Girls' Day Out: Zadavia, Yasmin and Tyler have a training session. (10/10/2401)
With all of the female Rogues Special Forces in Barbados, and with the exception on Nicola on base and with nothing to do, Yasmin decided that this would be a good time to have what she called a girls’ day out.  Finding her subordinate Aggy, she then tracked down Zadavia and Tyler to see if they would be interested.  The two agreed, mildly reluctant, before agreeing that the activities which she had planned could actually be quite useful. Unfortunately, with Hyaku’s and Roun’s training session taking up the main training room, it seemed like they would actually need to take their day out outside of the facility.  Still deciding to stay close to home, Tyler took the two to a small cliff face to the north of the island, by the sea.  Zadavia and Aggy hung back as Yasmin and Tyler discussed their form cloning abilities, while Tyler enlightened Yasmin as to the advantages and major disadvantages of such an ability.  As Yasmin already understood, the cloning process greatly broadened the effectiveness of their forms, but it also had the annoying downside of that temptation to rely on foreign forms rather than their own form.  Tyler than went on to explain why foreign forms tended to be weaker than native ones, and why s.p. to s.p. the original would always beat a doppelganger in a fair fight. Zadavia, quite bored with things decided to engage Aggy in conversation, getting to know the quiet Ensign while the other two Rogue females chatted.  When the socialisation finally came to an end, Yasmin offered the clone swap, trading her Dragon form Blui for a melee form that would compliment the rest of her repertoire rather nicely. With that done, Tyler decided to modify the duel specifics so that she could better utilise the numbers.  Given Aggy’s generally low level compared to that of Zadavia and Yasmin, and wanting to avoid a free-for-all, Tyler decided that Aggy would team with her, while Yasmin and Zadavia teamed up against them.  Tyler did admit that this was not the most fair option, but I should teach team-work and strategy over simply noob-rushing stronger opponents. A crashing wave signalled the start of the match, masking Tyler’s summon of her favourite copy, Bayman while Yasmin released her Rock doppelganger and morphed into her dragon form, Blui.  Zadavia also wasted no time releasing Ayane, her Stand, while Aggy summoned her Crystal Dragon, instantly doubling the number of combatants on the field.  Being a beast, the Bayman copy was instantly marked as second highest priority, after the obvious first threat, Tyler.  Zadavia smiled as she lined up the Crystal Dragon in her sights before her eyes began to blow as her Mystic Barrier powered up and triggered her Concussive Blast.  A beam of energy exploded from her eyes, shattering the Crystal dragon and instantly sending Aggy into mental backlash.  Zadavia smiled, thinking that she would be able to take out Aggy in one fell swoop, a thought that would be quickly dismissed by Aggy’s teammate.  Zadavia would quickly learn that Ayane’s superhuman abilities were no match for Bayman’s Anima, as the weakened copy quickly began to overpower her own summon.  On the front, Yasmin wasn’t fearing too well against Tyler at all.  Even with the increased power of Yasmin’s form in her Dragon morph, she still realised that she was no match for the Rogue Field Commander, who quickly dismissed her with a blast from her Vector Cannon before Mach Dashing and tackling Zadavia to the ground.  The sudden jolt threw off Zadavia’s aim, allowing her to barely clip Aggy before the rest of the blast sailed harmlessly into the air, giving Aggy enough time to recover.  This was particularly useful in stopping Yasmin from supporting Zadavia, keeping her busy with her Rush Blasts while Zadavia struggled to fight off Tyler, who was overwhelming her with her Blade Symphony.  Zadavia growled now, unsummoning Ayane and resummoning her withing her body, allowing her to launch Tyler off of her with a powerful punch, before she could make her way back to her feet and charge her concussive blast for another volley.  Tyler smirked now as she summoned her Vector Cannon, charging it as well and letting it rip.  The two blasts connected squarely, releasing a shockwave that shaved the tops of the rocks on the cliff face before Tyler’s Bayman copy circled around and attacked Zadavia from her flank. While Zadavia and Tyler duked it out, Yasmin was just about to finish off Aggy, who realised that she was suffering due to a single fact, her low control.  It would only be a matter of time before she was too weak to continue the battle, changing the odds from 4-on-4 to 2-on4.  Unfortunately, as far as Tyler was concerned, the two had just about passed, so this brought them to the end of their training session.  A quick change of her back-up from Bayman to Shade, would result in both girls quickly being incapacitated. Tyler just smiled.  “Good work girls, let’s call it a day okay?”  Yasmin smiled and nodded slowly, while Zadavia growled lightly and complied as well.
Yasmin: 72 Exp (-320HP)			Zadavia: 76 Exp (-210HP)
Awareness: 12 Exp	Technical: 12 Exp		Awareness: 12 Exp	Technical: 4 Exp
Accuracy: 8 Exp	Tactics: 8 Exp		Accuracy: 20 Exp	Tactics: 8 Exp
Precision: 16 Exp	Control: 16 Exp		Precision: 24 Exp	Control: 8 Exp
Tyler: 108 Exp (-212HP)			Aggy: 60 Exp (-508HP)
Awareness: 16 Exp	Technical: 16 Exp		Awareness: 8 Exp	Technical: 8 Exp
Accuracy: 16 Exp	Tactics: 16 Exp		Accuracy: 8 Exp	Tactics: 12 Exp
Precision: 24 Exp	Control: 20 Exp		Precision: 12 Exp	Control: 12 Exp

 

Red Team, Blue Team: Roun, Ryuu and Hyaku have a training session. (10/10/2401)
With the two teams, Red team and Blue team set up, Roun and Ryuu were ready to commence their game of capture the flag when Hyaku Yagami and his subordinate made their way into the training room.  Roun raised an eyebrow, inquiring as to Hyaku’s reason for crashing their party, causing the tall Unique to smile before replying. “Consider it an interjection… me and my subordinate will be joining this game.”  He stated, not bothering to ask whether or not that was okay with Roun and Ryuu.  Luckily, the twins were rather laid back and didn’t bother the additional bodies.  In fact, the main purpose of the action was as a favour to Tyler, training the Tactical prowess of her subordinate Roderick, so the more persons involved, the more the young tactician would benefit from the action. With Hyaku joining the fray, the teams had to be switched, and as Hyaku also wished to increase his tactical prowess this at least made choosing the team leaders relatively easy.  Hyaku, being a lover of the colour blue, took command of the Blue Team, while Roderick took command of the Red team.  Once that was dealt with, the members of the team had to be chosen.  Hyaku’s sub was the obvious first pic for his team, while Roderick chose Roun, leaving Ryuu to be drafted to the Blue team and Nicola to the Red. “Okay… go.”  Roun signalled, starting the match, as he and Nicola split off in opposite directions, while Roderick started directing traffic. Hyaku was instantly confused as Roderick’s Undermine went to work, making it near impossible for him to effectively utilise his Zeta Bio Scanners, his TARGA and oddly enough his C2C, leaving the Unique very confused.  Hyaku growled now, being forced to rely on his natural tactics level now, while his teammates moved off on their own.  The object of the game was for the Red Team to capture the flag, guarded by the Blue team, and return it to their side of the facility, while the Blue team tried to prevent this. Unfortunately, though Ryuu found it relatively easy to keep his speedster brother at bay, Nicola was more than a match for Hyaku’s Sentinel operator, making it near impossible for her to actually stop her advance.  This tipped the scales quite heavily, as Hyaku was now left to intercept Nicola.  Roderick smirked now, giving Nicola some combative advice to enable her to hold her own against Hyaku.  As events proceeded, the battle field seemed fairly locked, with Roderick keeping the Sentinel operator on the run, while Roun was locked in combat with Ryuu and Nicola with Hyaku.  This made it even more surprising when Roun suddenly turned and silhouette slide away from his opponent, to catch the Sentinel operator in a clothesline before slamming her into the ground with an STO-like attack.  Ryuu’s eyebrow practially jumped off of his head from the impact, as the Sentinel frame folded from the blow, which shook the training room noticeably. Ryuu wasted no time moving to lend support to his teammate, blasting towards Roun to support the Sentinel Operator, an action that Hyaku also tried to do.  Roderick smirked again, his Undermine was working well.  As the two made their way towards him, Roun vanished again, materialising some distance from the three and sliding forward.  As he moved forward, his hands trailed behind, before his body reached the end of its forward movement, allowing his hands to snap around into an inverted ‘x’ formation.  The energy rushing off of the attack blasted all three members of the Blue Team into the wall; taking the operator of the Sentinel frame out of commission with that one attack and leaving Hyaku considerably damage as well, while Ryuu got up and started to shake off the attack. “Nice one Roun.”  Ryuu smirked, causing Roun to give him the thumbs up and smirk before the two tried to get their heads back in the game.  By now, Hyaku realised that all of his tactical armaments were being Undermined, which forced him to use his own natural awareness and tactical abilities.  As he scanned the field visually, he realised that Nicola had now captured the flag and was making her way back to the Red side. Without TARGA, extremely precise phase shifting was quite difficult, forcing him to just phase to her general location to deliver a counter slash, only to find himself being blocked by Roun, while Roderick did his best to restrain Ryuu.  Unfortunately, even for someone of Roderick’s size and strength, restraining the beast that was Ryuu proved to be impossible, and he soon found himself drilled into a wall with a blast from Ryuu’s dragon breath attack, before the Itami made his way off to back up Hyaku.  Roun had now taken to wielding one of his blades and one of his pistols, while the other blade and pistol were attached to the alternate arms.  This allowed him to slash and project energy from his right hand, while he blasted with the pistol in his left and utilised the elbow blade function of the blade on that forearm.  This allowed him to ensure that their was a blade between him and Ryuu or Hyaku, but unfortunately even with this, he still found himself unable to actually gain enough speed to counter attack. Realising that he was adding very little to the battle against Roun, Hyaku now turned to intercept Nicola once again, while Roderick now tried to make that impossible, leaving Roun and Ryuu locked in combat.  Roun smiled now as Roderick stopped relaying tactical information to him, basically signalling that their victory was imminent, which meant that he could go all out against his brother without having to monitor the rest of the battle field.  Ryuu could sense this as well as Roun now switched to the offensive, powering up his Fusion Generator and his Stinger Fission System, boosting his physical attributes to allow his speed based style to match Ryuu’s power based style interms of effectiveness.  As Nicola made her way to the Red side of the training room, Hyaku did his best to get around Roderick, the subordinate who proved to be exceedingly annoying, even though he was actually doing fairly minimal damage to the Unique.  It was almost uncanny how he was able to inject himself been Hyaku and Nicola with jump, even when Hyakuu utilised his phasic abilities, and his form proved just sturdy enough that Hyaku couldn’t simply dismiss him with an overpowered attack.  By now, even Hyaku had to admit that a loss was almost guaranteed, leaving the only real question as to why the two Itamis seemed to be going at each so hard.  Even with his scanning ability scrambled, it was impossible to miss the amount of energy being generated from that side of the battle field.  Roderick would pause as Nicola placed the flag in its place, signalling the end of a match, before realising that Roun and Ryuu didn’t seem to be stopping. “What the hell…”  Hyaku pondered now, before the doors of the training room shot open and two Boss level channelers made their way into the room. “Leave now.”  One of the men ordered, while the other removed the unconscious operator of the Sentinel frame.  He would not have to give the order twice, as Roderick and Nicola quickly found themselves outside of the room, but Hyaku would be a bit slower in moving, his curiousity getting the best of him temporarily.  “Yagami, move!”  The order came again, forcing Hyaku out of the room as the one who gave the order stayed behind to contain the situation.  Much like the incident back at the unidentified island, Roun and Ryuu would be engulfed in a pillar of light before they both found themselves partially tele-fragged and soft reverted. “Situation contained…”  Was all that they would hear before the two Boss level channelers left the area, leaving the participants of the training action quite baffled, and Roun and Ryuu, rather unconscious.
Roun: 82 Exp (-320HP) (Incapacitated 3 days)			Nicola: 58 Exp + 10 Exp (perfect bonus)
Awareness: 12 Exp	Technical: 12 Exp		Awareness: 8 Exp	Technical: 4 Exp
Accuracy: 12 Exp	Tactics: 6 Exp		Accuracy: 12 Exp	Tactics: 6 Exp
Precision: 24 Exp	Control: 16 Exp		Precision: 8 Exp	Control: 30 Exp
Ryuu: 78 Exp (-312HP) (Incapacitated 3 days)			Roderick: 100 Exp (-310HP)
Awareness: 6 Exp	Technical: 4 Exp		Awareness: 20 Exp	Technical: 16 Exp
Accuracy: 20 Exp	Tactics: 8 Exp		Accuracy: 12 Exp	Tactics: 32 Exp
Precision: 8 Exp	Control: 32 Exp		Precision: 8 Exp	Control: 12 Exp
Hyaku: 62 Exp (-212HP)			Sentinel: 60 Exp (reverted)
Awareness: 8 Exp	Technical: 6 Exp		Awareness: 8 Exp	Technical: 8 Exp
Accuracy: 12 Exp	Tactics: 12 Exp		Accuracy: 8 Exp	Tactics: 12 Exp
Precision: 8 Exp	Control: 16 Exp		Precision: 12 Exp	Control: 12 Exp

 

Brutal Battle: Cloud, Ryuu and Nicola duel while Roun makes stuff. (23/10/2401)
As Roun sat back in his chair at the Rogue Research and Development facility, he watched as the requests came in.  Cloud Stryfe, who had made his way back to the Rogue headquarters, having volunteered to be the official liason, had requested that he make three weapons for him, while Roun’s brother Rueben had also requested two weapons.  Roun smirked, briefly contemplating charging this people, before he laughed off the idea, reasoning that the experience was actually more valuable than the cash.  With that in mind, he commenced his Alchemy and Enchantments, hoping to get the two requests out of the way so that he could get back to work on his own projects. “Roun.”  Sounded from his comm. link, causing Roun to raise his eyebrow as he connected the two-way call now.  “I need to talk to you.” “What’s up?”  Roun inquired now as the video faded into focus, and he saw the man who the voice belonged to. “I need to talk to you in person.”  Cloud now continued, causing Roun to raise an eyebrow.  Roun shrugged. “Okay, I’ll be up in a minute.”  As a guest of the facility, and a non-Rogue, Cloud’s access was severely restricted in the Rogue Fortress, ensuring that he could not go anywhere that would compromise the security of the faction.  This meant that Roun would need to travel all the way back to a level 1 area to have this meeting. A silhouette slide would cover the distance in no time, allowing the two to have their conversation.  The conversation was a particularly odd one in Roun’s mind, as he found it odd that Cloud of all people would be interested in the Gladiator Quest.  Roun had to admit that after reading the records on Xian’s and Rei’s attempts at the quest, he too had become rather interested, no so much because of the nature of the quest, but because of how quickly the threat level had increased, from moderate to having the potential to be a global threat.  Roun was also amused by the fact that Cloud was letting on minimal information, but by now, Roun knew that it was pointless to push, as the Merc would not be very forthcoming with the information.  Roun finished the conversation by affirming his interest in the completion of the quest, assuming that a proper squad could be assembled and equipped with an equally proper plan.  With that said, Cloud ended the conversation on a positive note, making his way off, to get on with his actual business at the base. Though a liaison, Cloud didn’t actually have much use to the Mercs at the Rogue base at present, as he could need to await orders before he could relay any information.  Because of this, and his hatred for time wasting, he had actually decided that he would spend his first day on the Rogue Fortress, duelling Ryuu. By the time that the two had actually managed to acquire authorisation after having to include Nicola into the duel, Roun was already halfway into his weapons creation, a reality that he found to be particularly amusing. The three brutes started this martial arts contest some distance away, powering up their various stat boosters before the referees, the Rogue operatives that had been assigned to watch them, gave the signal for them to start the match. Nicola, being eager to prove her worth, rushed into the middle of the two brutes, cancelling her momentum mid dash, before switching her direction to dash at Ryuu.  The Itami quickly sunk into a low back stance, watching his opponent closely as she closed in.  A high roundhouse from the small female Psycher was easily blocked by Ryuu with an outward forearm guard, stopping her momentum before she reversed it, launching a 360 roundhouse with the other foot.  The speed of the attack caught Ryuu somewhat unaware, connecting with his jaw and sending him stumbling from the force of the blow.  Unfortunately, before Nicola could land, Cloud rose up from a dive roll, using his momentum to slide into a front thrust kick, blasting the Psycher towards a wall at extreme speed.  As Nicola now utilised all of her abilities to prevent her from splattering on impact, Ryuu recovered from the recoil of Nicola’s attack, twisting and rolling to descend with an overhead double leg smash.  With Cloud’s momentum already shifted forward, all he could do was block with a double rising forearm guard, stopping Ryuu’s momentum instantly, forcing him to press of the guard and plan his next attack.  Cloud on the other hand was not about to give him too much time to think; the force from Ryuu jumping off of his hand pushed him into the ground, forcing him to backroll ro get back to his feet, before launching himself and releasing a powerful roundhouse.  Seeing this attack, Ryuu countered with an equally powerful physical blow, forcing their two shins to connect with a powerful shockwave.  Nicola, who had by now recovered, now pressed herself off of the wall, dashing into a dive roll and sliding to a stop just under the two male brutes.  Reaching her hands up, she quickly grabbed Cloud by the ankle, slamming him into the ground next to her, spinning with the momentum to release a 180 hook kick at Ryuu.  Once again, the hit connected, pushing Ryuu away, sending him sailing towards as well, while she attempted to follow up the launcher attack.  Unfortunately, Cloud would be having none of it, grappling her with a leg scissors and twisting her body to the ground, before rolling over and locking her in a reverse arm-bar and applying the pressure. With Cloud’s superior strength, Nicola’s only redeeming factor was her Overwhelming force, which boosted her stats just enough that the counter force she exerted prevented her shoulder from snapping out of place.  Unfortunately, this left them both in a stalemate, before Cloud abandoned the lock and jumped back.  As he floated away, he blocked three machinegun kicks from Ryuu guarding a high round house with one hand, while stepping past him with his lead leg and thrusting him into the ground with the other.  As Ryuu as planted, he locked his legs around Cloud’s arm and clamped down, now using his hands to apply the lock, the quickly separated Cloud’s shoulder from the rest of his torso.  The Oyan grunted in pain, lifting Ryuu into the air, and slamming him into the ground repeatedly to loosen his grip.  Unfortunately, Cloud would not be able to finish his counter, as Nicola’s arms now wrapped around his waist.  Cloud cursed under his breath, bracing himself for german suplex that now threw both him and Ryuu into the ground.  As the small woman sprang to her feet, she attempted a double overhead smash, before falling victim to front kicks from both Ryuu and Cloud, that launched her into the roof of the facility, weakening her enough for her to be taken out of the battle. This left just Ryuu and Cloud in the battle.  Cloud followed the momentum of his kick, rolling forward to his feet, while Ryuu pushed off of Nicola on the kick to roll backwards, putting some distance between them.  Ryuu dashed in, launching a strong punch, which Cloud countered with his labai.  As the punch sailed towards him, he shifted to the side intercepting the attack with his left hand to push his opponent right and grabbing his right arm. Ryuu raised an eyebrow, bringing around his left hand now, forcing Cloud to intercept this attack with his left hand now, grabbing a hold of Cloud’s left arm and cross locking opponent left elbow over right arms. Cloud smirked deviously, twisting to the side in a throw using his own momentum and the thrust of his leg to slam Ryuu into the ground. Ryuu scoffed now, realising that he spent a lot of the battle in contact with the floor.  As Cloud moved in to put in the finished lock, Ryuu sprung backwards and pressed off his hands, springing up with a double leg press to launch Cloud away.  Cloud watched as his health fell that much more, bringing him very close to the point where he would not be able to continue.  Fortunately for him, Ryuu was reaching the same point, so the next attack volley would finish things off.  As the two rushed in, Cloud boosted his speed, while Ryuu focussed on his strength.  Cloud’s flurry of elbow and knees were met with a single straight jab, launching Cloud into a wall while the referees called an end to the match.  Both channelers had been knocked below 20% health, a successful end to their sparring match, Cloud would just need to power down his form and endure the lingering pain while he checked in with Roun to see if his weapons were finished. He would return to find Roun mailing off Rueben’s weapons, and working on his automas.  Roun would hand Cloud his three weapons and proceed back to the Research and Development Facility to complete his own personal project.
Cloud: 80 Exp (-578HP)			Ryuu: 84 Exp (-612HP)
Awareness: 8 Exp	Technical: 8 Exp		Awareness: 8 Exp	Technical: 4 Exp
Accuracy: 24 Exp	Tactics: 12 Exp		Accuracy: 24 Exp	Tactics: 8 Exp
Precision: 4 Exp	Control: 24 Exp		Precision: 8 Exp	Control: 32 Exp
Nicola: 92 Exp (501HP)			Roun: 108 Exp
Awareness: 12 Exp	Technical: 8 Exp		Awareness: 20 Exp	Technical: 40 Exp
Accuracy: 24 Exp	Tactics: 16 Exp		Accuracy: 0 Exp	Tactics: 0 Exp
Precision: 8 Exp	Control: 24 Exp		Precision: 32 Exp	Control: 16 Exp

 

Know Your Enemy: Davius ambushes L'Qatu. (23/10/2401)
Having gotten inconclusive results from his training session, Davius decided to put his form to more practical tests, choosing two targets in Maine: Brian Bell and L’Qatu.  His first target would be L’Qatu, who he assumed to be a relatively easy target.  Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to factor in L’Qatu’s companion, who would prove to be a rather pivotal character in the battle.  As Davius rushed in, he was puzzled to see his target’s female companion vanish from the battle field, signaling to L’Qatu to go on the defensive.  L’Qatu also engaged his stealth, separating his form and awaiting his attacker’s first move.  Davius found his initial attack to be rather useless, as with L’Qatu stealthed, he projected no shadow, and hence made Davius Scarlet Meld useless.  Unfortunately, with Davius’ unique brand of stealth, it made him almost undetectable, preventing L’Qatu from actually counter attacking.  The Juggerknot, who was simply on looking sighed, as it was impossible to follow a battle between three stealth based fighters.  In fact, he would only feel the need to get involved when he saw Davius decloak, dropping to his knees temporarily.  This was the Juggerknot’s cue to assist his partner, rushing into the fray to find himself being the victim of Kikoto’s Demilitarised Zone. “Calm yourself.”  She spoke now, using her telepathy, using her mind control to causing the Juggerknot to relax. With her attention now focused on the Juggerknot, L’Qatu wasted no time in going to work on Dark, utilising his Operation: Lawnmower Man to barrage Davius while he was stunned.  The two seconds in which Davius was caught in the storm of body parts, his health dropped almost to halfway, before he could counter with Zanryuken.  Luckily for L’Qatu his odd physiology prevented the secondary effects of Zanryuken, leaving the attack to just drive him backwards and back onto the defensive.  While restraining the Juggerknot, Kikoto now turned her attention back to Davius, charging telepathy to deliver a powerful flood of psychic backlash to the Juggerknot to get him out of the way.  Another stunning attack would give L’Qatu chance to finish Davius off, reverting him with another tornado of body parts.  L’Qatu would turn his attention to the Juggerknot, before Kikoto would turn and shake her head. “It would take us the better part of the afternoon to revert this one… let’s just get out of here.”  She communicated psychically, causing L’Qatu to nod.  The two would clear the area before the Juggerknot would come through, leaving him puzzled as to what happened.
Davius: 52 Exp (reverted)			Juggerknot: 20 Exp (-250HP)
Awareness: 8 Exp	Technical: 4 Exp		Awareness: 4 Exp	Technical: 4 Exp
Accuracy: 12 Exp	Tactics: 8 Exp		Accuracy: 0 Exp	Tactics: 4 Exp
Precision: 12 Exp	Control: 8 Exp		Precision: 4 Exp	Control: 4 Exp
L'Qatu: 84 Exp (-105HP)			Kikoto: 108 Exp + 10 Exp (perfect bonus)
Awareness: 12 Exp	Technical: 8 Exp		Awareness: 16 Exp	Technical: 12 Exp
Accuracy: 24 Exp	Tactics: 8 Exp		Accuracy: 12 Exp	Tactics: 8 Exp
Precision: 12 Exp	Control: 20 Exp		Precision: 12 Exp	Control: 58 Exp