Testing Parameters: Roun and Hyaku have an impromptu duel

The wind moved with a sense of urgency this day, rushing across the developed expanses that made up the residential areas of the small island of Barbados. Making their way through these same districts were the Itami brothers, who in their curiosity, had decided to look into the business of this self proclaimed ‘martial arts god’ that they were hearing so much about.
Their attentions would be somewhat diverted however as the purr of a light engine disturbed the calm of their surroundings. Ryuu, the larger and younger of the twin, didn’t bother to turn towards the noise, but Roun, the more paranoid of the two, couldn’t help but turn his attention to it. As he looked, his ethereal signature piqued slightly, as he used his Cognisance to analyse the incoming vehicle.
“Hey Ryuu, looks like we may have company, look sharp.” Roun informed his brother, uncapping himself and allowing his natural energy to flow through his form, powering up his permanent attributes to their minimum outputs.

“Sited.” Was all Ryuu replied, only powering up his defensive techniques.
By this time, the vehicle, which they now identified as a Betchnar CV had closed the distance between them and it, slowing to a halt to allow its single passenger to exit before pulling off.
As the vehicle departed from the area, the insignia marked on the rear didn’t manage to elude the two young channelers, who both recognised it as the faction insignia for the Rogue Special Forces. This caused an uncomfortable, unspoken exchange between the two, who just looked at each other briefly before their pursuer addressed them.

“Don’t worry; I’m not here to arrest either of you.” The young man said, moving a stray lock of hair from his face before taking off a pair of sunglasses and placing them gently in his pocket.

Roun’s eyebrow pique at this. “So why are you here?” he inquired casually, checking his watch to ensure that he didn’t waste too much time with this exchange.

“Well truthfully I was on an errand, but that’s irrelevant. In a casual sweep of the area, my TARGA identified the similarities between your bio-ethereal data and that of a channeler we have on file… are you Roun Itami?” Hyaku inquired.

“That’s me, but what is it to you?” Roun now replied quite quizzically.

“Good, then we duel. I just want to see why the Rogues are so interested in you.”

“But I have a… actually, what’s really happening right now is that…” Roun stammered, as Hyaku took off his jacket and rested it on a low hanging branch of a nearby tree. “…argh…Just make this quick.” Roun finished, accepting the futility of his flimsy excuses.

“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Hyaku replied smugly, fixing the two black gloves that he had just pulled from his back pocket.

Roun sighed lightly, looking down at his hands, before he clenched his fists, powering up his form to full and allowing the energy to swirl around him. Hyaku just smirked smugly, also releasing his energy, encasing his body in a full metallic armour before rushing at Roun.

Luckily for Roun, his opponent wasn’t as fast as he was, and in fact with the modification of his Kinetic Wrath, Roun found that he was almost twice as fast as young Hyaku. As the junior Rogue officer closed the distance between himself and Roun, he summoned his Crescent Wave Nodachi, launching off a horizontal slash as he came upon his target’s location. The length of the sword made evasion quite interesting, as Roun simply leaned back, allowing the slash to pass mere inches above his body before kicking up his foot and knocking the weapon out of Hyaku’s hand. As the blade sailed into the air, Roun completely the backward handspring, landing to catch a glimpse of a blue attack racing towards him. Roun smirked arrogantly, summoning a fist full of Veranos, a raging green flame, which he hurled towards the attack. The look on the young channeler’s face was priceless however, when the blue flames racing towards him engulfed the green energy and continued on its path, hitting him in the chest and sending him stumbling backwards. Roun coughed and stumbled back as Hyaku braced himself and hurled his fist forward, his body trailing behind the speedy attack. As he zipped forward, his blade descended into his path, simply dissipating as he burst through it, heading straight for Roun. Roun growled to himself, erecting a pinpoint barrier at the focal point of the attack, stopping Hyaku’s initial momentum, before deflecting the exploding wake of energy Hyaku released at varying angles away from his body. Before he could react however, Hyaku felt an impact on his stomach. However, his eyes only registered the attack sometime after the initial impact, showing a glowing outline of his opponent in the final faze of the attack then a number of after images performing the stepping lunge punch which actually hit him. The images poured into the outline, like water filling a glass, and once they were finished and Roun’s form was visible to Hyaku, he could feel himself flying through the air. Hyaku growled as he mentally recalibrated TARGA, preventing it from overriding his sensory input like that, before bringing himself to a halt with his phase shift boots.

Roun’s follow up punch would be deflected to the side by Hyaku’s Energz Gauntlet, the blue haze nullifying the green flame on Roun’s arm as he was guided toward the ground next to Hyaku. The deflection left Roun somewhat unstable, allowing Hyaku to resummon his nodachi, but by the time he could slash, Roun had broken into a sprint again, and the attack hit nothing but air. Hyaku growled lightly, redirecting energy to TARGA, plotting Roun’s next position and phasing to the location with an instant slash. For Roun however, time slowed to a crawl as Hyaku’s phase shift boots whirred then blasted the unique to his location. As Roun moved, his kinetic energy converted his form to kinex, his personal energy type, allowing him to gain further speed, until his body was fully energised. In his near transphasic state, Roun dodged the slash, jumping and laying his body out horizontally in the air as he sailed over the blade, to deliver two kicks in the form of a dragon-tail to Hyaku. Roun landed, and went for a hook kick, but it was his chance to hit nothing but an afterimage of Hyaku as he phase-shifted away.

Roun prepared for the incoming Energz wave, this time engulfing his first in V-2, his upgraded veranos, and cleaving Hyaku’s attack down the centre with a straight punch. Hyaku simply smirked.
Hyaku watched as Roun palm struck the ground, pulling back up with him a large slab of earth. Hyaku raised an eyebrow as the young channeler caused the mass to swirl, before enclosing it on himself. As the earth contacted his form, it began to close, bathing the area in light before the technique was complete. Roun flexed in his new armour, before engaging his spectral shift as vanishing from the area, while Hyaku, at the same time, run his Mesatsu algorithm through his nodachi and delivered a calculating slash.

As Roun reappeared behind Hyaku, he looked at his fist, in which he clenched Hyaku’s energies. The energies which he had just torn from the channeler’s body. Roun smirked and snapped his fist shut, dissipating the energy and causing Hyaku to revert, much to the Rogue’s surprise. Mere seconds after, Roun’s own energy dissipated, his form glitching from the damage he had taking from Hyaku’s Mesatsu covered slash.

Roun: +35 Exp (-156HP)

Awareness: 3 Exp

Technical: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Tactics: 4 Exp

Precision: 5 Exp

Control: 3 Exp

Hyaku: +35 Exp (-165 HP) Soft reverted (1 day)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Technical: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Tactics: 10 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

Control: 5 Exp

I came, I saw, I dueled: Shoga has an impromptu duel with Serai

 Shoga had his intended opponent in his sight, Leonardo Benjamin, the channeler known as Serai. Shoga moved into range, 40 feet or so before powering up startling Serai and those around him, however before anyone could do anything rash, Shoga hailed the now powered up Serai.

"Hey!" Shoga shouted, "Sorry about the surprise, but checking the roster I saw that you are a channeler in the area and I have some stuff I want to try out, mind if we duel a lil bit?" Serai thought about the last few battles he had been in, he had been substantially damaged in each, however he did learn quite a bit and felt that this would be a learning experience like just like the rest, hopefully without such great damage.

"Ok your on!" he replied and began to activate his armaments. Meric smiled wasting no time in summoning Naiad and Grace, and using his Air Calypso to move towards Serai. Whose AI calculated dodging to be in his best interest as Shoga unleashed a wave of wind slashes from his halo scythe. Shoga was fast but Serai was faster and the slashes missed, however Naiad and Grace launched their own attacks at Serai prompting him to teleport to avoid the sequential attacks.

"Pretty smart for summons," Serai thought as Shoga ripped toward him, running through the air the wind ripping violently around him, Grace and Naiad lent tactical support to bombard Serai. Serai, realised he had to shift to the offensive and he teleported around rapidly before warping up to Shoga with his chain and sword whip seperated, landing a two hit combo with his superior speed, Shoga defending the rest, before Serai warped twice to add more volatile gasses to the atmosphere, which Shoga had been blowing away with grace and his wind attacks from the Halo Scythe. Even as Shoga reeled from the poisonous attack, which his Immunity was working out of his system, he used a burst from air calypso and  combining WaterMoon Aura with RedMoon Party which were also being boosted by his ability modifiers, to land a series of hits on Serai who had simultaneously activated kamikaze lit by his soul call energy.

After the dust settled, Serai stood gasping as Shoga yielded, what he had wanted to test having been done. The two players congratulated each other on a good fight and parted ways, each reflecting on the battle.

Leonardo: +19 Exp (-158HP)

Awareness: 1 Exp

Technical: 0 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Tactics:5 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

Control: 7 Exp

Shoga: +24 Exp (-120HP)

Awareness: 1 Exp

Technical: 0 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Tactics: 12 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

Control: 5 Exp

Combat Researcher: Hyaku challenges Ryuu

 Hyaku having just finished his Rogue exam and becoming an official channeler on their roster plus gaining a level, discovered that life on the other side of the fence was quite boring. There simply wasn't that much to do around Rogue H.Q. leaving Hyaku with quite a lot of time on his hands for thinking, and he had quite a bit of things to think about. One of which was the list of channelers maintained by the rogues. He was on it as well as Roun Itami, having seen first hand what another person on the list could do, he was curious to find out more. This was why he was in Romania seeking the Itamis once more. This wasn't hard to do with his Rogue connections and he soon caught up to them.

"You again?" Roun asked, "didn't our duel answer whatever questions you had?"

"I'm not here to fight you Roun," Hyaku replied rather coldly, "I'm here to fight your brother"

"What could the Po-Po want with me?" Ryuu asked, looking up and down Hyaku's new Rogue uniform which replaced the leather jacket and jeans look. "This isn't an official visit, just a fight, you don't mind do you?" Hyaku said pulling on his gloves and powering up his armour, which soon activated and changed as they watched now black with a green circuit board design across the unreinforced section.

"Upgrade, Yagami?" Roun asked as Ryuu sighed and powered up realising Hyaku really wasn't going to take no for an answer. Roun leapt back as Hyaku cast him a smirking glance before leaping into battle. Hyaku opened with a simple double palm and sweep combo, which Ryuu blocked almost stiffling a yawn, before attempting to counter, Hyaku found himself stopped momentarily by Ryuu's Parry, however Ryuu soon discovered that moving around Hyaku was more difficult than normal. However he wasn't too bothered slamming his fist into the ground which sent of a wave of energy at Hyaku, who hopped back before phasing through it and executing a wide knfe hand chop, a bluish wave of energy flew off from the attack, easily stopped cold by Ryuu.

Both fighters eyed each other for a while before renewing the attack with more vigour, Hyaku dashed in, Roun's eyebrow raised slightly from the sidelines as he noted the increase in speed, as Hyaku barraged Ryuu with energy coated attacks, which Ryuu was busy trying to parry, before Hyaku landed an especially quick punch, his speed increase with the new level lending him the upper hand, even though it was one attack it did noteable damage to Ryuu, forcing him to stop playing activating his Rock, he combined it with Parry to stop Hyaku cold, surprising the momentarily motionless channeler with a spike of earth courtesy of his psycho mold, catching Hyaku before he could be knocked away he slammed him into the ground, breaking the earth spike with Hyaku before punching at the player, Hyaku rolled then shifted, away from the attack, skidding to a halt he summoned a sphere of Energz to his fist charged his phase shift boots and dashed at top speed toward Ryuu, the attack exceeding 4 digits of damage easily stopped cold by Ryuu, who now had a large smirk on his face.

"This is real power!" he said coding veranos v2 before Ryuu stamped on the ground a wave of energy rushing toward Hyaku that  was detonated with the veranos charge, as a massive front of energy rushing toward Hyaku he phased backward and curled into a ball a sphere of  messatsu energy surrounding him to shield the attack.

Hyaku and Ryuu both stood staring at each other in their own custom made crater after the attack while steam wafted in the air, both appreciating the destructive exhibited by the other more so on Hyaku's part who actually had a read out on the amount from his scanners. Hyaku's eyes lost their glow as he turned off code vision and his scanners, and began powering down armaments prompting Ryuu to do the same. Hyaku looked displeased as he walked up to Ryuu, "Thanks for the battle, its given me some useful info and insight into this 'list' " Hyaku said as he turned to walk away,  Ryuu checking the 'scratches'  done to his form as the Rogue officer left.

Ryuu: +31 Exp (-184HP)

Awareness: 2 Exp

Technical: 0 Exp

Accuracy:9 Exp

Tactics: 7 Exp

Precision: 3Exp

Control: 10 Exp

Hyaku: +27 Exp (-175HP)

Awareness: 2 Exp

Technical: 1 Exp

Accuracy: 5 Exp

Tactics: 8 Exp

Precision: 1 Exp

Control: 10 Exp

Mad Micro: Cy duels Jais

Cy was quite pleased with himself after having made that little phone call, causing him to laugh deviously to himself as he made his way towards the location that he and Jais had decided on for the duel.  He found Jais waiting patiently at the area.

“Tardiness is not a desireable quality in a business partner.”  Jais opened, drawing a shrug from Cy.

“You can’t be in that much of a hurry to be reverted, so just relax.  Plus, you’ll be happy to know that I just made the call.”  He smirked, drawing some laughter from Jais.

“I see, well then, we should probably get started then shouldn’t we… don’t want to miss the fireworks.”  Cy simply nodded, grabbing his bag of shurikens and tossing them into the air.

As the bag reached its peak, it tore open, drawing Jais’ attention upwards as Cy dashed in, fused with wind for added speed.  Jais wasted no time moving forward as well, dodging and weaving in a zigzag pattern as he moved towards his opponent.  Cy was moving rather quickly however, having fused with wind, making his way to his opponent before he fused with the earth and erupted with an attack from the back of his opponent.  Jais managed to dodge the attack, before he was forced to use his molecular control to disperse himself, avoiding the rain of shuriken before he reformed some distance away.  Cy smirked now, projecting his force as short lived attacks from his palms, forcing Jais to dodge as he now attempted to move towards his opponent again.  Knowing Cy’s reliance on his shurikens, Jais thought it a good idea to deplete his supply of shuriken, sucking them up as he moved towards his opponent, utilising their energy to boost his own stats.  Jais would be surprised however when he felt the effects of Demi and Burnout shooting through his form, exploding his energy as his techniques now powered up to full, temporarily stunning his form as he tried to avoid soft reversion.  Cy smirked now, dragging a number of shuriken from all over the battlefield using his Micro, taking his opponent well beneath half of his maximum integrity, before the remaining burnout and demi made quick work of his form, soft reverting.

“Heh.”  Cy smirked, as he moved over to his unconscious business partner.  “You got a long way to go.”

Cy: +46 Exp + 10 Exp (perfect bonus)

Awareness: 5 Exp

Awareness: 5 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 3 Exp

Precision: 6 Exp

Precision: 6 Exp

The Best Offense is a Good Offense: Cy duels John

Just waiting all the time was getting John a bit fidgety, and unlike the others, he couldn’t just sit still and do nothing about it, he needed to hit something, and he needed to hit it hard.  Out of the team, he figured that the two most likely to entertain him in a pointless duel would be Cy and Jais, as SABER seemed a bit too uptight to risk damaging their forms in the light of a potential attack, especially given their encounter with the Itamis just a few days prior.  Out of Cy and Jais, he and Cy knew each other better, so he seemed like the most logical choice, and so he was.

The conditions of the duel were agreed on, and in no time, the two were squaring off in front of the Kurudo.

At the start of the battle, Cy engaged his tactical armaments, powering up Fatal Attraction and Micro while John went on the offensive, powering up his form and launching off a number of projectiles, using his Kinetic Flash, at Cy.  As the energy flew off, it found itself attracted away from Cy, exploding harmlessly.  Luckily, doing damage was not part of John’s primary plan.  The blinding flash of light was enough to throw off Cy’s vision, forcing him to use True Sight to filter out the light spectrum when tracking his opponent.  John then quickly teleported, attempting to slam into Cy, but his Third Eye technique made dodging the attack all too easy.  As he ended his dash, Cy launched a number of Shuriken at him, encircling his form as he Dynamic Guarded most of the attacks that would have damaged him.  Next, Cy wasted no time in fusing with electricity and zipping around his opponent, forcing him to guard once again.  His Perfect guard kicked in initially, allowing him to escape Cy’s initial damage, but the barrier slowly faded, forcing him to rely on the more constant effects of Dynamic Guard and his own Defensive Techniques to avoid damage.  But with the speed and power at which Cy was attacking, even this plan would not work for too long, his life slowly dwindling as he stayed on the defensive.  His Inertia Vector and Gnome Guard were doing their best to slow Cy and protect him from damage but, but he would need to come up with something quickly.  Lacking a great deal of offensive abilities, and being unable to hit Cy when he was moving at the speed of electricity, John expanded his Kinetic Flash as a last ditch attempt to stop the relentless attacks.  The electromagnetic properties of the attack did knock Cy out of his attack, but John knew that it would not stop him from doing it again, and so he conceded.  Cy nodded and proceeded back into the Kurudo to await the completion of their mission.

Cy: +42 Exp + 10 Exp (perfect bonus)

Awareness: 5 Exp

Awareness: 5 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 1 Exp

Precision: 6 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

The Trials of Education: Davius and Juggerknot ambush Epsalon and Tifa.

With things slowing to a crawl with regards to the activity on the network, Davius and Juggerknot were looking to liven things up a bit, choosing two targets that would be relatively ‘easy’ to dispatch to get the ball rolling.  Their targets, hadn’t been particularly active either, which made it even easier to catch them off guard.

Upon locating the two, Davius engaged his stealth capabilities using his Structural Reform, cloaking himself and the Juggerknot before commencing their attacks.

Given the Juggerknot’s need to build up momentum before he could maintain a decent speed, the two opted to begin their attack outside of their targets’ estimated sensory range, allowing the Juggerknot to Hulk Jump into the air towards his targets while Davius dashed in.

With Davius maintaining his stealth, he wasn’t easily detected, but Juggerknot’s position was given away quite quickly, causing both channelers to power up and switch on their defensive abilities.  Tifa moved close to Epsalon as he now powered up his Black Hole, a technique that caused a number of Davius’ abilities to glitch as he came within range.  His stealth quickly destabilised, shunting him from his dimensional bubble into the real world, and leaving him rather vulnerable.  Luckily, neither would have time to capitalise on this as Juggerknot descended and smashed into the earth.

Juggerknot’s Invincibility quickly countered the effects of Epsalon’s Black Hole, forcing he and Tifa to teleport away, leaving Tifa’s Jedensu Storm for the two to contend with.  The energy storm attack did minimal damage to the Juggerknot, who now found himself fending off a number of copy images of Tifa, however with his armaments now returning to normal, Davius was unable to guard the initial attack, leaving him vulnerable to the attack before he expanded his Divination to nullify the attack and stealthed again.

Given their defense, Juggerknot’s summoned ninja bike had been destabilised in the landing, but this was no real set back as he quickly resummoned one, allowing them to move in again.  Juggerknot engaged Epsalon, who’s Black Hole was useless against him, while Dark, now able to maintain his stealth with Epsalon’s Black Hole neutralised, engaged Tifa.  His initial attack however, was still dodged, as Tifa maintained her Assassin Stance, countering with her Genocide Blades before Davius spun and clipped her with his Shattered Dreams.  The destabilising effects of the attack easily stunned her.

“Feel the wrath…” Davius opened, as he spun, reappearing behind her to end the battle with a charged Divination blast.  “Of this Superior being… and you burn in hell.”

On the other side, Juggerknot was having far less luck.  Having managed to score an attack with his summoned bike, he still found that Epsalon was far too manoeuvrable for him to hit, and the young Manipulators chip damage was starting to add up, especially as he learned that if he concentrated his Black Hole, it could have the same effect on Juggerknot’s defense as Juggs seemed to be having on his technique.  This allowed him to nullify the monster’s invulnerability, but also left him unable to use his most powerful attack.  Luckily, his Light modifier proved to be an acceptable substitute as he teleported around and zapped his opponent.  But this would only last until Davius finished Tifa, allowing Davius to stun him with his Zanryuken.

“Learn!!!” Would sound loudly from the Juggerknot as he slapped his stunned opponent into the ground and began to pound on him, uttering similar sentiments.  With the Juggerknot’s strength overwhelming him, and cancelling his ability to warp at close range, a luminous explosion would be Demetri’s last ditch chance at survival.  Unfortunately, it would fail and he would find himself reverted, much like his partner Tifa.  Noting this, the two stood and looked at each other.

“So...Cuz! Mummy jus dun bake pizza, wa gine happen?” Juggerknot inquired, looking to Dark.

“About that, as there isn’t anything to do anymore, we could as well...its not candy but it'll do.”  Davius replied casually as the two left the area.

Davius: 34 Exp (-109HP)

Awareness: 4 Exp

Awareness: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 6 Exp

Epsalon: 34 Exp (reverted)

Awareness: 8 Exp

Awareness: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

The Scales and the Dragon: Rei ambushes Xess

Rei’s inability to travel, due to lack of funds made her choice of actions quite limited, but even so, her ambush on Xess was quite calculated.  The young martial artist hadn’t been doing much with his time either, having missed his opportunity to attempt one of the native quests by just a few days, and since then taking to just relaxing in the more residential areas of the country.

Her ambush on the channeler took place outside of a small housing development that Xess was travelling through on is morning jog.  Her energy spike, which was near undetectable at first, allowed her to get rather close to the channeler before he became aware of her presence and by then it was too late.  He spun just in time to power up and guard, a stepping palm thrust as she released a wave of energy.  His deflection allowed him to shave off about half of the damage done by the attack, but the remaining force still left him slightly off balanced.  Xess wasted no time and returning with a counter attack, stopping his backwards stumble with his trailing leg before shifting his weight onto his lead leg and throwing a powerful round house.  The wind off of the kick blew Rei’s hair as she used her Mercury Solea to clear the range of his attack.  Xess wasted no time following up the attack however, dashing towards her and launching a jumping double kick towards her.  The leading kick was once again easily dodged, but Rei found herself unable to completely evade follow up attackm forcing her to release a burst of cold energy from her Hexadecimal Algorythm to throw Xess off.  As both attacks connected, Rei found herself being thrown back slightly, forcing her to compensate with her Solea to obtain a decent landing, while Xess just got blown back, hitting the ground and breakfalling before springing backwards to his feet.

Noting that their speed and defense were almost even, Xess realised that he would have to up the ante a bit, engaging Wings for the added speed before charging Rei once again.  Her WhiteAir Stars were easily dodged as he moved towards her, switching his force back to Popeye’s Spinach before sliding in with a reverse punch.  His attack was grossly telegraphed however, allowing Rei to dodge it, though his speed did make her dodge quite sloppy, allowing him to get her where he wanted.  As she jumped away, he re-engaged Wings and spung after her, attempting to catch her in the air or soon after her descent.  However, Rei was having little of this, noting his plan, albeit too late, she quickly whipped out her Beam Pistol, firing off a number of blasts at him in the air.  Her initial shot did nothing against Xess’ Deflection, but as she charged it with her own energy she realised that she was actually able to damage him.  Of course, Xess also noticed this, deactivating his Activation Techniques and focusing all of his Force into his Armour of Thor, leaving him once again immune to her attacks.

As she landed, so did he, grabbing her by the face and planting her in the ground.  As Xess grabbed her, Rei quickly noticed that he own defences were beginning to do damage to her form, and as she tried to fight him off, her offensive weapons seemed to be FAILing on her.  This left her with little choice.  Using her Solea and her own limited strength, she managed to pry Xess up slightly and utilising her speed, thrust from his grasp.  At this point she wasted no time in clearing the area, she would consider her experiment a success.

Outcome: Rei has learned that he does not externalise energy.

Rei: +37 Exp (healed)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

A Narrow Escape: Kenshin ambushes Xess

Kenshin seemed to be having problems coordinating his actions as of late, finding that he had to cancel a myriad of his plans due to either timing problems or location issues.  This left him rather pleased to find Xess in the location that he thought he would be in, making him the prime target for an ambush.

Unfortunately, after the previous attack, Xess was a bit more paranoid than he was making it harder for Kenshin to sneak up on him.  Using his EXE Scanners to identify his opponent, Kenshi started his attack from the outside of his sensory range, charging his attacks before he moved any closer.

His stealth was adequate for him to go undetected as he moved close to his opponent, allowing him to decloak just feet away from him and land a slash from Tsurugi while a dimensional field spread out around Xess to trap him.  Fortunately, the fully charged slash from Tsuguri, did quite a bit of damage to Xess’ form, forcing him to instinctively activate Popeye’s Spinach, connecting with Kenshin before she unleashed a barrage from his Penetrating Fists.  The powerful attacks easily punched through the dimensional field, connecting with his opponent, stunning Kenshin before he exploded off the combo, his form glitching.

In that short space of time, both channelers found their forms reduced way below half damage, forcing Kenshin to attempt an escape.  Unfortunately, Xess was faster than him in everyway, forcing him to shift his attention now to a defensive strategy.  This plan was only further compromised when Xess’ FAIL and AIDS modifiers kicked in, causing his form to glitch out and backfire on him.  The resulting detonation blasted Xess away, leaving him teetering on the brink of revertion, but Kenshin would not be so lucky.

Kenshin: +46 Exp (reverted)

Awareness: 4 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Sneaky sneaky: Bobby duels Jinzo.

With Seig and Paco busy doing research, Jinzo and Bobby were beginning to get really bored really quickly.  The team had previously scheduled a duel, but with their hectic schedule, that proved to be quite difficult.  However, their current situation more than allowed them a little duel time.  After agreeing to the stipulation of no more than 3 days damage, the two started the duel.

Bobby’s automatic instinct was to quickly get out of the range of Jinzo’s voice, to avoid the influence of his Voice of Reason and his Persuasion, but it seemed as if Jinzo had already planned for that.  Given the distance at which they started the duel, this made it more than easy for Jinzo to summon his guardians behind Bobby, cutting him off as he turned to make his way out of range.

As Bobby turned, a quick slash from Grand Viper impacted his form, sending him stumbling back before his Fluid Motion kicked in, allowing him to dodge follow up slashes.  His Eagle Eye also made a number of lock-on on the summon, forcing Bobby to wait only for his guns to summon.  As his weapon materialised, Dead Defiant also moved in, grappling Bobby before Grand Viper made another round of attacks.  Another slash connected as Bobby’s Shrieking Winds summoned into existence and began to charge.  The resulting energy sphere quickly dissipated Dead Defiant before Bobby released the energy on Grand Viper, dissipating that summon as well, before Bobby moved further away.

Jinzo smiled now as he summoned his Succubi to hurl projectiles at Bobby, who began to dodge around as he waited for his trump card to reach it’s full charge.  In the mean time, he dissipated his Shrieking Winds and summoned his Frost Wolves to return fire.  With Jinzo’s power split between his summons, he quickly found that Dead Defiant’s energy would not be enough to shield him from Bobby’s attacks, which pierced their armours and impacted Jinzo’s forms.  This, in addition to Bobby’s ability to dodge most of Jinzo’s attacks meant that Jinzo would need to close the grap between them if he was going to win the battle.  Jinzo wasted no time in hopping onto Grand Viper, as he attempted to close the distance, but he would not have the chance.  As he proceeded towards his opponent, the heavens opened up and a beam bore down on him, dissipating his summons and drilling him into the floor leaving him quite stunned.

Judging by the damage that Jinzo had taken, Bobby called the end of the battle, making his way over to his team-mate to make sure he was okay.  Jinzo just laid in the crated, his form glitching, and cursed at his opponent’s sneak attack.

Bobby: +46 Exp (-95HP)

Awareness: 4 Exp

Awareness: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 16 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

A challenger Appears: Davius and Juggerknot are ambushed by Leonardo.

Leonardo, who now fancied calling himself Sun Leo after the Martial Arts genius Sun Lee had decided to train him, decided to test himself against Davius and his crew.  The young Manipulator had planned for three opponents this day, but instead met up with two, finding only Davius and the Juggerknot.  Also working to his favour was the fact this his opponents had taken quite a bit of damage from their actions just days before.  Unfortunately however, his opponents still out numbered him two to one, and that would be a very important factor in the battle.

Leonardo was never much for stealth, as he dashed into the battle at full speed, not bothering too much to mask his entrance.  The Juggerknot, being the member of the party with the greater sensory range, sensed Leonardo first, giving him and Davius about 5 seconds before the child reached their location.  Davius wasted no time engaging his stealth systems, while the Juggerknot powered up as well.

Leonardo noticed as Davius vanished, noting that he actually could not sense the channeler while stealthed, just as he had predicted, but if all went as planned, that would not be a problem.  Davius’ Zanryuken impacted Leonardo’s form before he could get off his charged attack, causing the young Manipulator to lose control of his body, before the Juggerknot tossed a tank at him.  Unfortunately for the two, Leonardo would not need control over his body for the next phase of his plan.  Teleporting near the Juggerknot’s location, he released his fully charged Soul Rush, mixing it with the Dragon’s Explosion that he had learned from his sensei, igniting the area in flamed.  As the Dragon Explosion erupted from his body, his removed the status ailment from his body, just as it had worked for Sun Lee against Leonardo’s dangerous Soul Call energy, while the rest of the explosion spread through the juggle igniting everything.  The Juggerknot found that the flames even seemed to affect him through his nigh impervious defense, while Davius learned quickly why Leonardo was unphased by his stealth.  Davius’ stealth techniques shared a single trait with all ethereal techniques, in that they not only required ether to function, but they affected the latent ether and was therefore connected to it in some way.  For Leonardo, this meant one thing and one thing only, that it would be burned with his Soul Call.  Quickly realised that the horizon of his stealth field was being burned do to it’s contact with external ether in the area, which was also burning, leaving him two choices; to deactivate the technique returning to normal or to keep it up and hope to revert Leonardo quickly.  Davius chose the latter, as returning to normal would almost garauntee his reversion.

The Juggerknot on the other hand, who was unable to escape the burning fury of the attack was forced to attack his opponent, in an attempt to revert him before the burning energy consumed him totally.  This proved difficult however given his opponent’s speed and ability to teleport, especially since any energy that he outputted seemed to simply fuel the burning effect of the Soul Call, leaving him with two distinct advantages.  His first problem was that the more energy he expended, the faster he burned, but what was more frustrating was that the Soul Call devoured all of his projectile attacks before they could be effective against his opponent.

By now, Leonardo had began to notice that Davius’ stealth was fading, it would only be seconds now before he would be able to get a clear shot at the manipulator, who’s stealth seemed to double as a barrier.  Unfortunately, Davius would not simply wait to be disposed of.  Charging his energy, Davius released a powerful beam of energy, which cut through Leonardo’s Soul Call, only impacting the thin layer of energy that covered his body, knocking him out of the air and onto the ground as Davius warped to another location. 

The channeler’s warp seemed to slow the effects of the Soul Call, giving him another few seconds at best, but his attack did stun Leonardo.  This gave the Juggerknot, whose health was quickly dwindling a chance to finish his opponent. Hulk jumping and drawing his Len, he descended, using his Slip Stream to close the distance between his target and himself as quickly as possible.  However, his attack would be countered as Leonardo came back to his senses, exploding all of the energy in his personal space with Soul Call and Dragon explosion.  The Juggerknot’s form seemed to be washed away in the tide of burning energy as he reverted, but the exploding wave front left a wake of regular ether behind it, which Davius could channel his attacks through.  A final blast of Benediction finished the young channeler, causing his flames to dissipate.  A charred Davius emerged from smoking wreckage to observe his attacker, scoffing loudly to see that it was a mere child that posed such a threat to him.

Davius: 38 Exp (-209HP)

Awareness: 4 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Leonardo: 52 Exp (reverted)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

RTF Indeed: Cy and Doom squad ambush Paco, Yasmin and Kenshin escape the horror.

Cy was in no way pleased by the actions of Yasmin and her accomplices, as they genuinely did jeopardise the plans that both he and the Demai had made with regard to Drago enterprises.  Fortunately, he had kept his head on about the entire matter, and called in back up to help him deal with the situation.  Tiana was neither inclined nor did she actually have the time to help him deal with the situation, and Jayce was as indifferent as ever, forcing him to rely on more accessible resources.

Cy had contacted a number of channelers that he had been observing over the networks, in particular Rei Selen, a young woman that he had contracted for her stealth and retrieval services.  In addition to Rei, he had also contacted Rueben and by proxy Rayne and Ryuu.

Ryuu was overly mused by the entire situation, having been indirectly involved in the incident that had lead to Cy being jacked as he considered it, deciding to tag along with his older brothers just as he had did with Yasmin and her team to make sure everything stayed fair.  Rayne’s condescendence of Ryuu’s actions had little effect on his younger brother, who had little interests in his twisted morality, whereas Rueben’s plans didn’t sit entirely well with the youngster either, as Ryuu preferred more channelling battles than two on one ambushes.

On the other side, Yasmin and Kenshin were waiting patiently for Paco’s arrival, having left Easter Island some time before the Manipulator, who opted to stay behind to discuss some things with Amanda Real before he met up with the two.  The fact that the two channelers were waiting outside of the Drago Enterprises main building put a serious kink in Cy’s plans, as that was a City class area, and they were prohibited from powering up, making Rei’s part of the plan near impossible.  This left Paco as their only viable target, as they quickly learned that half of the channelers that they had prepared to battle would not be present in Italy.

“Hold on hold on, you mean our forty-two on six ambush is not like a ninety-three on one ambush?”  Ryuu sighed, noting a trend in accompanying groups to do ambushes.  “The experience isn’t even worth the energy that we expended to fly here… that fails.”  He went on, drawing loud sighs from Rueben and Rayne as Cy laughed loudly.

Paco had succeeded in setting up his little secretarial contract with Amanda, and was rather happy with the way things were going as he made his way to Drago Enterprises via the hyper rail.  This didn’t give the team much of a chance to intercept him, and infact, they were forced to catch him on the outskirts of the city.  The resulting dog pile in their user forms was enough subdue the channelers before they dragged him a few meters to the edge of the null area where they could revert him.  Paco wasted no time in releasing a powerful Cronos wave that ignited his opponents, but it would be too little to revert the seven channelers that combined their powers to revert him.

“That was even sadder than Yasmin’s ambush…” Ryuu sighed and shook his head, noting that yet again he had showed up for nothing.  “You know what, Cy fails just as much as Paco…”  Was all he said before the others relinquished custody of Paco to the Demai, giving Kyo a bargaining chip against Yasmin.

Outcome: Cy has Paco, Yasmin has the Enhancer and the Information.

Cy: +16 Exp (-95HP)

Jais: +16 Exp (-95HP)

Awareness: 2 Exp

Awareness: 2 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

John: +16 Exp (-95HP)

Alyssa: +16 Exp (-95HP)

Awareness: 2 Exp

Awareness: 2 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

Rayne: +16 Exp (-95HP)

Rueben: +16 Exp (-95HP)

Awareness: 2 Exp

Awareness: 2 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

Iolus: +16 Exp (-95HP)

Awareness: 2 Exp

Awareness: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

Precision: 2 Exp

Noob Rush?: Rayne, Rueben and Iolus duel Ryuu.

Rueben’s seeming procrastination when it came to getting Tarek home had left her extremely cranky, and a lot less inclined to oblige him in his request for a duel, this left Ryuu as their guinea for Rayne’s new techniques.  Luckily, he would have some time to prepare for the battle, as Rayne wanted to get something else out of the way first.  For the longest time, he had agreed to aid Iolus in rebuilding his Ethereal Scanners, an agreement that he would hopefully make good on today.

Using his Savant Relay he was able to successfully link the members of the four man team, those being himself, Rueben, Ryuu and Iolus, giving them all access to and information on each others forms.  This was minimal however, especially on Ryuu’s part as his form was designed specifically to block these kinds of techniques, and he was not exactly willing to be fully cooperative when linked to people that he was not entirely familiar with.  However, Ryuu did his best to maintain his own privacy while not interfering with the link, allowing Rayne to carry on smartly.

The first step in the rebuilding of the scanners would be actually scanning the device, which was done easily, allowing Iolus to spot hash it and allow them to start building the device.  This relied heavily on Iolus’ own special ability, which allowed him to convert ether in the air into stable constructs.  Rayne, being the channeler with the most precision took point, though with the team’s collectively low technical skill they more or less fumbled through the actual building of the device.  Once finished, Iolus wasted no time in equipping the device, noting that it did not power up on its own, but instead had to be activated by him supplying it with energy.  This was only further compounded by the fact that his scanners seemed to be all around less efficient that his old ones, exhibiting a low output and higher energy drain as well.  Iolus sighed, noting that he would have to work on this some more if he wanted to perfect it.

This left just the duel to complete the day’s training.  Ryuu noticed instantly as he was cut from the network, allowing him to power his defensive armaments back up to max and transform into his Chaos Dragon form, preparing for the battle, allowing Rueben and the others to do the same. 

As Rueben gave the go ahead for the battle, the battle field became littered with clones, which thanks to Iolus’ Environmental Meld, made it very difficult for Ryuu to home in on the actual members of the team.  This forced him onto the defensive, and allowed Rueben and the team to get in their first attack.  Ryuu’s Obstinacy prevented him from taking recoil, allowing him to quickly turn and attack his opponents, who were now on the defensive.  Rueben wasted no time leaking energy from his Nightmare Landscape into the area, though he would quickly realise that Ryuu’s Obstinacy made him immune to that as well.  Ryuu’s Vector was perfect guarded by Rueben who was barely able to shield Iolus from the attack before Ryuu took flight, and started devising a plan to end the battle quickly.  Rueben’s plan was slightly thrown off by the fact that his energy did little against Ryuu, but he would still continue with his plans, next attempting to break Ryuu’s barrier. 

Ryuu smirked as they all charged their energies, blasting Rueben towards him at high speeds through one of his Dimensional portals.  Unfortunately, Rueben would collide with Ryuu’s Perfection Shell at full speed, and the barrier would not budging, forcing all of Rueben’s momentum back onto himself before Ryuu launched a punch at him, forcing him to guard it and be knocked back to the ground.

“That’s me…” he sighed as he impacted, noting that his energy alone had dealt the three days damage that they agreed would be the cap for the battle.  This left just Iolus to be dealt with before Ryuu could call it quits, as they had agreed that Rayne was not to be targeted, as he was simply supposed to be running support. 

Unfortunately, with Ryuu’s form’s selfcontainment and the extremely high control and energy output of the Itami, Rayne could do little but boost the powers of his team members in this battle without directly attacking, and with all of his scanning the only weakness he could find was that Ryuu’s Perfection Shell was not omni-directional.  Rayne’s best hope of support was his Nature Fiends, but with Ryuu’s Veranos RS powering his Ragna ability, Rayne found that his brother could leech his energy faster than he could leech Ryuu’s, once again making the ability rather useless.  This left Iolus pretty much on is own in terms of abilities, though Rayne still continued to provide technical and tactical assistance for him, as well as energy and channelling back up.  This extended the battle quite a bit, as it took Ryuu quite some time to get through all of Iolus’ clones.  But as was inevitable, Ryuu scored that single hit that he would have needed to end the battle, calling it a day.

Iolus: 40 Exp (-325HP)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Rueben: 40 Exp (-200HP)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 16 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

How Frustrating: Brian ambushes Vampira.

It had seemed that Vampira had genuinely lost interest in what she considered to be the more trivial aspects of channelling, making her quite an unaware target for Brian’s ambush. Having learned that blatant broadcasting was not always the best plan, Brian approached her quietly in user form, getting close to her before powering up, charging his statistic boosters and awaiting her counter attack. Doing his best to guard, he was able to shield most of the impact from her Energy Release, quickly counter attacking with two quick slashes from his Vipers before she actived her Shadows and faded into the shadows.

Brian wasted no time searching the area with his ethereal scanners, only to have a wave of energy overwhelming him, blasting him away as a charge inducted energy release sent him skating away before she faded back into the shadows and prepared for her next attack. Unfortunately for Brian, her stealth proved to be a bit much for his scanners, though his AI did help in tracking the anomalous readouts. He second attack would be easily dodged, as Brian used Boost to close the distance in an attempt to connect another attack. Unfortunately, another radial release of her energy would knock the channeler back, allowing her to retreat to the shadows once more. Brian was starting to get frustrated now, watching closely as she moved. With her next attack, he would concentrate Angle into his fist, punching through the attack and connecting with Vampira straight in the jaw, knocking her out of Shadows and stunning her stunning her momentarily, allowing Brian to quickly followed up with a few more enhanced slashes from his Vipers, quickly draining down her health. Another energy build up signalled a counter attack, allowing Brian to easily shield her Energy Release. The force still knocked the channeler back, allowing Vampira to engage her stealth and escape the battle before revertion.
 

Brian: +40 Exp (-135HP)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 10 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Stoled: Hyaku and Roun duel and trade techniques.

With the Rogue-Demai confrontation coming to a rather anti-climactic finish, the Rogue Special Officers decided to kick back in Italy for a bit before heading off on their respective personal quests.  Leonardo was taking a well deserved rest, while Tyler took herself on a tour of the pasta capital of the world, a pleasure as pastas were her favourite foods.

Hyaku however had more serious business to attend to.  Having fought Roun, and seeing him in battle again, in addition to the extensive information that was stored on him in the Rogue database, Hyaku noted that Roun had an ability that he was dieing to possess.  This yielded good news and bad news for the teammates.

“We need to talk.”  Hyaku opened bluntly, causing Roun to raise an eyebrow as he turned towards the tall figure.

“Okay then… what’s up?”  Roun inquired now.

“Since we’re on the same team, it would be bad for us to not get along.”  Hyaku opened, causing Roun to raise an eyebrow as he assumed that for the most part the two did get along.  “I’ve been researching your polar energy type… it is vital for the completion of my form.  Normally I would just take it, but I’d imagine that you would be more comfortable if I acquired it in a trade.”  Hyaku reasoned.

“Personally I’d prefer if you didn’t jack my technique at all…” Roun replied, slightly annoyed.  “But I’m assuming you already know how it works and my disdain won’t exactly do much to change you mind…”  He sighed.

“That’s right.” Hyaku replied matter-of-factly, causing Roun to sigh again.  “But to make the trade fair, I am willing to trade you my Mesatsu technique for the energy type.”  Roun raised an eyebrow.  He had seen Hyaku use the technique a few times, and it was a devastating attack, not that this made him feel any better but he did agree that if he was going to have his technique copied that he might as well get something in return.

“Fine fine…”  Roun smirked.  “But before I just hand Aesis over to you, I’ll give you a taste of it in action.”  He smirked, powering up and dropping into a fighting stance, summoning a blade.

“Whatever…”  Was all Hyaku replied, projecting his Extensis.

As Roun dashed in, his blade connected with Extensis, locking the two squarely before Hyaku used his superior strength to push Roun backwards before following up with a horizontal slash.  Roun quickly shifted his feet, adjusting his blade to intercept Hyaku’s extensis, deflecting and parrying the attack before shifting his stance and delivering a powerful diagonal slash.  Noting the attack, Hyaku phased backwards, leaving Roun to slice the residual image of him as he launched a charged blast from his Energz Gauntlets.  Sliding into a backstance, Roun guarded the attack with his blade, which shattered under the initial impact, forcing him to pump Aesis into the blade.  The attractive properties of the attack, brought the blade back together, allowing Roun to fully guard the attack as he ran Veranos through it before flash coding it to the carbon construct that he had originally made the blade from.

Hyaku smirked at the kid’s resourcefulness, deciding to give him a tasted of Mesatsu.  Hyaku wasted no time phasing behind Roun and delivering a slash with Extensis, propagating Mesatsu down the Force blade as Roun shifted in place.  Not being able to turn in time, Roun silhouette slide in place, dissolving into the ether stream and recoalescing in the same spot as the blade made it’s way through him.  As he rematerialised, he did so with his hand on Hyaku’s chest, charging his Energetic Rave with the Buster Variant of his Aero energy type and releasing it into Hyaku’s form.

Hyaku exploded off of the attack, flying backwards as he charged his phase shift boosts for a counter attack.  Roun noted the charge, but without his ability to go transphasic, he was not fast enough to dodge the near instantaneous phase slash that Hyaku delivered to his back, using the kinetic energy that propelled Hyaku backwards to add to the damage, and knock the Itami stumbling forward himself.  With Roun off balanced, Hyaku wasted no time with a follow up, dumping one stock of his Energz Gauntlet into his Extensis to deliver another strike.  Roun’s reaction time saved him this time, allowing him to block the attack with an Aesis and Veranos SP reinforced blade, parrying the attack into the ground as he stepped around Hyaku and countered with a powerful descending attack.

Hyaku laughed as he vanished again, leaving Roun to cut air, appearing about the young Itami and blasting downwards with a shower of Heavy Energz Projectiles.  Roun contemplated dodging again, but with his Silhouette Slide and Hyaku’s Phase Shift Boots, the battle would last forever if someone didn’t take a risk.  Taking this into consideration, Roun overdrove his defense with Veranos SP, shielding as much damage as he could before he charged his own speed, blasting his way towards Hyaku at lightning speed.  As he thrusted his way through the incoming projectiles, the energy would mask his approach for a fraction of a second, making it too late when Hyaku realised for him to charge his boots and phase, leaving him only one option.

“Mesatsu.”  With a single word, a wavefront extended from his body, creating a wave of expanding energy.

Roun’s Tunnel Driver was rather useful in not getting reverted, but even he found it impossible to avoid of the attack, forcing him to Silhouette Slide out of the wave before he met reversion, leaving just the energy being dragged behind him for Hyaku to contend with.  Unfortunately, as Roun’s Tunnel Driver was active, a large amount of the energy was able to bypass Hyaku’s Mesatsu, forcing him to Phase Shift to avoid the attack, only being touched by the tip of the attack before he was able to clear the area.  As he landed and turn, he saw Roun power down, calling it a day.

“I’m running down to about thirty percent structural integrity, I think we should call it a day.”  He explained, causing Hyaku to power down as well.  “Let’s go get some food, I’m starving… I’ll give you the crash course in Aesis mechanics and you can tell me what to do with this Mesatsu other than blow up cities…”  Hyaku just laughed lightly, following his teammate to the nearest restaurant. 

Outcome: Hyaku has acquired Aesis and Roun has Acquired Mesatsu.
 

Roun: +66 Exp (-320HP)

Awareness: 8 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 10 Exp

Accuracy: 10 Exp

Precision: 12 Exp

Precision: 6 Exp

 Not Now: Bobby reluctantly duels Kenshin.

Bobby wasn’t too pleased with Kenshin’s insistence on having a duel with him, especially with him needing to be one hundred percent for the up coming mission that his team would be embarking on. Even so though, he had decided to humor Kenshin as long as he agreed to keep the damage to a minimum allowing him to be fully healed for the mission, a stipulation to which Kenshin readily agreed.

Bobby powered up and wasted no time using his Accumulated Judgement and his Charge Induction to quickly charge his Celestial Judgement, before rerouting the energy to his 12 Trials and Frost Wolves. Kenshin on the other hand wasted no time engaging his stealth while summoning his Reiten around Stryder. Stryder, already frustrated with him, wasted no time in summoning Long Arm of the Law, blasting at his last known position. This initial round impacted nothing, but the few follow up rounds were easily able to penetrated the dimensional field and clip Kenshin’s form, forcing him to keep up his movement before launching a slash at Bobby with his Tsurugi. Though his rounds could penetrate the prison, Bobby himself could not actually get out of Reiten, allowing Kenshin’s attacks to easily connect. Unfortunately, having charged 12 trials, Bobby simply dissipated with the attack, letting his Celestial Judgement rip at his position. With Eagle Eye keeping track of Kenshin, and with him already being commited to an attack, Celestial Judgement’s accuracy was uncanny, allowing Bobby’s Overwhelming force to make quick work of his defensive techniques, while the blast impacted his form. Bobby smirked as he reformed just a few metres behind Kenshin, with his Frost Wolves summoned. As he raised his hand to smack Kenshin with the weapon, he noted that his attack had done considerable damage his his opponent, deciding to call it a day and leave the area while Kenshin attempted to pull himself together.
 

Bobby: +46 Exp (-40HP)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Accuracy: 6 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

 Natural Disasters: Cloud duels Ryuu.

“Do you have the courage to face the Onslaught that is Cloud; Itami? Then be there to take your beating.” Was all that ran through Ryuu’s mind as his Zeta Wing closed in on the location of duel, a broad grin running across his face as he anticipated what he foresaw to be a brutally savage battle.

Cloud also looked forward to the battle, purposely taunting the Itami to ensure that he would bring all that he had to the battle.  Unfortunately, Cloud could not simply sit back in relax however.  Arriving in the Field class area that was the stage for their duel, Cloud had to get three things out of the way first, the first two being secure comminucations which he sent off to the Mercenary headquarters and then specifically to his Field Commander Bayman.  While the last thing was equally simple, as all he was required to do was attach a small recording device.  With that all done, he could just get down to waiting for Ryuu.

No sooner did he finish than did Ryuu make his appearance, jumping from the Zeta Wing which he had set to hover, landing and powering his form up to full capacity as Cloud did the same.  No words were exchanged between the two, as Cloud just thrusted towards his opponent, who wasted no time in shifting to the side to avoid the powerful hook punch that was launched, catching Cloud by the wrist and under his bicep before pivoting his body to deliver a high shoulder throw, slamming Cloud into the ground at his feet.  The resulting dust cloud however was enough to distort Cloud’s next movement, as he grabbed Ryuu by the ankle and yanked his leg, overdriving his strength with his Limit Break.  As Ryuu’s feet went out from under him, his face hurled towards the ground, forcing him to break the fall with his forearms in an ‘x’ block.  Unfortunately for the channeler however, with Cloud’s strength, the momentum of the tug did not stop there and he found himself skating across the ground away from his opponent.  Cloud wasted no time in making his way to his feet as Ryuu dug his hands into the ground, raking away the earth as he brought himself to a stop, and flipped back to his feet.  No soon was he grounded than did he find himself engulfed in a shadow, as a massive chunk of earth now flew towards him, forcing Ryuu to charge his strength and launch an attack that vaporised the rock.   The dust cloud was once again cover as Cloud unleashed a flurry of blows, the first punch connecting with Ryuu’s head and the second being an uppercut to the gut before Cloud grabbed him around the ribs, electrocuting him with his plasma expansion before he launched a powerful headbut to the Itami.  Ryuu wasted no time now activating his Perfection Shell, allowing Cloud’s head to slam into the barrier before Ryuu delivered his own head butt to the stunned Scion, allowing him to stumble back slightly before Ryuu jumped off the ground and planted his feet in Cloud’s face, launching a double legged drop kick that blasted Cloud away.  As Cloud impacted a nearby landform, his barrier shielded most of the terrain damage, causing the environment to suffer more from the clash than he did, allowing him to walk out of the collapsing structure with two 2 ton boulders in his hands.  As he emerged from the dust, his scanners picked up Ryuu thrusting towards him, forcing him to get low and counter with a rising axe handle strike, using the boulders as weapons, stopping Ryuu’s momentum as the rocks smashed around him, stunning him as Cloud grabbed him by the throat.  Ryuu’s eyes widened at this point, launching a kick to the gut of the Scion as electricity ran through his form again, but it would not be enough to stop Cloud.  Without hesitation, Cloud broke into a sprint, chokeslamming Ryuu into the ground and continuing to run, digging a trench with the Morpher before his right eye began to glow.  A menacing grin broke across his face as he took off into the air.  The sudden change in momentum whipped Ryuu’s body around, disorienting him further as Cloud blasted up into the air, his acceleration slowly reducing as he cleared the lower clouds before using his Speed to stabilise him allowing him to aim.  By this time however, Ryuu had recovered, but still found himself unable to break Cloud’s grip, forcing him to activate his Chaos Dragon form.  In this form, he now dwarfed and outweighed the usually larger Cloud, making it easier to outmuscle the behemoth.  A bite to the arm and an elbow to the gut loosened Cloud’s grip, while a Veranos RS reinforced punch shattered his barrier and sent him hurling towards the ground at increasing velocity.  Luckily for Cloud, he had reached quite a height in the air; this meant that he at least had a bit of time to recover from the attack before he impacted.  This allowed him to get his barrier up at the last second, giving him protection as he burrowed into the ground, finally coming to a stop in a small crater.  Ryuu roared now, charging his energy to max and thrusting at full speed towards the crater, looking to end the match up.  Cloud would be having none of this however, charging his body with Ultima and dashing sideways through the earth that was next to him.  As Ryuu impacted, his Perfection Shell absorbed the impact, causing him to now sniff the air as he attempted to sense Cloud.  His opponent would erupt from the earth across from him, slamming him into the vertical part of the crater and launching another flurry of punches, into Ryuu’s sternum before he could score with a knee to Cloud’s stomach, and spin throwing Cloud against the wall instead.  As Cloud impacted the ‘wall’ he prepared to launch a powerful punch, an idea that he and Ryuu had at the same time, but their forms had taken quite a beating from the battle, and a soft reversion was emanant.  The two reverted mid swing, connecting with each other’s faces in user form.  The resulting pain snapped the both out of their berserker states, as Ryuu, the weaker of the two in user form stumbled back before tripping and landing on his butt in a sitting position.  Cloud just slid down the wall into a similar sitting position, and the two sat their briefly recovering from the savagery.

“Not bad for a Terran…”  Cloud started, causing Ryuu to laugh lightly.

“Half Terran, plus what do you mean not bad… I whooped your ass.”  Ryuu retorted, causing Cloud to crack an almost unnoticeable smirk.

“So Ryuu…”  Cloud started in a more serious tone, drawing Ryuu’s attention.  “What's up with you travelling around with all of these losers?  How about you do something better with your time?  How about you roll with Cloud and do something actually interesting and worthwhile with your time?”  Cloud inquired now.

Ryuu just sat there, his hands shaking slightly as the adrenaline rush started to wear off, rising an eyebrow as he thought about it.

“Losers huh?” Ryuu laughed.  “Heh, well what do you have in mind?”

“Well I got some faction business to deal with, and you don’t want to get mixed up in that.”  Cloud started, causing Ryuu to smirk.

“You sound like Roun.”  He interjected.

“But, Cloud will be doing other things.  Proper action, no overkill, would you be in?” 

“Heh, well as long as it’s not going to be boring, just call me up.”

Cloud: +70 Exp (-490HP)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 18 Exp

Accuracy: 16 Exp

Precision: 10 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

 Preparation is The Key: Jais duels Iolus.

Iolus was rather pleased that Jais had been nice enough to aid him in the debugging of the three fighting styles that he was now attempting to create using his form, an attempt to enhance his combat aptitude, a skill that the channeler seemed to be lacking.

The first battle was to test Iolus’ Counter Evasive style, and as such he wasted no time in flooding the battle field with clones of himself, causing Jais to smile as he powered up his Analysis, utilising Perforation and Friction to boost the technique as he engaged his own form of advanced stealth.  With just his beta-class ethereal scanners to rely on, Iolus found it rather impossible to sense Jais through his visual and ethereal stealth, forcing the Unique to stick to his original game plan, shifting from clone to clone as he summoned his Tsunade blaster.  Jais was somewhat amused by the randomness of his attacks, as only a few seemed to be threatening, allowing Jais quite a bit time to tune his Analysis, a task that admittedly did take some time.  Once it was completed however, it allowed him to see through Iolus’ stealth rather easily, allowing him to track his opponent as he continued to switch between clones.  With just a few seconds between each jump, it was quite difficult for Jais to actually land any attacks on his opponent, and each attack that he launched gave away his position, temporarily allowing Iolus to locate and launch an attack at him.  Unfortunately for Iolus however, Jais’ evasion was superb making it impossible for him to land an attack.  Being too caught up with his own teleportation route, Iolus didn’t notice the small coins that Jais was leaving behind, as he set up a temperature matrix to deal with his opponent.  Jais had to admit that Iolus evasion was rather practical, but as he completed the set up for his Berserk mode, Iolus’ evasive actions would not be enough.  As the temperature matrix was completed within the area, the gathered and latent heat in the area had risen to an unusually high level, allowing Jais to gain a monstrously large energy boost when he absorbed it all.  The resulting impact from his Tekbyte actually stunned Iolus quite a bit, allowing Jais to unleash a combo as he flickered in and out of stealth.  His first attack was a capoeira-esque, cartwheel kick, causing him to vanish after he impacted, reappearing on his hands to deliver a double press to his opponent’s chest before his form fade again, only to reappear in the air delivering a double slash to Iolus’ neck as he landed behind him.  Iolus managed to snap himself out of his dazed state and vanished again, only to find himself the victim of a shower of coins charged with thermal energy.  This caused him to forego the attack module of his route, using Faze one more time, only to receive another combo from Jais, this time opening with a high round house, followed by a diving drill kick that knocked his opponent off his feet and sent him rolling across the battle field with a trail of flames before Jais landed and Iolus called an end to the first round, allowing Jais to heal him.

Unlike the healing performed by Rei Selen, which Iolus was a bit more used to, Jais’ healing was somewhat involved, requiring that Iolus be placed in a trance-like state while his healing was performed, making it impossible for him to scan the process.

The healing process gave way to the second round of the match up, where Iolus would take on a more tactical role, while Jais attempted to make it equally difficult for him to win the round.  As Iolus started up his clones again, Jais once again engaged his stealth, once again making Lock useless and starting Iolus on his clone hopping Route, this time focussing primarily on attacking with his Tsunade blaster in it’s new mode.  Unfortunately, he was once again faced with the same problem.  Being unable to sense his opponent, he could not effectively attack him, and his attack spamming did not seem to be working.  Seeing this, he unsummoned Tsunade and now focussed on spot hashing an upgrade to his scanners.  Unfortunately, even adding an active scanning beam to the devices did little to allow him to detect Jais, who now resorted simply to critical hits and projectile attacks using his coins slowing the match down considerably but being equally effective, as Iolus reconfigured his scanners to scan along a number of frequencies as he searched for Jais.  Unfortunately, he would once again fail to detect his opponent before he reached the damage mark to end the round, once again giving Jais the victory without any damage.

Once again Jais would heal his opponent, and they would go at it for another round, just for the hell of it, but it would end the same way.  With Iolus unable to sense him, and thus unable to counter attack, there was little change in the battle, allowing the two to call an end to a relatively productive day, going their separate ways once it was all over.

Iolus: +42 Exp (healed)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 16 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 16 Exp

Precision: 10 Exp

Precision: 10 Exp

 Time Bomb: Cy requests a duel with Xavier.

It seemed quite evident that Cy did not know who he was dealing with, having travelled all the way to Spain simply to ask Xavier Stryke for a duel.  Had he run the plan past Tiana, she would have laughed in his face, but luckily he hadn’t taken the route.  After locating the channeler, his request was simple.

“You want me to duel you?”  Xavier questioned rhetorically.  “Why should I even bother… what makes you think that you’re even on my level?”  He inquired.

“Fine then, if you want a challenge, why don’t you take me and my subordinate on?”  Cy inquired.

“You really do have a death wish don’t you?”  Xavier laughed.  “Fine, I’ll make quick work of you and get back on with my day.” Xavier replied coldly, powering up his form to it’s maximum output and waiting for Cy and his subordinate to do the same.

Luckily for the operator of the frame, the Socrates was an exceptional frame, and its -002 status was probably the only reason that the operator survived the ensuing arch of blue flames that sprung up around the frame as it powered up to full, cutting its structural integrity down to half before the operator was even settled into the battle.  Cy wasted no time powering up himself, powering straight into his Jinn form and fusing with the earth as Xavier exploded the area around him.  What Cy found somewhat terrifying however was the Xavier had also bonded with the earth, and was no chasing Cy through the medium, dissipating  the ether in his path as he chased the Morpher, hell bent on ending the match as quickly as possible.  Being unable to catch Cy however, Stryke turned his attension to the operator of the frame, exploding from beneath the frame with ungodly power, shooting nearly a kilometre into the air and leaving a pillar of volatile blue energy behind him before it exploded and destroyed everything for at least a kilometre around.  Cy was also caught in the explosion, not being able to travel downward fast enough to escape the energy that now left a crater hundreds of metres into the ground. 

Outcome: Xavier has been the cause of another disaster, and has since fled the area.  The operator of Cy's Socrates frame was killed in the incident, and his Zeta Wing and F-25 have also been damaged considerably, they will take 5 days to repair.  John and Alyssa Blake who were to meet up with Cy in the area were reverted by the blast as well.  Xavier Stryke is now wanted by the authorities for questioning.  Xavier's Detrel MX was also destroyed in the blast.

Cy: +22 Exp (reverted)

Awareness: 4 Exp

Awareness: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 2 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp

Precision: 64 Exp

Testinig Limits: Alyssa and John duel Rei.

Rei Selen was becoming quite popular among the player populace, due to her very unique abilities, and it was this popularity that lead John and Alyssa to contact her.  Having worked with Rei before, they were quite accustomed to her abilities and speculated that she would be the best channeler to test their forms against.

The stipulations of the battle were quite simple, the three would go at it in a two on one situation until their Stamina ran out, and Rei would be paid for her services according to the outcome.

Getting the greetings and trivialities out of the way, Rei prompted them to start the battle, adjusting the output of her form, while John and Alyssa did the same.  As she signalled the commencement, Alyssa fell back and attempted to flank her, while John rushed forward.  Unfortunately, Rei did not react as John had predicted, focusing on her Paradox filter as she awaited the attack, monitoring Alyssa’s movement.  As John moved in, Rei made a quick dodge to the side to avoid his attack, activating her Mercury Solea and Hexadecimal Algorithm simultaneously to release a blast of the freezing energy before taking to the sky.  This allowed her to evade Alyssa’s strike from her Petal chaser as Rei now launched a number of White Air Stars at her opponents.  Alyssa didn’t find much trouble is avoiding the attacks, while John simply summoned Diatenshi to shield the incoming shuriken attacks.

Seeing this, Rei now focussed her attacks at Alyssa, in an attempt to test John’s ability to shield her from range, but with Diatenshi no upgraded into Armour, this was an impossibility, causing Alyssa to always dash behind John as she awaited her Rokushiki Form to fully charge.

Once this was done, Alyssa wasted no time in powering into the form and making a beeline for Rei, who was caught slightly off guard by the rush.  Luckily her paradox filter gave her some warning as to the first attack, allowing her to evade the major brunt of the damage from the destructive wave blades that flew off of Alyssa’s form as she thrusted to the side with her Mercury Solea.  It wouldn’t be long before Rei hit the ground again, but before she could properly settle herself, Alyssa was back on her again.  Her Teardrop blades managed to parry the physical attack from Alyssa, but the Wind Blades blasted Rei away, towards John who was waiting with his Inertia Vector ready.  It was at this point that Rei realised that her energy saver strategy was not exactly working, and with Alyssa powering into her Reserve Demon form, things would only get hairier.  As Alyssa blasted her way to Rei’s location, Rei split into two, each moving in opposite directions, seemingly unhindered by John’s Vector Field.  This puzzled Alyssa considerably, causing her to turn now and head for one of the clones, summoning her Petal Chaser and cleaving it in half.  This prevented the shadow clone from launching the White Air Stars that she now noticed that it possessed.  The other copy however wasted no time in launching the star at John, who easily blocked the attack, only to feel a blade impact in his back.  John spun as quickly as he could and obliterated what he thought was Rei, only to once again feel a Teardrop Blade impact in his back, this time penetrating his armour and impacting his form, stunning him slightly.

By now, Alyssa was back on the attack, cleaving what appeared to be another copy as Rei reappeared behind her, releasing three White Air Stars into her back and falling into a defensive position.  It was at this point that Alyssa realised how much energy that her transformation were taking up, as she now estimated that she would probably be the first to power down.  John wasted no time in providing back up for his sister as the two now contemplated the best plan of attack for dealinig with Rei.

Once again, they attempted to trap Rei, this time with John better regulating his energy flows, utilising bursts of speed to increase his apparent skill with his Judicator.  The incoming attack proved too strong for Rei to guard, forcing her to evade and parry as Alyssa made her way towards her with her Petal Chaser.  The attack connected, but not solidly, causing Libra to only take a fraction of the damage.  This was enough however as the Plasma modification of the blade, gave it weak stunning power, allowing John to connect with an attack from his Judicator, utilising the kinetic energy from the attack to not only peirce Rei’s defense but deliver a great deal of damage to her form as the light emulator was blasted away.  A quick burst of Litany corrected the damage, and allowed her dodge the follow up from Petal Chaser, before she found herself surrounded by Utsusemi clones.  Rei dodged the attack from the original Alyssa, hook kicking one of the clones, only to see it absorb the damage.

“So that’s the difference.”  She smiled, as she used her Mercuri Solea to dodge another attack before pumping her energy into her Hexadecimal Algorithm and pressing her hands against the ground and causing a wave of energy to rise up around her.  The attack managed to dissipate the clone, and knock Alyssa back, but before Rei could breath, she found herself having to utilise her Utsusemi clones to dodge yet another attack from John’s Judicator.  By now, Rei had gotten accustomed to the pace of the battle, and she realised that it would be a bad idea to slow things down, so she utilised her ranged healing to fix the damage done to Alyssa’s form, and allowed the exchange to continue.

From there, their route change slightly as John now tried to trap Rei in his Vector field, while Alyssa utilised her Utsusemi clones to push Rei into the field.  Unfortunately, with Rei’s evasive abilities, this plan was rather shot.  After a few more minutes, the battle began to wind down, with Alyssa first feeling the effects of her low stamina, followed closely by John.  Being the Rei had been the most conservative of her own energy, having most of her output used on stealth bursts and clone generation, she was finally able to outlast her two opponents, who had done considerably more damage to her than she had done to them unfortunately.

According to the stipulations, John and Alyssa paid Rei for her services, allowing the Morpher to heal them both before she took Delphi, who had been recording the exchange and left the area.

Alyssa: 62 Exp (-10000$)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 6 Exp

Accuracy: 16 Exp

Accuracy: 12 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Precision: 12 Exp

Rei: 70 Exp (+20000$)

Awareness: 8 Exp

Accuracy: 8 Exp

Precision: 12 Exp

 Ice breaker: Leonardo does some training with Kenshin.

Kenshin hadn’t had much of a chance to interact with Leonardo since he had joined the team, and apart from Tyler, Leonardo was his only teammate who he had yet to introduce himself to.  Given that, he decided that it would be a good ice breaker if the two had a small sparring session and got to know each other.  This was good with Leonardo, who was always eager to test his abilities.

Having travelled all the way back to The Garrison in Barbados, the two chose the training room for their clash and wasted no time getting ready for their match up.  Given the situation, the duel was not to reversion so the two would stop once either of them seemed to be too damaged.  The purpose of the sparring session was for young Leonardo to teach Kenshin the basics of the Dragon style which he had picked up from Sun Lee, and once he had caught on, the two would do some technique trading.

Leonardo dropped into a low stance and prompted Kenshin to come at him, awaiting his first movements to start the battle.

The second the Kenshin budged, his opponent teleported to his location, sliding his feet forward to trip Kenshin before boosting his speed with his Serai Sins to deliver four quick punches to the stomach before he followed up with a flash kick.  Kenshin was caught off guard with the first five hit, but managed to teleport out of the way of the flash kick, turning to release a shadow spire with his Joukei.  The attack connected, causing Leonardo to teleport again, appearing in from of him once more to unleash another combo.  This time he connected with a quick round house, spinning to deliver a 180 back kick which knocked Kenshin across the room before he called an end to the fight.

“You have a long way to go in terms of martial arts…” Leonardo started as he powered down and walked up to Kenshin, causing Kenshin to laugh.

“Well I’m an energy user, not a melee combatant… hence the training.”  He replied, causing Leonardo to smirk.

“I guess so…  lemme teach you the basics, and we can go from there.”  Leonardo started.  “In this condition, my master would destroy you… you’re going to have to improve a whole lot before I can take you to him.”

Leonardo would spend the rest of the day schooling Kenshin in the ways of the Dragon, before the two finally exchanged

Outcome: Leonardo has learned Bloodline, Kenshin has learned Dragon Explosion and the basics of the Dragon style of Kung-fu.

Leonardo: +56 Exp + 10 Exp (perfect bonus)

Awareness: 6 Exp

Awareness: 4 Exp

Accuracy: 26 Exp

Accuracy: 4 Exp

Precision: 8 Exp

Precision: 4 Exp