this story than what the blustering guy was saying. But it wasn't her place to go digging for more information on that right away. She technically had a job to do here...

"Alright. After a quick look around the room, I was able to see that my PPL was about four times that of anyone else here. I'm gonna be leading this if none of you mind."

She can't say that she did, honestly. She whistled softly as the guy walked forward, that was a very, very respectable PPL there. Her own was the highest she had ever seen before, and even among this group she was pretty high up there. She wasn't going to go arguing with the guy who was that much higher than her. It wasn't until he brought up the 'questions' portion that she hummed lightly, tapping at her cheek gently with the hand wearing that golden watch, "I'd like to second Mr. Trench's question about any items that might be in contact with the spirit, but our guy ran out of the building so quickly..." She let out a low laugh, shrugging her shoulders for a moment as she stepped forward, "Anyone wanna place some bets on how long the spirit will take to banish outta here? I'm feeling pretty good about an over three hour time today! Anyone thinking we'll be done quicker?"

•┈┈┈••✦ ♠️ ✦••┈┈┈•

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"-up!"

What did up even mean in the presence of that thing. Nothing had ever been so terrifying as the thought of infinity.

"-ke up!"

Nothing could compare to it, not even the man who stole his body.

"-wake up!"

Hari jolted awake in bed to Brooke's voice.

"Hari, wake up already!" she nearly shouted as she continued to shake her partner awake. Hari thrashed about a bit in the bed before sitting up to turn to and look up at his girlfriend.

"Sorry, sorry was I sending you stuff in my sleep again?" The man-turned-monkey spoke to his partner's mind with a look of concern on his face. Brooke sighed.

"No, but I don't need you zapping your dreams into my head to know you're having a nightmare. It wasn't about the that day again was it?" she asked. Hari had often had nightmares about the moment he lost his body but they never elicited responses like this.

"No it was..." his thought trailed off. How could he even describe the thing he saw in a way Brooke could make sense of? Nevermind that, how could Hari make sense of it. "I don't even know." he picked back up. The couple laid back down for what time they had before needing to rise and meet the needs of the day. Brooke held Hari close to her like a teddy bear to try and help calm him which did wonders for settling the sounds of screams the dream had been filled with. If there was much more time in the morning they might have fallen back asleep. But rather than an alarm the cry of "Mommy!" sounded into the master bedroom of the small apartment the young family had now occupied here in Megalopolis for a week now. Both parents wordlessly began getting up, Brooke to tend to their son, and Hari to get breakfast going, a task insisted he could still help with for some time as long as he still had opposable thumbs.


With a less than graceful breakfast made and eaten, a shower taken and several hours of playing with his son behind him Hari was ready to depart. He had a job today however weird that felt to be saying at the moment. It wasn't the first since getting into this predicament but it was the first in Megalopolis. Brooke had taken the day off to look after their son while Hari went about his way to deal with a ghost. Since seeing his own spirit leave his body he had finally been made to pay attention to the ghosts that occupied the world. It turned out even some people without powers were aware of ghosts, more especially when these ghosts caused problems. And there was something of a market for people capable of getting rid of them. Finding such work in his previous residence had proven difficult given his appearance and he'd still yet to actually put a ghost to rest largely because he was trying to build connections with people experienced in the field.

After confiding in a number of other espers about his problem and the man he was looking for who had his face he'd finally come to Megalopolis. He had a point to work off from a previous job. A man named Jeff who had been recommended to him by one such esper he had cooperated with before. Jeff was willing to set up less than fortunate espers with work around the city for a cut of their pay. He had laughed for a solid three minutes upon meeting Hari and confirming there was really an esper in the body of a macaque. And much as Hari wasn't a fan of Jeff for it, he couldn't much turn down the only source of info he had. And so it was Jeff who had sent Hari on his way to the ToSoftware office. Unlike several of the others, the man-monkey's first order of business was not comparing his PPL with the others present but rather confirming his own face wasn't among the hired hands. That was easy enough but if the man had stolen his body it would only make sense he could do it again to someone else so he still had to stay on his toes.

Moving about the city was one thing but Hari attempting to enter the building had really raised some eyebrows. Not that many employees were present to do said raising. But there was one security guard who would be questioning his sanity for most of the rest of the day between these ghost stories and a monkey asking him politely to open a door for him in his mind. For his part Hari stood with the other gathered espers, trying mostly to not draw attention to himself if he could do that as the CEO explained the company's plight. He looked attentively at each person who spoke all the while running his left hand all over every nook of his right hand at a casual pace.

Aki as he called himself was quick to take charge of the situation, claiming his PPL to be 1400 and much higher than anyone else present. It didn't take much on Hari's part to confirm he was speaking the truth and honestly he didn't have any issues letting the man do as he wished. Unless the ghost was connected to his body thief this job now didn't mean much more beyond money to help keep food on his family's table. He didn't quite want to rush into using telepathy to speak yet after the guard's reaction to it. The thought didn't cross his mind that as fellow espers they might be significantly less put of by it so instead Hari meekly began following Alice as she spoke of wanting to go and look for the ghost. He didn't think it wise for anyone to go alone, let alone one of the youngest looking there. As he began walking he heard others ask further questions of the group, one a man looking for more information, the other a woman looking to take bets on the case for some reason.

"Is ghost hunting that much of a game to experienced folks?" Hari thought to himself as he curiously examined Vivian before turning back to Alice.

Edited by Doggo

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-Awakening-

April awoke from the nightmare with a start, eyes wide. She had never had a dream like that! Hell, she had only recently started having dreams, but this one felt more... real, somehow. And like she wasn't alone within it. Everything had changed so much recently, everything was so... exciting! Yes, despite the deep dread that the dream had instilled in her, April's face had a wide smile plastered onto it. Could something that powerful truly exist? She couldn't even began to imagine it! But maybe, just maybe, she could find out!

Hopping out of bed, the girl stretched and hummed, heading straight to the door... before about facing with a laugh, having realized she almost walked out the door naked. That would have been quite the adventure!

-----

-Investigation-

April really wasn't sure what the big deal was. A spirit was in this big company building, but the man who hired them seemed so scared. Why? These things happened all the time, surely someone with money would know about it. But oh well, this was how people survived day to day, so she just had to do her job, yeah? That said, others in the crowd were interesting, especially the guy who spoke up... Or so she thought! Instead, she found something that almost made her jaw hit the floor... Well, if anatomy worked that way.

Rushing over to him as he followed another girl, April bent down uncomfortably to keep eye level with Hari as she walked.

"You're human, yeah? I can tell! How'd you get stuck in there!?" she giggled gleefully, rather than derisively, "I know spirits possess humans, but this is the first time I've heard of a human possessing something else!"

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8:00 AM, Megalopolis Apt. Complex, Room 2

A girl tossed and turned in her sleep, a nightmare attacking her mind. A powerful, incredible spirit as screams were heard through the entire street she found herself wandering. Yet she found herself continuing to walk towards where people were running from. It was as if she had no control of her own body, but, when had she gotten out of bed? She didn't recognize this part of the city.

The screaming continued to grow in pitch the closer she got, before she saw an open mouth. She thought its tongue was lulling out before realizing, that was no tongue. It was a jaw. It looked towards her, something dripping from its face. There was a sudden silence. And then it grinned, filled with unbridled power, and opened its maw in an ear-shattering screech.

________________

Jin gasped, finding herself in a cold sweat as she shot out of bed, "Shit... that was a dream... just a dream..." She rose a hand to steady her heart, taking in breathing exercises she had learned. "I wonder if this job is starting to get to me..." She glanced to her alarm, 8:32. "Piece of junk didn't go off again... I need a paycheck to get a new one." She groaned, pulling a tablet out of a pocket and starting to scroll through jobs that had been posted, "Boring, boring, boring, oh, uuuh... a meeting today? For... oooh maybe this is worth considering."

She hopped out of bed and gave a stretch, yawning to herself, "Well if I'm gonna deal with that..." She got herself dressed, moving to some type of storage room as she picked up a few containers of different sizes, "I guess I don't technically need these but it's nice to keep everything sorted..." She slipped them into the armored trenchcoat's pockets she had on. She sighed before slipping a small, cheap firearm that was a mere single-shot out of her other coat pocket, "At least this ability is good for staying on the cheap end with this stuff. If I could get my hands on something with auto-fire I'd probably go through it waaaay too fast though." She gave a small chuckle to herself before looking down.

"Ah... who am I kidding, there's nobody here to laugh with me any more." She walked out of the apartment, giving a last look behind her before locking the door.

_______________

12:00 PM, ToSoftware HQ

Jin found herself listening to the job description, "So a simple vengeful ghost, shouldn't be too hard if someone here knows what a PPL is. Multiple people it seems like. Doesn't mean any of you should get sloppy though, even a low PPL can be a threat to someone who doesn't know what to expect." She smirked, holding up a simple, plastic water bottle. "Though man, if this takes too long I might need a smoke, hopefully you're exaggerating on that three hour time."

She took in a deep breath, her armored coat flapping slightly as she shifted, "What are the capabilities of this 'Boss Monster'-." She blinked as the suit left the room, "Ah, right. Suits. Only wanting to save their own hides. Gotta hate dealin' with them." She rubs her temples, "Alright, well, at the very least for anyone here who shall actually remain important for longer than the next 5 minutes, my name is Jin Nova, Ex-Private Investigator. Pleasure to meet those of you who matter in any capacity. To the rest of you, if you stay, hopefully there's not a family that will miss you."

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Was she dreaming again?  Radical.  She never really got these vivid dreams, but every once in a while, she would find herself on this sort of ethereal plain.  But something wasn't right.  Before her was a towering colossus of shadow.  The pain emanating from it, even the most senseless psychic would reel in terror just by a mere glimpse.  But Penny had seen the abyss before.  Her job was to stare into people's souls, and read them for who they truly were.  This...thing...in front of her now though, was anything but human.  A terrible screeching erupted from it, shaking her to her core.  She was unable to move, almost fascinated by the vast fear that rattled her dream-self.  She looked around to find solace in a shadow, but she was only surrounded by darkness, the only light erupting from this creature's eyes, and even that was bleak at best.  

Penny shot out from her bed with her heart almost palpating out of her chest.  She was swamped with sweat, as she wiped away her hair to the side.  It took her a while to calm down.  She was never the type to be afraid, but that situation was something she'd never experienced before in her life.  That fear was tangible.  She looked around her messy, disorganized apartment room.  Shadows littered all around, provided by the early morning sun.  She sighed with relief.  Looking at the empty ramen cups that had landed on the floor beside her bed, Penny started poking her forehead rapidly, with force.

"Reminder...no more spicy food before bed!  And you!"  Penny pointed on the ground towards her own shadow, "You remind me too, you good for nothing freeloader!"  With the mental note, she dressed herself somewhat properly for the day, and headed out the door.  

____

It was a gamble for sure, but she needed the extra cash.  Hustling didn't always turn a profit.  In the big city, she also found out there was a higher chance of violent outcomes due to her cheating.  A side gig was always a good sort of insurance, in case she ever needed additional funding.  Living was so expensive.  Looking around, she saw a lot of other people who also answered the ad.  Were all psychics in need of a quick buck, or was it all they were good at?  Penny eerily giggled at the prospect that these psychics were the same type of bum she was, but they mostly looked to have their shit together.  However, there was one thing she was worried about:

She'd never exorcised a ghost before...

All the one's back in her hometown were so cute and harmless...she didn't have the want or need to exorcise them at all.  

"Th-thank you, everyone, for coming! We here at ToSoft care utmost about our employees, so when we discovered the presence of something… paranormal on our campus, we did our best to find any and everyone capable of handling it! Thank you for answering our open ad.  believe that the… the ghost is that of a former employee. While developing a game for us, he had created a 'boss monster' that the game balancing team deemed too difficult for our target market. Despite pressure from superiors, he refused to lower the difficulty in any way. Said it would ruin his work of art."  This guy was a nervous wreck.  Penny let out a small 'keke' at his unfortunate situation.  "He refused to listen… we had to let him go! Everyone at a business like this has to be a team player, surely you all understand! Needless to say, he was angry, and… he crashed his car in a road-rage incident shortly after leaving the premises…Now the boss monster is here! It's been spotted on the top floor, and strange things have been occurring throughout the whole building in this last week! You need to help us, we haven't been getting anything done!"

Suddenly, a man stepped out of the crowd, garnering everyone's attention besides Penny's.  

 "Alright. After a quick look around the room, I was able to see that my PPL was about four times that of anyone else here. I'm gonna be leading this if none of you mind." She could feel that he wasn't lying, but Penny didn't much care for the bragging type, although he was kinda cute.  

"PPL..? What are you talking about, mister…" Another soft 'keke' creaked from Penny's mouth.  Even the most novice of novices knew what a PPL was!  What was it again?  She looked to her shadow, which ignited the memory in her head.  Looking around, she could feel that her PPL was above average...but there were a lot of diamonds in the rough, especially this showboat in front of them.  

"Don't worry about it. The people who can actually do something with that information know what I am talking about. As for you, I recommend leaving before you see something that renders you mentally disabled for the rest of your life, or worse.  As for the rest of you that are real espers, you can call me Aki. Any questions?"

After a round of Q&A, Penny nervously twiddled her thumbs together.  She needed to ask a question...but she was probably gonna get hell for it.  Nervously, she raised her hand.  With a soft, low voice, she managed to get it out.

"So...uh...how do you exorcise a ghost?"

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08:32, ToSoftware HQ, Megalopolis

 

"Infinito."

Enrique Cabrera shook his head and sucked down the last bit of his cup of coffee. Today... well, yesterday-blended-into-today, had gone from bland and mildly aggravating to downright terrible. Second shift on the new apartments downtown, normally a crappy night doing interior work now that the the facade was up on the building, had turned godawful when his body abruptly decided that carrying spot lamps up the stairs was the perfect time to develop sudden onset narcolepsy. The next thing he knew, he was somewhere else, staring down some crazy mist monster with a bunch of people who's faces he didn't recognize. It was kind of laughable at first, like a scene out of a horror film. The thing even had a PPL so large that quantifying it was impossible for him. Then it screamed.

Being an empath was tough, even at the best of times. But the sudden rush of fear, emanating from everyone and everything, hitting him all at once? He was surprised it hadn't killed him.

Or maybe it had, since he was conscious again, and at the bottom of the stairs. Understandably, his super had sent him home after that. Can't have a worker sleepwalking on a job site, after all. But that also meant no pay until he could get cleared to work again. No money, no rent. Fantastico.

This exorcist gig was supposed to pay for a new guitar (and maybe a prerelease copy of BlackSpirits, if he could swing it), but now it had to keep him afloat. It was too late to sleep, so he'd had a cup of coffee and played some games at home for awhile, then left, got himself another and some breakfast, and made his way over to ToSoft with three hours and change to spare.

He was the first one there, as far as he could tell, so he went and got himself a newspaper and sat down near the door. It provided him a good vantage point to people watch as other ESPers filtered in. He got a feel for each of their PPLs and their surface emotions as they walked past him. " Cien y diez... muy inquisitiva. Cien y setenta. Una Duendecilla. Not a good time. Dos cientos y cincuenta- ansiosa... did it just get colder in here?  Whew! Tres cientos y cuarenta. Estas abburida... Eres guapa tambien." He paused a moment, the next one interrupting his inner monologue. " Mil cuatrocientos. Puta madre why are the rest of us even here... wait is that a monkey?!"

And so it went until he'd taken what stock he could of his erstwhile coworkers. By the time the suit showed up, it was around noon.

"Th-thank you, everyone, for coming! We here at ToSoft care utmost about our employees, so when we discovered the presence of something… paranormal on our campus, we did our best to find any and everyone capable of handling it! Thank you for answering our open ad."

Well, at least there was cannon fodder here with them. Enrique had also brought his knife.

I believe that the… the ghost is that of a former employee. While developing a game for us, he had created a 'boss monster' that the game balancing team deemed too difficult for our target market. Despite pressure from superiors, he refused to lower the difficulty in any way. Said it would ruin his work of art. He refused to listen… we had to let him go! Everyone at a business like this has to be a team player, surely you all understand! Needless to say, he was angry, and… he crashed his car in a road-rage incident shortly after leaving the premises…"

The suit was inching closer and closer to the exit, clearly having no interest in remaining in the building longer than was absolutely required. "Cabron. Too scared to help solve a problem he caused."

"Now the boss monster is here! It's been spotted on the top floor, and strange things have been occurring throughout the whole building in this last week! You need to help us, we haven't been getting anything done!" Before anyone else could, the big man with the 1400 PPL chimed in. Enrique folded up his newspaper and stood up, formally joining the crowd now that there wasn't anything to gain from being incognito.

"Alright. After a quick look around the room, I was able to see that my PPL was about four times that of anyone else here. I'm gonna be leading this if none of you mind."

"PPL..? What are you talking about, mister…"

"Don't worry about it. The people who can actually do something with that information know what I am talking about. As for you, I recommend leaving before you see something that renders you mentally disabled for the rest of your life, or worse." Well, at least big man knew what it was they were getting into.

As for the rest of you that are real espers, you can call me Aki. Any questions?

"Yeah, I've got one. Were you raised by aliens or something to get a PPL that high?" And the rest didn't. Muy Bien.

"Sorry to break it to you, but some people are simply more special than others."

"I-I knew that! I just--but--for it to get that high... fine! I'll go look for the ghost." The girl in the rain gear started to go on ahead. "If anyone wants to tag along, be my guest. If I find it, I'll... hmm... just watch through the windows, you'll know when I find it. And then I'll lead it up to the roof."

Enrique shook his head, then went off after her. He knew better. Besides, the Q&A was likely to be boring, and big man could probably handle getting the rest of the clueless ones up to speed.

"Oiy, Chica!" He called out as he caught up to her. "This ain't no scavenger hunt. Even weak spooks can be dangerous if they catch you off guard- I almost got done in by the ghost of some old lady's parakeet once. Might be a better play if you stick around with all of us and listen to what Senior 1400 has to say, eh?" He was tired and aggravated, and she could probably tell that from his tone of voice, but he did his best to try and be nice about it. He put his hand on her shoulder as he continued, ignoring the image of what he assumed was her front door that flashed before his eyes for a second. "Besides, this is your first time ghost hunting, right?"

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"Anyone wanna place some bets on how long the spirit will take to banish outta here? I'm feeling pretty good about an over three hour time today! Anyone thinking we'll be done quicker?"

"Seriously?" A cloaked man stepped out from the crowd, his hand on the hilt of a sword that hung sheathed at his side. "Three hours is a joke. I'll bet this sword right here against your fancy gold watch that the boss is exorcised before two." He shot a cocky grin at Vivian, "Course, it's not an antique or anything. I'd bet my PSI Whetstone that make it so lethal if I could, but that's not a very realistic thing to wager. Ha!"

Aki squinted in annoyance as the girl in the coat announced she would fight the boss herself. "Idiot." Luckily, she hadn't made it far before a new entrant, a brown-skinned man, stopped her with the shred of common sense it took to see that she stood no chance. It was then that another man, in a trench coat, spoke up.

"I have a few questions. Do we know what the apparition generally looks like, namely by any eye-witness reports if any, or perhaps the description of what the Boss Monster looked like?" did he think Aki would know? "Also, do we happen to know if anything the former employee had on him remains in contact on the apparition?"

"You are making this much more complicated than it has to be." Aki yawned, walking past Alice and Enrique as he made his way to the stairs. "All we have to do is go to the top floor, taking out anything we see on the way, and take out the 'boss monster'. And just so you all know, I'm not a babysitter. If any of you die to one of these things it's not on me."

"So...uh...how do you exorcise a ghost?"

Aki could feel his jaw drop. "How..." he turned toward Penny, sizing her up. What he saw didn't get much out of him beyond a smug laugh. Addressing everyone in the group, he spoke up, "How many of you have never even fought a spirit before?" He let his question hang in the air for a few seconds of silence, "Fuck it, don't answer. I don't know what you extras thought, that this would be a relaxing day, or easy money. But unless you're serious about this shit you may as well run off with that loser. His face contorted in anger, and his commanding tone turned to one of rage, if only for a moment, "Stick with your damn kind!

After his shout, the entire building shook slightly, and he turned his attention back to the stairwell. "Before you ask, no. That wasn't me." The rumbling continued. It was clear that there was something moving rapidly down the stairwell, down to where they were collected. "Looks like we have an opportunity for a lesson for you background characters." He took a deep breath, casually cracking his knuckles as a golden glow started up in his eyes. Reaching into a pocket inside his jacket, he pulled out a simply pair of sunglasses, placing them on his face. "You all might want to shield your eyes. This can get pretty bright."

The rumbling continued to grow to a crescendo, as a spirit resembling a cross between a centipede and a dragon barreled out of the stairwell, opening its jaws wide, aiming to consume Aki in a single bite. Aki responded by raising a single hand toward it.


"Telekinetic Bulwark."



Hundreds of tiny triangles, seemingly constructed of golden light, appeared suspended in the air between Aki and the attacking spirit, before turning and expanding, almost like a kaleidoscope. In an instant, they had formed together to create a translucent wall of pure psychic energy. The spirit crashed into the wall, shaking the floor with the force of the impact, but the wall stood firm, not a single scratch or crack visible. "Only 200 PPL? I was really hoping for more." He sighed, turning his head back toward the group. "Some abilities have offensive potential, but that's not really Bulwark's thing."

Bringing his raised hand back, Aki clenched it into a fist. "Luckily, I can just take these jokes out with raw power." Aki thrust his fist straight through his own barrier, putting a small hole in it like a bullet through glass. Placing his palm on the nose of the spirit, he continued. "It's called a soulblast. It's pretty efficient, I'd say, but it takes some practice." With nothing else but a brief screech of pain, the spirit was torn apart into nothingness, like a popping balloon viewed in slow motion. Before the last wisps of it faded away, they were sucked up into the palm of Aki's hand. With a slight smile of satisfaction, Aki rolled his shoulders, his barrier disappearing as he turned back toward everyone. "Nothing like a snack before a proper meal."


PPL 1400→1600



"Anyway, now that that lug is out of the way, I'd say the stairwell is the safe bet. I've heard plenty of stories of haunted elevators. Doesn't sound very fun to me. Feel free to come along, but I'm not signing autographs." With a listless stride, Aki made his way up the stairs, vaguely gesturing for others to follow.

OOC


Haha... I might've overdone things a bit there. Oh well. feel free to have your characters make their way up the stairs as you wish, but don't expect Aki to be any kind of guardian angel. If your characters are going up, let me know via DM so that I can toss a lesser spirit your way for your character to deal with. Spirits have a habit of attracting each other, so any big boss will be surrounded by plenty of smaller ones.

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"You are making this much more complicated than it has to be. All we have to do is go to the top floor, taking out anything we see on the way, and take out the 'boss monster'. And just so you all know, I'm not a babysitter. If any of you die to one of these things it's not on me."

This simply made John sigh lightly. He was hoping to be able to get a nice view and vantage point with his Divin-Vision to ascertain information, any at this point, of the boss monster. However, it seemed like that was put to bed with not much else to go on. The continuing conversations didn't intrigue John as much, aside from the ex-Private Investigator, Jin Nova. Now this seemed like someone he could possibly get along with...and an ex-P.I. meant she had the intuition and thought processes still, meaning she'd be a valuable asset to bounce ideas and theories off of.

I'll have to remember to talk to her after this... he thought, a small smirk appearing on his face for a moment.

Then came the outrageous display that Aki gave out against the centipede dragon spirit that appeared out of nowhere. It was a spectacle that John was quite intrigued with, especially his type and application of his ESPer ability...it was...quite brilliant to say the least. Regardless, now he and the others were just left standing there for a while after the spirit was dealt with.

"Anyway, now that that lug is out of the way, I'd say the stairwell is the safe bet. I've heard plenty of stories of haunted elevators. Doesn't sound very fun to me. Feel free to come along, but I'm not signing autographs."

The young man simply shrugged lightly, exhaling. "All routes point upward, I'd assume." he said, his hands sliding into his pockets as he mobilized and made his way up the stairs...


Once he followed Aki up the stairs, he broke away from the quadruple digit man and decided to go his own direction and begin his investigation elsewhere. Right now, he couldn't use his ace in the hole ESPer ability to get a sense of how the situation was, but nevertheless, the detective wasn't about to let that stumbling block be the only thing stopping him from possibly completing this job.

His first stop and step in his investigation? Simple: finding a records room.

If this company is smart...and for the most part they seem on the level...they'd have documented their progress in the development of this game. And if I can find some hints and possibly any information about the deceased employee and the statistics of this boss monster, then I'd be a step closer in finding a method to solve the case. John pondered, making his way towards the records room.

He'd find the room he sought, however, it was a locked door. "Always a locked door. No matter...it shouldn't pose too much of a problem." John nodded, preparing to find a way in...but was stopped almost immediately by a slight rumbling. Another spirit was nearby...and it sounded massive. Before too long, the young man watched from the opposite wall emerge the source of the rumblings and now the huge hole in the wall. Annnd honestly...whatever this spirit was...it was not what he was expecting...at all.

"...okay I was prepared for anything...but that wasn't on the list." John stood there, blinking at seeing this bird with meaty, muscular legs now standing before him. He began to survey the spirit, though at first...it didn't seem like much. "A PPL of only 35? And yet it practically made that hole in the wall? This is insane." he sighed heavily, before shifting into a small stance. As he did so, purple psychic energy began to appear around his arms and legs, basically lacing them in this energy. "I suppose I could a bit of a warm up..."

The bird spirit let out a bit of a roar before rushing John and already launching a right round-house kick directly at him. The ESPer detective's arms began to make contact with the leg, blocking the strike but it was damn powerful, already launching the ESPer back down the hallway. "Well...this is a development." he said, looking at the spirit who seemed to be mocking him now with how it was acting. "After one lucky hit you act like you're the victor? Poor choice..." John then proceeded to take a full on sprint down the hallway and delivered his own round-house kick straight to the spirit's solar plexus...or at least...a good estimation of where it was. This made the spirit skid back aways, now furious with him. "If you feel the need to try me and my Baritsu out...then by all means...go ahead." John taunted with a smirk.

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•┈┈┈••✦ ♠️ ✦••┈┈┈•

"Course, it's not an antique or anything. I'd bet my PSI Whetstone that make it so lethal if I could, but that's not a very realistic thing to wager. Ha!"

Hook, line and sinker. She brought up the hand with the watch on it, tilting her head back towards the man as he spoke up, "Deal. My watch against your sword there... And whatever the PSI Whetstone is." She turned on her heels towards him, a smirk on her face as she clapped her hands together, "I'll keep track of the time, so don't you worry about it. If we go below two hours, you get it. Between two and three and we'll call it a tie. If we go over three... I win and I'll claim the spoils! Let the dice roll."

"So...uh...how do you exorcise a ghost?"

She paused as she heard that, a little snort escaping her, "I mean... You never accidentally just...?" She held her hand up, making a vague thrusting gesture with it as she tilted her head. She didn't have time to expand on what she meant though, instead they were given the joy of seeing a spirit rush towards their fearless leader. She hesitated for a brief moment, before her hand rose up towards the creature. She narrowed her eyes as she aimed towards it. This one was definitely bigger than she was used to, the energy from it seemed to be not... Too far off her own PPL even...

And that man just obliterated it like it was nothing. She didn't even need to prepare like that in the end, and instead she gave a low whistle as she nodded her head. He was definitely a cut above everyone else here.

"Anyway, now that that lug is out of the way, I'd say the stairwell is the safe bet. I've heard plenty of stories of haunted elevators. Doesn't sound very fun to me. Feel free to come along, but I'm not signing autographs."

She let out a tiny 'aw' as she started to follow behind him, a little puff escaping her, "Aw, no autographs? Too baaaad..." She shrugged her shoulders a tiny bit, before glancing over her shoulder towards the man from earlier, "Don't forget our bet! I sure won't!" She shot him a little finger gun, before heading up the stairs as she rolled up her sleeves. "I wanna see what this building has to offer! Spirits are fun, when you've got nothing better to do."

---

Honestly, she wasn't sure what she was looking for here. She wasn't really interested in making this a speedy process. She had a sword riding on this now, which means... Slowing down the others would be a good idea. At the same time, she could take this as an opportunity to make herself a little bit stronger, which is definitely something she was interested in. If she didn't win the sword, after all, she'd need to just keep getting stronger. Can't threaten people with a sword you don't have.

She stretched her arms a bit as she made her way through the building, a few people had started to split off, heading in their own directions and scouring the floor for more information on what they were dealing with. She reached into her jacket pocket to pull out some bandages, wrapping them around her hands slowly as she glanced around. There would be a fight here eventually, and even if it wasn't physical...

She turned herself off from the main group just a bit, peeking around the corner of the hall way intersection, waiting to see if there were any spirits lingering about...  And, boy, did she find an ugly one.  It seemed to lurch about, stumbling about the building... That tall, lanky figure just made those movements look unnatural. She couldn't really tell if it was guarding something, just stumbling around, if it even really had any thoughts in that ugly mug it carried around, but what she could tell is that it wasn't too strong of a PPL coming from the creature. Around 40ish, if she was betting on it.

She waited for it to take a turn away from where she was face, her arm rotating slowly to prepare the muscles for what she was about to do. Realistically, this was probably a really bad idea. That wasn't going to stop Vivian though, slowly approaching the creature from behind as she took a boxing stance up, her fists brought up in front of her. She wasn't likely to get all the way towards the creature, and as much as she wanted to pull off a sneak attack, she was pretty sure she wasn't going to be able to take it out in one punch. Hugging the right wall, she grabbed and tugged a closed door open behind her. The sound of the opening door caught the spirit's attention, the thing turning almost instantly towards her as she stopped in place. She kept her fists raised up, waiting... "Come on."

The creature seemed to hiss as it started to lunge towards Vivian, her eyes narrowing a tiny bit as she watched the way it rushed towards her. She shifted her feet slightly to the left, before jumping to the side as the spirit started to bring its head down towards the spot she had been standing. She quickly brought a fist towards the creature's midsection, aiming for where the ribs of a normal human would've been... And a burst of energy exploded from her fist against the creature, hitting it with a quick soulblast as she sidestepped behind it, waiting for the spirit to move once again. What she didn't expect was for it to whip around, barely raising its head up and instead using that to aim for her own ribcage, her hands barely moving in time to block the hit, a low hiss escaping her as she stepped back.

 "Gah, you're more trouble than you look, huh?" She shook her hand a bit, shrugging off the impact as best as she could manage. She brought up her fists again, watching as the creature started to stand itself back up to the full height, towering over her as she watched it move once more. As it lunged forward once again, she shifted herself to the right, delivering another quick jab towards the spirit's torso, another flash of energy escaping her fist as it connected with the lanky being, "Unlucky for you, I'm used to being the underdog."

•┈┈┈••✦ ♠️ ✦••┈┈┈•

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Jin raises an eyebrow at the rather odd question, "Didn't know there were those of us that didn't know how to do the soulblast thing..." She watched as Aki simply walked up and soulblasted some poor spirit, "You do that. Weird, feels like it got a bit more intense." She shrugged the feeling off, though her instincts seemed to be telling her something had changed. "I'm going to an upper floor, don't follow me unless you know how to handle yourself around firearms." She slipped a long-barreled custom pistol outside of her armored coat, a revolver clip that had been hollowed out and fitted with a single slot rather than the typical 6-shooter setup. She gave a reach into her pocket, slipping out 13 rather large capped bullets, each coded with a different color.

"I'm going to be loud and I'm not going to stop if there's an injury. If you're fine with that and don't think you'd get in the way feel free to follow me." She rolled her shoulders a bit as she began to trek up the stairs.

__________________

Jin and anyone that followed her would find themselves walking past hanging bodies of what appeared to be spirits. Anyone with a sense for them could tell they were weak, floating gently around the 10PPL and lower mark as arrows jutted from anywhere from their throat, head, stomach, or the like. They all maintained one thing in common though; they were all pinned to the wall by an arrow. "Hmmm... spirit that likes picking on weaker spirits..." She readied her gun, holding it steady as she inched forward.

She found another being rounding the corner, an arrow nocked to a bow as it turned to look at her and gave a rather creepy grin. It looked to be a skeleton dressed as a rather eery Robin Hood, but she didn't have much time to think about that before quickly pulling its bow up to loose an arrow towards Jin and diving behind cover!

Jin let out a quick yelp before holding up her hand with her palm out, holding open one of the small boxes she had pocketed on her way in, before diving behind cover herself, "Good thing I brought those with me... well... salt's definitely not going to work... Let's try letting out my own soulblast and see if it can stand up to that!" She opened the cartridge of her gun, unloading the firearm before pressing her palm to the opening, a quick pulse firing into it before she lifted her weapon and fired in the direction she had seen the walking spirit go towards!

A rather loud 'BOOM' emanated from the practical hand-cannon that Jin carried, causing her to yelp and shoot a hand to her ear, "Gah, I knew I forgot something!"

The skeleton seemed to have managed to keep behind cover for enough time as it darted out from its position to loose another arrow towards her, sailing overhead and piercing a computer screen with a rough 'CRACK'. "Hey hey, no wrecking the office you overgrown calcium complex!" She growled, slipping open her gun's cartridge once again before loading another round. Of course all she was met with was another 'SCHWICK' of an arrow sailing past her head and piercing another spirit's body on the wall. "Ugh, of course I had to find a spirit that knew how to use a weapon..." She kicked over a coffee table, putting herself behind it as cover!

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qfYiUZa.png

This was way more embarrassing than she thought it was going to be.  Her face began to turn a bright red, as Aki gave the espers some more shit for being inexperienced.  Although, she could tell that most of the comments were aimed towards her.  She watched as Aki himself began to ascend the stairs, and being attacked by a spirit.  She recoiled a bit at the sight of the ghost, seeing as how all of the other spirits she had encountered thus far had been harmless and cute.  This thing was an absolute monster!  However, Aki seemed to take it down with ease, demonstrating what he called a soulblast to finish it off.  Penny really did hate this guy, but she had to herself that he was the real deal.  

If Penny was gonna live here, and make a decent living, she'd have to become the real deal too.  Hopefully she'd be able to cheat a little along the way.  As Aki gestured for the rest to follow his lead up the stairs, Penny couldn't help but roll her eyes.  She placed her hands in her pockets and sluggishly began to make the climb.

----

A large majority of the Espers had started making their way through the buildings, splitting off to do their own things.  Penny was in no such rush and had no desire to do anything but the bare minimum to get her paycheck.  She soon found herself behind the pack, and all alone on a staircase.  As she kept going up and up, she couldn't help but get the feeling that something was watching her.  Watching wasn't really the word for it...but more like stalking.  Something instinctual inside everybody's primal side of the brain.  She looked behind her in flash to see if anything or anyone had been following her...but got nothing.  She shrugged, and kept on chugging up theses stairs. 

Her legs were starting to hurt...this was the most exercise she'd gotten since moving here...scratch that...ever.  

The staircase she found herself on had lead her to a new floor.  In front of her lay another staircase.  The sight made the hairs on her arm stand stiff...no...that wasn't it.  Her shadow alerted her first, but something was headed this way.  Penny took a dive to the side, as she saw what appeared to be a flash of light emanate from behind.  She rolled away before stumbling to her knees.  In front of her now was some sort of strange fox spirit.  She reached out her hand in a bid to stop it.

"H-hey there!"  It was no use, as the fox began to approach her, its body extending to a five feet in length.  The fur on it's body was lathered in what looked to be sparks of electricity.  These city spirits didn't seem like they were to be trifled with.  Even  though she was inexperienced...she had to make somewhat of an effort.  She started by slowly moving her shadow towards the fox.  The spirit's ears twitched in response, but Penny snapped her fingers to regain it's full attention.  "You wouldn't be the one who's been hunting me this whole time would you?  That's not very nice Mr. Fox."  The fox, in turn, snarled at her, baring it's teeth that were dripping with static.  Now was the time!

"Uppercut!"  Penny shouted, standing to her feet while raising her fist in the hair.  From below the fox, a large shadowy fist drilled it's way into the spirit's stomach, launching it into the air.  The fist followed through higher, as the fox's back collided with the ceiling above.  At the display, Penny pumped her fist.  "Hell yeah!"  While she wasn't paying attention, the fox had gathered a ball of electricity in it's mouth, and had let loose a bolt of lightning that hit her shadow.  The fist convulsed, before shrinking back into the floor, as did Penny who got a heavy dose of current.  She fell back to her knees, as her shadow made it's way back to her side, as if to check on her.  "Yeah, I got carried away...let's put this thing down before it hurts anyone else."  

 

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"Oiy, Chica!" Alice turned around to look at who was addressing her. One of the other exorcists in this group. A volunteer to join her on her quest to find the boss monster? A most welcome addition to the team! As well as another girl, and... a monkey? That couldn't be right. "This ain't no scavenger hunt. Even weak spooks can be dangerous if they catch you off guard- I almost got done in by the ghost of some old lady's parakeet once. Might be a better play if you stick around with all of us and listen to what Senior 1400 has to say, eh?"

Fine. But only long enough to listen to what he had to say. Alice did not like that man, but now that this other guy mentioned it, getting some valuable experience would help since this was her--

"Besides, this is your first time ghost hunting, right?"

"Sh sh sh sh!" Alice kept her ears open as Aki over there explained this and that, but kept her primary focus for about half of it on this other guy. In a hushed tone she responded "Yes, but let's keep that under wraps!" As Aki started toward the stairs, a horrific ghost of some sort charged down the stairs, intent on making him its meal. Now those, Alice had seen before. She had some theories as to why some spirits looked so hideous, but she'd seen her fair share of monstrous spirits back in Miami. Though the ones she'd seen were generally pretty docile, despite the appearance. Alice paid full attention as Aki blocked the spirit's attempt to turn Aki into a snack, then did what was called a soulblast. What really interested her was how his PPL went up by absorbing the spirit!

"Anyway, now that that lug is out of the way, I'd say the stairwell is the safe bet. I've heard plenty of stories of haunted elevators. Doesn't sound very fun to me. Feel free to come along, but I'm not signing autographs."

Like any of us want your autograph!

As the exorcists - experienced and wannabe alike - went upstairs, Alice split off from the group. In retrospect, hunting down the boss monster alone probably wasn't the best way to do things. Especially if there was a technique she could hone to use in combat against a spirit! That sort of thing would be huge for her! She had to figure it out! And so, Alice roamed the halls, in search of some small-fry spirit to exorcise. It would be welcome practice and it would boost her PPL! New goal: Exorcise enough spirits to one-up Aki!

As Alice turned a corner, she was met with a spirit. At a glance, she thought she'd gotten more than she bargained for. Until she noticed the PPL. Only 70! Not to mention the thing was huge! Six feet tall, and with those massive wings! It would surely have trouble moving around in these corporate hallways! Perhaps it was concerned with her own PPL being three times the spirit's, or maybe it was a warning, but whatever the reason, once the spirit saw Alice, it released a deep rumbling sound and raised its arms.

What's he doing? Some sort of attack?

The spirit then turned around, and started moving away from Alice as fast as its stony legs would allow. Alice paused for a moment, trying to process what the hell was going on. Before realizing that she couldn't let this thing get away! Alice broke out into a sprint, chasing the gargoyle down. Like hell you're getting away! Come back here and cough up that PPL!

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It had been some time since another person had been at his eye level, or rather since Hari had been at theirs, so the sudden appearance of April stooped down to speak to him was enough to make the already nervous man-turned-monkey hop in place. Nothing about the woman should have scared him but the cheer she carried while she directly called out his exact circumstances made him panic all the same. Hari had always had to tell people what had happened to him so that someone had figured it out on their own was tripping alarms in his head about the man he was looking for even if by paying the slightest bit more attention he would be easily able to see April carried herself nothing like him. As his fidgeting with his hands intensified the monkey defaulted to muscle memory.

"I-I didn't possess it, I didn't even want this I got put and well I'm not sure exactly how but-" Hari began speaking until he cut himself off. This was only what he had intended to say but all that had come out were very bizarre monkey noises and grunts that couldn't even really approximate the words yet also didn't pass for a normal monkey. He knew he had to use telepathy to be understood but his nerves had gotten in the way. Thoroughly embarrassed at this point he didn't dare try to reach out to April's mind directly instead opting to make several small bowing motions as if to excuse himself from the conversation they hadn't really had. The movement of the other espers to find and dispatch the ghosts present in the building provided a convenient opportunity at the least. It wasn't like he'd see her again after this job so this could just be a one and done awkward encounter, no problem there.


Hari had started climbing the stairwell as suggested all the while deep in thought about what he was doing here, how he intended to help, if he would even get paid and a whole host of other ideas. With no obvious offenders among the gathered espers this was just a job now so there wasn't a need to be so wound up about it. Eventually the monkey seemed to light up at a certain realization and he exited the stairs on a lower than the target floor.

"Need to mark some stuff or finding a ghost doesn't mean much." he thought as he entered what was definitely office space, just not geared for the proper game development the company was known for. The thought of walking into HR under the circumstances elicited a weak chuckle as Hari set to work looking around the desks for things he could borrow that the workers hopefully wouldn't miss. It would be rude to use anything but the most common objects he thought so he restricted himself to pens and the like and even for that much he offered a quick apology in his head to each worker who would have to spend several minutes replacing whatever he had taken when they next came to work. With a handful of things to pocket, if he had pockets, Hari was ready to turn around. The motion was well timed as a knife flew past his head the moment he did so.

As the adrenaline of nearly dying took hold of him Hari followed a chain connected to the projectile back to a ghost. If one could call it that. It more directly resembled what one might think of as a demon, red and horned as it was. The thing was Hari's same size really making for a proper stare down for a moment that felt like eternity, until the ghost retracted the knife by pulling back on the chain. Hari scrambled to the side between desks but the ghost was quick and had already jumped up onto one of the nearby desks and thrown the knife again. The blade stuck into the desk Hari found himself immediately under and he couldn't help but let out a small scream when the blade appeared so suddenly only inches from his face. Off he scrambled again looking for cover only to find the knife nearly hitting him at every turn. The ghost moved so effortlessly but maybe that was just par for the course when you didn't have a body. Hari eventually tried throwing a stapler that had fallen to the ground at the ghost but the object simply passed right through it.

"How long have you had your powers Hari?" he berated himself as he began marking objects, while also letting go of most of the pens he'd collected. The glow from his left hand's fingertips copied themselves onto the targets he marked: a pen, a paper weight and himself for now leaving one mark unused. Hari touched his index and middle fingers to his thumb in quick succession and the pen and paper weight switched places as he did so, a faint aura now present around them and growing fainter. Hari lobbed the paperweight at the ghost which made no motion to dodge given the last interaction only to be struck squarely on the head and staggered back. It began lashing out with the knife, the chain allowing it to function as a much more deadly whip, which forced Hari to keep on moving through the office. Monkey and ghost alike were dashing from place to place, objects were flying and swapping occasionally. Eventually the ghost seemed to tire of the game of cat and mouse as it jumped ahead of Hari's path and sent the knife on a course directly to his chest. Yet in the blink of an eye it struck only a pen and the monkey now found himself in the air some several feet off to the side. A swap with a thrown pen to avoid the danger. With a less than graceful landing Hari took off running, not wanting to have to repeat the trick.

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-Investigation-

April watched the monkey shift about nervously, cocking her head like a confused dog as he began to stutter and stumble over himself... via telepathy, no less! Wonders never ceased!

"I-I didn't possess it, I didn't even want this I got put and well I'm not sure exactly how but-"

And suddenly it had devolved into monkey noises, the telepathy broken. The monkey man wandered away, seeming very at odds with himself as April just watched, pouting. He was so interesting! There was so much to investigate! But... she had to respect his privacy. He seemed uncomfortable, so pushing it would just make it worse. Growing a huge grin, she bounced to her feet and waved, calling out to him.

"Bye Mr. Monkey! Please talk to me later when you're feeling better!"

Hooray! She had made plans with another person! Well, a monkey. But there was a person inside the monkey, and that was what mattered most! Or... was it? As soon as they had crested the stairs, April absentmindedly wandered away from the group as she pondered the nature of such a being. Is the body what matters? Or is it the spirit housed within? Or was it simply the ability to communicate? Even as she wandered down a hall, she didn't notice how far separated she had become until she heard a small growl from behind her. Upon turning around, she was met with a small cat-like creature, with a PPL of 20 and standing no taller than 2 feet on its hind legs.

"Awww, you're so cuuute!" the girl squealed before kneeling down, beckoning for the creature to approach with her hand, "Even if you're a spirit, I've never seen one like you~"

With a yowl, the cat leaped from where it was, smacking April's extended hand and tearing through it with its claws, prompting a cry of pain from April. As the girl stumbled back, the cat tried to pounce upon her, leaving her just enough time to roll of out the way and get back up, heading down the hall.

"Oh come oooooon," she whined as she ran from the creature, ducking or hopping when it tried to pounce, blood trickling down her arm, "I was being niiiiiiice!"

As she approached the staircase once again, the blood stopped, her hand having healed in the 30 seconds or so since it has been damaged, as if there had never been any harm. What could she do? She had no offensive abilities against spirits, she was just here because it sounded interesting to investigate! She whimpered a bit as she turned around at the staircase, watching as the small cat stalked her.

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Those strange feelings, those strange images.

They were the things keeping Sophia's mind occupied.

What was that? Was it the end of the world.

Yes, yes it was.

The end of the world of slumber, that is.

Beep beep beep beep

"Who awakens me from my beauty sleep?"

Sophia Manchester looks around and about as she rises from her bed, only to realize that it was her phone's alarm. It had rung at least five times in the past hour.

"Oh, it's just you. Again. Please learn some manners."

She gradually drifts back to the realm of dreams before realising something.

"HOLY CRAP! I'M LATE!"

She rises from her bed, shaking her hair as it almost magically fixes itself straight. Waving her hands, her clothes immediately transform from an evening gown to proper business wear fit for an interview, complete with heels. She slots some bread in a toaster as it pops out, spreading some jam on it and slotting it into her mouth.

One might wonder if her ability to run on heels was her true power.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She struts into the building filled with many people, high-end perfume combined with a confident aura emanating from her body. She stood out - whether like a sore thumb or like a shining diamond in the rocks was a debate.

"Me? Being lead by some plebeian? Ohohohohoho! What can you even do?" Sophia questions the high-ranker, but all this was soon interrupted by a giant serpentine beast interrupting the meeting, before being promptly exterminated.

"That was luck!"

She ascended the stairs, following behind Aki.

"Looks like where we're going, we'll need- huh?!"

A fiend of some sort, the size of a man, creeped about. Its wiggly, ever-increasing arsenal of stretchy arms felt about, and they were ready to feel Sophia herself!

"Eek! A molester! Get him away from me!"

Using her abilities, she seemed to create some kind of translucent barrier around her. The creature's sense of touch probed at it, as if it was a physical construct. She then formed spikes around this barrier, causing the being to flinch backwards in pain, even though no holes were punctured during this process.

Edited by Crow

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Penny sat on her butt, watching as the fox slowly prowled ever closer.  She had to guess that the same trick wouldn't work twice on a spirit like this.  She wasn't really much used to combat either...mostly relying on her knowledge from video games she played in her spare time.  Were there any cool tricks she could pull from any one of those?  She crossed her legs, as her shadow remained a still blob by her side.  She could see the fox's slow approach through the 'eyes' of her shadow in her mind, so she could close her eyes to focus on a way of beating this thing.  Immobilizing it was the top priority...but with all that electricity seeping from the fox's fur, she was more than likely going to end up getting a nice shock if she did what she was thinking of doing.  And then there was that thingy that guy did.

"It's called a soulblast. It's pretty efficient, I'd say, but it takes some practice."

Ugh.  That good looking jerk.  Couldn't even give them a hint how to do that soul thingy.  It pissed her off.  The spirit was closing the distance now, the gap between the two growing quite small.  Practice is something she didn't have the time for, and she wasn't some kind of prodigy at this...so all she could do now was roll a 20.  The fox lunged at her, it's teeth snapping as she quickly, and clumsily, performed a backwards somersault.  The stationary shadow that was at her side now molded itself into the shape of a spiked plate, ramming itself into the fox's side and into the wall.  Even though Penny's shadow had completely pinned and pierced the spirit, it still struggled to snap at her.  Instead, it started firing off more electricity from it's fur, and into the shadow.  

Penny's skin began to tingle intensely, somewhere deep in her mind she think she was starting to like this feeling.  However, she pulled herself to her feet, and started inching her way towards the spirit with her hand outstretched.  Another ball of lightning appeared in it's mouth, but Penny extended more of her shadow to wrap around it's maw in a flash, muzzling the canid.  Still, with this current running through her body, she managed to reach the spirit's nose, placing a hand on it.

"Concen..." the constant zapping was making it hard to focus, "Concentrate Penny...show that bigshot...that he's just a big..."  She could feel the spirit's soul!  Like she was firmly holding a fruit of some kind.  Now she probably just needed to channel some of her power into it, and maybe it would burst like a balloon, like the spirit before did!  "That he's just a big shit!"  She sheepishly roared, as the fox began to glow a purple hue.  Before she could blink, the spirit before her burst into thin air.  The shocking sensation stopped altogether.  Her shadow deformed, and went back to Penny's side as a lone blob once more.  Penny was dumbfounded at what she had just done, looking to her outstretched hand, and back to where the spirit had been.  She looked to her shadow, and pointed at herself.

"I can do that?  I really did that?"  She received no response from the shadow, not even a nod of it's blobby head.  "Whoa...aren't I cool?!"  This time, the shadow did nod.  "I mean, you were all like, BAM!  And then we were all like, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!  And then I was all like, UWAAAAGH!!!  And then that spirit was all like, KABOOM!"  She hadn't realized it, but Penny's hair was a total mess now, floating towards the ceiling, and filled to the brim with static.  

 

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The hall shook greatly with each strike...and for good reason. The strange bird-human spirit hybrid and John were simply trading blow after blow with one another. Where the spirit would attempt to strike with it's powerful kicks, John was able to simply defend against them by redirecting the initial attack before delivering one right back at it. Of course, this is where the spirit seemed to catch on and learn during the fight, in which it even started to attack in a most aggressive manner. Where one attack was deflected and redirected, another one was immediately followed up with and definitely knocked John back a few times.

...seem to be getting nowhere with this bird... John thought, his breathing somewhat shallow due to the pressure he was being put under by this bird's attacks. He simply observed the spirit to the best of his ability for a moment or two, with the latter opposition simply tweeting and dancing in victory, obviously seeming like it was the winner out of the two of them. "Hmph...quite the overconfident one, aren't we?"

The bird let out an angry squawk before rushing towards John once more, preparing a double kick at the ESPer. However, it didn't account for something that John immediately did. Swiftly, the young detective removed his trench-coat and tossed it in front of the bird spirit, to give both a distraction but also blind the spirit's sight from John for a bit. Enraged by this, the bird kicked at the trench-coat in an attempt to hit the ESPer...but all it hit was the coat and simply moved it out of the way, while it's powerful kick was sent directly into the nearby locked door to records. However, what it felt after that was it's other leg immediately being swept out from under it, as John was crouched down low enough to sweep the bird's leg out.

"Lost the bravado now I see." John smirked, watching the spirit careen towards the floor with a loud thud. Before it had a chance to get back up, John immediately hopped on top of the bird and placed his hand right on the beak of the spirit. He exhaled slowly, recalling what Aki said during the bout with that centipede dragon...

"It's called a soulblast. It's pretty efficient, I'd say, but it takes some practice."

"It may take some practice...but at this point...we don't have the luxury of plenty of practice." he sighed, closing his eyes some. The energy around his arm and hand was already reacting hard to what he was doing. "Sometimes it's best to just learn in the field from first hand experiences." He exhaled again, feeling something in his hand...the feel of it...it must've been the soul of the spirit in front of him. John immediately opened his eyes...just in time to see the bird burst into ghostly feathers and into thin air. "Well...that's one distraction down. Though I'll have to thank it..." he glanced over at the once locked records room door, which was now off the hinges and lying on the floor in the room. "...it gave me access to exactly what I wanted."

John stood up, the energy fading from his arms and legs as he picked up his trench-coat, tossing it back on. "Now, let's see what we can find on our deceased employee and this boss monster." The investigation was still on!

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The chase was on! Alice pursued the gargoyle-like spirit through the halls, around corners, through offices, and up a couple staircases as well. The staircases were particularly troublesome, what with the thing having wings and all. It was as it entered an office that only had one door that Alice was convinced she had this taken care of. "Nowhere to run now, you overgrown decoration!" The spirit sat perched atop the table, the way a regular gargoyle would sit on a piece of gothic architecture, staring her down. No rumbling noise, no raised arms, and certainly no running away. It must have accepted its fate!

Or at least, that's what Alice told herself as she strode on up to the spirit. Right as she stepped up to the table, within swinging range of the gargoyle, the floor seemed to open up beneath her feet, nearly dropping her through. Alice grabbed the ledge of the open floor, glaring daggers up at this spirit that had tricked her. Come ooooooon. I'm already running out of breath as it is! I'm a sprinter, not a marathon runner. As Alice began to pull herself up, the gargoyle moved from its perch. It looked down at Alice. Then at her hands. It lifted up one of its feet.

"Don't you dare."

But it dared. The gargoyle set its foot down on one of Alice's hands, grinding its foot against the fingers until Alice was forced to let go. Now dangling by one hand, Alice took a deep breath. This was probably not the best time to try out that Soulblast thing, but she really didn't feel like having a fall because of hesitation. How was one supposed to channel the energy, anyway? Aki didn't go over that. For now, she'd have to just go with what was familiar to her. And so, Alice imagined as if her arm was a storm cloud, illuminated by arcs of lightning coursing through and bringing what overly religious types would probably call the Lord's fury down upon the imaginary little people living on the inside of her raincoat sleeve. Although it was loose and haphazard because she was rushing it, energy built up around Alice's free arm as she focused on that mental image.

And then she swung her arm up into the spirit's leg as it prepared to step on her other hand, crumbling the foot into rubble and throwing the spirit's balance off. Out a foot and pretty off-balance, the spirit backed away to regain its literal lost footing, buying Alice the time needed to grab the edge and nearly get herself back up.

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The battle between Jin and the skeletal spirit seemed to go back and forth quite a bit, making her let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding that nobody had followed her. "Well, at least the kids are good at listening to some direction..." She hummed as she tapped her firearm, "Well, this is definitely more powerful than usual... bloodthirsty... So..." She picked up one of the bodies that had been impaled near her on the floor, giving it a quick toss out over the desk she was covering behind, watching as the spirit let loose an arrow that pierced the body with a quick 'squelch!'

She immediately hopped over the desk herself, rushing the spirit as she reared back a fist, taking a direct swing to give it a shock and knock it prone, before pressing her firearm to it's chin, "Pass on to a better life, and stop harassing the damn living!" She pulled her trigger, a blue light emanating from the barrel before blowing away it's head. She sighed, taking the firearm back as the bones started to shake slightly, "Yeah yeah I know that trick." She pressed her hand to the reload slot, blasting her soul into it a few times as she shot a blast at the ribcage, each leg, and each arm.

Jin took a moment and looked around, before holstering her firearm and turning to walk back downstairs, to anyone that was still in the meeting room she'd ask, "Have there been any screams or anyone that hasn't reported back that should have by now?" As she asked she took out a lighter and cigarette, taking a deep whiff.

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•┈┈┈••✦ ♠️ ✦••┈┈┈•

With a quick feint with her left hand, she caught the monster's attention briefly as it attempted to intercept fist with a block... Only for her to slide to the right, her right fist slamming in against the creature's head with a flash of bright light. She grinned as it connected, sending the monster sliding backwards as it steadied itself with a low hiss in her direction all over again. She brought her hands back up, giving a few, taunting punches in the specter's direction as she grinned. "Weren't expecting that, were you? Good to know even spirits fall for the classics!"

She laughed as the monster ran towards her suddenly, the head reeling backwards as it prepared to headbutt her properly. She grabbed at the creature as it slammed itself towards her, her hands catching the metal of it's head as they started to glow once again... She cried out in pain as she held the creature in place... A point blank burst of energy formed in her hands and she blasted it right in the ugly mug. She grinned as she sent the creature sprawling to the ground in front of her, a low groan escaping her as she brought her foot down onto and stomped down onto it, before sliding backwards as it started to rise up and hit her in return. She winced in pain, shaking her head gently as she saw her pointer finger on the right hand slightly... Dislodged. It looked bad, it definitely didn't feel good, but the blast that the creature got was worth it. She would have to worry about settling her finger later, right now, metalhead was stirring again. She lunged towards before it got up entirely, her left hand slamming palm down into it's back, shoving the creature against the floor again as that familiar burst of energy shot straight into it's back, a low hiss escaping her, "Damn, just how tanky of a bastard are you? I'm not the one who's supposed to be slowed down here!"

She slammed her fist against the specter's face suddenly, before opening up her palm to grab onto it. With a low huff, the soulblast energy formed around her hand, popping right against her foe... And she jumped back off him, landing on her feet as she watched the creature smoke from her assault. It twitched on the ground as it started to rise up once again, a little groan escaping her as she steadied herself, taking a deep breath as the monster started to run towards her once it was back to its feet. She panted a tiny bit, she had used a fair bit of energy on that burst of punches and it seemed like the creature wasn't ready to give up just yet. Her hand was aching from the struggle here, and she let out a little tch. For such a low PPL, this thing was sure putting a fight to not keel over like she wanted it to...

As it approached her, it went for another headbutt towards her midsection, her body twisting to the left to avoid being hit head on. She watched it as it caught itself from the charge, the creature stumbling for a moment as it twisted itself around to her once again. "There we go..."

•┈┈┈••✦ ♠️ ✦••┈┈┈•

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Despite his intentions, Hari had swapped himself with objects at least two other times. Dodging a projectile knife on a chain was harder than it looked even for his smaller, agile form. The man-turned-monkey had somehow taken stock of just how messed up this particular office room had gotten as he found himself finally escaping back out into a stairway. He'd have to send an apology later, maybe they could take some of his pay to cover the damages, it only seemed right. He found himself running up the stairs instead of down them as a more sane monkey might have thought to do at the moment. Up was bad, up was where the bigger ghosts were going to be. This one still wasn't done chasing him either so what did he plan to do if more showed up?

The answer for Hari was not the soul blast so gracefully executed by their high powered friend from earlier. Not that he didn't think he could do it, rather the technique simply wasn't on his mind at all. Nothing beyond not getting stabbed by a ghost knife seemed to be on his mind at the moment. But as the knife flew by not an inch from his face, the monkey realized he needed to be taking a more direct approach or this was never going to end. Thankfully the knife also presented him a course of action. It had broken through the glass of a fire extinguisher. And though not the intended crisis to answer, surely this counted as an emergency and so Hari didn't feel particularly bad about leaping forward to mark the extinguisher. The knife was being retracted as he did so but Hari tossed one of the pens he still had on him at the imp as the knife was readied again. With a press of two fingers to his thumb, instead of a pen the fire extinguisher was now in front of the knife which pierced its side. The contents spewed forth from the pressurized chamber, covering the imp spirit in the chemicals now that Swap had let the extinguisher interact with spirits. Now to follow it up.

"Hiiiiyah!" Hari shouted with a dramatic karate chop. So dramatic that passed immediately through the spirit without doing anything at which point Hari wanted to slam his palm into his face about as forcefully as he had tried to hit the ghost. Thankfully it was still confused and blinded by the extinguisher's contents, allowing the monkey to pick up the extinguisher and smack the spirit squarely across the head. The spirit was sent tumbling down the stairs, chain and knife rattling after it. How long that was going to last Hari wasn't intent on sticking around to find out and so off he ran. No where to go but up.

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PPL: 50

"Oh, so that's your play."

Enrique looked down at his arm, which now had a decently sized gash in it, and then at the inky black shadow on the side wall which had suddenly grown a long, gangly claw and slashed at him. It let out a monotone, droning cry as it left the wall and took a three dimensional form. At first, going off on his own hadn't seemed like the optimal choice, but Enrique had opted to anyway to hopefully get himself back into the swing of things. And Lo and behold, an opportunistic, predatory spirit had decided to make it worth his while. 50 was sizable, but still small enough that he could handle it no problem. It even had a cute gimmick.

Choosing not to waste any more time, he drew his knife, and in one quick motion he lunged forward and inflicted a comparable wound to the creature's own arm. It too looked down, presumably shocked that it could be wounded in such a manner as inky blackness seeped from the stab wound.

"This blade kills spooks good, cabron." He taunted. "You got some cahones, I'll give you that, but you picked the wrong guy to mess with today."

The thing retaliated by launching both of its arms out at him. One nicked his cheek as he ducked, but Enrique was otherwise unharmed. With a practiced upward swipe, he then reached up and cut a nasty gash through the spirit's wrist as it withdrew its appendages, splattering some of the black ichor onto himself as the wound gushed, much like it would on a living person. It droned again, though despite the monotone, it was very clearly in a lot of pain.

"Been in too many street fights to get knocked down by something like that. How's about I send you back to the hole you crawled out of and put that PPL to better use?"

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