A Win For Law Enforcement: Hyaku, Val, Roun and Zadavia, Public Safety quest. (10/08/2401)

After his previous attempt with Seig, which followed his less than successful escapades with Davius, Hyaku was beginning to realise that if he wanted things done right, he would need to start leading rather than following.  With this new approach in mind, he contacted Val Kaden, and laid out the basis for a plan that he was almost certain would work.

“This is the kind of plan I’ve been thinking about.”  Val replied calmly.  “Leave it to me, I’ll get them there.” He ended, terminating the link.

“Hopefully he’ll be more reliable that previous associates…”  Hyaku muttered coldly to the operator of the sentinel frame that was accompanying him to the Blood Line main base of operations.

While Hyaku and Val set up the evidence that would be needed to spark the conflict that they hoped would be the last battle in the age old gang war, Roun did his best to coordinate the additional forces, even placing a call to the authorities and giving them wind of his plan and request possible assistance.  Given his rank in the Rogues, it was a given that the frame operators would follow his orders, as he assigned them into the groups which Hyaku had organised.  In addition, the authorities were willing to follow his plan, though they were bound by law to only act if the gangs were engaged in unlawful activities.  The only person that he had problems dealing with was Zadavia, who didn’t take kindly to Roun ordering her around like a subordinate.

Back with the gangs, Hyaku and the operator of the Sentinel frame made their way to the Blood Line base, followed closely by Val waiting to get the evidence that he needed.  Needless to say, Hyaku’s presence drew the attention of one of the lower ranked who peaked outside, before informing the leader of the gang that the cop that they been hearing around was outside.  The second that the channeler exited the building, Val started to take pictures, until the point where he walked up to Hyaku.

“What are you doing here cop… this is just a gathering, we’re not breaking any laws.”  The large channeler smirked arrogantly.  “Now you better get out of here before we decide to break… something.”  He added, glancing over at the operator of the Sentinel, causing Hyaku to scowl.

“Lets get out of here…” was all Hyaku said, leaving the area to rendezvous with Roun, Zadavia and the back up units.

With the photographs however, Val wasted no time in getting back to the hangout of the Red Gear group, informing them the Blood Line gang had made a deal with the cops, and were planning a strike to wipe out the Red Gear in a joint strike the following day.  At first, this made little sense to the group, but Tech quickly explained that with only one dominant gang, the damages caused by conflicts would be wiped out, reducing gang related property damage by more than 75%.  With this logic combined with the photographic evidence of Hyaku, “the cop”, and the leader of the Blood Line group, they decided that it would be best to at least check out the situation.  It was at this point that Val continued to push, suggesting that a pre-emptive strike would be the best course of action, as it would give them a chance to wipe-out the Blood Line before they got a chance to team up against them.  This idea didn’t sit well with the gang leader, but Val was quickly able to rile up the other gang members, who were always ready for a fight.  Given this, it wasn’t hard to get the entire posse together and make their way over to the Blood Line’s hang-out.

On the way there, Val only further riled everyone up, ensuring that with the slightest sign of violence, they would be ready to jump into the fray.

When the two gangs finally converged, Val was actually the one to throw the first blow, ensuring that there would be no diplomatic talks, starting up a massive throw down as he eased out the back and provided ranged support for the Red Gear faction.

As the battle got thick, Hyaku made sure that everyone was in position, his new Vetira piloting his newly acquired Zeta Wing, while Roun’s equally new Vetira did the same for his F-25.  The two ships hovered above the battlefield, someway off to avoid their presence being to imposing as the two who would lead the assault got ready to move in.

For this operation, both Roun and Hyaku had upgraded their forms, with Roun now equipping his Feratu Special Ability, while Hyaku utilised the full compliment of his Expansions.

“Let me know when you’re ready Roun, this should be a simultaneous strike.”  Hyaku explained, causing Roun to nod.

“When I take off, it’ll take me a fraction of a second to hit my opponent, I hope you can keep up.”  Roun smirked deviously.

“Don’t worry, I can keep up.”  With this, Roun gave the signal and vanished from his position.

Hyaku wasted no time charging his KX Expansion with a mesatsu burst, giving him more than enough energy to close the gap between him and his opponent in less than a second.  Roun’s attack hit first, throwing the fight into mass confusion as the members of the gang tried to figure out where he came from.  The resulting flood of energy that followed him actually took out a few of the weaker channelers, making the job of Val and Zadavia far easier as Roun commenced his Raver’s Trance, utilising his Frigid Rave.  Hyaku made a more potent contact action, coming to a halt by transferring all of his velocity into external energy, which was further flash converted into a Mesatsu modified Viral stream.

Unlike Roun, Hyaku’s attack was transmitted in projectile form, cutting through his opponent and proceeding to dispatch a number of other channelers in the area.  Seeing this, the weaker of the gang members wasted no time in fleeing, but found their attempts made impossible by the two Armadillo, one Renegade, one Ace and a single Sentinel frame user.  Val was not one to be showed up either, his high energy output and his ability to negate guards with his Overwhelming force, making it incredibly easy to add assistance while Zadavia took a more melee approach to the attack.  The young female summoner realised that unlike Hyaku, Roun’s form generated a great deal of unfocused energy in addition to his focussed attack, allowing her Dynamo to charge exceedingly quickly, while her Mystic Barrier absorbed the stray attacks to charge her Super Nova.  With her energy being used up with these techniques, this left her stand, Ayane, as her only defense in the battle.  Luckily for the summoner, with super strength, super speed, nigh invulnerability and quite a bit of energy absorption ability, Ayane was more than enough to defend her against a few common thugs.  Roun’s Raver’s Trace left the leader of the Read Gear completely paralysed before he exploded the large amount of energy with his Storm energy type, obliterating the channeler’s form and completing the charge of Zadavia’s Super Nova.

“Round them up for me!”  Zadavia commanded, causing Hyaku and Roun to look at her, somewhat puzzled.  Both channelers knew that with time they would be able to dispatch the weaker channelers involved in the fight, and with their evasive and defensive abilities, as well as the heavy back up fire, their victor was inevitable, fortunately for the summoner, Hyaku was curious to test he combat capacity.  Using his Conx, Hyaku could easily push or pull the channelers, and with the kinetic properties imbued within his Aesis V2, Roun was capable of the same, allowing the duo to quickly chorale most of the gang members while those that fled were picked off by Val and the frame operators. 

“Okay now move!”  Zadavia commanded again, causing the two to split as she released a collected energy in a directional blast.

As Hyaku analysed the attack, he noted that it was able to output as much as his Mesatsu to a certain exponent, but it was unfocused, and the sudden rush of energy created a minor ‘energy flooding’ effect much like Roun’s Vector Flood.  As the energy washed over those gathered by Roun and Hyaku, a number of the channelers were reverted, leaving Roun and Hyaku to dispatch the others before they could be of be too much trouble. 

Outcome: Both gangs have been apprehended almost in their entirety.  With the leaders in custody, the gangs have effectively been disbanded, and with the public broadcast that further situations will be met with equal force, should prove to be a strong deterrent against future problems.  Barbadian natives Roun and Hyaku are currently running a positive  PR campaign to reassure the island after the incident.

Hyaku: 82 Exp (-96HP) +60000

Val: 56 Exp + 10 Exp (perfect bonus) +60000

Awareness: 12 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 16 Exp

Precision: 10 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Roun: 84 Exp (-72HP) +60000

Zadavia: 64 Exp + 10 Exp (perfect bonus) +60000

Awareness: 12 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Precision: 16 Exp

Precision: 16 Exp

Cooling Down: Rueben and Argentis, Lake of Fire Quest. (11/08/2401)

Much like Brian before him, Rueben had chosen a later time for his attempt at the quest.  He and Argentis made their way to the town closest to the ocean for their attempt, following the two creatures that had made their way there, waiting until sunset and the land began to cool before they would follow the creatures out of the city.

As Argentis delivered her psychic attack, she did notice some disorientation from the creatures, which didn’t seem to have particularly high psychic defences.  Unfortunately, with the output of her technique, she felt like she was chipping away at an iceberg with an ice-pick.  The disorienting effect of the attack would be useful to Rueben however, allowing him to teleport up to the creatures and blast them, sending the beast through one of his Zeno portals.  As the creature reappeared from the portal, some distance short of the ocean, Rueben found his face and upper torso covered in a goo, causing him to perfect guard automatically as the creature now charged into his barrier.  The impact was surprising for the beast, which now found itself under the attack of Argentis’ R. Itami.  Unfortunately, the summon lacked the necessary output to break the creature’s various guards and armour, and quickly found itself knocked away, and worse yet, nearing dissipation.  As Rueben attempted to power the goo off of his form, he found himself taking damage, forcing him to halt the process, teleporting away, causing Argentis to unsummon the already damaged R. Itami as she retreated as well, allowing the two to regroup.

Using his Zeno’s dimension control ability and the natural properties of Veranos, Rueben began to slowly remove the gooey substance from his form, attempting to cause as little damage to himself as he did.

“Rue!” Came Argentis’ exclaimation as she summoned her Demonic Shift, which quickly attached itself to Rueben and teleported, allowing him to narrowly avoid the creature which exploded from beneath him.

As Rueben appeared some distance away, he engaged his perfect guard and began to go at again, this time more quickly and less carefully, allowing him to finally get the goo off of his form, allowing him to see again.  By this time however, the creature was attacking Argentis, who was fending it off with her Ice Fire and the already damaged R.Itami.  In fact it wouldn’t be long before the summon was dissipated, sending Argentis into a stunned state as the Mental Backlash began to affect her.  Rueben wasted no time porting again, this time finding his blast washing over the creature, which spun to deliver a 360 tail swipe that sent him and his wife flying in opposite directions.

With her summon vanquished, Argentis’ effectiveness was lowered considerably, leaving most of the work up to Rueben as she provided ranged support and psychic interference.  Rueben was quite sure that once he got the creatures to the sea, that dispatching them would be quite easy, something her would be attempting to test on this beast, unfortunately he found himself unable get the creature off the ground like he first had, to knock it into a portal, and attempting to dimensionally shunt it there would  require far more energy.  Rueben wasted no time going to go, attempting to gather the massive energy boost that he would need to perform the teleportation technique.  With his Guardian Armour running, evading the creature was a lot easier than it had been initially, leaving him to only worry about the sticky substance that it spat from its mouth, something that he avoided as best he could.  Eventually, his energy would reach a reasonable charge, allowing him to transport the creature from it’s location into the sea.  The cool waters quickly lowered the beast’s body temperature, preventing it dynamic morphing and slowing it considerably.  As a bonus, the creature did gain a huge defense boost, but without the ability to move around a lot, all Rueben had to do was charge his various techniques to maximum and dispatch the beast.  With the accomplished, Rueben checked in on Argentis then gauged his own health status, deciding that it would be unwise to go after another creature, especially since they would have made it up the Volcanic peak once again.  The two would call it a day.

Outcome:  Rueben and Argentis have dispatched one of the creatures but the others have returned to the peak. Quest remains incomplete.

Rueben: 54 Exp (-212HP) + 20000$

Argentis: 46 Exp (-282HP) + 20000$

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 10 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Bad Idea II: Xian, Gladiator Quest. (11/08/2401)

Given his last run, Xian was subject to considerably less security checks, allowing him to make his way into the facility a lot faster than he did the last time.  Hie had not heard much from his young accomplice Leonardo, which proved to be somewhat disappointing, leaving him to attempt the quest on his own. 

With this in mind, he wasted no time powering up his form and beginning his Becoming, transforming himself into The Unholy.  The process took some time for Xian, being a complex summon and morph simultaneously, something that his body was not fully suited for, given his class.  Luckily, his techniques managed to compensate for most of his class’ short comings in the regard, and after some time, the transformation was complete.  As Xian stood now, the operator of his Ven-Nu observed the beastly form, which bore a number of resemblances to fictional creatures and characters, ranging zenomorphs to the predator species.

“That’s creepy…” Was all the pilot could think as Xian prepared for the incoming wave of creatures, sending out a psychic wave throughout the enclosure to draw the creatures in his direction.

As the wave of creatures now flowed inwards, Xian was put face to face with the true numbers of beasts and more prominent the sheer number of forms that were present in the jungle.  What was scarier was the fact that his attacks all seemed to extremely predatory, meaning that there were probably even more species that he had not yet seen.  Xian’s presummoned spider mines served to dispatch a few of the weaker creatures initially, but did only moderate damaged to the more powerful creatures, which easily closed the distance between Xian and themselves.  Xian found himself under attack by four main species of predators, a heavily armoured bear-like beast, two agile varieties of cats which he deduced to be mutations of panthers and leopards, and a final species which was had to place.  In addition to the number of species, Xian found himself under threat from a total of about ten creatures, as his spider mines deal with the smaller and less armoured critters. 

His Ven-Nu operator wasted no time clearing the combat zone, providing support with its beam disc launcher and utilising the flak cannon for the occasional swarm that would get to close before the operator retreated.  The weak shots did little to lend Xian assistance, who now found his Unholy form being torn into rather painfully by the creatures.  Xian could tell that in his current form, given his power output, he could easily go one on one with any of these beasts, making the only real problem, the fact that he simply did not have the ability to deal with ten credible threats simultaneously, and his Ven-Nu operator could only lend long range assistance due to the swarm of lesser critters that surrounded him.  As Xian fell into desperation, he allowed his Soul Caliber to run wild, spreading like wild fire through the creatures.  A number of the smaller and weaker creatures were absorbed by the wave of energy, but the others just grew from the impact, mutating into larger threats as Xian now did his best to dissipate the energy.  Unfortunately, with the creatures now producing their own ‘pull’ on the energy, and it’s power growing far out of the range of his control, Xian found it rather difficult to stop himself from powering up the beasts.  This turned his mid-level threats into high level threats now, as he found himself dealing with ten creatures who each surpassed his own energy levels.  Luckily for the Ven-Nu, it’s incredibly high speed was enough to get it out of the range of the beasts, allowing it to take to the air and attack the creatures from there while Xian switched his approach, utilising his corrupted star and corrupted storm to deal melee damage to the creatures.  Unfortunately, by now, his form was beginning to take damage beyond that which he could simply regenerate, resulting in damage to his actual health.  In fact, that damage was now beginning to add up so fast that he was forced to order the Ven-Nu to retreat, while he now attempted to do the same, spinning wildly with his corrupted star flail, to knock the creatures away as he charged his speed and made a mad dash for the exit.  Powering down, Xian sighed loudly.

“That was a bad idea…”

Outcome:  Xian has aided in testing the full extent of the energy absorbing capabilities of the creatures, and the scientists are very pleased with the results, Xian has been awarded +50000$.

Xian: 60 Exp (-512HP)

Ven-Nu: 42 Exp + 10 Exp (perfect bonus)

Awareness: 8 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 10 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Getting Back: Cy, Ghost In Towns Quest. (11/08/2401)

After the fiasco with Xavier Stryke, Cy had returned to the element that had first put him on the map as a channeler, taking up the investigation of the Ghost in Towns quest.  His questioning of those who claimed to have seen these ghosts, had varied so much, that much like the authorities, he was beginning to believe that people were just fabricating information to gain attention.  This in itself was annoying, but Cy did managed to come across some similarities in the stories.  They all described the entities as having wispy appearances, and being able to move through structures, even those that were zeta reinforced and that would usually stop phasing techniques, however, other than that their descriptions ranged from ‘floating bed sheets’ to popular, fictional and historical figures. 

Given the unreliability of this information Cy moved on to investigate the injuries of the victims of these ghosts.  The bodies of the victims were no where near what he expected them to be, as he noted no physical injuries to their bodies whatsoever.  On further inspection, he even noted that their internal structures were still relatively pristine as well, causing him to look towards he coroner for information.

“As you can see Mr. Cy, there are no visible injuries, but residual brainwave scans as well as chemical markers show that the victims exhibited a strong fear or panic before their death.”  The coroner now explained.

“So they were scared to death?”  Cy inquired now, causing the old man to nod. “That’s… interesting.”

With this, he then moved on to determine the locations where these Ghosts could be found, but didn’t get very far in that, as the sightings and victims seemed to be completely randomised.  In fact, the only type of victim that he had not encountered was a channeler class victim of these creatures.  Still, Cy continued to look, drawing quite a bit of suspicion to himself, being quite a large man walking around with two small turtles in his hands.  Unfortunately, in all of his searches, he was unable to find anything even remotely ghost-like, even with True Sight.  Cy sighed, realising that he would need to determine an actual method to search for the creatures before he devised a way to defeat them.

Outcome:  Cy has been able to deduce that these Ghosts chose their victims very carefully, he will need to find a way to lure them out if he wishes to collect any further information on the entities.

Cy: 26 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Precision: 6 Exp

They Can't All Be Doom Matches: Cloud and Ryuu, Lake of Fire Quest. (12/08/2401)

Cloud was not in the least bit pleased by the fact that two of the creatures had been dispatched by other channelers, leaving him to execute his complex battle strategy on two creatures, and given Ryuu’s presence, it would most likely be a single creature as the Itami needed no help dispatching the beasts.

Once again the creatures made their way down the side of the volcanic peak, this time with Cloud’s Tekera and a Sentinal operator keeping track of their movements.  Cloud growled lightly, his right eye glowing a bright red as he attempted to suppress his rage, a take which he failed at, causing Ryuu to laugh lightly as he morphed into his Chaos Dragon form. 

“I guess you need to work on getting a Regeneration skill.”  Ryuu laughed lightly, causing Cloud to glare at him.

“Maybe…” Cloud replied now, minor frustration accompanying his usually emotionless voice.

“Don’t sweat it man, we each got a one on one match up, so it should at least be a work out…”  Ryuu remarked.  “Plus, the faster we finish these things off, the faster I can get back to sleep.”  He nowed laughed, drawing the faintest of smirks from Cloud.

“Fine.”

With this the two moved into their ambush positions, waiting until the creatures were within range before making a flanking run.  By now the creatures had learned to expect attacks from channelers that powered up near them, having lost six of their eight creature party to channeler attacks already.  What confused them slightly however was that the two weren’t actually dashing towards them, but around them, causing them to boost their defences in anticipation of the attack.  As the two got within range, they vanished, appearing above the creatures and simultaneously launching attacks.  Ryuu’s breath attack pierced the creature’s defences, but due to it bracing itself, failed to revert the beast in one go, forcing him to follow up with a diving smash to revert the beast.  Cloud on the otherhand imparted his full energy reserve into a single Spartan shield, launching it off with his full strength, cracking the creature’s armour before he too thrusted downwards with an Ultima strike to finish off the beast.  Cloud growled with disappointment at the lack of difficulty in the task, as he watched Ryuu power back down to his regular form.

“Well that’s a wrap, I’m going back to sleep… wake me up after the sun rises.”  Ryuu laughed, slapping Cloud on the back in jest, and drawing a strange look from the channeler.  “Chillax b, they can’t all be doom matches.”

Outcome:  Cloud and Ryuu have dispatched the final two creatures, Quest complete.

Cloud: 54 Exp + 10 Exp (perfect bonus) + 40000$

Ryuu: 54 Exp + 10 Exp (perfect bonus) + 40000$

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Out Of His Element: Val, Virus Busting Quest. (14/08/2401)

Val Kaden was quite confident about his run of the facility, but still decided to be cautious about it, submitting a surrender code so that the scientists would know when to stop the run, should things get out of hand.

With this worked out, and after acquiring a map of the facility, Val proceeded into the facility, fully powered up. Utilising the electrical nature of his form, Val wasted no time in powering up an EM based barrier, in an attempt to deflect the solid rounds away from his body. This worked for the most part, though the velocity of the round sometimes made the deflection of his barrier too slow, causing him to take some damage, before he extended his EM control to contort the metals in the turrets and fuse them together. Val continued this course of action, now utilising his dodging abilities to avoid the shots that penetrated his EM field, as he continued to destroy the turrets, waiting until the facility go the idea and switched to more energy based rounds. It took some time, but the second phase of the attack finally commenced, as the facility switched to explosive rounds, allowing Val to engage his Transducer, absorbing the energy to charge his auras. With his energy reserve fully changed, Val now utilised his After Shock technique, channelling the energy through the ground to create a powerful EMP, in an attempt to shut the equipment down. Unfortunately, this massive energy state attack served mostly to power up the facility, boosting the effects of the energy weapons that now assaulted Val. This was a bit of a loop, as the stronger the attacks got, the stronger Val would intern become, perpetuating the cycle. Unfortunately, unlike the facility, Val had a limit to his power. The turrets soon became to powerful for Val, who was now starting to realise that he would not be able to defeat the first sector by just discharging energy, forcing him to turn his attention to the door into the second section. Val teleported up to the barrier now, utilising the full effect of his overwhelming force to concentrate a thin beam of energy and blast the door, putting a large dent into the sturdy blast door. Unfortunately, he would need to do this a few more times to destroy the door, causing him to dodge around and build up energy, gathering a few more full charges before he tore the door off of it’s hinges. With this accomplished, he utilised the large metal door, boosting his strength with his Energize and tossing it to destroy the remaining, overpowered turrets from the first sector.

Val sighed now, realising that his high energy output was just not an asset when dealing with a facility with the ability to absorb energy. As he proceeded into the second sector, having retrieved the door, he wasted no time in shielding the incoming goo, utilising his Transducer once again to absorb the ambient heat. Kicking the door at the goo launching turret, he turned, before performing his Iron Jumper, charging all of his energy into a single spot to deliver a power physical melee attack to dispatch the panel which controlled the temperature in the room. Val smirked now, that sector had been considerably easier, preventing him from losing any more health.

Val opened the door into the third sector, utilising a Shock Bomb to light up the room, an effect that lasted minimal time as his opponents absorbed a great deal of the damage from the attack. Val now attempted to utilise his EM control on these automated defences, but found that a solid round, followed by an ion round would send him skating back out of the room. Rolling to the side, he was able to dodge yet another solid round, utilising Transducer to shield the incoming ion round. His barrier took a bit of the energy off of the attack, but the impact was still rather painful, forcing him onto the offensive. As he vanished, he reappeared with another Iron Jumper, knocking one of the suits into a nearby wall, while the other riddled his form with shots, forcing him to teleport again utilising the same tactic to finish the stunned suit while he turned his attention to the other. Val was already realising that his health was running critically low, and with the ion rounds from his opponent proving to be quite effective against his barrier, he was becoming rather desperate. Luckily, his Genesis Break gave his Energize the ability to overdrive his techniques quickly, while his Transducer proved some energy absorption ability, allowing him to reach his max charge quickly, before vanishing again. Unfortunately, his would not work three times in a row, as the unit easily dodged, blasting him from point blank, and sending him hurling across the room into the wall, before another few round ended his run.

Outcome:  Val has made it to Sector III, unfortunately he has not tested any previously untested features apart from the blast door.  Val receives 15,000$

Val: 56 Exp (reverted)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Crippling Indeed: Cloud, Ryuu and Bayman, tracking Dsayta II Quest. (17/08/2401)

Ryuu’s new running buddy seemed to have a knack for choosing challenging quests, a quality that Ryuu approved of in an accomplice, being one to get bored easily.  The new quest that he was attempting had some questionable aspects to it however, as their goal wasn’t so much to complete the quest, but to acquire the objective for the Mercenaries.  Ryuu had read up on their previous attempts, and noted their successes and failures, not to mention their run-ins with the police, something that Ryuu had no interest in whatsoever.

Cloud and Bayman however guaranteed the youngster that this was not an illegal activity and classed it simply as a Mercenary interest.  Given this, Ryuu decided that he would accompany the team, eager to see what these channeler crippling defences could be. 

Cloud’s offer to purchase a new ship, should Ryuu’s vehicle be destroyed also served on convince the Itami to allow the team to utilise his Zeta Wing in their attempt, taking care of the final precautions before the three could make their way into the facility.  Their external scans had revealed little about the facility, which was rather shielded from prying eyes, appearing to most forms of scanning as just a part of the environment, most likely one of the reasons why it had not been detected until now. 

Cloud and Bayman made their way towards the facility now, fully powered up while Ryuu and the operator of the sentinel trailed behind them in user form with the armadillo frame bringing up the rear.  Bayman was quite puzzled to see that there were no defensive systems on the outside of the facility, causing him and Cloud to proceed inwards cautiously.  The second they entered the facility, their unauthorised access caused the doors to slam behind him, so fast that neither Ryuu nor the subordinates would be able to follow.  Bayman cursed under his breath as his stealth started to failed now, something that Cloud also noticed about his own armaments before the two quickly found themselves completely powered down.  None of their devices seemed to work either, as both the ether and the zeta in the area seemed to be inhibited by something or the other.  Cloud wasted no time whipping out the machete out of his weapon’s kit, while Bayman relied on his solid state combat knife.

“This is what they meant by channeler crippling…”  Bayman now noted, as the facility effectively prevented channeling, forcing infiltration to be done totally in user form.  This threw Cloud’s plan right out the window, leaving him to follow Bayman’s lead now.  Without any sensing abilities, the two were forced to rely on their natural awareness to identify traps.

With Bayman taking point, he was able to point out a number of the more primitive trips, from the laser trips to pressure sensitive pads, but the two found it impossible to avoid some of the more advanced traps.  As they entered one of the rooms deeper in the facility, they triggered a thermal trip, summoning a small turret which instantly opened fire.  Bayman’s quick reflexes allowed him to throw up his combat knife in time, deflecting the initial blast and knocking him back as the knife flew out of his hand and embedded itself in a wall.  Cloud would not be so fortunate however, lacking the natural reflexes required to dodge the attack, finding himself quickly subdued by the energy rifle.  Luckily, the weapons seemed to be placed on a setting that would only incapacitate their victims, and the unconscious Cloud quickly found himself teleported out of the facility, where Ryuu was waiting to take him to safety. 

As Bayman hit the ground, he back rolled to avoid the follow up blasts from the turrets, before making it to his feet and jumping back again.  As the fire from the turret followed his movements, he wasted no time rushing out of room, diving as he exited, landing and rolling as the defensive turret deactivated.

Bayman smirked now, assessing the situation and formulating a plan.  Simply tossing a device into the room would not trip the defence, as his metal weapons maintained a room temperature.  Seeing this, he zipped his shirt down, detaching his fire expansion and placing it in his shirt, crossing his arms over it and baring the discomfort as it warmed up.  Once the feeling of cold subsided, he took out the device and tossed it into the room, then waited a few seconds.  As he expected, the thermal sensors tripped, and the turret came to life.  As it’s acquired it’s target, Bayman made a dash for Cloud’s machete, using his superb accuracy to toss it at the turret, throwing it off.  As the machete impacted, it disrupted the motion of the turret, messing with its targeting long enough for Bayman to retrieve his combat knife.  With his weapon in hand, he made a spring for the elevated turret, utilising all of his weight and strength to drag and cut the turret from the wall, before jamming his combat knife into the generator that summoned it.  As he dragged the device out, and dropped to his feet, Bayman collected his Fire expansion and moved further into the facility.  He would be able to dispatch a few more defences, but eventually the situation would prove too much even for his high tactics level, eventually leaving him the victim of a room filled with turrets, making it impossible for him to evade. 

Bayman too would appear back outside of the facility, still conscious, but took weakened to move, leaving Ryuu to aid him as well. 

Outcome:  Quest remains incomplete

Cloud: 16 Exp (Incapacitated)

Bayman: 36 Exp (Incapacitated)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Precision: 0 Exp

Precision: 0 Exp

As Simple As That: Paco and Yasmin, Breath of Fire II. (18/08/2401)

The procrastination of Rueben and Ryuu with regards to aiding Tarek in getting home had made her very receptive to outside offers, this made it extremely easy for Paco and Yasmin to gain an audience with the dragon to propose their plans. Tarek had spent over a month in the Tanami desert, battling the local wildlife to hone her skills and increase her power. Paco and Yasmin would bear witness to this as the landed and approached the might beast.

Tarek was surprisingly reasonable upon their approach, not exhibiting any hostilities and simply awaiting their first move. Yasmin and Paco engaged in no funny business at this point, getting straight to the point and laying out their offer. They not only possessed the means, and proof of the means, to take Tarek home but they were willing to do so as soon as she was ready, the only stipulation being her submission to a few non intrusive tests from Amanda Real.

The offer did spark some pondering from the dragon, but eventually she conceded, agreeing to their terms. The scanning process would take place in the Rogue Transport carrier, which would now escort them to Africa, where the portal would be opened. Paco and Yasmin would accompany the Dragon to her home to ensure that she made it safely, allowing Tarek to make the formal introductions between them and the members of her clan that greeted her. After brief pleasantries, the two would return to Terra with their rewards.

Outcome: Yasmin has received her Dragon Morph and Paco has received a Dragon Breath modification to his Cronus X.  The two returned to The Garrison with Ms. Real, escorting her to her meeting with Kyasho.  Amanda has awarded the two 40000$ for securing a Dragon for her scans.

Truly A Beast: Bobby, Jinzo and Seig, Monster Unleashed quest. (29/08/2401)

The Xelot trio of Bobby, Jinzo and Seig had grown quite curious of this weapon that Drago Enterprises considered to be so monstrous, and decided that they would be the first to see this so called beast in action.  For this, they travelled to Spain, where they met with the Drago officials and signed in for the testing session, waiting patiently for this monster to arrive.

The three were quite puzzled to see the man that they recognised as Alexander Drago, CEO of the company, enter the small arena.  As he proceeded to the centre of the ring, he removed the jacket of his executive suit, resting it out the ground next to him, slowly removing his tie as well before unbuttoning the first to bottoms of his shirt.  This left the team quite puzzled, as Seig had uncovered the fact that Mr. Drago was a user and possessed no form of channelling potencial.  Raising an eyebrow, Seig and his team assembled, with the Oyan yelling “Xelots Assemble!”, causing his two teammates to sigh loudly and ignore his stupidity as the readied themselves for this monster.

“Ready?”  Mr. Drago inquired now, causing them power up and ready themselves before nodding.  “Good, begin the recording.”  He stated now, pointing to one of his employees before a number of ethereal channelers began to run through his body, causing silver lines to glow from his tanned skin before causing his dark brown hair to charge red.  “I’m coming.” Was all he would say before vanishing.

Jinzo, having fused with his Dark Messiah, found himself planted firmly into a wall, with Drago now turning his attention to Bobby, the only of the three that seemed to be able to track his movement during the attack, wasting no time going to work on his form with his Frost Wolves.  Drago spun now, waving his hand to deflect a number of the rounds from the gun before he thrusted his hand forward.  As he did, an energetic projection of his hand extended, causing Bobby to barely dodge and allow the wave to impact the wall behind him violently.

“Seig!”  Bobby exclaimed, as his teammate now held back, collecting data rather than attacking, leaving Jinzo and Bobby to handle their opponent single handedly.

By now, Jinzo had dragged himself out of the wall and was now turning his attention back to his opponent.  Luckily, Face of Pain had managed to take the sting off of the first attack, allowing him to charge the energy into his Blood Omen as he rushed Drago with a flurry of melee blows.  The Dark Messiah’s speed was quite impressive, putting Drago onto the defensive as his energetic projections of his hands went to work shielding him, allowing Bobby to target his back, while Seig threw in the occasional Shattered Prism to add to the assault.  Oddly enough though, their attacks seemed to be doing little damage.

As Jinzo’s attacks began to become to oppressive, he once again found himself launched into a nearby wall, this time with a follow up strike from the projections, which now drilled into him.  Once again, Drago spun now, deflecting Bobby’s projectiles into Seig’s form, allowing Bobby’s Overwhelming Force to easily ignore his barriers and impact him quite harshly.  This caused Seig to finally take the offensive, charging his form to the max and coverting Drake into a sword before teleporting in with a quick slash.  Seig’s melee prowess was limited however, and against Drago, proved to be quite ineffective.  As he dodged backwards, Drago slammed Seig into the ground, face first, once again targeting Bobby who dodged the attack.  Unfortunately, he would not be able to dodge them all, and Bobby quickly found himself engulfed in a pillar of flames, forcing him to utilise one of his 12 Trials.  The damage left his form worse for wear, but he had avoided reversion, allowing Bobby to drill into this monster with Celestial Judgement.  This was the most effective attack so far, but even this only brought the beast’s health down to 78 percent, forcing Jinzo to set Grand Viper on the Monster while he backed up the summon with his Dark Messiah form.  Bobby seemed to have created a chink in the armour of Drago’s form, allowing Jinzo to actually deal damage, doing his best to dodge the energy projections that had caught him before. 

In addition, Seig also made it to his feet, and added to the damage, watching as the Monster’s health drained from 78 to 18 percent quickly.  Unfortunately, as it’s health dwindled, a defense mechanism kicked in and the beast mutated, now towering over nine feet tall and with energy swirling everywhere.  A single swipe knocked Seig within an inch of reversion, and another destroyed Jinzo’s Dark Messiah form, forcing Bobby to unleash another Celestial judgement onto the head of the Monster, buying Jinzo some time as he began to recover from the backlash.  What Bobby found odd now was that the Monster’s form seemed to be registering 82 percent health yet again, and his Celestial Judgement couldn’t slow it enough for Jinzo to escape.  Whipping out his Frost wolves, he did his best to slow the form, but Jinzo would still be launched into a nearby wall, a position that he was growing quite comfortable with, as he accepted his defeat, his form teetering on the brink of reversion as well. 

This left the evasive Bobby, but with his teammates dispatched, and Drago being able to focus all of his attention on the manipulator, he would not last long.  His Eagle Eye was able to track the form as he moved, but he would not be able to dodge the incoming combo, which costed him yet another trial as his form dissipated, almost as if reverting, before he reappeared behind Drago, launching a gun but to the back of his head, spinning to deliver another strike before unleashing the charged payload of his guns.

Even with all of his effort however, he would only be able to dodge the initial counterstrike of Drago, being caught by the second, third and fourth energy projected slashes, leaving him near reversion as well.  Powering down, Alexander Drago would leave the battle field before dispatching his employees to attend to his victims.

Outcome: The three have been dispatched but have proven to be useful in the tests, they have been awarded 20000$ for their troubles.

Bobby: 86 Exp (-275HP)

Jinzo: 72 Exp (-475HP)

Awareness: 16 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 20 Exp

Accuracy: 16 Exp

Precision: 12 Exp

Precision: 12 Exp

Seig: 62 Exp (-445HP)

Awareness: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Advent of the Apocalypse: Rei Selen, Gladiator Quest. (10/10/2401)

With Xian’s Soul Calibur energy now saturating the ethereal atmosphere at the facility that housed the Gladiator quest, Rei Selen found it exceedingly difficult to implement actual stealth. The problem didn’t come so much in adjusting her form to make her Spectral Transparence work, it came in the fact that this energy seemed to have a weak trace of the virus running through it, making her particular brand of stealth extremely risky. And with Rei unable to stealth, her presence simply could not go unnoticed, alerting the ten beings that Xian had unwittingly powered up to seek out their newest ethereal meal.

Realising that the viral ability of assimilation could be utilised to copy the effect of complex channelling actions, these creatures now saw every new channeler that entered the facility as a new chance for evolution. Luckily, these creatures possessed absolutely no stealth and their ridiculously powerful energy signatures did well to alert Rei to their presence. Rei sighed now, only having been inside of the facility for long enough to locate and engage a single desired target, which quickly found itself swallowed up by the encroaching doom. Rei jumped back as the creatures charged towards her now, failing to get out of their range, and now being forced to use her Lunaria Blast to dissipate their momentum. Unfortunately, her energy was no where near high enough and she still found herself blasted away by the impact. Luckily, she was able to dissipate the kinetic energy and land gracefully on a nearby branch while she planned her battle strategy. From the speed of the creatures, should could tell that outrunning them was simply not possible, and stealth was not an option, she sighed wondering what else could possible go wrong. As if on cue, she then realised that the “pull” that the creatures generated when they encountered Xian’s Soul Calibur had returned, and in full effect, now drawing her energy out of her body and into them.

It would only be a matter of time before her reversion, and before the Maverick now possessed Rei Selen’s abililies.

Outcome:  Quest remains incomplete

Rei: 40 Exp (reverted)

Awareness: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

The Grim Adventures: Donovan, Ruins Busting Quest. (23/10/2401)

Donovan was continuing his research on ethereal encryption, and then specifically magical encryption on his way to Egypt as he prepared to make the first attempt at the Ruins Busting quest. As Donovan made his way to the general vicinity of the facility, he made sure to keep an eye out for any possible defensive features, in an attempt to avoid direct contact with the defensive system, a task which he now utilised his automa companion Mindy to aid in. Unfortunately, much like the facility in South Africa, the full extent of the defensive systems functions could not be sensed by such low level channelers. A brief flash of light, flickered before Mandy registered a number of seemingly erroneous readings. Before Donovan’s superior processing system could figure out what had happened, the area warped violently, almost as if space it self had exploded.

Donovan skated to a stop some distance away, as chunks of Mindy found themselves thrown in his general direction. Donovan’s eyes widened as he made his way to his feet, taking a few steps back, just for good measure before actually summoning Rutaedes and commencing his actual tests. Without Mindy’s assistance, his scans would be somewhat less effective, but Donovan deduced that he should at least have the ability to gain useful information on the facility. With this in mind, he began the production of his first two doppelgangers, two serpentine drones which he would send forward in his stead. A brief practice session ended successfully, and within seconds Donovan was sending his serpents towards the facility. Unfortunately, his dopples would suffer the same fate that he would, suffering from the odd spatial explosion, which had knocked him back. Donovan sighed now, trying again, this time focussing his energy on masking their ethereal signatures, stealthing them against whatever it was the was detecting them. Unfortunately, even with his stealth, the facility still seemed to be able to pick up his doppelgangers, and each time they were met with the spatial explosion that seemed to be the primary mode of attack for this defensive system.

Donovan sighed, realising that he would need to go back to the drawing board for this, if he planned to actually complete the quest. He would need to quickly collect Mindy’s parts and try again at another time.

Outcome:  Donovan realised that he managed to collect all of the parts that comprised Mindy.  Though fragmented the parts where not otherwise damaged.  Quest remains incomplete

Donovan: 56 Exp (-532HP)

Awareness: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 0 Exp

Precision: 16 Exp