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

[(o ×) 228]

1:45 PM

Aki cracked his neck back and forth as he stared at the adversary before him. He had wiped out a few dozen minor apparitions on his way up, mostly just so he wouldn’t have to step around them. And so, here he was at the top floor. Blood was splattered against the walls, and the mauled body of one who came before him lay on the ground, most definitely dead. Aki could vaguely recognize him by his clothes and the sword clutched in his hand (though said hand was a good six or seven paces from the rest of his body) as the braggart from the lobby who said the ghost would be taken care of by two. ”Well, at least he was right about one thing.”

He adjusted his sunglasses, still wearing to protect his own vision from the light his ESPer ability gave off, before surveying the ghost before him up and down. ”Really? A PPL of 420? Who comes up with this shit…” The tips of his fingers began to glow, as he took a step forward. All he had to do was touch her, and he won. Even among ESPers, his soulblast was unreasonably strong. It should be able to get past her shield just fine.

”Alright, miss ghost. I was told you would be a dude, but who knows, maybe looks are deceiving, yeah? So how about you sit still while I-” his sentence was cut short by the ghost flinging her spiked ball directly at his center of mass, probably what had happened to the other guy. Of course, Aki wasn’t like that other guy. As if by reflex, a half-dome of golden triangles appeared in front of Aki, easily deflecting the attack, causing the ball to embed itself in the wall behind him. By some unknown mechanism, the chain had stretched to reach it, and even passed through himself and his shield, seemingly not quite as solid as everything else. ”Seriously, bitch? That’s how it’s gonna be?”

Wandering the halls, seemingly lost, was a man who appeared to be in his early twenties. He walked with his legs stiff, swinging an aluminum baseball bat like a baton in his mockery of a march. He wistfully read the signs hanging by the different doors, wishing it would be as simple as one of them saying “big scary boss battle ghost here” but unfortunately, the floor planners did not have such insight. Luckily, his boredom was interrupted by the sound of a crash, and a yelp.

Bursting into the office with the collapsed floor like some kind of action hero, the man hit the spirit square in the jaw with his bat, and from the point of impact erupted an explosion that blasted the creature’s head clean off, painting the wall behind it with grey ashes. The gargoyle, despite being headless, did its best to recover from the attack, but an equally devastating blow to the legs, followed by a relentless series of explosive stomps reduces it to nothing but ashes. After a few seconds of grinning and admiring his handiwork, the man turned to the girl, who seemed to be in quite a predicament, barely hanging on to the edge of the hole in the floor. Bending down, he extended an ash-coated hand to help the girl up.

"Ah, um... thanks." Alice took the hand, getting back up on her feet and checking her clothes for any rips or tears. "That thing was smarter than I gave credit for."

The man held back laughter, looking at the wall, plastered with its remains. "I dunno, its head looked plenty empty to me."

"Probably because you blew it up with that bat of yours."

"Bitch had it coming.” It was at this point that he first inspected his rescuee properly, surprised to see her PPL was a good deal higher than his own 201. ”So why's someone with your strength struggling against something so weak?"

Scratching at the back of her head and suddenly avoiding eye contact, Alice responded "It's... complicated. Something confined to a single room isn't really my forte. I'd be better at destroying... like... a possessed house or something?"

This time, he wasn’t able to stop himself from laughing out loud, bending over slightly to catching his breath before casually making his way out of the room, "So you're a homewrecker? Sounds about right. Maybe next time one of these weaklings is giving you trouble you should imagine it's an A-frame."

"Ho, hold up!" Alice pursued the boy out of the room. Like hell she was going to just be called a homewrecker like that! "One, I'm only interested in single girls. Two, I've only ever wrecked my own houses, thank you very much. And three, my powers are too large-scale to use in an urban area like this, and totally useless indoors unless I'm fine with huge collateral damage! Which I'm not!"

"If you break something just say a ghost did it."

"That must've been a pretty big ghost," Alice muttered to herself. "Are all exorcists like this?"

The man turned abruptly on his heel, scowling and pointing at her accusatorily, "Listen, I'm just answering a help wanted ad. I'm not part of some kinda church or any shit like that."

"Hmm, guess we've got that in common at least. Partners? I know I didn't look very useful back there, but that was a one-time thing."

"Sure, I guess. I'll make sure to defer to you if we come across a rogue trailer home." Dropping his right arm so as to lean slightly on the handle of his bat, he offered his left hand, adorned with a hard-knuckled glove. "Leo. And to whom do I owe the pleasure?"

Alice reached out, taking the hand and giving it a firm shake. "Alice. If we actually do end up against some sort of trailer home, I'll tear it up real good!"

 

---

 

After sweeping the scattered feathers off of a filing cabinet, the ESPer Detective John managed to bust the lock and pull out a small assortment of files on the boss monster, which he could now see was name of. Twilight Knight: Sabbatica.

For the most part, the boss wasn’t too out of the ordinary, a low-speed, high defense enemy that used a shield to ward off ranged attacks while keeping the player away with a ranged weapon for zoning. Fairly standard boss design. The issue, however, came in the weapon she wielded. The Templar Comet was a flail with unusual range, with a specific quirk: it had a hitbox both on the initial attack, and on the return swing. This was where the issue arose between developers. The designer was adamant that the return swing have the maximum attack speed, as well as ignore all forms of armor. In essence, the flail was able to teleport directly into its target;s back.

 

---

 

 

 

Instant Hit

Aki couldn’t describe what had just happened. One second, the knight had left an opening and he was charging in toward it, protected on all sides by his Telekinetic Bulwark. The next, he was halted in place, feeling something wet running down his back as his vision closed in from all sides. He looked down, and his sunglasses fell to the ground. He could see one of the spikes of the maul had pierced all the way through his body. He could feel himself fading, his PPL dropping like a stone dropped out a window. He fell the the ground, and could see the enemy’s expression of indifference replaced by a quiet smirk that slowly changed to complete agony as his psychic force did its best to find a new home, giving the knight far more power than it was ever meant to have. The last thing Aki ever saw was the knight change from what could be described as a virtuous-looking girl, to anything but.

 

 

PPL: 1820

 

OOC

 

And we’re back! I apologize for the essence, I had some significant personal issues that I needed to sort out, but now that things are starting to look a little better, I wanted to get the show on the road. I understand if any of you want to leave, just let me know if that’s the case, you don’t need to feel any obligation to post here. Anyway, onto where this is going.

The boss has absorbed all of the now-deceased Aki’s strength, turning into a devilish abomination! The sheer weight of such a powerful being with no modicum of restraint casts a heavy aura upon the entire building, and every single psychic present would become instantly aware of its presence, as well as its exact location. As a matter of fact, this overwhelming force is enough to drive all the other spirits that were inhabiting the building to flee, so unless you really, really want a kill for whatever reason, you are safe to make your way to the boss battle. 

Let’s kick its ass.

Edited May 13, 2021 by (?)

[Chaos Sonic 442]

Feathers...way too many feathers.... Either way, John dusted off the filing cabinet and noticed the lock on it. "And this is just begging to be opened and broken into." he chuckled, shuffling in his pockets to take a lockpick tool out and proceeded to pick the lock. After leaving one's keys in their hotel room and even in their own home, one needed to learn how to get back in...eveeeeeeen though it seemed illegal on the methodology.

Regardless, once the filing cabinet was broken into there he found what he was searching for: a small assortment of on the boss monster...Twilight Knight: Sabbatica.

"Twilight Knight...Sabbatica..." John nodded, looking at the different files. "Odd naming choice, since it's just sabbatical without the 'L'...but then again, I'm unsure if there's a true reason in game for this." He continued to read. "Low-speed...high defense with a shield to ward off ranged attacks...hmmm, nothing out of the ordinary..." The detective flipped another page and then paused suddenly, seeing something he wasn't too greatly enthused with.

The Templar Comet...a flail with an unusual range with a hitbox on both the initial attack and the return swing along with having the maximum attack speed and to also ignore all forms of armor. John looked at each word here. ...no wonder there was a huge dispute. With an issue like this simple mechanic disagreement, it's no wonder why the employee was let go...this boss monster happens to be way too broken in a game mechanic sense...

Taking the files, John proceeded to leave the room. Hopefully this would actually help the group in some shape or fashion, especially with dealing with the boss monster. That was, until he felt such a powerful pressure and presence. John stood there, not moving an inch as he looked in the direction of the stairs that would most likely take him in the direction of this strong presence...one thing he could be sure of...

"...that's definitely the boss monster..." John exhaled sharply, shaking his head. "...fantastic...and here I was thinking we could've given the heads up about the boss and it's gimmick. On the way then...here's hoping no one decided to want to attack that thing..." With that, the ESPer Detective made his way up the stairs.

[Kazooie 167]

•┈┈┈••✦ ✦••┈┈┈•

Feint right, uppercut to the creature's face as it tried to dodge. Honestly, she was getting slightly annoyed with this back and forth. It was sluggish enough to not really hit her, but she wasn't really forceful enough to dispel the creature straight up. This back and forth game would just go on and on until one of them tired out... And they were steadily getting further and further through the building, working through the floors as she let out a tiny sigh. She couldn't even stall the bet this way, but... Considering how long this bout had been going on, maybe she was doing fine on time anyway. It didn't seem like anyone else was really making all that much progress, considering there were still plenty of spooks about.

Duck. Jab to the cheek, pull back. Sidestep. Their little dance continued as Vivian made her assault on the creature a little bit... Slower. She was starting to worry about outlasting this creature, it seemed to have no concept of fatigue, while she certainly did. Her saving grace was that the creature itself wasn't very speedy. She was able to stall it out thanks to that, but it did mean that neither of them were making any real progress...

And then, as if the building itself was groaning, a dense, heavy feeling sank down upon Vivian's shoulders. It would've been bad for her normally... But her foe also seemed to be weighed down by it, before shooting itself up... And turning away from her. She blinked for a moment, "H-Hey! Where the hell do you think you're going?! We aren't done here!" She was about to chase after the spirit, but it wasted no time in fleeing from the scene. She was astonished by the speed of the spirit at this point, had it even been taking her seriously previously?

She took a deep breath as she put a hand on her hip, a small chill running down her spine as she mumbled lightly. "Damn, I could gotten a little chunk of power from absorbing that thing... I guess the alternative is..." She turned her way towards where that chill had emanated from, a nearby staircase seemed to be potentially leading towards the 'big bad' of the dungeon. She rubbed at her cheek for a moment, a little sigh escaping her as she took a glance around. It was probably a bad idea to go alone up there, if only sword boy was around, it was almost time for her to collect her winnings... Or maybe Mr. Big Shot from earlier. Either way, there wasn't a lot she could do on her own against a bigger spirit. "...I guess that means I'm waiting, for now. Hopefully the others get here before too long."

•┈┈┈••✦ ✦••┈┈┈•

[Mr. Hyde 204]

Walking higher into the building, Penny patted her hair down.  After a while the static completely vanished from her hair, prompting her to smile.  

"So this is what being a Spirit Detective is like huh?  I could get used to this if the pays pretty good!"  Behind her trailed her shadow, inching slowly behind her like some sort of mollusk.  "We'll have to level up if we're gonna keep doing this though...that fox thingy really gave us a run for our money, huh?"  The shadow nodded.  "But it's no match for our combined team eff-"  Her sentence was interrupted by some insane pressure.  For a second, it seemed like the air thinned, and Penny was barely able to breath.  She fell to her knees, her shadow managing to prop her up against her elbow.  Penny grasped at her throat, and then pounded on her chest.  After a while, the intense wave of pressure dissipated, and she was able to fill her lungs once more.  

"W-w-what was that..."  She said, with a shiver.  She didn't know what it was, but she knew where it was.  Looking to her Shadow, she nodded.  "Well...we signed up for this...and we made it this far...but for some reason...I feel like we might not survive."  Was the money really worth it?  What else was she gonna do to continue to afford living here?  She hadn't realized, but her glasses had almost fallen off her face.  She pushed them back up, and stood back to her feet.  With a deep breath, a smack to both of her cheeks, and then a second smack from her shadow's, she continued up the staircases.  She stopped once she came upon a door...and behind this door...she could feel every nerve of her body start to fire off, as if some primal warning system was trying to stop her.  She was never a good listener, so she opened up the doors anyway.

There she saw such a gristly sight.  Her eyes shook, as she look upon the corpses of two of the ESPers who had made their way here before her.  And one of them, impaled by a large spike, was Aki, the boy from the first floor who flaunted about being the toughest.  Penny had never seen such blood, and the smell of gore reeked through the air.  She fell to her knees, as she could feel the fear rise out of her stomach.  Nope...it was just vomit.  Looking at the hulking monstrosity of a spirit before her, she couldn't help but let out a high pitched scream.  It garnered the attention of the spirit.  It was as if her mere presence was enough to warrant a death sentence.  The spirit swung it's flail rapidly, and unleashed it towards Penny.  In a state of sheer panic and shock, her knees failed her.

However, she managed to get pushed out of the way by Shadow.  She wasn't able to manipulate her physical body, but Shadow was able to do so!  As the flail's piercing spikes almost made contact with Shadow, it's form expanded into a large, inky ring, as the flail sailed through the open air that it created.  Shadow then instantly sank back into the ground, and rebounded towards Penny's side.  She wiped some puke from the side of her mouth, breathing heavily.

"We gotta get out of here...there's no way...I don't wanna die...."  In this moment, she thought about her mother's home cooked meals for some reason.

[yui 573]

As the newfound duo of Alice and Leo continued their exploration of the building, Alice's own psychic endeavors were... very unsuccessful. There were various tiny spirits around, not even worth bothering with PPLs as low as they had, but all the same, they made for good target practice. Owing up to how tiny yet fast they were, however, Alice had missed every single one. On the plus side, this was a good training exercise to get used to what exactly a Soulblast was and how to do it. Much better than that sorry and frankly embarrassing situation she'd found herself in earlier. Suddenly, just when the two had been met with a larger spirit actually worth shooting down, it fled.

Nice try. I'm not fall--

Oh no. This wasn't some trick again. Alice could feel it. Something. Something big. She could barely get her legs to move when she first felt it. But move she would have to. "That's our target," she concluded. Turning her attention toward the direciton of the sudden wave of pressure, Alice cautiously ventured forth. As she got closer to the destination, a bunch of smells hit her nose. A bunch of very nasty, unpleasant smells, that caused her to gag upon initially being hit by them. Slowly and carefully, Alice peeked into the room, to see...

A bunch of stuff she absolutely should not have seen. The strongest guy in the building lying dead on the ground right at the entrance was somehow the least concerning thing in here! And what was with that PPL!? 1820!? Not to mention the thing, that... thing that had it. Alice turned around, taking a few steps back away from the scene.

"Leo... what the fuck is that?" she whispered.

"That," Leo grinned, twirling his bat in his hands, "is a damn big target. Looks about RV sized, don't you think?"

"Y-Yeah, but..." Alice took a deep breath. Then a second one. "One, I don't know how you're so casual about seeing that. Two, go on ahead of me. I need to hype myself up for this and process what I'm actually looking at." In theory, she could take it on if she was paired up with enough other ESPers, right? Yes, the first thing she thought about with her abilities was weather, but that wasn't all she could do. She'd have to plan this out carefully though. If she messed up, she would die here. And she was not ready to die. But she certainly couldn't just turn around and leave, as much as she wanted to.

Alice's thoughts were pulled back to the wallpaper of her laptop back home. With the pictures of the upcoming gacha character and four bold words.

Do it for her.

It looked like she wasn't the only one hesitating either. Some other girl was here too. A cute one, at that! Wasn't she the lady who made a bet with that sword guy? "Hi. It's not pretty up there."

---

Officially, this was not her job at all. Mei never took the exorcism contract, and had only taken interest in ToSoft because of the ad and the scale of the client. Sounded like quite the lucrative undertaking, right? Naturally, there would be people here to solve the case. Powerful ones, at that. People worthy of joining the family. That was why Mei had gone inside once she saw the president leave the building, ignoring the spirits within the building in search of something else. The security room. From here, she could keep an eye on just about everything happening in the building. And honestly, most of these people were pretty promising ESPers! Mei's attention was especially fixated on the boy who could create barriers.

He was the strongest person here, easily. But that attitude of his... reeling him in would be difficult. As she continued to monitor the various ESPers in the building, there was another problem with the boy that came up. He was dead now.

"Tch."

So much for that. At that point, she had a better shot hiring the monkey or that useless girl who had gotten tricked into falling into a hole. As the boy died, Mei felt a wave of pressure wash over her. That was from the boss monster, no doubt, probably bigger and badder than ever. Like hell Mei was going to risk her life fighting that thing. She had a much better cause to risk her life on. As that useless girl in the pink raincoat and her bat-swinging friend got up to where the boss monster was lurking, Mei switched her attention to the room where the beast itself was. While she couldn't see it, she could see the girl with the glasses and the detective, who had gotten there pretty promptly. The former... didn't seem to be taking this too well.

She'd need to get used to these kinds of things if she was going to be any help to Mei. Getting used to horrific things like this wasn't easy though. Mei knew, because she had to do it once upon a time. For now, she'd keep a close eye on this fight as best she could without seeing the thing they were actually fighting, and take note of those worth taking note of.

[Faytl 86]

Gray wished often that he had a handler that was easier to work with than Luciano. The young man had told him about the ToSoft advertisement fifteen minutes after the posted time, and his single response to Gray asking why he hadn't been informed sooner had consisted of a rude remark and a ruder gesture. Still, Gray had endured it and set out onto the city streets, walking slower than he would have liked due to his knees having started falling apart seven years ago. He hadn't had the chance to go into the doctor about it yet; Doctors cost money, and he certainly didn't have enough disposable income for one of them. On particularly bad days he would tap into his ESPer abilities, appearing many meters away in an unobserved back alley, always feeling slightly guilty that he had used these strange abilities for something as simple as a quick jaunt to spare his failing body.

Today was already feeling like one of those days. He was tired, even moreso than normal, and a wedge of a headache was building in the space behind his eyes. That strange dream he had had that morning. So unsettling, so bizarre... And at the very least it was different than the dream that had played in his head for the last six months. For that he was almost grateful. This one was easier to endure, no matter how horrific the screaming was. Somehow his own was still hard to take.

There was a single guard posted outside ToSoft, a guard who looked very much like he had drawn a short straw to be there that day and was none too happy about it. Gray could feel his eyes on him from halfway down the block, see every twitch of his eyes that went to his suit, nice but rumpled, to his shoes, slowly scuffing across the sidewalk, to the tired shell of a face that surmounted it. He could feel the narrowing of the eyes. He didn't like Gray, the man could tell. Gray always felt like very few people liked him. Perhaps even these normal humans (he noted absolutely no trace of PPL from the man easily) could feel the tingle up their spine, the strange itching at the back of their eyes that meant Gray was watching. 

"Answering the advertisement," he said simply, standing back respectfully from the guard and inclining his head briefly. The guard was all too eager to get rid of him, ushering him inside with a wave of his hand. Gray saw the impressions of footprints on the floor, around the stairs and elevator, and there was something here... No, something that had once been here. Almost like remains. None physical, no blood, no viscera. It was all psychic in nature, like trails of blood traced upon the stair wall in invisible ink. A lot of it, too. 

Someone's showing off, he mused to himself quietly as he stepped down a small hallway. His target was not the higher floors. Luciano had been very clear on that.

You're not there to make friends, Gray. Figure out how many of these guys are crackpots wavin' 'round a buncha' herbs an' shit, and how many are like YOU. Preferably someone who can actually pull a trigger for me.

Gray wasn't too keen to place himself in the fray regardless. He was confident the average human posed little issue for him. Ghosts he had much less active experience with. And until he had more than a straggling handful of ESPers at his back he was rather keen on keeping it that way. His target wasn't the ghost. His target were the ones removing it. And there were easier ways to see those than to place himself within their sphere.

Even eyes like mine can use a pair of glasses sometimes, he observed to himself as he rounded the corner towards the security room. The door was closed but of course someone was inside. He could see all that they saw, see the screen they were observing and the figures that moved across it. Could sense that they were an ESPer as well. Not a high PPL but that mattered very little; She would feel the itching behind her eyes and the sense of someone looming behind their shoulder that Luciano always complained about eventually, he knew. He didn't bother with subterfuge. After all, Luciano wanted the best of the best, and this one had been the only one to try and employ the same tactic Gray had.

He knocked lightly on the door, just a handful of light taps. The gaze inside swung around to face the door as he slowly opened it, very quick, very sharply. Alert, this one. Shortly thereafter he had no need to see through her eyes as he gently opened the door, gazing in to see a young woman, rather short, somewhere in her twenties, if he had to guess. 

"Apologies if I surprised you," he said quietly. 

As Mei heard the knock, she turned. Some old man. Pretty finely dressed, too. It didn't seem like he was an ESPer though, which prompted a bit of an issue. "S..." But what if he was some kind of hitman!? No no, that would be ridiculous. But this guy was super suspicious! New people were scary. "Sorry... building's closed."

"I know, don't worry... Place is deserted, course I wouldn't walk into the heart of the camera system without good cause... The advertisement was rather unusual, don't you think?" Gray didn't move from his space in the doorway. The woman at the computer was looking at him with distrust in her eyes, clear as day. Best not to chance spooking her by stepping in any further, not for now at least. "Seems you had the same idea I did... Always pays to get an eyeful of what's in store for you, right?"

So he was one of those exorcists who saw the ad. She didn't see him on the cameras at any point though. He wasn't here to kill ghosts, then. Which this man was either a charlatan... or a particularly dangerous ESPer, if she couldn't even pick up that he was an ESPer in the first place. Mei hesitantly nodded, able to at least agree that seeing what was in store always paid off. "The only promising person in that bunch is dead," she plainly announced. A bit of a lie, that. There was one other figure that showed some promise as a new recruit, but the line between "person" and "monkey" was so thin yet also so very distinct. "If you're some sort of talent agent, this job is a total bust."

"Dead?" Gray couldn't hide his dismay. "So it's serious then, is it?" A sinking feeling in his stomach was born. Something that could kill an ESPer... Was this the same thing that had killed Lucy? One quick glance over Mei's shoulder at the screen at the very least dissuaded that worry for the moment; Whatever had taken his wife had not left nearly that much blood in its wake. "Looks like our caution payed off... If this is something capable of killing someone 'promising', as you put it, I don't think I belong anywhere near it." He put a hand out towards Mei, palm open for a waiting handshake. Still not entering the room. Still something in the back of his mind telling him to let her make the first move. "I'm Gray," he said, ignoring the alias Luciano had yelled at him to use; If he was ever going to get other ESPers on his side lying to them about the most basic things about him was not the way to start. "I would like to watch what happens with you... After all if things are as serious up there as you say... Somebody should, right?"

[(o ×) 228]

1:55 PM

"One, I don't know how you're so casual about seeing that. Two, go on ahead of me. I need to hype myself up for this and process what I'm actually looking at." The girl that Leo had so fearlessly rescued seemed terrified by what they were now facing. Glancing around, Leo noticed another girl, this one with purple hair. She seemed in even worse shape, down on all fours seemingly about to vomit. A big spiky ball was embedded in the wall behind her, with a ghostly chain extending all the way back to the monster. It looked like she had managed to avoid it unscathed. Good for her.

Leo stopped twirling his bat, taking it into his right hand and pointing it downward, an extension of his arm. ”Truth be told, this is the biggest, strongest, extra-scariest thing I’ve ever seen. Before now, it was that guy downstairs, but by the smell of this one’s strength, I’m pretty sure it made a snack out of him.” Stepping in front of the group, placing himself between them all and the monster, Leo spoke over his shoulder, refusing to take his eyes off the enemy, ”Isn’t that exciting? Seeing something bigger than you’ve ever seen and getting the chance to tear it down yourself? Don’t worry, if you need time to rev your engines, I’ll buy it for you.” Leo charged forward at the twisted knight, wildly darting back and forth to do his best to confuse it.

”If anything, you all might have to worry about me splattering it against the wall before you have a chance to even star-”

He hadn’t thought much of the chain suspended in the air, and for a fraction of a second, his left arm had overlapped with it. Sabbatica didn’t give him a chance to reflect on this decision, as in an instant, the end of the flail had returned to her grasp, and Leo’s entire left arm was reduced to bits and pieces, flying through the air and splattering themselves upon the monster, just as Leo had claimed he’d do to the monster itself. ”You… took out my whole arm…” Leo was stopped in his tracks as blood spurted from his torn-up shoulder, a flash of pink light appearing in his eyes.

Iconoclast’s Gambit

”YOU FUCKIN IDIOT”

The droplets of blood and bits of flesh that painted Sabbatica began glowing bright pink, before exploding in bright flashes of light. The sudden point-blank barrage sent the monster stumbling a step and a half backward, as Leo resumed his mad dash forward. ”My PK Blast allows me to produce explosions from any surface I touch! Now, normally I’d avoid using my own body for it, but you afforded me an extra-exciting opportunity!”

The multiple sets of eyes that had previously wandered throughout the room in apparent anguish now all focused on Leo, her human face now twisted in rage. Once again, Sabbatica flung the flail forward, but this time Leo was ready. ”You really think I’m gonna get hit with that thing again? Leo tossed his bat forward, catching it with a reverse grip so that the end of the bat extended down past his elbow. With a swift uppercut motion, he struck the incoming flail, launching it up through the ceiling with a flash of pink light and a crack accentuated by a shouted ”PING!” from Leo. Sliding down onto his back, Leo narrowly dodged a swing from the monster’s giant white-furred arm, extending both feet up into the air to strike it with both heels. His feet wore what appeared to be lightly armored combat boots, and the purpose of them was made immediately apparent as they erupted in the pink light of his esper ability. Carrying through on the momentum, he rolled backward, using his singular arm to push himself up into a crouch.

With a grin, Leo looked back over his shoulder at the rest, ”See? It’s nothing too bad! Feel free to tag in whenever, just don’t cross over where it’s got that chain and it’s nothing to worry abo-” As if to be proven wrong in his moment of glory, Leo was struck at that moment, kicked aside by a giant foot and laid flat against a nearby wall, leaving a leo-shaped bloodstain and a dent in the drywall. ”Like I said, this thing’s a pushover” Leo let out a chuckle and a cough, blood leaking from the side of his grin.

[Kazooie 167]

•┈┈┈••✦ ✦••┈┈┈•

"Hi. It's not pretty up there."

Vivian paused for a moment as she heard that, the sight of the girl coming out of the room definitely caught her just a bit off guard as she rubbed at her cheek gently, “...Yeah, I kinda guessed that, it seemed like a bad idea to hang out in there too long. I felt a… Bad aura in there, probably the spirit, you know? It felt like it got stronger earlier, I didn’t wanna take a peak alone. Stronger in numbers and all that.”

Vivian thought that was a fair reason, honestly. It wasn’t like her power gave her immense combat abilities, she was mostly good for blasting a few of the smaller monsters a bit harder than most. While it was true she didn’t wanna go in by herself, the more important bit was that she wanted to stall for time. If she got that sword and the boy’s power to go with it… Maybe then she’d be able to do something. Even if she had to figure it out first. Telling other people that though… Don’t give them ammo to think they’re stronger than you.

“I kind of regret taking a peek at all,” Alice sighed, slumping down against the wall. Seriously, what the hell was that thing? Processing what she’d witnessed in that room wasn’t a quick and easy task. At least she wasn’t left out on her own for it. Talking to people helped with that sort of thing. “If I knew we were up against some Lovecraftian nasty I would have just stayed home. There’s better ways to get gacha funds than by risking my life like this.”

Viv paused for a second as she tilted her head up, a brow raising as she did, “I’ve only heard bits and pieces, but aren’t those the games that… Reaaally abuse their model to scrape cash from people? There’s definitely better ways than this to get money for that.” She didn’t want to condemn the practice too early, there was a beauty in what those creators had put together, but it seemed to lack any sport… Risking your life for it was a different matter, even to her. “Is it really that bad though? I thought it just got a little power bump… Don’t tell me it was way bigger than I expected?”

“It’s bad.” As much as Alice wanted to defend gacha practices, this wasn’t really the time for that. Reaching out with her hands to signify the size of just what was up there, she explained “It’s like… that big. But bigger. With this nasty…” Alice swung one of her arms forward, as if lashing out with that monster of a flail that was attached to that monster of a ghost. “I don’t even have a combat-oriented ability. Maybe with a higher PPL, but as-is the best I could do is kill it by tearing the whole building down. And some of the surrounding ones too.” Even that was probably an exaggeration. RVs and trailer homes were one thing, but there was no way Alice could tear down a big ol’ steel-and-concrete business building. “Not worth it.”

Vivian sighed gently as she rubbed at her cheek gently once more, her fingers starting to scratch against it as she spoke up, “...Yeah, I don’t really have a good combat ability either. I think if we had some more time, I could scrounge up a plan, but I need to know what I’m dealing with to do that, which means going in the scary door over there.” She brought her hand down from her face, slipping it into her pocket as she leaned back against the wall and glanced up, “...A higher PPL though? That’ll give ya a fighting chance, maybe? Hell, I’m willing to try, wanna make a wager, kid?”

“You can’t just give out PPL like that, though! Unless that’s your ability?” Now that was a thought! But if she was handing out PPL to people but still had more leftover than Alice had total… just who was this woman? Being a PPL battery for others sounded like a pretty shitty power. Though, there were times that she’d rather have that over that thing… which she did to the…

Uh-oh.

With a newfound sense of urgency, Alice got up to her feet and made a beeline for the nearest window, peering out. Immediately, her lips curled inward as a firmly “I fucked up” type of expression spread across her face. Oh dear. Hopefully everyone was too distracted by what was going on in this building to worry about outside right now. No no no, stressing over this would only make it worse. Alice turned her attention back to the PPL battery. “Alright, you’re on. What’s the bet?”

Viv grinned a little bit, she wasn’t entirely sure what was going on with the weather outside at first… If it got her new ‘friend’ here to react like that, it probably meant she was involved in it with her power. Really though, that didn’t matter to her at the moment, “Easy bet, you know? I bet I can pump up your PPL level. If I can’t, you win… I dunno, a golden watch. I’ve got a couple of these back at home and it doesn’t seem like sword boy is gonna win his bet.” She held up her wrist, letting the watch dangling on it flash towards Alice as she did. Really play to that ‘gachi’ addict nature of her’s, she could get a pretty penny for it…

“If I can pump it up, you get better control of whatever it is you do, we go in that room and we try and stall for time against this thing. If you die, or when the creature-slash-crazy spirit dies, I get the PPL back. Honestly, it’s a no-lose situation for ya, right?”

“It sure is. You’re on!” Alice strutted over to the battery girl and held out a firm hand to shake. “Though, I gotta say, a new watch does sound tempting…”

She laughed as she nodded her head, “...If we survive this, I’ll give you a chance to bet for it another time.” She took the hand, giving it a small shake. Honestly, she had no idea if this would work or not. Theoretically, her power does let her transfer PPL as part of the winnings for the bet. So… She shouldn’t have to do anything fancy here. She tapped her foot on the ground for a moment, before glancing at her watch again… “Oh! Looks like it does work after all, I was sorta worried. I won’t be taking any bigger bets for a little bit though...” She grinned as she felt a familiar rush running through her body, though usually… It wasn’t going to be going this way, a draining sensation, something that made her feel as though she was disconnecting from her gambling prowess just a tiny bit…

PPL: 340 -> 90

While Alice would get the opposite sensation, a feeling of energy starting to fill her body, a stronger connection to her powers. When it came to these abilities it can definitely be hard to describe, but a natural understanding of her power perhaps was the best way to put it. Not necessarily perfect... But better.

PPL: 250 -> 500

“Wha! That’s incredible!” She could feel it! She felt… completely the same! Physically, at least. Mentally though, she felt… sharper? More finely-tuned. Like how a sword may have felt fresh off the grindstone. It was hard to describe. For a moment, Alice turned to the window again, considering the possibility that maybe she could reverse the effects of her abilities? However, she didn’t want to chance it right now. Things had already gotten a bit out of hand, and if she tried to fix it but only made it worse with twice her usual PPL… no thanks. “Now this is cool! Alright, let’s go kick some eldritch ghost butt!” This was just the shot of confidence she needed right now!

Viv took a deep breath as she pushed herself from the wall, her face losing a bit of the light it had in it previously, “Yep, let’s get ready to go stare death in the face. I’m collecting my winnings, let’s hope it’s the spirit that fulfills the conditions and not you.” She stretched for a moment, turning towards the scary door as she mumbled, “...I’m not confident in my ability to stay alive for very long in there, but we just need to stall for a little longer.”

•┈┈┈••✦ ✦••┈┈┈•

[Blake 312]

As soon as April had turned to watch the cat, it had turned tail and ran away, leaving her blinking at the staircase. After a blink, she checked her hand for injury, only to be caught by an oppressive wave. Every instinct she had told her to run away on the spot, and she instantly understood why that cat had run away... But a grin began to creep onto her face as she turned to look up the staircase, literally shaking in her boots. If there was something this strong at the top, it would be interesting! She shook off the fear as much as possible, ascending the stairs as so many interesting things came to her. That one guy with the massive PPL seemed to bite the dust, two power levels higher up the staircase seemed to swap around, and more! Even though she was too weak to fight the cat on her own, she was more than glad to be there!

Even as she made it to the top, she waved at the two transferring power and flashed a toothy smile at them, bursting into the room just in time to see Leo's fight. Her eyes began to shine bright as she watched, mouth wide, especially the moment that his arm was destroyed... and turned into a bomb! The ghastly spirit seemed to be having no real trouble in spite of it, but even so...

"That was so cool!" April squealed and bolted over to where Leo was slammed against the wall, kneeling next to him and grinning ear to ear, "Think you could do it again!?"

"It was more of a backup plan than anything, and I'm running low on arms." Leo snarked.

-Time to Shine-

Somehow, that response made April's smile grow even bigger, almost inhumanly so. Placing her hands on his wound and shaking with excitement, Leo would begin to feel something flowing into him... And his arm suddenly began to regrow rapidly, flesh and bone mending themselves as a blue and gold shine seemed to emanate from her hands. Before long, his arm had completely recovered, and even the side effects of blood loss seemed to fade.

"There, now you're not low on arms! Do it agaaaain!"

Leo flexed each of his fingers individually, before forming a fist, "Well that's a neat party trick." Wiping the blood from his jaw, he noted that the rib that had previously punctured something-or-other important inside him was back where it belonged. In fact, he felt healthier than he did when he woke up that morning, "Extra-neat."

Raising to his feet, he cracked his regrown knuckles, "So i keep beating the shit out of this thing, and when it hits back you fix me?"

"So long as you keep me entertained, yep~ Go get 'em! And that goes for you, too, scaredy lady!" April waved over to Penny as Leo stood, "This one shouldn't be a problem at all!"

 

[Chaos Sonic 442]

Out of the frying pan...into the fryer...or in this case, it would be defeated a giant buffed bird...onward to a nigh unbeatable and broken as hell boss monster from a game. Needless to say, John was none thrilled about this whole situation, especially once he got up at the top of the stairs and witnessed what the current situation was. Roughly five of the ESPers here...the boss Sabatica...and of course...a very VERY dead Aki. He pretty imagined how that guy got taken out, after getting a pretty good look at the now monstrous form of Sabatica.

"Naturally...generally one of the last ones here and our resident show off is just offed." John made his way into the room, his psychic energy beginning to lace around his arms and legs, their purple glow illuminating quite a bit of the room. "Hopefully I'm not late to the party here...had to deal with a buff bird...and no I wish I was joking."

He eyed the group of ESPers carefully: one had a bat, so that was a good offensive individual to have assist...one seemed to be talking with him, though he overheard something about "fixing him" if need be...perhaps she was a healer? Then there were two young ladies talking to one another, one of which seemed to be a bet taker, if he recalled correctly...the other, well, he remembered her for making an outburst at Aki...then there was the one young lady with glasses who looked pretty worse for ware.

John exhaled slowly, before proceeding to speak up. "It's called Twilight Knight - Sabatica. Apparently, this was the boss in question for the game that the developers were issuing...and that thing there is the cause of it..." he pointed towards the flail. "In essence, the developer made Twilight Comet to basically teleport into the target's back due to it having a hitbox both on the initial attack, and on the return swing...which also has maximum speed, apparently...while also being able to ignore all types of armor..." The ESPer Detective exhaled once more. "She should still play on the mechanics of her in game version, meaning while Twilight Comet is a monstrous weapon with incredible speeds and practically armor piercing effects...she herself should still be nothing more than a normal boss monster, meaning she should still a low-speed, high-defense enemy."

He glanced over at a few of the other ESPers. "Any suggestions on a proper plan of attack knowing all this?"

[PhoenixOfCute 54]

Jin found herself looking towards the higher floors where she believed the braggart and someone else had gone, "Well damn, that's a high PPL. It probably outmatches me but..." She bites her cigarette a bit, "Damnit, why'd kids have to show up to this kinda thing?" She blows a puff of smoke and flicks the cigarette into a nearby 'ash-tray' or well... it would work as an ash-tray, seemed to be someone's mug but worked to not accidentally burn the building down at least.

Jin started to make her way up the stairs quickly, at a soft jog so she would have enough energy once she showed up, arriving just in time to hear John detailing the creature's abilities, "A hitbox, eh? I wonder if that would work with my ability... Probably a bit too risky to chance it though given the fact I smell blood." She grimaced a bit, glancing towards where she could feel the monster's energy radiating from. She took out her single-shot hand cannon, flicking open the clip storage as she started to store a few shells inside of it, "I've got 2 armor piercing rounds, don't ask me how I got them. They cost an arm and a leg but this situation seems rough enough I'm willing to use them. I'll just send the bill to ToSoft I guess." She gives a bit of a shrug, taking in another breath, "They probably won't -pay- it but that's another story."

She started to slowly maneuver her way towards the entryway, peering around the corner and trying to figure out everyone's position, "Oh damn, like everyone's here. Eugh... damnit, a few departed as well." She looked over at the couple of ESPers still out in the hall, "Either of you, is there any way that your powers would be able to be utilized if it were to be stored into a small space and released all at once, say out of an incredibly small release mechanism with extreme loading capacity?" She frowned, there had only been 2 ESPers she'd ever met that had that sort of ability that could synergize with her... less than stellar ability but if one of them was the lucky third maybe no more kids would die.

"If no it's aight, I can use these AP rounds but I uh..." Most could have sworn there was a sweatdrop, "I'd really rather not fire something that cost me $50 a pop. I only have 2 and rents due in like a week and a half." She chuckles a bit as she smirks, "Anyways, yeah. My ability is... Infinity Storage I guess is a fitting enough name, though not technically infinite. I have a limit but I don't think that'd matter in this situation." She gives a laugh and grins, "Tch, if only there was something I could force to be contained in the building... I might get knocked out after but who knows..."

[Crow 11]

"I can't believe those grubby hands are finally over..."

Sophia stands as the many-armed maniac yields, slowly crawling away. That was when she heard those screams, piercing through the air like daggers, accompanied by a strong energy signature.

"What was that?"

Sophia began to run to its source, noticing other spirits fleeing while ignoring her.

"I doubt this is normal."

Sophia's thoughts were about to shift as soon as she gazed upon the many-bodied, many-faced hellish creature.

"Scratch that, this isn't normal, period!" turning to Leo, she said, "Oi, Cracker Jack, you retreat! Anything could crush you in this pathetic state!"

Sophia would lend her two cents into this discussion.

"For starters, we can't risk that big bozo striking us, period. If we can't defend, we'll just have to evade or..."

Sophia snaps her fingers as various replicas of everyone were created from thin air.

"... make sure that whatever he's hitting, it's probably not the real us!"

[yui 573]

Gray. That was his name. It was also his hair color. Surely his name wasn't Brown once upon a time? He at least had the common sense to not go anywhere near this ghost that was killing noteworthy ESPers. But there was still a lot about this guy bugging her. No PPL reading? None at all? But he was clearly in on the world of psychic powers and ghosts and all that, from how well he was handling this conversation. Just what was going on here?

Best not to show her hand just yet. Shaking his, on the other, was probably fine. Although she hesitated at first, Mei eventually left her spot by the monitors, and went over to this gray man, softly and loosely grabbing his hand and giving it a weak excuse for a shake. "Mei."

Gray nodded, his own grip stronger than the girl's. He didn't look he in the eye. He already knew she wouldn't meet them.

Greetings done, he moved beyond her to the chair she had been occupying, taking up a position behind it and slightly to one side, one hand on the chair's back, the other on the desk before them, leaning in to see the view rather than taking her chair. He was unfortunate in this endeavor, as he looked down just in time to see Leo deprived of his arm.

He winced immediately, the neutral expression he'd tried to maintain so as not to spook Mei immediately transitioning to a hard-eyed one. Even from the indistinct shape that now lumbered past the screen he could tell it was big, powerful too if it could tear off an arm in one blow.

"Very destructive," he noted, "And you say it's killed one of them already?"

Mei nodded. Tapping a nearby screen featuring the recently-deceased barrier-creating ESPer and the rather literally disarmed sword-swinger, Mei explained "First, the one with the sword came up and died. Then the blonde was next." The latter had a pretty impressive PPL, if Mei recalled. How tragic. And it meant that the ghost up there was a lot bigger than a ghost should probably get. "All this from some spat over a video game..."

"Video game?" asked Gray. He had not been present for the executive's explanation, so this was news to him.

"It's complicated." While this was true, the real reason for not explaining was Mei simply didn't want to use up that many words. Not on someone she'd only just met.

He didn't press the issue. Just looked at the screen as the disparate ESPers before them started reassembling before what was to him a great static form , and to them the Twilight Knight - Sabatica. "I imagine. Nobody promising for you, then?" He took her implied statement from earlier and simply held it out, not taking his eyes from the screen to look at her, waiting to see if she would take it.

"Not really." Especially not after Mr. 1400 bit the dust! There were definitely the makings of promise with some of these people, but it was raw and unhoned. She'd have to work on that if she wound up taking anyone under her wing.

"You seem dismissive of them. I wouldn't write them off just yet." Gray nodded as he saw April reach leo, not that he knew any of their names yet. But as he saw April restore the lost limb of the young man, saw the newly galvanized Alice and Vivian mobilized, and saw John pull them all together and start quickly speaking, he got the impression that might soon have to change.

"Keep watching; Maybe there's something worth seeing still. And if not... Well. We'll be the ones who saw their final moments, won't we. Some people consider that a comfort."

"People are strange." To consider that of all things a comfort, being spied on without knowing in your final moments. If it were her, she'd rather die unseen in the middle of the woods, leaving not a trace of her presence.

[Mr. Hyde 204]

 

Penny tried to scramble to her feet.  She tried to make a run back for the door, but her legs had failed her.  She turned back to see that massive ghost.  Those eyes of it's were piecing, and the weapon that it swung was covered in blood.  She trembled even more, as her hands tried to drag herself desperately across the floor.  She couldn't look at those bodies again, or she'd faint, and she'd surely die in that instant.  No...she didn't want to end up in a pile of indistinguishable body parts on the floor...she needed to run away.  That's when more of her fellow exorcists flooded into the room.  One after the other they valiantly began to combat the spirit. 

”See? It’s nothing too bad! Feel free to tag in whenever, just don’t cross over where it’s got that chain and it’s nothing to worry abo-”  

This guy had his arm just ripped to shreds, another sight that Penny almost got sick from again, and was continuing to quip.  Her legs scrambled to help her cross across the floor, but she only managed to make it into one of the room's four corners.  In her hysteria, she forgot where the door even was...and she was too afraid to even look up.  She gripped her head, and looked away from the fighting.  Her stomach gurgled, trying to upheave what little was left in it out of sheer panic.  This was insane...these people were insane!  Did they not have any common sense!?  

"Somebody...save me...I want to go home..."  She whimpered, a mixture of snot, stomach acid, and tears came down her face like a faucet.  Her speech was becoming incoherent at this point.  Shadow looked on at her excruciatingly pitiful demeanor.  The void that it used as it's eyes would cry if they could.  Penny's psyche was running wild now...and it needed to as well.  Shadow's playfully blobbish form began to contort, and mold itself, ugly appendages sprouting from it's body.  It tried to mold itself into a terrifying monstrosity, to rival that of this Sabatica, but doing so would most likely break Penny's psyche beyond repair.  So instead, it deemed the form of a hellspawn as reasonable.  Standing tall, and now looking towards Sabatica who was dealing with the others, it only had one thought on it's mind: "Somebody...save me...."

It's approach was slow, and cautious, but it made it's way towards the spirit in a silent rage.