Fish Out Of Water: Cloud investigates Genbu (07/08/2403)

A bright flash of light and an electrical discharge would signal the arrival of Cloud and his subordinate Isis on the outskirts of Russia, quite some distance away from the entity known Genbu.  The massive Stryfe’s expression would not betray his surprise that the entity’s ethereal drain actually reached this far, but Isis would be certain to point it out.  Cloud would now begin to fill his massive energetic reserve, before Isis utilised her Intercourse ability to upload herself into Cloud’s form, filling the remaining space in his energetic reserve before he began to move towards Genbu.

It was at this point that Cloud realised that he should have allowed himself to be transported closer to the Demi-God, as the actual trek to the entity was something that was more suitable for vehicular travel than good old fashion ‘hoofing it’.  This, combined with his reduced mobility due to the effects of the ethereal drain, made the trek that much more tedious, but it at least allowed Isis to begin her initial scans.  From what she could garner, the draining effect was not a particularly complex one, simply involving the forceful commandeering of foreign energy, which then travelled along a artificially created potential difference towards Genbu, where it was added to him.  Interestingly enough, the drain seemed to uniform, as Isis quickly realised that more energy was being drained from Cloud than from her.  This was particularly interesting, as this seemed to be a coded parameter and not simply a random effect, clearly this was one of Genbu’s design features.  Isis’ mind would wander off as she parallel processed the information, wondering if it was possible that the system could have been used as some kind of ethereal ‘tax’ before Genbu was corrupted to his current state.

By the time they actually reached Genbu, the effects of the drain were in full effect, leaving both channelers’ energy outputs resembling that of the player Tier, with Cloud appearing to be in the high teens while Isis seemed barely above meta-human.  This made actually catching up to Genbu rather difficult, as what appeared to be slow lethargic steps from far away, allowed the entity which was literally kilometres in length to cover distances much greater than even the lower tier vehicles. Cloud would be forced to dump most of his free energy into obtaining and maintaining a high dash speed as he now made a break for the creature, finally managing to intercept it at great cost to hi stamina.  With this done, all that they would need to deal with was Genbu’s drain, as the energy which it took seemed to solidify onto its form, allowing the entity to grow and repair itself over time.  This made their climbing quite difficult, but luckily Cloud had managed to secure some solid state climbing gear which did not require a power supply, making the task somewhat easier.  While Cloud struggled to surmount the massive beast, Isis began to perform her scans with the assistance of her Field Drive, seeking out any symbols of interest built into the odd entity while she also attempted to communicate with it using Console.  He communication with the entity would not garner her much results, as neural path ways seemed to reek of confusion.  Even her unique abilities would not allow her to siphon through the confusion to discern much information, all young Isis would be able to determine was that Genbu seemed to be in some kind of daze, one which came about as his form was shunted into New Gaia during the fusion.  Isis could only assume that this was a result of the interaction between the creature’s own personal space and the artificial personal space or Russia created by its Zeta Reinforcement.

While Isis continued her search however, Cloud was starting to tire, his stamina burning up just as quickly as if he was fully powered up, while he simply failed to be able to get useful work out of more than 70% of his energy.  A single energy charge would send him hurling towards a safe ledge where he could rest while Isis continued her scans.

Most of the symbols which Isis came across would be indicepherable for her and would most likely require someone with a higher technical capacity to decrypt, but she did find a single highly recurring symbol.  As they rested, she would point this out to Cloud.  Though Cloud had never seen the symbol before, it would still feel oddly familiar to him.  He would need to find out why to fully understand the origins of this unique construct.

Outcome: Cloud and Isis have made it halfway up Genbu, but have been forced to retire due to its draining effects.

Cloud: 250 Exp
  Isis: 270 Exp