First Notch On The Belt: Brian, Lake of Fire Quest.

His last encounter with D. Mirakama had given Brian some direction, something that he seemed to be lacking as of late.  In an attempt to prove his combat prowess, he travelled to Hawaii, in an attempt to take on the creatures that had been such a problem to Ryuu and Cloud just one day before.

Brian was not as insistant on catching the creatures in the early morning, seeking them out in the afternoon to deal with the threat then.  By then he was lucky enough to find them separated.  With two of them foraging for food in the city, while the locals fled frantically, throwing whatever they could find at the beasts that simply ignored them and ate what they could.

Not being able to power up in the city, Brain didn’t waste time with those two, simply informing the authorities of the situation as he went off in search of more viable targets.  He located the first creature near the volcanic peak, and didn’t even bother with that one, instead making his way to intercept one that was just outside of the city limits.

As Brain powered up, his form quickly began to draw in energy, boosting his reserves to the max as he engaged the beast.  Boosting into range, he wasted no time in dodging around to the side of the creature, launching a flying side kick to the neck area of the beast, only now alerting the creature to the fact that he was a threat.  His attack did negligible damage, but it did manage to throw the beast off guard and anger it.  Brian landed and followed up quickly with an axe kick, knocking the creating flat before he jumped back, anticipating a counter attack.  The creature made it back to it’s feet lazily, charging Brian.  Brain dodged to the side, hoping that his Dodge would be able to tip the beast, but with it’s high weight and low centre of gravity, that would not be the case.  He did manage to evade the attack, landing a powerful round house, dumping the third and final charge from his Surgical strike before the creature turned a lashed out at him with it’s tail.  Being already commited to the attack which connected squarely, Brian could not dodge the counter attack, and found himself being knocked across the ground, skating some distance away before coming to a stop.  The creature wasted no time burrowing into the ground now, putting Brian on high alert as he took to the air and scoped out the terrain.  Unfortunately, he could not stay airbourne for too long, allowing him to barely evade the creature as it erupted from the ground.  Having no lava at this point to add to it’s attack, Brian was quite lucky, as he wasted no time in launching a ranged surgical strike and rushed back in for another combo.

Buy now however, the creature had gotten accustomed to Brian’s melee attacks, morphing a spiked coating, damaging Brian as his limbs impacted the creatures form.  The slight stun allowed the creature to score another, which took Brian well below half of his health.  Brian coughed, slamming his fist into the ground.

“Damn these things hit hard.”  He thought out loud, cursing to himself next before he charged his dodge and evaded yet another attack.  By now, his various energy absorbing moves, in conjunction with his natural charge induction had fully pumped his form to max, a bonus of his particular form that he had never truly gotten a chance to exploit.  The fully charged energy caused a slight aura around his body, before he coalesced it into his fists, using Angle to concentrate it into a single point as he dashed up to the creature, redirecting all of his energy into a single attack as he rolled his hand into a fist and launched an attack into the creature’s face.

The attack blasted the creature away, for the first time doing real damage to the creature as parts of it’s armoured hide visibly fractured, and the creature found itself stunned.  The attack did a number on Brian’s hand though, which was now bleeding profusely from the impact with the spikes.  Luckily though, he had finally been able to create a weak spot which he could target later… or so he thought.  Once again, the creature lazily made its way up, morphing itself to repair the damage and causing Brian to curse loudly.  Unfortunately for the Psycher, this reconfiguration ability was not something that he himself possessed, so he would have to deal with the negative effects of his damage, whipping out his Vipers and he now avoided contact with the creature’s body.  Unfortunately, his luck would not hold up very much, as the two creatures that had ventured into the city had finally begun to become annoyed with the users and the fact that they were being constantly pelted with things that they couldn’t eat.  This caused them to leave the city, and head outside, unfortunately alerting them to Brian’s attacks on their kin.  Needless to say, this didn’t sit well with the Beast, one of which caught Brian quite by surprise, practically running straight through him with it’s charge and sending his form into critical.  As he landed, he bounced and rolled, utilising Dodge one last time to evade the follow up as one of the creatures blasted it’s way out of the ground right next to him.

Given his trouble with one, Brian knew that fighting and beating three would be an impossibility, especially with the length of time that it took for his only useful attack to charge.  Given this, he took to the air again, utilising Dodge’s wind control factor to keep him airbourne as he charged the remaining bursts from his surgical strike, utilising his Combat Mastery for targeting and threw of the blade with every ounce of energy that he had gathered using Angle.  This included the charge from his speed, causing him to fall from the sky, but to his merit, he did manage to revert the beast which he had damaged earlier.  Unfortunately, the brief lasp in flight caused him to be pummelled by the two remaining creatures, meaning that he would not make it out of the fight without a reversion. 

Outcome:  Brian has managed to revert yet another one of the creatures, which the authorities has taken. Quest remains incomplete.

Brian: 66 Exp (reverted) + 40000$

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 16 Exp

Precision: 12 Exp

Multitasking: Seig, Yasmin and Bobby, Assistance Required Iv and Recconnaissance quest.

With Paco out of commission for this attempt, and Crydus previously engaged, this left the teams for the two quests as follows, Seig and Yasmin as the team that would be proceeding into Oya, while Bobby and the operator of Seig’s Ghost frame attempted to do some Reconnaissance in the area.

Given the low numbers, and then the team further splitting itself up, Amanda wasn’t too sure that they would be able to achieve what it was that she wanted done, but she had placed her faith in the Stryfes before and more often than not, they had delivered.

Powering up the device again, Yasmin and Seig were transported to Oya, while Bobby and the Ghost operator made their way off into the heart of Easter Island to check out the rifts and the now present large patch of Gaia.

As Seig and Yasmin came into phase with Oya, Yasmin went to work setting up the relay beacon so that they would be safely returned to earth when the time came, while Seig performed extensive scans of the surrounding area in search of the draconic race that inhabited the island.  As expected, within minutes, a search party was sent to the area, and Yasmin wasted no time in shifting into a copy of one of the dragons, as she hoped that she would have a chance to once again interact with those that she had met before.  As the team advanced, it noticed Yasmin, though it did not recognise her accomplice Seig, causing them to open a link with Yasmin only.

“Once again you return… what is your reason for being here now?”  The dragon inquired.  This was quite unsettling for Seig who had quite a speech prepared for the creatures and it seemed that he would not have a chance to use it.

“Sorry for encroaching on your territory once again, especially after our rudeness the last time we met.”  Yasmin started.  “The first time we came we were investigating a rift that connects the two worlds, Terra and Oya… but our device powered up and we had to leave before the rift closed.  We came back this time to explain what had happened.”  She continued, paraphrasing Seig’s prepared speech.

“I see… are these rifts a threat?”  The dragon inquired.

“…I don’t think so…”  Yasmin replied now, not entire sure.  “We’ve been using them quite a bit and nothing has happened yet.”  She continued, remembering some information that she had acquired while hanging around her teammates.  “I heard a case where something eat a channeler’s scanners but that wasn’t really the rift, but more like something in the rift… I don’t really know.”  She rambled slightly, causing the young dragons to laugh.

“I see… well then, you should leave.  After all you are still trespassing.”  The dragon replied, as Loki attempted to subtly get Yasmin’s attention to inform her that he had no idea what was going on.

“There is one more thing though… there’s a dragon trapped on Terra, her name is Tarek.  She looks like you so she may be a part of your clan, we were wondering if you would send an ambassador to meet with her and bring her back?”  Yasmin inquired, causing the dragon to pause slightly.

“Tarek… the name does not sound familiar.”  He paused again and turned to the others, apparently having some silent communications with them as well, before looking towards the village for a few seconds and looking back at Yasmin.  “There is no member of our clan by that name… you friend may be of our species, but she is not our kin.”  The dragon explained.

“So you won’t help her then?”

“Not so much won’t, but can’t… it is not allowed for foreigners to be on our land and this is not her home.”  He replied.

This proved to be quite problematic, as it pretty much garaunteed that they would not be able to get a scan of any of the dragons, and it seemed like their patience was beginning to wear down as they once again prompted Seig and Yasmin to leave their territory.  Luckily for the two, when the activated the beacon, they were actually returned to Terra, where they would just have to await Stryder.

Stryder on the other hand was having less luck.  The location of the anomalies was some distance from the area were Amanda had set up her experiments, probably the reason that no dragons had been sighted in the location of the Gaia phenomenon.  Unfortunately, something was, and Stryder was rather curious to figure out what it was.  It was obvious now that large energy concentrations triggered the rifts, but instead of transporting things to Oya, these particular rifts were like small pockets of the Gaia phenomenon, allowing things in Terra and Oya to interact in a common space.  From his scans, which were relayed to Amanda, Stryder learned that whatever it was in the corresponding area of Terra as probably not generating the rifts, but instead just generating large amounts of a unique type of energy, which triggered the pockets of Gaia, much like the energies of the Itamis that stabilised the phenomenon some time ago.  As Stryder made his way through the area, he realised that his energy signature, as weak as it was, seemed to be putting the creature on his trail, increasing it’s energy output and triggering the Gaia pockets.  Stryder would also learn, as it tried to eat him, that the creature, which resembled a cross between a fish and a large amphibian, was neither sentient nor particularly of high intellect.  It’s intelligence was rather high, but it was too primal to be communicated with, especially when hungry, so Bobby quickly departed the area, taking his scans and those of the Ghost Operator back to Amanda, giving her a copy before they handed it in for the reward.

Amanda however was not completely willing to just hand her research over to the Stryfes so they could hand that in as well, as the money they would have received would cause the exchange to be the equivalent of a purchase, causing Amanda to lose the academic rights to the find.

Outcome: Assistance Required has been completed, though the team did not acquire a Dragon for Amanda to study.  Bobby was also awarded for his finds in the Recconnaissance quest.

Seig: 16 Exp +75000

Yasmin: 32 Exp +75000

Awareness: 4 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Bobby: 36 Exp +65000

Ghost: 30 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Precision: 6 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

More Fuel: Davius and Juggerknot, Public Safety Quest.

Davius sighed as he looked up at the beast that was the Juggerknot, futility trying to morph over six hundred pounds of mass into a form that was not conspicuous, until the two finally realised that it would not be possible. Realising this, it would be up to Davius to possibly spark the confrontation. This wouldn’t be that hard given the increased hostilities between the two groups, what would be hard would be being there when the fights went down, and attempting to spark a fight big enough to get the leaders into the fray.

As Davius went about covertly dropping rumours of “scenage”, he realised that he could spark small confrontation in the head strong lackeys, but he would need to perform something a lot bigger if he wanted to ensure the presence of any of the high ranking members of these two gangs. This left Davius and Juggerknot to enact there plan on a far smaller scale, inducing a small scuffle between low ranking members of the gangs, while they each jumped into the fray, disguised as members of Red Gear and Blood Line respectively, leanding a hand in the fight. Unfortunately, with their low ranks came low levels, and the two found themselves dispatching meta-humans and armed users, bringing them no closer to bringing down the leaders of the gangs. After a slow night, they would call an end to the attempt.
 

Outcome:  Quest remains incomplete.

Davius: 28 Exp (-12HP)

Juggerknot: 24 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

Taking It To The Source: Donovan, Diplomatic Relatioins II quest.

Donovan was quite the diplomat when he was ready, a skill that proved to be quite useful when dealing with his fellow Oyans that had made their way over to Terra.  As he sat on the flight to Japan, he decided to give Naomi Itami a call, having failed to receive a response to her over the network.

“Good morning Naomi, I hope I’m not disturbing you.”  Donovan greeted her as she opened the communications link.

“Oh hello there Donovan, how are you?”  She inquired politely.

“I’m fine, I was wondering if you had given my offer any thought?”  Donovan inquired.

“Oh the play?  I had been meaning to reply to your offer but I didn’t wish to do so before I could address the issue of the situation in Japan, and I’m sorry to admit that my husband hasn’t been very liberal with the information on how he plans to deal with that situation.”  She explained, causing Donovan to smile.  “But with regards to only the play, I would love to attend it with you, your mother sounds just like the kind of woman I would like to get to know.”

“That’s quite alright, I’m glad to hear that you will be attending.”  Donovan replied.

“But I know that’s not the only reason you called.”  She prompted.

“That is true, I was wondering if it would be possible for me to speak with Setto.”  Donovan inquired.

“Unfortunately that won’t be possible Donovan, I’m sorry.  Once again, my husband is the culprit.  Maximillain is keeping Setto with him… at his place in Europe, with a friend of his from Oya.”  She explained.

“I see, and I would imagine that you aren’t supposed to help other to contact him.”  Donovan inquired.

“You’d imagine correctly.”  Naomi laughed lightly.  “I’m sure that Maximillian has a plan to deal with the situation, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it if I were you.”  Naomi continued before pausing with a slight laugh.  “But then again, with the payout that the government is offering, it’d be safe to assume that helping those soldiers isn’t your only motivation.”  Donovan paused with some guilt.  “There’s no shame in it Donovan, I don’t think any less of you.”  Naomi smiled.  “I’ll talk to my husband and see if he will be willing to give any information.”  Naomi reassured him as she ended the conversation.

With this development, Donovan proceeded to Japan, seeking a meeting with one of the more powerful members of the Oyan Immigration department.  Donovan’s invitation was one that was originally avoided, but after hearing about the restaurant he decided to reconsider the offer.  Donovan spared no expense in this venture, hiring a beautiful actress to accompany him as he made the excharge.  As he probed the executive, he was pleased to find that his greatest weakness was his ego, which the young attress easily appealed to, but despite the expressive meal and the extreme flattery, Donovan quickly realised that no one man could undo something that the man in charge of the country had put in place, and gaining an audience with the head honcho of an entire country was considerably more difficult than wining and dinning a cocky politician.  With his day a failure, Donovan called an end to the escapade. 

Outcome: Quest remains incomplete.

Kill It With... Electricity: Paco and Jubei as well as Xian, Ice Fire quest.

The Ice Fire quest had drawn quite a bit of attention since Jubei’s last attempt, as the morpher now returned with assistance from Paco Stryfe and the Hi-Nuun subordinate of Yasmin.  In addition to these two, Xian also took some interest in the quest, bringing along his Ven-Nu operator as back-up since his accomplice Rei Murasame was unable to make it in time.

Both teams had similar ideas, proceeding to the authorities to find out what possible actions their teams could have taken that would have offended the creatures, but the authorities were of little help in this regard.  Each team consisted of a standard first contact unit, a psychic, a high energy output frame and a physically superior frame.  Unfortunately, each of these teams failed to achieve a peaceful exchange with the creatures.

Seeing this, Xian was not able to garner much assistance from then, and neither was Paco.  Having arrived earlier, Paco’s team proceeded out to the area first, with Jubei and the Hi-Nuun operator staying back as Paco moved towards one of the creatures.  Unfortunately, this time, the two creatures were considerably closer together, so Paco would have to try his best not to upset them.

By time Xian arrived in the area, he encountered Jubei and the Hi-Nuun frame, causing him to inquire as to their presence in the area.  Noting their plan, and it’s similarities to his, he decided to tackle the other creature, attempting to see if either of them would be successful.  As Xian approached the creature, already being fused with his summons into his Unholy form, he attempted to open a mental link between himself and the creature, something that Paco had also tried to do.  Unfortunately, both of them made the same mistakes that the psychics in the first contact teams had made, attempting to project calming thoughts towards the creatures.  This caused the creatures to take this as a form of mental tampering, something which they were trained to reject.  Xian was right about the birds, though he was unable to identify the species, he was able to verify from their mental signatures that they were a domesticated species, which left him somewhat puzzled as to their rejection of the mental signals.

Eitherway however, Paco wasted no time in alerting Jubei to the situation, causing him to activate his Hora Houkou and make a beeline for the area, while the operator of the Hi-Nuun frame followed closely.  Paco’s continued attempts at mental connections with the creature only seemed to anger it more and more, drawing a number of thermal attacks from it as it attempted to break the link, succeeding in doing so on a number of occasions.  Xian on the other hand refused to take up an attacking position as he used his energy simple for defence as he tried to communicate with the creature on a less manipulative level.

With the Hi-Nuun’s over powering fire power, and Jubei as an annoying disturbance, Paco’s Cronos surge was exceptionally effective against the creature, that was now unable to properly focus on a target.  The initial Ice Shield that it erected was quickly corroded by the Cronos surge, allowing Jubei’s Raijin form to get in a few good hits, while the Hi-Nuun’s machine guns and incendiary rifle went to work on whittling down its defences.

By now, realised that once he retracted his attempts to manipulate the creature’s mind in any way, it’s hostility would eventually lessen, though he had failed to actually get the creature to stop attacking him, and his continual defence was beginning to take a toll on his stamina, causing him to consider other ways of calming it more quickly.  Unfortunately, he would not get a chance to try many of these techniques as a shriek from the other creature, causing the one that he was interacting with to thrust to it’s aid.  A quick pass over the area left the unaware Jubei and the operator of the Hi-Nuun encased in a pillar of ice, forcing Paco to split his attentions between the two beasts.

“Idiots…”  Was all Xian said to himself as he and his Ven-Nu stayed away from the area, to ensure that the creatures would not associate them with this attack.

The Hi-Nuun was the first to carve it’s way out of the ice, using it’s incendiary round at an extremely low output to free Jubei, who wasted no time in turning his attentions back to the beasts.  Paco was so far able to shield most of the damage given off by the creatures, but their effects on the environment were putting his Environmental Regulator to the test, as the two maintained a constant drop in the temperature around his position, even when he moved around.

Luckily, the added fire power from the Hi-Nuun and Jubei’s Raijin would once again split their attentions, giving Paco some time to breath as he now focused on only one creature.  With the fire power from the Hi-Nuun and it’s uncanny accuracy, the first creature quickly fell, allowing the three to now turn their attentions on the second creature which had Paco in quite a predicament.  For the first time every, Paco was beginning to understand why the -002 suits was considered Boss Killers.  Even with such an inexperienced pilot, the frame quickly dealt with the second creature as well, focusing it’s attacks to take out the creature in less than 5 seconds.  All Paco could do was try to close his mouth and the operator powered the frame down, for the first time feeling contented with their performance in an action.  Paco and Jubei would round up the reverted bodies of the creatures and return them to the authorities.

Outcome: The authorities are not too concerned with the method, but are pleased with the fact that the creatures have been dealt with.  The creatures will be studied and a suitable habitat for them found.

Paco: 46 Exp (-116HP) +55000

Hi-Nuun: 62 Exp (-311HP)

Awareness: 8 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 16 Exp

Precision: 6 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Jubei: 46 Exp (-212HP) +55000

Xian: 36 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 10 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Two Titans: Cloud and Ryuu, Lake of Fire Quest.

After his little chat with Misha Teragi, Ryuu did see much point in sticking around Amsterdam, so Cloud’s invitation to accompany him on the Lake of Fire quest was one that was welcomed by the Itami.  This was for the most part at least, as Ryuu was not one that was particularly accustomed to waking up before dawn, a requirement for Cloud’s plan.

In the early hours of the morning, Cloud and Ryuu found themselves making their way to a path between the lava pits and the nearest city, with Cloud’s newly purchased Tekera scanning the terrain to locate the creatures which should have been making their way to the city at the time.   Cloud and Ryuu were forced to wait some time, but the creatures would eventually show up, following the warmth of the sun as it crept of the island.  As they made their way down the incline towards the city, Cloud was surprised to see all eight of the creatures moving as a group.  From their looks and their movement, the creatures resembled something from the prehistoric era, though they were thankfully smaller than most dinosaurs, being only about four feet tall and six feet in length with another four or five feet worth of tail.   Ryuu look at Cloud and powered up, going straight into his Chaos Dragon for the boosted strength and Cloud used his Obsidian to quickly charge his Exceed Limiter’s Limit Break.  The two then wasted no time in liberating a large chunk of earth from the ground, using their various energies to keep the mass together as they aimed at the incoming creatures.  It was only at this point that the creatures seemed to realise that Cloud’s and Ryuu’s energy signatures were some indication of their hostile intents, causing the creatures to begin communication between each other.  At this point they took up a more tactical formation, with two of the creatures bringing up the front, four in the middle and two at the rear.

Seeing this, Cloud and Ryuu wasted no time launching off the mass, which sailed through the air towards the middle and rear group.  Both of their jaws dropped when they saw the two creatures at the front pull their feet, tails and heads in, morphing a shell like coating and sliding down the hill towards the two channelers, while the other six charged their respective energies.  As the huge chunk of earth descended upon them, they launched a simultaneous upward attack, obliterating the mass and causing a rockslide that now followed their companions down the hill.

“Chaaa….” Was all Ryuu said as the rock slide proceeded towards them, looking behind him to see the city.

Seeing this he wasted no time in slamming his hands into the ground, causing Cloud to do the same as they channelered their ether splitting energies into the ground in front of them, dissipating the earth to form a huge crater in from of them that the creatures and the boulders careening down the hill now fell into.  Seeing the other six now sliding down after them, Cloud and Ryuu wasted no time pulling a massive jump over the crater, landing between the incoming creatures and those inside the crater, who were still recovering from being pummelled by the rock slide.  Already having utilised a great deal of his energy, Cloud was still awaiting his reserve to fill up again, forcing Ryuu to create the second crater for the incoming beasts to fall into while charge for the next move.  Being surrounded on either side by craters, this left a small platform for the two to do battle on.  Going with their assumption, the two created a number of earth spires to attack the underbellies of the creatures, launching them into the air.  Unfortunately the would quickly realise that due to the morphing ability of the creatures, they were devoid of weak spots while in combat.  Nevertheless, the two powerhouses figured that with their energies, they would be able to do considerable damage to even heavily armoured bests.

As the creatures flew into the air, Cloud summoned two Spartan shields, charging them with his Force before launching that at the creatures, while Ryuu charged Dragon form’s his new ability and unleashed a stream of green flames towards the beasts.

Cloud’s attacks connected, blasting the two creatures away, leaving him to assist Ryuu in dealing with the other six.  Due to the limited range, and the fact that all of their efforts to damage the creatures so far seemed to yield little results, Ryuu concentrated all of his energy on a single creature, managing to break through its armour with his RS variant before reducing it’s form to ashes, causing it to revert in mid air.  Ryuu cursed at this, charging energy into his wings before he made a quick dash into the air, shoulder checking the creatures in his way as he saved the beast from the fall, placing it further up the volcanic peak before he turned to see how Cloud was doing. 

Having knocked away two of the creatures, this left Cloud to contend with three others.  Unfortunately, facing three creatures that were equal to his level was not a particularly easy task.  His Tekera had already notified Cloud, that without concentrating his attacks, he would be unable to damage the creatures, who had not sustained any noticeable damage from any of their efforts apart from Ryuu’s focused breath attack.  This caused Cloud to summon his Lawgiver, launching off a number of Gravity Crush rounds at the creatures to slow them, before he imparted his Force with the cold energy from his Ice Expansion performed a powerful slash attack at one of the creatures with his Ragnarok, finally managing to take a chunk out of it’s armour and do some damage.

Ryuu watched as the two creatures that he had knocked into the volcanic peak began to dig into the side of the volcano, causing Ryuu to curse as he powered down from his Chaos Dragon form.  Unfortunately, as he did this he noticed an erupting lava flow, causing him to utilise his Willing Dispersal and clear the area to avoid the erupting lava.  Luckily the lava flow was not enough to make it down the side of the peak, but Ryuu was somewhat concerned as to where the creatures would reappear. 

As Ryuu landed, he attempted to intercept one of the creatures that had turned it’s attention towards Cloud, but soon found that even with his strength, he could not restrain the beast, which easily body checked him out of the way and continued on it’s heading towards Cloud who was in the middle of attacking the already damaged beat.  Cloud’s precog alerted him to the incoming attack, but failed to alert him to another attack from his main target, leaving him susceptible to blast of goo that came from the creature’s mouth.  The sticky substance stuck to Cloud’s form, managing to stun him long enough for the creature’s body check connect, knocking Cloud into the crater behind him.

As Cloud hit the bottom of the crater, he shook his head, noting that for creatures that were so easy to fight up until this point, when the creatures did hit, their attacks were quite potent.  Ryuu had come to the same conclusion, and wasted no time in powering back into his Chaos Dragon form, taking to the air and charging yet another breath attack.  As Ryuu’s attack impacted now as well, Cloud’s precog went off again, causing him to make a powerful jump into the air, looking down to see one of the creatures erupt under him, with a trail of lava following into the crater.  Cloud wasted no time summoning a single Spartan now, charging a full comploment of his energy into the shield before launching it at the creature and stunning it.  His Tekera reported that the attack had brough the creature near reversion, which was reassuring, but the fact that he had to use his full energy reserve to achieve that effect was somewhat disconcerting.

As he checked in on Ryuu, he noted that Ryuu has been able to finish the creature that he was about to revert, as well as the beast that knocked him into the crater, leaving just one creature that he was currently duking it out with on the plat form.  As Cloud surveyed the area, his precog would warn him once again, causing him to dodge the attack of another creature exploding from the earth beneath him, before another of the beast erupted from the ground next to him and landed on his form.  In his desperation, Cloud charged his fists with Ultimate and dissipated the creatures form, but the lava erupting from the two holes would take quite a toll on his form as he attempted to shield them with his Ultimate Guard.

“Ryuu!”  Was all Cloud would say, drawing the Itami’s attention before he charged the energy that he had managed to regain, grabbed the reverted creature and dumped the energy into his speed and force stats, to make a huge jump and clear the area.

Ryuu nodded at this, noticing that the first two creatures which had been blasted away had now rejoined the team, and the one of the other two that had brought Cloud near reversion were setting up to attack him.  Seeing this, he abandoned his offense, grabbing the two reverted creatures and taking off, making a low pass to pick up the other creature and fly off to rendezvous with Cloud back in the city.

Outcome:  Cloud and Ryuu have managed to dispatch four of the eight creatures present in the area, capturing those that they have reverted.  They have been paided for their services, 40000$ for each creature dispatched.

Cloud: 84 Exp (-502HP) + 80,000$

 Ryuu: 80 Exp (-356HP) + 80,000$

Awareness: 8 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 20 Exp

Accuracy: 24 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Initiation: Val, Public Safety quest.

Having received no confirmation on help from Hyaku, Val decided to continue with his infiltration of the gang’s ranks.  Stepping out into public, Val could be mistaken for a member of either side of this gang war, being decked out from head to toe in “gangsta” gear, coordinated straight through in red and a mid-tone gray.  This was a good choice as Red Gear tended to wear a bright red and silver gear, while members of the Blood Line group leaned towards a darker red trimmed with black accessories. 

With Hyaku and Seig’s previous attempt, violence between the two gangs had escalated, making it rather easy for Val to locate members of the gangs and trail them as he decided which gang he would fit in better with.

Finally he decided on the Red Gear gang, utilising stealth to the best of his abilities to follow the members of the team before he confronted them near their base of operations.

“Yo.”  He sounded casually as he made his way up to the man in charge and nodded.

“What do you want punk?”  The larger channeler inquired, causing Val to smirk.

“I was watching you early tonight, you guys kicked some ass… I want in on that.” 

“Oh really, why is that?”  He inquired, causing Val to smirk.

“Heh, I just like the adrenaline high I get from trashing the place.”  He started.  “Plus, when there’s a war going on, you gotta pick a side.”  He continued.

“You got some spunk…” The leader laughed.  “I’ll tell you what, there’s a cop and his buddy running around here, they’ve been getting in our way.  Revert one of them, or both, and bring them to me… and you can consider yourself in.”  Val just smirked.

“Consider it done.”

Outcome: Val has been issued his initiation test.

In Over One's Head: Jubei, Ice Fire Quest.

Jubei’s research on the Oyan counterpart to the Yukon, brought Alegens to his attention, the home of the Cleis del Angelus, a winged Oyan race descended from humans that ruled those parts.  From what he learned however, most aggressive creatures had been eliminated from the area, which made it rather puzzling that any Oyan creature from that area would inflict so much damage on a simple investigation team.  Nevertheless, Jubei made his way to the authorities and inquired as to the specifics of the injuries of their people, and the exact coordinates at which they sustained the damages.  Unfortunately, there was little for him to learn from the authorities, as the injuries was as a simple as they were described.  Down to a cellular level, the bodies of the victims exhibited the effects of frostbite and severe burns simultaneously, and usually in the same areas, where they assumed the attack impacted.  However, other than that their was little that could be learned, leaving Jubei to do the rest of the information gathering in the Field.

As he made his way to the predicted location of the creature, he utilised his Advanced Scanners to identify the possible creatures while he engaged his Hora Houkou for the boosted speed.  As Jubei came closer, he began to get detailed readouts on the creature, which registered around level 8 and displayed a thermal aura which fluctuated quickly between extreme heat and extreme cold.  Jubei nodded as he prepared to engage, moving towards his topic before he slid to a stop, sensing another of the creatures lurking near by.  Jubei paused now, performing an extensive scan of the area to ensure that there were only two of the creatures.  With that confirmed, Jubei moved in slightly more cautiously to engage.

He they came into visual range, he identified the creatures as birds, resembling the albatross in a number of ways, but being considerably bigger and at the same time less bulky.  As he came closer now, he engaged Raijin, generating a potencial difference between himself and the bird, which only now began to notice him.   As he got within range, he released the powerful charge, zapping the bird before powering up his Hora Houkou once more and preparing to dodge.  His attack sent the creature into a descending spiral as a result of the stun, causing it to hit the ground and lay for quite some time.  Jubei’s scans indicated that it was still powered up, which made the whole ordeal rather puzzling as it seemed to be unconscious.  Jubei had no intension of capturing the creature however as wasted no time charging another electrical attack in his Raijin form as he prepared to finish the beast.  His attack did not go unnoticed however as the creature quickly snapped out of its daze, summoning an ice armour around itself.  As the electricity discharged, it impacted the thick wall of ice, blasting a dent into the wall but found itself otherwise neutralised.  What Jubei found rather odd however was the frost coming off the ice, as it took on a very flame-esque movement before the ice fractured into a more fluid form and blasted towards him.  Juebi barely managed to power his Hora Houkou up enough to dodge the attack.  Jubei next plan was to fracture himself, morphing into a number of razor sharp magnetic blades, in an attempt to reduce his surface area and make himself harder to attack.  Unfortunately, what he would learn is that by breaking himself into a number of smaller particles, he was actually increasing his surface area, allowing for faster thermal conduction throughout his form.  This made the next attack particularly painful as a cyclone rose up from beneath him, hurling ice and snow everywhere, drastically reducing the temperature of Jubei’s form.  Up until this point, his natural defences, being a morpher, were enough to protect him from the bitter cold, but he was quickly coming to experience that which other channelers hated about the cold.  As the ice slowed his form, and forced him to use more energy simply to perform his regular functions, the attack exploded into a pillar of fire, causing Jubei to recoalesce his form and make a dash for it, trying to avoid further damage from the creature.  His Hora Houkou was helping him to deal with the bitterly low temperature, but even after some time his form was still reeling from the frost attack as he found it quite difficult to get his form back to running at full capacity.  Unfortunately for him, the creature’s temperature control seemed to extend quite some distance from his body, and with it lowering the temperature in his area, his stamina was draining faster and faster.  Once again, Jubei powered into Raijin, and attempted to launch off another electron avalanche at his opponent, but with the insulative properties of the ice it could creature, his electrical attacks proved quite useless.  Another frost cyclone would alert Jubei to the need to run, as he boosted his Hora Houkou to max and made a dash away from the creature.

Outcome:  The Creatures have been identified but the quest remains incomplete.

Jubei: 48 Exp (-436HP)

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Conflicting Offers: Jinzo and Bobby, Acquisition of Services quest.

Jinzo was almost certain that his employers, the sponsors of the quest, were just telling him what he wanted to know.  Being quite the persuasive one himself, it wasn’t hard for him to detect the subtle hint that an untruth was being told.  Unfortunately, with the Xelot Council unwilling to take a gamble as large as sponsoring  an unknown project, Jinzo was left little choice but to convince the scientists that his employers were the people that they claimed to be.

This wasn’t too big a problem for Jinzo, being naturally persuasive, and with Bobby there as backup, the two could be guaranteed that no one would be interrupting the meeting.

With Jinzo inside using his persuasive abilities, and pitching all the angles that his employers had given him in an attempt to convince the scientists of their humanitarian approach to science, explaining exactly why the scientists should take up their offer; Bobby was on the outside making small talk with Red, making casual inquiries into exactly what her boss was working on.  Unfortunately for Bobby, even with his charm, he would be unable to garner anything from the young secretary, who was actually unsure as to the specifics of her boss’s work.

Back on the inside however Jinzo was doing a very good job, and with all the information that he had received from the company that was attempting to hire the scientists he had actually gotten them to the point where they were considering the offer.   This was at least until a transmission came in over the networks from a channeler by the name of Donovan Cael, with a counter offer.  Jinzo was rather upset, but there was little he could do about the situation now.  All he could do was bring his points home and give Dr. Mirakama and his assistant some time to think the offer over.

Outcome: Dr. Mirakama is willing to consider the offers of Donovan as well as the employers of Jinzo and Bobby.  Quest remains incomplete.

The Very Direct Approach: Seig and Hyaku, Public Safety Quest.

Seig was quite ambitious in his attempts to launch the joint venture between the Rogue Special Forces and the Knights the Xelot Council, attempting to gain the approval of the Council to station of number of the knights in training in Barbados to deal with the situation.  Unfortunately, his request was looked on quite sceptically by the Council, being reluctant to spread their already thin ranks even thinner by stationing them halfway across the planet, especially when dealing with upheavals in France gave them all the practical experience that they would need to make them proficient knights.  Hyaku had slightly more luck on his end, with the Rogue headquarters being in Barbados already, but even so it was still a hard idea to pitch, using Rogue resources to deal with threats as small as simple gangs.  Regardless however the two embarked on their plan to clean up the streets, taking the more direct approach and attempting to deal with the problem through simply reverting the members of the gangs.

Using Hyaku’s police connections, the two easily acquired temporary access to the police’s low security network, giving them regular updates of the situation on the small island.  Though regular, the updates were not real time, and even so these criminals were quite accustomed to evading the police, who had much better transportation than the Detrel MX that the two were forced to rely on to transport them from point to point, making it quite difficult for the two to make it to the scene of crimes fast enough to actually catch up with the members of the gangs.  This left only the option of locating the congregation spots for the gangs, allowing the two to catch them unaware but at the same while they were not committing any crimes.  Doing this, Seig proceeded towards the area with his Venom Suit engaged, while Hyaku utilised his Wraith Expansion for stealth and the Ghost frame with which Seig travelled activated its own stealth.  This allowed the three to get into position and collect information on the group before launching their attacks.  With the largest threats identified, Hyaku and Seig wasted no time engaging their targets, while the operator of the Ghost frame utilised Seig’s Iger for sniping.  Seig’s research at revealed the each of the gangs was comprised of between 6 and 10 main members, who lead a greater number of plebs and wannabes to do their dirty work.  This meant that to really shut down the gangs, they would only need to deal with those near the top.  Hyaku had managed to identify the strongest of the channelers located in the group, and wasted no time phasing past him, powering up his Geddon Expansion and spinning to launch a powerful viral wave at his opponent.  The channeler wasted no time dashing back to evade the start of the attack before teleporting past the wave from and connecting a powerful hook punch with Hyaku’s face, causing the Rogue to engaging his Phase Shift Boots before he took the full impact of the blow.  Seig targeted the second strongest channeler present, launching off a Shattered Prism attack at the Psycher who now turned to shield the attack as it impacted him.  Seig’s attack fractured on impact, splitting off and connecting with a number of other channeler’s present as the users scattered.  His attack did manage to reverse a few of the low level meta-humans present, but the stronger channelers took little damage from the attack, as their second in command has managed to negate the brunt of the force.

With the group effectively scattered, Hyaku and Seig found themselves facing off against just six channelers in total, who had devided themselves up evenly into two groups to deal with their attackers.  With the users completely scattered now, the operator of the Ghost frame opened fire with the Iger, drawing the attention of one of the team’s manipulators, who broke off and pursued her.

“You two must have a lot of balls to run up in our turf and try to shut us down.”  The leader of the gang reasoned, dodging another blast from Hyaku while his two back teammates opened up the attack on the Rogue officer, throwing him on the defensive. 

Seig was having considerably more luck, as one of his attacks had broken off from him, leaving him to deal with just two channelers, one at his level and the other one somewhat weaker.  What also worked to his favour was his ability to evade the stronger of the two, who was more proficient at melee combat while he focussed on the ranged fighter. 

By now Hyaku was falling under heavy fire from the two weaker channelers that he had to face, forcing to charge his Mesatsu and let it rip radially as he hoped to catch them in the expanding wave of energy.  As the attack moved outwards, he did manage to catch one of the manipulators, reverting him on the spot, but with the massive wave of energy between him and the leader of the gang, both his vision and his energy sensing capabilities were obscured, allowing the channeler to launch a powerful sneak attack on him, flooring him and sending him skating across the ground.   Once again Hyaku would phase shift out of the way to avoid the projectiles that followed the melee attack of the gang leader, reappearing some distance away as he attempted to regroup and come up with a strategy for dealing with the level 9 psycher and his level 6 back up.

By then, Seig had almost finished dealing with the first of his opponents however, having the upper hand against the low level manipulator.  Unfortunately, he could only avoid the Psycher for a bit longer, as the fighter was gaining the ability to predict his movements.  Seig grinned as he launched off a powerful reversion blast as the cornered manipulator, one that he was sure would revert the youngster.  His certainty however only made his shock greater as the psycher appeared in front of his target and engaged a multicoloured barrier, reflecting the attack his way.  Seig’s jaw dropped as he saw the man move, knowing that it would be impossible to avoid his own attack, which not only moved at light speed but compensated his own barriers, penetrating his guard and impacting his form to leave him rather stunned.

A concentrated Mesatsu strike was enough to even Hyaku’s odds, leaving him to go toe to toe with his high level opponent while Seig got pummelled, his opponents making quick work of his low Health Points.

With the Xelot dispatched and his subordinate on the run from a channeler they referred to as ‘Tech’, Hyaku found himself the target of three channelers, two whom he estimated to be around level 8 or 9 and the other who was at least level 6.  Hyaku wasted no time phasing in and grabbing Seig’s body before he ordered the operator of the Ghost frame to retreat.

Outcome: The Attack on the Red Gear gang has lead to escalated violence between that group and the Blood Line gang.  Quest remains incomplete.

Hyaku: 64 Exp (-316)

 Seig: 56 Exp (reverted)

Awareness: 8 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 16 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

A Reasonable Offer: Brian, Acquisition of Services quest.

It was somewhat depressing that Brian was the one who seemed to have sparked the interests of the player populace in the Assistance Required quest, but of all of the attempts made, he seemed to be having this least luck.  This caused him to seriously re-evaluate his approach.  As he whipped out his communications link, he attempted to contact Dr. Mirakama, only managing to get in contact with his secretary Red.  Needless to say, she wasn’t very pleased to be seeing Mr. Bell on the visual output of the device, but he was persuasive enough to convince her to at least hear him out.

“Look I've been doing some research and found that you are in need of a sponsor, but my ex-bosses aren't the kind of people by which you wish your products to be used, for things such as war.”  Brain started.  “And while you are very secure, as I have found out the hard way, you still need a little extra protection, for very cheap. I would be more than willing to aid in this little problem, by not being paid in cash, but by an alternate mode of payment…”  He paused, now about to pitch his idea.  “Say like be being given a gun like that quick firing whistler.”  He continued causing a small smirk from Red.  “Now of course the good doctor will want to think something like that over… but simply put, just having that modded technology could be quit dangerous if it fell into the hands of the Benefactors… as they call themselves.”  He explained.  “But I'll lay this out flat for you, all I care about is becoming stronger, and if u let me work for you, I guarantee that nothing you give me will fall into their hands, and you'll have a loyal, cheap, guard.”  He finished, causing Red to pause, shaking her head.

“Well that wasn’t the most organised offer that we’ve received, but it’s good to know that your motives are changed.  That said though… I took you out pretty easily… I don’t really see how much use you will be to me if we get attacked apart from just being a temporary decoy.”  Red shrugged.  “I’ll talk things over with Mr. Mirakama, but unless you can find someway to prove just how strong you are, I don’t see him being very inclined to take you on.”  This was all Red said before closing the link, leaving Brain to ponder her last words, trying to think of a way that he could impress them into hiring him.

Outcome: Quest remains incomplete.

Love It When a Plan Comes Together: John, Internal Affairs Quest.

With Alyssa and John recently accepting offer of the Order of Demai, it put them both in rather bad standings with the Council of Xelots, who had a long time grudge against the order.  However, the situation in France proved to be something that interested both factions and neither John nor Alyssa had given the Council a reason to question their motives for completion of the quest, so once again the Xelots were ordered to cooperate with the two as much as possible, but to keep an eye on them and ensure that nothing suspicion took place.

In accordance with this, the Xelots did what little they could to assist, providing John with the means of acquiring the device which he required, one that he hoped would allow him to shut down the security systems once he reached the core of the houses that he intended to infiltrate.

Between the two, Alyssa was more suited for stealth, but with her out of action, John would be forced to take on the task alone.  Alyssa had been kind enough to lend him the use of her Archel, which John utilised for travel between his Xelot liaisons and the homes of their suspects. 

Not being able to find suitable cover near the home of the first suspect, John parked the Archel some distance away, powering up his own form and engaging his Tactical Cover technique while he attempted to infiltrate the facility.  The Xelot officials with which he liaised had to admit that his plan was rather well thought out as he moved towards the facility, making his way up the side of the call and onto the balcony of the second floor, cracking open the door gently as he slipped in.  John had gone over the information that the Xelots had released to him carefully, calibrating his ethereal scanners to pick up on the slight energy fluctuations that revealed the zetabased trips.  This was rather clever as he was unable to see the trips, but able to see their effects.  His wind expansion and speed stat allowed him to maneuver his large body around the trips, while his Tactical Cover allowed him to synchronise his own energy with that of the force fields, while his defensive armaments allowed him to pass through the barriers without the constructive interference tearing his form to shreds.  John did this for most of the security measures until he finally made it to the main control for them, using the device that he acquired to disable it, allowing him to download the information from the various computer systems in the home before he returned to the Archel and transmitted the data to the Xelots. 

Next he would move to the other house, where he would attempt similar procedures.  Given the information that he had acquired from the previous house, this was somewhat unnecessary, but there was no telling what he would fine so he wasted no time in executing an identical plan.  This home proved to be comparatively difficult, but with Johns impeccable infiltration plan, he managed to pull it off without tripping the alarms, though the Xelots did note that this attempt was considerably clumsier than the other.  Doing the same, he would retrieve the data and send it to the Xelots, providing them with more than enough to bring the two men in on charges of conspiracy against the French Government.

Outcome: The Xelots have received all the information they need to convict the two prime suspects in the conspiracy as well as evidence which identifies a number of other emmbers involved at lower levels.  John was paid for his assistances and Alyssa was compensated for her initial help.  Quest Complete.

John: 44 Exp + 85000$

 Alyssa: + 40000$

Awareness: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Offering Services: Iolus, Acquisition of Services quest.

Iolus’ message only further confirmed the suspicions of Mr. Mirakama and his assistance, as they read the transmission that he been left by the channeler.

“My name is Iolus Rajin and I'd like to arrange and appointment to meet with you with regards to the recent disturbances that have been occurring around you. I am representing a party of the Mercenary Army who has been keeping a check on various quest that have been placed on the network. Due to evidence gathered they and I have determined that theses benefactors have been placing these quest in order to get channelers to bring them key bits of technology from all over the world. Because of this we have suspicions of foul play.

One of the quests which we believe has been placed by them is the one which has brought all of the annoyance of players banging at your front door. Most notable of these players is one Brian Bell who has even resorted to violence (though unsuccessfully due to your own talents). This, however, is clear indication that these Benefactors are no more than crooks and thugs who will have no problem with using more competent force than Mr. Bell.

Weather or not you trust to hire to hire myself or the Mercenary army is not an issue. We simply wish too keep more pieces of technology out of their hands. If you want your inventions, whatever it is, to be used for peaceful purposes you should consider hiring someone to protect you and them from these Benefactors. The Mercenary Army has evidence that they are involved in illegal activities and it would be against your best interest to let them get their hands on you or your inventions and continue to reject Mr. Bell and whoever else that may come representing them. Both for your own security and to keep yourself out of trouble with the law.

Thank you for your indulgence and I  urge you to take this message into serious consideration.”

Mr. Mirakama noted this, but decided, against Ms. Rosso’s advice to not take up the offer of the Mercenaries.

“Look Julia, you can I both know that we can’t afford to hire protection, with all of these refusals for sponsorship, we can barely afford to keep on Red.”  Markus explained.

“Maybe we should look into sponsorship then Markus, this is getting really dangerous, especially if these people are really after us.”  Julia replied.

“We’ll accept sponsorship when we receive an offer from someone we can trust, but you know as well as I do what could happen if this research fell into the hands of the wrong people.”  He reasoned.

“I know Markus… I know… but we can’t go on like this much longer.”  Julia reasoned.

“Yeah… I know.”

Outcome: Quest remains incomplete.

Hands on Research: Xian and Gabriel, Gladiator quest.

Gabriel was too amused by the number of tests that Xian had to submit to just to prove that he wasn’t up to anymore funny business before the sponsors of the Gladiator quest would finally let him back into the facility.  In fact, Gabriel was fairly sure that they would spend less time actually inside the facility than the length of time that they had been delayed by the test.

Nevertheless, once finally let into the facility, Gabe stayed watch as Xian set up his Dens and prepared to unleash his Endtime array into the environment.  Their energy signatures did draw some attention to the group, but little hostilities, givinig Xian quite a number of specimens to actually begin his tests on.  Unfortunately for Gabriel at least, the abundance of the less aggressive prey species in the area made easy pickings for the more aggressive predators in the area, and within seconds his scanners were picking up a number of energy signatures moving towards the area.  Gabriel wasted no time in turning and launching a punch barrage at a nearby tree, causing a small series of dents which expanded until the tree snapped and fell into the small clearing.  As the predators ambushed the creatures in the area, Xian’s array began to pick up the energy readings of the creatures, noting that in terms of energy generation, they were considerably weaker than most channelers, but their physical structures seemed to be ethereally reinforced due to the viral infection.  Unfortunately, all attempts at active scanning resulted in that part of the array having to be disconnected due to infection.  Unfortunately for Xian, even with his increased cognitive abilities, their was little he could learn about the virus, other than it’s method of spreading, which was in itself scary.  Unlike most viral attacks, individual viral particles of Maverick had the ability to generate their own energy by drawing in latent or even coded ether from the surroundings, this energy was then used to convert other ethereal particles into viral individuals with the same capacity to replicate.  This made the rate of spread of the virus exponential given enough fuel.  Luckily however, the scientists had managed to tame the virus to an extent, though Xian was not sure how, as it seemed that there was a probability that some viral indviduals lacked the ability to replicate.  The probability of this seemed to increase with each replication, when in latent ether, stopping the spread of the virus through the atmosphere.  Unfortunately, when it was released into an organised system, like Xian’s array, this replication error seemed not to occur, allowing it the potential to take over a system like this in mere seconds.  Xian was particularly impressed by this.

Gabriel on the other hand had found himself the centre of attention as most of the prey species had utilised their various defensive mechanisms to flee, leaving him as the main target of a number of the more aggressive species.  A wide swing from the tree trunk, knocked away about four of the creatures not pouncing towards him, who now began to fight amoung themselves before Gabriel spun and launched the tree at another predator pinning it to a tree.

With this, Xian observed the beasts as they fought each other, noting that the virus had little effect in their battles, forcing them to rely on their increased physical prowess and the number of mutations that they possessed to defeat each other.  Xian wasted no time teleporting the weakened creatures into small but dense holding cells, still failing in his attempts for deep analysis thanks to the virus, that seemed to be particular tenacious when any type of energy, even that utilised in deep scans, impacted the forms of it’s hosts, allowing it to spread quickly.  Xian sighed at his abilities, which seemed to lack whatever it was that was necessary to interact safely with the virus.  What depressed him most however was that all of his attempts to isolate the virus or even formulate an antivirus proved impossible.  What was particularly puzzling was that even when held in an energy vacuum, the virus still managed to infect his array, once again forcing him to detach it from the main body.  This left Xian to assume that the virus was not simply restricted to matter or energy, but that it could possibly be transmitted through even the force carriers or some non-ethereal medium that allowed it to traverse ether vacuums.  He couldn’t possibly think of anything else as all of his passive scans suggested that the virus lacked the ability to generate thrust without the presence of ether.

Back on the surface, Gabriel’s temporal manipulation was kicked into high gear, boosting his Za Warudo, as he attempted to make quick work of the remaining predators before he and a specialised body of Xian’s array made their way further into the jungle.

As the array swept out, Xian realised that the stealth possessed by a number of these creatures wasn’t particularly impressive, as they were primarily designed to prevent passive scanning, failing quite easily against active scanners.  Unfortunately, as he had already learned, active scanning such creatures was suicide.  What worried him however was that each time his array became infected, the infection spread further in the time that it took him to sever the link, suggesting yet another adaptive capability of the virus.

Xian’s energy signature however was enough to draw some attention to his Dens as he found himself now being engaged by a number of burrowers.  Lacking the ability to properly combat his opponents with his array summoned, Xian was forced to warp out of the hole into another one.  Unfortunately he found that travelling between these dens was easier for his predators than for himself, and what was even more unnerving was that a number of them were now taking interest in his array, forcing him to disconnect the parts of the array that were under attack, before the infection of the unit became so high that he would need to unsummon it all together.

The two would stay slightly longer, until they realised that they would not be able to gather much more information, allowing them to call it quits and leave the facility before they were reverted.

Outcome: Xian's scans have revealed a number of features of the creatures and his ability to capture incapacitated live specimens has proved to be at least mildly useful.  Xian and Gabe were compensated for their troubles.

Xian: 78 Exp + 60000$

Gabriel: 48 Exp + 60000$ (-285HP)

Awareness: 18 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Precision: 12 Exp

Precision: 6 Exp

Working That Charm: Jinzo, Acquisition of Services quest.

Despite the circumstances surrounding the event, Tyler was required to take all formal complaints made against those under her command seriously, causing her to request that Roun submit a formal report on his actions in France with regard to his interaction with the Knights of the Xelots.  This took Roun minimal time, as his actions in the event and interactions with the knights was minimal.  Needless to say, the contradicting reports from her subordinate and the Xelot knight that sent the complaint, caused her to do her own investigations into event before she signed off on the complaint deeming it unnecessary to take any disciplinary action on the Itami, but suggesting that he smooth things over with Deacon to ensure that the Rogues and the Xelots would not have a fall out due to his actions. 

With that complaint business out of the way, Jinzo could get on with matters that he actually deemed to be important, as he travelled to Maine to speak with the scientists at the centre of the Acquisition of Services quest.  Jinzo’s persuasive abilities, complimented with his natural charm and ability to sweet talk his targets made his interactions with them go rather smoothly.

As he entered the small facility, he notice that Red instantly went on the defensive, making it clear that he would need to work on her a bit before he could switch straight to business.

“Good afternoon.”  Jinzo started, his natural Oyan accent giving him an exotic presence, causing Red to instantly take interest.  “A fine day wouldn’t you say, how’s your morning been?”  He inquired now, resting gently on the desk infront of the secretary.

“It’s been a good day so far.”  She replied with a smile.  “What can I do for you sir?”  She inquired now.

“Well honestly, I’m here on behalf of my employers to have a word with your employers, but since we both seem to be middle men…”  He paused with a charming smile.  “Or in you case a beautiful middle woman, I was thinking that we could chat.”  Jinzo replied, causing her smile to widen.

“Actually I believe that Mr. Mirakama and Ms. Rosso are on their break, let me show you in.”  She replied, leading Jinzo to where they were.

Jinzo entered the small room and greeted the two, who were sitting casually going over some of the more delicate aspects of their research.  Unfortunately, Jinzo didn’t understand  much of what they were saying, as their voices were rather low and the words were too long for him to make guesses at based on context.  Clearing his throat, he got their attentions, before moving closer to shake their hands.  Seeing that they would be busy, Jinzo wasted no time in cutting to the chase, explaining that his employers had quite the offer for them.

“My employers are greatly interested in your skills, and they believe it will be an honour having your skills with their organization.”  He started, catching them both a bit off guard before Mr. Mirakama started to protest.  But Jinzo wouldn’t have much of that as he changed the subject slightly.  “Mr. Mirakama, what are your dreams?”  His question caused the young man to pause slightly, allowing him to continue.  “It’s no doubt that you have skills that others don’t; with your skills and my employer's organization we can give you those dreams.”  He pitched them.  “You too Ms. Rosso, don’t think that you will be left out.”  By then the two were beginning to seriously consider his offer, but they would still be sceptical.

“How do we know that they don’t just want to exploit our research, and use it selfishly, instead of for the good of others.”  Ms. Rosso inquired now.

“I assure you, my employers are humanitarians at heart.  I won’t lie to you, they are business men, but beneath that, they are just men, like you and me, why would you think that their dreams are any different from yours?”  Jinzo continued, by now realising that he had the two just about sold on the idea.  “But don’t worry, you don’t have to give me reply just yet.” He smirked.  “Just try and get back to me while my hair is still black, you know?”  He laughed lightly, leaving his contact information with Red as he stepped out. 

Outcome: Jinzo has made a very persuading argument, should he be able to provide evidence that his employers are benevolent in their intentions, he is certain the scientists will agree to the job.

Taking a Vacation: Rueben, Breath of Fire II quest.

Tarek was pleased to see that Rueben was back on the job of finding her a way of getting home, even though his plans weren’t coming along too well. Unlike the Xelots and the Mercenaries, the Demai did not have access to one of the Gates that bridged the gap between Terra and Oya, and apart from Ms. Real, generating one of these gates from scratch proved near impossible for scientists. This left Rueben’s next option as Ms. Real, leaving him to deal with her personal secretary Paco Stryfe. Needless to say, Paco was not the most cordial to the Itami, given his involvement in his detainment by the Demai and with the two having squared off in the Xelot-Demai clash. Regardless however, Paco kepts everyone’s best interests in mind, reluctantly agreeing to assist in getting Tarek home. Unfortunately Rueben and Tarek would have to wait some time however, as Paco and his team were somewhat indisposed at the moment, leaving the Stryfe to agree to contact Rueben when he was ready to make his next run to Oya.

With that sorted out, and some progress made, Rueben turned his attention to the confrontation that had left Tarek stranded in Novosibirsk. His main intension was to find out who it was that her clan had been battling, and to ensure that it had not been his kin or any of their allies. The group that she named didn’t ring a bell however, leaving him unsure at to relations between the Itamis and members of the Shadesmith clan. It turned out that the Shadesmith clan was the clan most renowned for their hunting prowess, and though they had an overall peaceful relationship with the Dragons that inhabited Aianores, the land where Tarek was from, it was not uncommon for small independent Shadesmith hunter to attempt to make Dragons their prey. This led to a small battle between Tarek’s clan, and a group of thirty of so Hunters. Despite the numbers however, with a number of Boss and Perfect level channelers involved in the exchage, the area quickly became unstable resulting in Tarek’s expulsion from Oya. Rueben nodded at the information, informing Tarek that he would contact her again when he was closer to getting her home. Tarek confirmed this and severed the link, it seemed that she would be hear for a while, and as such she would need to find a way to occupy herself.

Outcome: Tarek has moved to Tanami to escape human notice.  Quest remains incomplete.

Proper Use of Connections: Donovan and Jubei, Diplomatic Relation's quest.

When Donovan contacted Roun again, he was surprised to see, who he was fairly sure was Naomi in the background.

“May I ask where you are Roun?”  Donovan inquired politely to the Itami.

“Oh, yeah, I’m home so I should be here when you arrive... what was it you wanted to ask me?”  Roun inquired now, searching around the room for something or the other, an action that Donovan found mildly distracting.

“What kind of food does your mother like?  I was thinking of ordering some lunch for us, and I wanted to make sure that I got something that she liked… as thanks for her help with teaching me the language.”  Donovan explained, causing Roun to nod as he paused, trying to remember what his mother actually liked to eat.

“Oh right, mom’s a big fan of Indian food, there’s a place near the capital that she used to order from a lot, I’ll transmit the coordinates and contact information now.”  Roun replied sending Donovan the information.

Donovan made a trip to the small restaurant and made his way back to the Itami house hold around 9:30 that morning, collecting the floral arrangement that his mother had sent in for him.  As he went to knock, Naomi opened the door, inviting him in and taking the flowers, pointing him to the kitchen.  Naomi smiled at Donovan, who just stood there for a second or two, impressed by her level of precognition which seemed to surpass even his.

“Thank you for the flowers Donovan, have a seat.”  Naomi smiled pleasantly, causing Donovan to place the food on the counter and sit down, looking around the house as Roun and now Ryuu searched the house for something.  “Don’t mind them, those two tend to be rather disorganised.  I understand that you’re here to learn Itami, and from what I gather of your thoughts, you seem to be quite the academic, so this shouldn’t take too long.”  She explained, causing Donovan to nod.

“That’s good to hear, I wanted to make this as short as possible, as avoid it being tedious for you.”  Donovan explained, causing Naomi to laugh lightly.

“Your company is greatly appreciated, it gives me a change from just babysitting all day.”  Naomi explained.  “So shall we begin?”  She inquired, and Donovan just nodded.

Donovan had offered to do the lesson while she did something a bit more fun than just sitting around, offering to accompany her on a walk or something else of her choice, an offer that Naomi took him up on.  Much like his own mother, Donovan found that Naomi was very much into gardening, and have quite a number of Oyan specimens, though nothing nearly as beautiful as those that his mother was renown for.  This made the young Oyan’s life considerably easier, as he could give Naomi some advice on gardening, especially related to her Oyan plants, lightening the mood as they went about him learning Itam. 

The two took a short break, for just fifteen minutes around midday, before getting back to the lesson, one which Donovan had been learning rather quickly.  In just half a day, he had already mastered the language structure and the technical aspects of the language, including the alphabet and counting systems, leaving just vocabulary for him to be taught.  Luckily, Naomi was a great teacher, starting him with basic words and giving him the guide to deriving more complex words from those ones, before going on to give him more vocabulary.  In fact, had it not been for the occasional distractions from Roun and Ryuu, who both proved to be rather incompetent when it same to baby sitting their young nephew, Donovan was almost certain that he could have covered all the intermediates of the language as well as a great deal of the more advanced features of the language.  Luckily however, by 3 o’clock, the time which he had set as the ending for the exchange, he had at least covered almost all of the intermediate features of the language, allowing him to carry on regular conversation seldomly having to ask what words meant.

Donovan wasted no time in sending this information to Jubei, who relayed it to the professor which he was working with to complete the dictionary.

Later that night, Donovan would invite Naomi and her husband Shin Itami out to dinner, an offer that Naomi graciously accepted, managing to convince Shin to accompany her.  Roun and Ryuu sighed as their babysittinig duty was extended until the end of the night.

Outcome: Donovan and Jubei have been rather successful in completing the dictionary add-on to translate the Oyan language of the Itamis.  They have both been cited along with Dr. Oki Katawa as being the authors of the dictionary, and have received a commendation from the Government of Japan.  They have both been paid accordingly.

Independently, Donovan has completed his course in Zeta mechanics.

Quest Complete.

Donovan: 68 Exp + 90000$

Jubei: 18 Exp + 90000$

Awareness: 12 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Precision: 6 Exp

Precision: 0 Exp

Winging It: Jodiene, Virus Busting quest.

Jodiene after her recent success in South Africa, Jodiene was prepared to try her hand at a more combat oriented quest. Her knowledge of the facility was minimal, not having time to review the attempts made by previous team, so he plan seemed to be to simply wing-it.

As she entered the facility it sprung to life, causing her to instinctive jump from her position, her Iron Spider clinging to the wall as she released a Static Web at the turret that launched fire at her. Unfortunately for her, the energy from her webs was easily absorbed and the turrets wasted no time homing in on her form. Jodiene scampered from the wall, taking a number of hit before shattering her Crimson Blade on the wall, telekinetically commanding pieces of the blade to assault the turrets. The energy burn feature seemed to counter the virus’ ability to absorb energy state damage to a point, slowing the mutation considerably, allowing the physical impacts of the blades to destroy a number of turrets as she continued to dodge. As the turret numbers increased, Jodiene was forced to utilise her Nightmare Nebulus to shield herself against the solid projectiles, but having to split the energy between controlling the fragments of the blade, and shielding against damage made both considerably less effective. Nevertheless, she was able to do a considerable amount of damage before being pinned down. Seeing this, she wasted no time in transferiing some of her energy to Dead of the Night for a quick energy boost. This allowed her quite a bit of speed, as well as giving her the uncanny ability to dodge the mass driver weapons. Unfortunately, her reaction time was not high enough for this to be consistent and she was soon forced to begin charging of her Black Sky. Once the weapon reach full charge, she summoned the dual barrel shotgun into existence, launching the mortar rounds onto one of the nearby walls. The round impacted one of the turrets, exploding outward to clear that wall, allowing her to charge again before delivering another blast to the wall adjacent to it, clearing that as well. By this time, her form had taken considerable damage, exhibiting less than half of her maximum structural integrity as she attempted to clear the rest of the room. With her Dead of Night allowing her to combine her speed and agility, this made her extremely fast, making her a bit harder to hit, but as the facility switched to explosive rounds, her health seemed to be chipping down faster, leaving her almost reverted before she could get off the last two shots necessary, from Black Sky, to clear the first sector of the facility.

Much like John however, she failed to dodge the blob of goo that was launched by the defensive measures in the second sector, allowing her to fall prey to the combusting room as the raise in temperature and the resultant energy drain make quick work of her heavily damaged form.

Outcome: Jodiene made it to sector two, failing to test any of the untested defenses, for her trooubles she was awarded 5000$.

Jodiene: 42 Exp (reverted)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 10 Exp

Precision: 6 Exp

Taking The Lead: Jubei, Diplomatic Relations quest.

Given all of the interest in the translation of the Itami language, followed by the sudden surfacing of a mysterious green haired oyan Roun was starting to take a personal interest in the Diplomatic Relations quest, having started his own efforts to learn the Itami native language. This paid off more for Jubei than him however as Jubei placed a return call to the young Itami, failing, just like Donovan, to get in contact with Ryuu. Roun was considerably more help than usual, in assisting Jubei with the language, his knowledge of it having grown considerably since they last talked. Percentage-wise, he still wasn’t very good at Itami, as his knowledge of the vocabulary was quite limited, but his understanding of the structure and governing rules proved to be quite adept. This gave Jubei a huge boost in his attempts at completing his dictionary of the Itami language, quickly rushing off to his Linguistics professor, who now informed him that all he would need to do to finish the dictionary program would be to collect more vocabulary for the language.

Outcome: Jubei just needs to collect vocabulary to complete the quest.

Taking The Simple Approach: Donovan, Diplomatic Relations quest and action.

Donovan was finding himself to be a busy man these days, as he quickly realised that he was having more and more obligations.  The first part of his plans for the day went relatively quickly for the youngster luckily, as he was able to quickly get in contact with Roun, though Ryuu seemed to have made himself unavailable for the day.  Luckily, Roun was all that he would need.  All he really wished to acertain was Naomi’s, Roun’s mother’s, proficiency in the Itami native language, a level that he learned was rather high after years of being married to Shin Itami.  With this knowledge, he asked if Roun would be able to put him into contact with his mother, causing Roun to put him on hold.  Verifying that it would be fine with his mother, Roun then conveyed Naomi’s willingness to assist in the matter, before giving Donovan his address and the contact information for his mother’s comm. link. 

Once that was done, Donovan set off for Barbados, contacting Ms. Amanda Real while in transit and informing her that he was requesting, on behalf of the Rogue Special Forces, that she meet with Kyasho to discuss business.

Unfortunately, she was forced to decline, explaining that until she had completed research on her Impromptu Gate System, she would not be entertaining anyone, not even Kyasho.  So he would need to contact he again once that was completed.

Outcome: Donovan has gained an audience with Naomi, but Amanda Real is being somewhat uncooperative.

Dodging A Bullet: Crydus, Paco and Yasmin, Assistance Required III quest.

Amanda was quite happy to see Paco released, maybe a bit too happy in Yasmin’s opinion, who wasn’t exactly pleased with her intensive shows of affection.  Nevertheless, Paco was quickly able to smooth things over after having been gone for so long, contacting Crydus who had been waiting nearby as the three prepared to make the first trip into Oya using Amanda’s new Impromptu Gate System.  Yasmin would be rather instrumental in this plan, gathering mass to her body before splitting off a doppelganger from her form that now morphed into Rock, allowing it to take point.  Paco would follow next, wrapped in his array of shielding abilities, followed by Yasmin, who had activated Barriere while Crydus brought up the rear with his Gaieri’s Morph.  Once the formation was set up, Amanda powered up the device.  As the large machine went to work, a strong resonance could be felt by the entire team, as the world seemed to warp around them, allowing Amanda to make a few last minute calibrations, localising the resonance effect to just her exploration team before increasing the frequency.  As she did this, the team started to notice as time started to flow with more resolution, allowing them to witness their native Earth and then Oya, existing alternately before combining into a single entity.

“This must be Gaia…”  Crydus commented quietly, as Amanda made a number of other calibrations, and the group watched as the resonance began again, this time with Earth being filtered out of to the point that the group found themselves in Oya.  “That was not as… progressive as I imagined it being…”  Crydus mentioned to himself before he looked around, surveying his surroundings.

The topography has changed slightly, but they could still recognise areas that were analogous to familiar parts of the island back on Earth, allowing them to now focus on the inhabitants of the island.  Luckily for the group, the area where they had materialised was not densely inhabited, but due to the relatively flat topography, they could see a number of small settlements of creatures.  Despite being clearly not humanoid, the settlements still exhibited a number of advanced magi-technological features, suggesting that the creatures were not just intelligent by most likely sentient channelers in nature.

Paco knew little about this side of Oya, having left that realm at a very young age, but the structures did strike him to be somewhat draconic for some reason. 

“Okay, enough gawking people.”  Paco commanded now.  “We need to set up a defensive position while we assemble the relay.”  He explained, causing the others to nod as he looked for an uninhabited area with cover that they could set up their moat.

The disturbance that had brought them to Oya however did not go unnoticed to the inhabitants of the island, as a number of scouting parties now began heading for their location.

Crydus would notice the incoming channelers first, sensing them from slightly less than two hundred metres off before they made their way into Paco’s sensory range.  Paco sighed heavily, as he and Yasmin’s Rock doppelganger placed themselves between the nearest team and the relay position while Yasmin attempted to distract the teams.  Luckily for Yasmin, her considerably smaller sensory range played a small role in her being able to sense the incoming scouting team, allowing her to scan their physical structures and make-ups before summoning enough mass to her form to Morph herself into one of the creatures, who basically resembled a more evolved version of the classical European Winged Dragon, much like Tarek.  Unfortunately, as Yasmin predicted, she knew nothing of the creatures’ language, resorting to pointing off in another direction rather than attempting to verbalise anything and possibly give herself away.  This was rather curious to the leader of the scouting group, who looked at Yasmin rather quizzically, before launching a loud roar in her direction.  Yasmin started to get slightly worried now, morphing her vocal cords to emulate the sound and returning the roar.  As she did, the entire scouting group seemed to react with a slight start, before reacting with what she believed may have been laughter; all but the leader.  A breath attack connected with her dead centre now, knocking her off of her feet and sending her skating across the ground, the stun from the attack knocking her out of her morph and causing her form to automatically dump the additional mass that she had gathered.  As she flew through the air, the dragons once again broke out into what they assumed to be laughter, which stopped promptly as returned to her natural powered up form, causing them to look on her with much curiosity.

Their advanced senses and excellent vision caused them to not take very long in identifying Paco and Crydus, as Yasmin’s doppelganger dissipated when she was attacked.  Paco cursed lightly as he realised that he had been discovered, powering up his form and moving to a defensive stance as Crydus worked feverously to calibrate the relay, attempting to synchronise it with the modularised frequency that Amanda Real had set up the counterpart to the device to exhibit.

As Yasmin recovered from her initial stun, she too went on the defensive, morphing her form into a copy of Rock as she prepared for a possible in coming attack.  The stand off lasted some time, without Paco or Yasmin advancing, causing the dragon’s to become slightly puzzled before finally communication.

“Why are you here?”  A young voice resounded in their minds, causing the Terran channelers to jump a bit, before they contemplated what to say.

“You can speak german!?”  Yasmin inquired, drawing a slight sigh from Paco and Crydus as the Dragons once again burst into laughter.

“We’re an exploration team, we’re from Earth.”  Paco explained, puzzling the dragon slightly.

“But, this is earth…”  The dragon replied slowly.

“No Earth I… I mean Terra.”  Paco replied, remembering that Oyan inhabitants, much like their Terran counterparts, considered their home to be earth and referred to Earth I as Terra to make the distinctions.

“Oh…”  The voice replied.  “But that still does not answer my question… what are you doing here?”  The dragon once again inquired, causing Paco to laugh nervously as Crydus finally managed to calibrate the relay. 

“Well you see… actually what happens was that…”  Paco started as the strange resonance once again exhibited itself, causing the Dragons to jump and propel themselves backwards with their wings, clearing the radius of the disturbance, as the three started to shift out of their realm. 

It would not be long before the three were back on Easter Island, met by an excited Amanda Real who was simply dieing to hear the details of their experience. 

Outcome: The three have made it to Oya and back successfully, however Ms. Real was not able to calibrate the relay to synchronise automatically after their attempt.  This was in no way their fault, and as such she has agreed to pay them as arranged, however she is requesting that another run be made.

Crydus: 38 Exp

Paco: 28 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Yasmin: 46 Exp (-212HP)

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Continued Progress: Alyssa and John, Internal Affairs quest.

A single call from his Xelot Field Commander had cancelled any thoughts that Loki had of ambushing the Blakes, who were both busily trying to get to the bottom of the mystery in the French Administration. 

John and Alyssa’s initial take on the case was a great start, identifying two of the men who the Council of Xelots suspected to be at the heart of the conspiracy, but as John quickly realised, all of the information that they had gathered was quickly gathered by the Council of Xelots at the beginning of their own investigation.  The Xelots had used their own information gathering methods to acquired a great deal of information on the two figures, some of which they were not at liberty to discuss with John and Alyssa.  They did however manage to acquired the addresses of a number of homes owned by the two very wealthy men, picking out a single particular address for each and suggesting that the two attempt to inquire more information from those facilities.  Given the code of honour followed by the Xelot Knights, breaking and entering was not one of the things they specialised in.  With this being the case, and the government’s reluctance to grant them permissions to launch a formal inquiry into these two figures, they were forced to outsource assistance.

With this said, this gave John and Alyssa their next target, for a more hands on approach at data gathering, abandoning the desk work that they were planning on doing as they prepared for their infiltration attempts.

In their brief searches however, Alyssa was able to unearth some details of Dr. Debeaux’s preferences, as he did have frequent interactions with a particular lady of the night, a lead that she found to be particularly useful. 

Outcome: The two have made further progress, quest remains incomplete.

John: 16 Exp

Alyssa: 16 Exp

Awareness: 12 Exp

Awareness: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Precision: 0 Exp

Precision: 0 Exp

Dish Best Served Cold: Mercenaries and team attempt Tracking Dsayta quest.

Unknown to the Mercenary compliment, the method in which they had completed the predecessor of this quest had not sat well with the sponsors, who were now putting measures in place to protect their interests.  Luckily, the mercenaries were also putting measures in place to protect their own interests, arriving with a small defensive unit to guard the facility while they infiltrated it.

The arriving team proved to be rather large, and the group wasted no time in linking up their forms before entering the facility.  With Xian’s Endtime Array and Rayne’s Savant Relay, linking the individual channelers proved to be relatively easier, allowing each channeler to boost the network while they began to add features.  The first features was the overly of Rei Murasame’s Fractile Grid, before adding Rei Selen’s ability to heal the team.  Next, Xian would equip himself with Rayne’s I-Type Zeta expansion and commence the scouting process of the facility, doing his best to map it, before the team headed in. 

On the outside, the Mercenary defensive team watched the area, scanning the surrounding to ensure that no funny business would ensue, but their scans were unusually clear, with nothing that could even be remotely considered a threat for kilometres.  This allowed them some security, but they did find it rather strange, leaving them in an uneasy state of limbo.

Back on the inside, Xian’s scouts were meeting high resistance, as the facility’s turret class defences sprung to life.  Unfortunately for his scouts, the facility’s turrets were rather unorthodox, being linked to the facility’s lighting, they simply kicked the photon emitters up to maximum and flash vapourised his summons, making it rather hard for them to get very far.

Xian cursed lightly, noting that this was no where in the lengthly document that the Mercenary Army had prepared for them, but he was starting to believe that the reason that the information he collected seemed so disjointed was because of the lack of the information that the sponsors originally possessed that sparked the first quest.  Xian sighed, alerting the team to the defensive measures, as they now used their combined areas of influence to spread Rei’s fractile grid as far as possible in an attempt to map at least the outer most defences. 

Cloud smirked lightly, being all too prepared to deal with doom as the readouts from the scans came in, and he plotted for how to deal with the ensuing death.  Summoning two Spartans, he quickly charged them with his energy, modifying it with God Hand, getting a run up as his C. Scanners plotted out their predicted paths befpre he let them fly.  The shield’s ricocheted from wall to wall weakening the structure of the room before finally taking out the lights and neutralising the first defensive system.

“From our scans, it seems that the defensive measures on the outskirts are all built into regular systems, lights, the intercom, even the sprinklers in some areas.  I’ll transfer the data to you all via the comm. links… be on your guard.”  Xian enlightened the team before they moved in through the room that Cloud had cleared.

With the outdated technology, the group was lucky that most of the automated defences relied heavily on their output rather than a specialised effect, allowing batteries like Cloud to move through the facility relatively unphased.  Unfortunately for a number of other channelers, like Iolus, who exhibited considerably lower power outputs, these primitive weapons and their unusually high outputs proved to be a bigger problem than he would have imagined, as his summoned automaton Angle quickly met her demise at the hands of a zeta emitting sprinkler system.  Rei Selen kept back and avoided combat, simply healing the team as they took damage, and lended support through the network.  Rei Murasame was considerably more proactive as she used her Fractile Grid’s versatility to create attacks on the fly, each being specialised to neutralise the particular target, making her one of the most effective members of the infiltration team.  Gabriel was having a bit more trouble with the defences, as his Gadoken was very limited in range, forcing him to get up close and personal with the high out defences if he wanted to take them out.  Rayne faced a similar problem with his move to internalise energy, but not to the extent of Gabriel, as he still possessed the ability to do damage from range.  Luckily for the Itami, this factored somewhat minimally and the reduced routes through the facility allowed him to primarily play support and avoid direct confrontation.

The team of seven channelers and two frame back operators made relatively quick and short work of the infiltration run, while Rei did her best to keep them all alive until they reached the central core, which was surrounded by a powerful force field, no doubt to protect it from outside interference or tampering.

“I’m scanning the area for some kind of…”  Xian started, before Gabriel and Cloud pummelled the control unit with their fists, quickly deactivating the facility’s force field.  “…nevermind.”

Rei Murasame smiled lightly, moving up to the Memory Core and attempting to dismount it so that she could extract it.  With her Code Vision, and the specialities of her form, interfacing with computers came rather easily, and it wasn’t long before she could drop the defences that would allow her to dismount the core.  As she did this, the Mercenaries’ comm. links when off.

“Unidentified energy spike, get out of there now!”  came the voice of the commander of the defensive unit before they all noticed a ripple in the ether and the facility glitched around them all.

“A demilitarised zone?” Rei remarked quizzically before the facility faded out and then faded back into place.

“Status report!” Xian yelled, causing everyone to respond, confirming that they were okay, as he checked the network link to make sure this was the case before exclaiming with a long list of expletives.

Outcome: Due to their suspected intentions of keeping the information, the sponsors of the quest instituted a forced DMZ on the facility, decompiling all zeta-based devices present and then recompiling the ones that were not of use to them.  Due to the incidents of the uncovered Ruin's quest, the sponsors had initially refused to pay the team, but after some Mercenary 'persuasion', all members involved were awarded the stipulated fee. The Mercenary Army however was not allowed to retrieve anything of use from the facility, and all digital information collected on the facility was forcefully erased from the Data pads of the members involved.  The Mercenary Army has not taken kindly to this.

The 110,000$ was split between the members of the team.

Cloud: +48 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Awareness: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 10 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Iolus: +46 Exp

Rayne: +42 Exp

Awareness: 10 Exp

Awareness: 10 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Rei Murasame: +58 Exp

Rei Selen: +60 Exp

Awareness: 12 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 2 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Precision: 10 Exp

Xian: +76 Exp

Ven-Nu: +32 Exp

Awareness: 20 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Precision: 12 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Renegade: +32 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Making Things Hard For Yourself: Davius, Hyaku, Juggerknot and Meric attempt Excavation quest at same time as Jodien.

Annoyed did not fully describe just how Hyaku’s mood has changed since the initial attempt at this quest, as he found himself in South Africa once again.  This time their plan had been modified slightly, with the team attempting to descend beneath facility and attempting to penetrate the foundation, allowing them to come up in the middle of the facility instead.  Hyaku sighed loudly as they seemed to have completely ignored his blatant hint at the end of their last attempt.

As the vehicle descended once more, Hyaku noted an odd ethereal read out with his code vision.  At first he was contemplating whether or not it was another defense feature of the facility, but it was not long before he was able to decode it with his Zeta Bio Scanners.

“What’s up Hyaku?” Meric inquired, causing Hyaku to shake his head.

“It was nothing…” He replied, not bothering to alert the team to the knowledge that there seemed to be another channeler attempting to make their way to the facility, knowing that they would probably try to attack them and only delay their inevitable failure.

Back at the surface Jodiene was surveyed the area, looking down to Cassidy for information.

“My scours of the information networks have revealed that this facility has resisted a number of infiltration attempts and my scans a picking up a low intensity but very extensive scanning beam monitoring the area.  The intensity of this scanning beam increases as you descend towards the facility, with the highest intensity of the beam being exhibited approximately fifty metres beneath to foundation of the facility.”  Cassidy explained.

“Well so much for crawling in from beneath.  Would you suggest I go with my descending strategy then?” Jodiene inquired.

“That would be most effective, as long as you mask your presence from the scanning beam.  I will commence Excavation while you prepare for the infiltration.”  Cassidy replied, following the path that Meric’s Hummer had created, removing the earth that had caved in after them to create a more stable tunnel down.

“I’ll get out and scout around the outside of the facility.”  Hyaku sounded, phasing out of the vehicle, into the pocket of air that surrounded the facility, staying at the bare edge as he waited for the Hummer to get out of range.

As the vehicle left the area, he noted that the scanning beams began to focus on that, allowing him to engage his Wraith Expansion and move closer to it.  As he moved, the facility continued to correct the disturbances created by his foot steps, forcing him to stand still, allowing it to purify the air pocket.  As the air pocket returned to its pristine state, he noticed the door open, allowing him to activate his Phase Shift boots and dash into the facility before the door could close again.  Hyaku sighed.

“This is why I work alone…”  Was all he said as he began to walk in.

Back in the Hummer, Meric was watching the vital statistics of his vehicle closely, as the corrective forces of the facility were now attempting to tear the vehicle apart.

“We need to turn around before this thing trashes my ride!”  he exclaimed, kicking the vehicle into full reverse before the ground around him started to compact his Hummer.

Hyaku was slightly disappointed by the internal defences of the facility, which were easily dispatched with his Geddon Expansions’ viral energy type, which allowed him to simply format the ether that comprised them back into latent ether, disintegrating them with the wave front ripple.  Hyaku yawned lightly as he continued, now noticing that someone else had entered the facility, causing him to engage his stealth and press himself up against the wall as he waited for him to come into range of his scanners.

After a few minutes, he noticed a slender woman making her way along the roof of the facility using four pointed, bio mechanical legs that extended from her upper back.

“Spider woman?” he inquired to himself as she moved past him, causing him to phase behind her and re-engage his stealth, following her quietly.

Unfortunately for Hyaku, Cassidy was monitoring  Jodiene’s progress from the outside and wasted no time in relaying Hyaku’s readouts and position to her.  Jodiene dropped from the roof quickly, allowing her Iron Spider to break her fall before releasing her static webs at her opponent.  Hyaku just smirked, dropping as well as neutralising the attack with his Viral energy before decloaking.

“Relax, I’m here for the artefact as well, we can cooperate.”  Hyaku explained, watching her fall into a defensive stance.  “I don’t want to revert you… do make me.”  Jodiene scoffed at his arrogance, but agreed that a battle would not be best for either of them, and she really needed the money from this quest if she wanted to afford travel. 

“Okay, we can work together.”  She nodded.  “Cassidy has already identified the location of the artefact and a number of security systems in place; I can have her relay the information to you as well so we can deal with them quickly and retrieve this thing and get paid okay?”  Hyaku just nodded to this, allowing her to set up the link.

Hyaku was slightly impressed by the Automa, which had managed to identify a number of traps that were hidden from his own scanners, signalling that they should move forward before they met up with any surprises.

The traps were rather simplistic, relying mainly on brute force, which made them overly easy for Hyaku to take out with Geddon.  Jodiene had a slightly harder time as she relied on her Nightmare Nebulus to crush turret class defences, while Iron Spider allowed her to negotiated her way through pitfalls and other less offensive threats.

“Level six…”  Hyaku laughed arrogantly as he dispatched the last of the registered traps before her charged his palms and disintegrated the door that stood between them and the artefact.

“Whoa!”  Jodiene exclaimed as Hyaku was blasted from the doorway, causing her to jump and cling to roof before using her Nightmare Nebulus to stop his momentum and bring him to a halt.  “Cassidy what was that!?”  She yelled into the comm. link.

“An unidentified threat has appeared.”  It replied, causing her to curse lightly at Cassidy’s statement of the obvious.

Hyaku Phase Shifted to avoid a follow attack before launching a concentrated C4 primer which impacted one of the automa that seemed to be guarding the artefact.  He and Jodiene had the same idea as she thrust automated defense bot into the wall, causing Hyaku’s C4 to explode, shaking the room and destroying the automa.  Hyaku wasted no time phasing up to another automa and punching it, releasing a straight burst of mesatsu at a low propogation rate to destroy it before he deactivated the attack.  Jodiene sprung from the roof as well, guarding an attack with Nightmare Nebulus before summoning a shotgun and returning fire at the defences.  Unfortunately, Hyaku wasn’t much for patience, and with Jodiene’s relatively low offensive ability, he wasted to him in dispatching the remaining bots with a concentrated Mesatsu.

Once done, he would take the artefact and the two would make their way out of the facility the same way the came in, returning to the surface via the tunnel that Cassidy was continuously maintaining.  Still holding onto the artefact due to his deal with Davius, Hyaku attempted to contact his remaining teammates, hearing no reply.  With a light sigh, he tossed Jodiene the device.

“I will be expecting my cut to be transferred to my account.”  Hyaku replied, taking off for the nearest settlement.

“What’s you name?”  Jodiene inquired so she could make the transfer.

“Hyaku Yagami.”

Meric and the others would surface later that day in the heap of scrap metal that used to be a Hummer, seemingly ejected from the earth around the facility by the defensive system that was unable to completely destroy the components of the vehicle.

Outcome: Hyaku and Jodiene have retrieved the Artefact, which Jodiene has turned in to claim the reward.  Hyaku and Jodiene have been awarded 60000$ each.  Meric's Hummer has taken considerable damage, and will cost 15000$ to repair.

Jodiene: +44 Exp (-44HP)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Hyaku: +52 Exp (-95HP)

Juggerknot: +16 Exp (reverted)

Awareness: 10 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Meric: +16 Exp (reverted)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Predator Meets Prey: Zhie, Gladiator quest.

After Davius’ stunt, which the scientists were still doing their best to get to the bottom of, and the incident with the animal activist, the facility was on high alert, causing Zhie to be subjected to a number of scans before he was finally let into the facility, as they were sure of his intensions.

The intensive scans had put Zhie back a bit, as he was forced to power up and down a number of times, causing him to lose the charge of his Harden.  This wasn’t too much of an issue however as he was allowed to regain the charge before being released into the densely forested area.  Zhie moved in as non-aggressively as possible, seeking out one of the seemingly less intelligent creature “mobs”, basically looking for an easy target to get himself started.  In his search he came across a large grazer, possibly mutated from a cow or some other creature that was not native to the forest, evident by it’s rather visible discomfort in its habitat.

“Cows are dumb enough…”  Zhie commented to himself, powering up his Blur and Multiples, summoning 5 copies of himself as he engaged the loan creature.  The speed boost to him and his multiples was helpful against the creature, which wasn’t very mobile, seeming to prefer to tank rather than attempt any form of evasion.  As planned, a single of Zhie’s multiples activated his tumor modifier for his blade, using the creature’s energy to create explosive tumors in it.  This worked relatively well initially not resulting in any mutation, but the creature quickly adapted to the tactic, becoming more aggressive as it did. It wasn’t long before one of Zhie’s copies was speared on a horn before being flung into another, sending it careening into a nearby tree where they both dissipated.  Zhie quickly raised an eyebrow, jumping back and ordering his multiples to attack the beast that was now charging towards him.  The multiples managed to slow the charge, but the heavily armour creature would not be stopped, absorbing quite a bit of damage before he dispatched the final multiple.  As Zhie back pedalled, he charged his blade, slashing the ground to create a tumor, which exploded as the creature rushed through it.  The impact knocked it off of its feet, damaging it quite a bit, but Zhie did notice that some of the energy from the attack was absorbed and was now going into the mutation of the beast, forcing him to pump Blur to max and take out the creature with his blade before it could get its footing back.

Zhie smirked now as he watched the creature dissipate, noting that he had gotten through that battle without any damage at all.  Zhie however was not about to get cocky.  Once again he sought out a similar creature, this time coming across a small group of 3.  He braced himself once more, max charging Harden before moving into the fray.  Unfortunately, Zhie was about to get a lesson in ecology.  As he rushed towards the small herd from one end, another creature erupted from the bushes at the other end, clamping it’s jaws around one of the grazers before wrestling it to the ground.  As this ensued, the two remaining charged away from their attacker, and unfortunately straight for Zhie.  Zhie wasted no time pumping Blur up again, dodging the first creature and avoiding the second as much as possible, jumping into the air only to be clipped on the shoulders, allowing him to make a less than graceful landing, though only minimally damaged.  Unfortunately however, he managed to startle the predator, which looks like some kind of mutated jaguar, allowing the grazer to escape.  Zhie instantly took off after the wounded creature, but not before teeth impacted his leg, digging into his Hardened skin as it attempted to peirce his defences.  Luckily, with the high charge of his defensive technique, this was easier said than done, allowing him to summon is multiples to attack the beast with their blades.  Zhie on the other hand was busy clawing at the ground as the predator attempted to drag him off, ready to make a meal out of him for causing it to lose its prey.  Zhie’s clones proved to be enough of an annoyance to the creature to cause it to loosen its grip on his leg, turning to slash through one of the multiples with lightning speed, before tail whipping the other one to dispatch it.  Zhie wasted no time charging his own blade and jamming it into the skull of the beast, causing it to rise up onto its hind legs as it writhed in pain, allowing his multipled to go at it again as he tried to make it to his feet.  The leg that was bitten was already starting to hurt, no doubt infected with Maverick, though his Harden seemed to have been able to keep it from getting into his form, giving him some time before he could be fully incapacitated.  He wasted no time fragmenting his blade into numerous smaller pieces as his multiples did the same, creating a blade storm around the beast, attempting to make minced meat of it.  As the creature writhed in agony, it made a quick leap into the trees, causing Zhie to send the blades after it, but he would be unable to catch it with its unnaturally high speed.  He would call it a day and return to the testing facility to be purged of the virus before he reverted.

Outcome: Zhie has been awarded 25000$ for his assistance.

Zhie: 50 Exp (-195HP)

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

A Puzzling Turn of Events: Davius and Juggerknot, Gladiator quest.

After Xian’s stunt, the scientist coordinating the Gladiator quest were rather weary of channelers attempting to sneak samples of Maverick out of the cordoned off facility, both because it would potencially create competition for their research as well as the fact that the virus could be quite a menace if released into the environment.  This made them quite weary as they noted Davius stashing something in a bush near the facility.  The scans however revealed nothing suspicious and they allowed him into the facility.  Davius wasted no time taking to flight, summoning his illusions about him as his did, stealthing himself as he sought out an area that would be suitable for his task.  Seemingly out of nowhere, the Juggerknot landed from a hulk jump, wasting no time in terrorising a number of creatures in the area, while Davius summoned his Nature Fiends to assist him in the assault.

As this proceeded, the scientist noticed what could only be identified as a large animal rights activist on the outside, teleporting around and firing off what looked like an ion based rocket launcher at the facility and into the forest.  As it turned out Davius was not very pleased about his last attempt and had informed the ALA Extreme “an extreme group of animal rights activist” of the facility and its cruelty to animals.  As the shots impacted the facility, the scientists wasted no time in activating the automated defences, a tactic that seemed to quickly scare off the activist.

Hearing the commotion, Davius decided to call it a day, heading for the exit when his form began to glitch before he plummeted to the ground, seemingly once again infected by Maverick.  The scientists raised their eyebrows quizzically as they sent a rescue team out to collect him and bring him inside so that he could be purged of the virus.

Outcome: Quest remains incomplete.

Davius: 32 Exp (reverted)

Juggerknot: 16 Exp

Awareness: 4 Exp

Awareness: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 0 Exp

Language Arts: Jubei, Diplomatic Relations quest.

Jubei started out that day with a great deal of research into linguistics and other fields that would be helpful in his ability to translate the Itami native tongue.  Once this was finished, he called another favour, once again calling on Roun and Ryuu for aid.  The two Itamis, who had made it very clear that their knowledge of the Itami language were sceptical at first, but they realised that their reluctance to help could possibly lead to a misunderstanding between the Itami guardians and the Japanese people, which would be even more harmful than simply aiding Jubei in his plan.  In addition, Jubei was quite persuasive, pointing out that their help may lead to a gain in addition information on this great threat to the people of Itam, something that Roun was personally interested in.  As such, it took a lot of persuading but eventually, the two youngsters agreed to help.  Ryuu in particular was a bit amused when he found out exactly what it was that Jubei required, simply needing them recite a few sentences in Itam and then the English translation, followed by a few words and the like.  This took mere seconds before the Itamis could end the link and get back to their own personal business, while Jubei attempted to run a comparative language analysis on the two languages.  This gave him some insight into the Itami sentence structure, which resembled present day Japanese to a point, noting that the two languages had most likely stemmed from a similar language, most likely one of the dialects of China.  Unfortunately, the limited information was not enough to build a real dictionary, forcing him to take the information to a professional.

For this, Jubei sought out a Professor at a nearby university, one that majored in linguistics to ask if he would be willing to take on the project on Jubei’s behalf, aiding him in the decoding of the languages.  It took him a bit of searching, as the first few professors that he met with seemed to be asking too much of him, but eventually he found an old professor by the name of Dr. Oki Katawa who was willing to undertake the process, agreeing to Jubei’s terms.  All Jubei would need to do is collect more fragments of the language, and the professor would assemble them until the had a base that was wide enough for him to decode the rest of the language.

Outcome: Jubei has made progress, quest remains incomplete.

Jubei: 14 Exp

Awareness: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Precision: 0 Exp