Futuristic H A D E A N - Project: Theia

[druidquest]

Ephie hummed to herself, leaning back on the bench. "An old church in the forest, how romantic," she sighed, holding the edge of the bench with both hands as her feet left the ground, face turned up to the clouds. Her eyes flickered toward the others, almost too fast to catch, and she whistled three low notes before jumping back to an upright seated position.

"I guess I'll have to go see it then!" she declared. "I don't suppose you'd be so kind as to offer directions? Maybe a ride?"

 

[DarKnight36]

"Guess we'll be on the move again," Daiyu said, less for her benefit than for her companion's. She honestly wasn't sure how much of the briefing Rosa recalled.

She stared up at the taller woman for a moment but any other thoughts she had were kept to herself.

Her hood went back up and Daiyu melted into the crowds once more, eyes on the contact and Ephie as the two stood.

 

[PiePillager]

• Task Force Vampyrum - Sewers

• 
  
  Darkhan and Ignat had more or less blindly followed Mellina, both feeling a tinge of regret as they entered the sewers. Ignat, still hazy, could muster up nothing in response to Mellina, except for incoherent muttering.
  
  The imam anxiously rubbed his thumb against the tips of his fingers, trying to calm down and get his head clear for Mellina.
  
  "Actually, yes... These sewer systems should run close to the subway that's being built. The Russians don't know this, but the resistance has been using the subway tunnels to connect with our own system of tunnels. We go through there, we can head up to the industrial zone, where we have more safe houses."
  
  He paused for a moment, the look on his face turning more serious and somber. "However... I believe these fascists are located in a Dacha possibly, over at the Botanical Gardens. We can easily reach there through the tunnels, but.... Well, now that we're being attacked here, I'm certain they know that we're aware of their location. They'll likely be moving any evidence they may have for the location of the Anthrax, and moving it quickly. Not only that, the area will be teeming with armed men. If we still have any time left miss... It's extremely limited."
  
  The noises from the church basement alerted them that they needed to keep moving. "Can... Can you and your people really save us?"
  
  

"HOHO! Is that really a question, my good holyman?! " The echoing voice of Shinobiman reverberated across the sewers. "It is an outcome most inevitable, I say! Most inevitable indeed!" Now where exactly Shinobiman was among them would be a mystery as his loud racket seemed to over the entire circumference of the sewer tunnel yet not a trace of him could be seen.

"It is quite an adventure we've found ourselves on, isn't it?! Why I almost wish to commemorate the event with a song!" he responded cheerfully. "What say you, friends?"

 

[Prizzy Kriyze]

Arata Kin

It seemed he was out of practice, as the giant tore free from shackles around his feet and leapt across the room to repay Kin for wasted time. He exhaled hard in preparation for the blow, and felt a million small pinpricks across his body where blood and flesh hardened in response to the blunt force trauma, like the tingling of a limb fallen asleep. They both barreled through the room until they met a wall, and Kin grimaced as he felt his ribs groan from the stress. His feet were dangling a good foot off the ground, and his left arm was pinned between his torso and the slab, with his hand sticking out at an uncomfortable angle just in front of his face, which he promptly used to form a middle finger at the enraged giant.

Somehow, even when he didn't expect support he'd been disappointed. While most of the group were directly leaving him to fend for himself, the rest couldn't be bothered to even raise a finger in his defense. That was certainly the last time he put aside bringing a fire arm for Mellina's sake. Or doing anything for any of these assholes' sakes. The gunfire up above drowned out almost everything, but when he met the brute's eyes and felt his crushing force against his chest, he could still hear him just barely uttering something about Gehenna in Italian. Perhaps it would've been a nice topic of discussion, but Kin didn't speak Italian, and he was in a hurry to hunt down and kill a couple people he happened to know was running around a nearby sewer.

Meeting the Brute's gaze, he propped his right arm up against the wall behind him and gave up on playing defense. In a split second movement, he spat a nail-shaped piece of metal into his left hand, balanced it on his middle finger, and flicked it hard enough that his finger cracked like a bullwhip - straight into the eye of the brute. Kin felt the pressure against him loosen as the monstrosity reeled backward with the inch long end of a nail protruding from his left eyeball, and seized the opportunity. He pushed off from the wall, turning as he did, and slipped away from the concrete slab. Before falling to the ground, he telekinetically gripped the ichor in his own body and generated his own pivot to spin and send a heavy kick into its face, driving the nail further in through the Brute's skull.

He landed less gracefully and had to roll to get back onto his feet while the Brute crashed into the floor. A common consequence of ice-pick lobotomies, Kin thought, before to his horror and surprise the Brute stirred once more, grabbing at the ground to steady himself. With a disgusted grimace, Kin raised his hand and tugged at the air as if to start an unruly lawn mower with an unusually short starter cord. Blood and gore poured out of the monster's face as Kin's metal wriggled, jerked, and scrambled its way through the soft tissue inside.

After an uncomfortably long struggle the Giant finally went still, and Kin took his first breath since the scuffle started. His shirt was now thoroughly ripped to ribbons and clung onto his frame for dear life. There were several scrapes across his chest and back where his body hadn't hardened fully, and he could feel a stiffness in his left shoulder usually indicative of a hardened injury. With murder on his mind, he walked over and retrieved his pierced bomber jacket from the middle of the floor just to cover up a little. The battle was still waging on the second floor. Kin briefly considered leaving through the sewers and hoping they all killed one another, but if he went after Mellina and Shinobiman right now he wasn't sure he wouldn't try to kill them as well. Between the two groups, he somehow had more faith in John making it out alive, all things considered.

Only pausing to catch his breath, Kin made a vain attempt at dusting himself off, then took the stairs up to the ground floor.

 

[MisoraUni]

They sent the loud one to help me?

Mellina tilted her head to the left and snapped her finger once, then twice in quick succession.

Well wait, that's not terrible, now I don't have to actively make an effort to speak as much. Nevermind then, this is a good thing.

"What he said." Her head turned to the right and she lifted her hand up to her shoulder and pointed her right thumb behind herself, as the tin can man was off in that general direction from what she saw with her sound wave vision.

...

"Anyways, Fellas." Mellina shifted herself behind the two church men.

"Care to get in front and lead the way? We'll watch from behind and keep you safe."

 

[Lord Saethos]

• Task Force Vampyrum - Sewers
• Task Force Vampyrum - Church
• Task Force Draco

• March 21st, 1991 - Location: Park at the South End of the Sairan Reservoir, Almaty, Kazakhstan
  
  Darkhan looked around the sewer halls with incredulity as the sounds of the hulking Shinobiman echoed, but he remained unseen. "A-all due respect sir, I think we should proceed with more caution? Perhaps a song would be better put to use when we're away from the church?"
  
  Ignat muttered something unintelligible as he continued to regain his grip on reality.
  
  Darkhan looked back to Mellina and gave an affirmative nod, before taking the lead. "Follow us. We'll stop at our safe house so your comrades have a chance to regroup with you."
  
  As they waded deeper into the dark, only a few sparse electric lights hanging from the ceiling, flickering with age, the sound of gunfire began to fade somewhat. "They can't keep this battle up for long, those Fascists are going to call too much attention to themselves if they keep it up. Unless they're here for a war, they're going to have to retreat soon."
  
  The form of the ninja fellow still remained out of sight, and Darkhan wondered how such a strange person managed to make it into the employ of SINS.
  
  "May I... May I ask how you both came to work for SINS? You're not what we expected for spies, or special forces."
  
  
• 
  Ghoul heard the roars of Svyatogor die down at some point, a little unsure of what happened, but when she saw Kin coming out of a stairwell off to the side of the nave, she got her answer.
  
  Down at the bottom of the pit the monster had created, it's body twitched for a few moments before lying still, it's vision going hazy, and between flashes of white, and pitch black, before all vision in its mind seemed to be cut off completely.
  
  This was good news for the team, one less thing to need to worry about right now. Ghoul smirked under her mask as she signaled to Kin to give her assistance. Bits of pews were torn apart, sending splinters into the air, as bullets arced uncomfortably close from the rifle of a sniper.
  
  Ghoul didn't have a very good sight on him, but she could see enough to return fire. As she let out several bursts of fire, she noted something odd occurring...
  
  Were the bullets not hitting?
  
  
• March 21st, 1991 - Location: South Jetysu District, Almaty, Kazakhstan
  
  Aset smirked and shook his head. "Nothing as romantic as a church today ma'am. No weddings today, only funerals, so... It's a graveyard for us."
  
  Noises in the distance causes Aset's eyes to widen, and it was clear the other Kazakhs were starting to notice the strange noises. Gunshots.
  
  "No rides today, I can say with confidence the roads are going to become a problem quite quickly. Plus, what we're looking for is close by." He turned to Ephie and sighed slightly. "I'll give you directions, but I hope you've done escort missions before, because I'll need you to keep me alive as I walk you there."
  
  He stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets. "You should signal your comrades to follow at a distance. The chaos with these crowds should help us get towards the forest unnoticed."
  
  

  _____________________________________________________________________________________________________​

  
  Morgan heard the sound of distant gunshots before he saw Ephie and the target moving. Using one of his extra eyes on the outside of the building, he was able to catch a few glimpses of flashing gunfire, near the church the other team had gone to. Had they been set up? Were they being watched? He felt his chest tighten, didn't matter how many eyes he had to see around them, none of them could see what a person was thinking.
  
  And now the target and Ephie were moving again.
  
  He chewed his lower lip as he held back an expletive. He was thinking about taking the rifle apart and putting it back into the case, but that would be too much work, and who knows if he'd need it again. Instead he removed the scope to get it down to iron sights, set the safety on, and snuck it under his coat, as best as he could.
  
  If they did end up finding any Fascists, they'd at least be getting a sizable hole in them pretty fast.
  
  Once Morgan got back out of the building, he saw basically where Ephie and the target were moving. The direction was over to the edge of the industrial zone, towards a little forested area. A perfect place to get ambushed. He narrowed his eyes, but looked towards his other team mates, brushing the hair at his temples with two fingers, as if to point towards the direction of the forest, and for them to move that way.
  
  If this did end up in yet another betrayal, he swore he was gonna steal a nuke for himself. Dumb idea of course, but then again, it probably wouldn't be something Ultrox would have a defense for, so that did give him a twisted sense of satisfaction.
  
  

 

[druidquest]

Industrial concrete gave way to cold earth as they crossed the tree line, Ephie whistling a bouncy tune as she led the way. The trees weren't nearly as dense as one would expect from the moniker of a "forest", the undergrowth kept thin from a mixture of land management and the early spring frost in the soil. That wouldn't do much to dissuade the notion of an ambush waiting for them, though. Any tree cover was still tree cover.

Their charming little woodland path was rather free of company in the Thursday sunshine, it seemed. Perhaps it was still a bit too cold for fellow hikers. Still, she spotted one or two moving about here and there, stepping off the path to make way when they started to get close. How considerate of them!

"How many reliquaries do you think we should expect in the chapel?" Ephie asked, peeking at Aset over her shoulder. Something buzzed past the back of her head, and she swatted at the air to dismiss the annoying insect. "Do you orthodox sorts do that, actually? I wanna be sure my double entendres are culturally accurate." One of the hikers fell over a ways off, the knife in his throat vanishing after a moment.

 

[PiePillager]

"Work for them? No, no! This is no job, this is a calling!" Shinobiman answered jovially, remaining unseen as his voice echoed in the tunnels. "SINS simply awoke me from my long nap in Mongolia and I took them on their offer to save as many lives as possible! As a hero well should, for that is our calling!"

"Spies! Soldiers! Heroes!

Ninja take on many roles!

Each one, important!"

He offered, to follow up on his previous statement.

 

[obscured_light]

This was the worst type of mission.

Rosarita couldn't stand the skulking about and it only put her in a worse mood. If it wasn't for the fact that she had no other option, she would have already blown off this whole thing and gone back home. But here she was, hands in pockets, shoulders hunched, doing her best to act like she were a mere bystander. Her eyesight wasn't super great either so she didn't bother keeping visuals on their buddy... Elf? Elfie? Rosarita listened instead but she had to constantly stop and rely more on the others to make sure she was still listening to their footsteps and not some other random civilians.

It got easier when the terrain changed and words began to be exchanged. By the gods, this was going to be a long one.

...Or not.

Something had narrowly missed Elphelt. Rosarita knew it was too large to be a bird but she couldn't be 100% certain. She couldn't be now because she was already charging forward, slipping into the form of a boar.

 

[Sepokku]

"мен жана менин көлөкөм, мен жана менин көлөкөм, мен жана менин көлөкөм, me and my shadow..." The words echoed endlessly in John's ears. He became briefly aware of the lizard creature struggling against his vice grip, its neck thrashing in the palm of his hand.

The creature grew in size then shrunk, over and over in vain as it attempted to free itself. Finally, it turned back to John, growing as large as it could without having his hands snap its neck, then let out a gout of noxious air from its mouth. Boiko hissed, the venom he had just expelled was enough to kill a human a thousandfold, there was no way-

John inhaled deeply, the fumes roiling into his lungs as his nails dug into the skink's scales, blood starting to seep from the punctures they created. A blood vessel in his eye burst, a scarlet red bloom taking over the normally white hue of his sclera. His body seemed to jitter as body rearranged itself, stealing various parts from different animals until his anatomy was almost entirely alien. As quickly as the venom started its assault on his body, it ended; supernatural regeneration paired with natural animal immunities creating a cocktail of antitoxins that rendered the supernatural gas a moot point. His fingers pressed down far longer than necessary, the skink unmoving for some time before he came back to his senses.

A shotgun slug lodged itself in the front of his skull, but the cranium no longer housed his entire brain and it was little more than a minor annoyance. Dropping the mythical reptile he turned his attention to the man holding a trench shotgun some yards from his face. Extending a claw, John dug the slug out of the occipital lobe and threw it back at the assailant, the spent metal tearing through the man's throat with enough force to decapitate him.

With a frown, John's bloodlust seemed to quiet and he was lucid enough to turn his attention to the sniper.