Making Contact: Cloud and Itami squad attempt Kairi Itami Bounty (08/09/2403)

As agreed, Setto, Ran and Ryuu were forced to leave Pandora’s Temple with the vehicles to prevent them from being assimilated into the creature’s shell.  The trio would be forced to park the vehicles some distance away before making their way back up the creature’s shell manually and expending a great deal of energy to re-enter the facility.  This would take an entire day for the trio, as the trek back up the creature’s back and the reopening of the door proved to be enough of a task to completely drain their collective stamina.

The next day however, they would get to work bright and early with their search.  Rueben would attempt to make contact with Kairi and Lya Psychically while the Juggerknot sought them out Astrally, leaving Rayne and Ryuu to attempt to sense a familiar Itami energy signature by identifying ethereal signatures that resembled Veranos.  While did this, Ran and Setto would combine their unique abilities, focusing primarily on Ran’s natural attunement to Gaia herself in an attempt to get a feel for what was going on in the strange Temple.

While they did this, Cloud would be going about his own method of searching.  Having little to go on, he would simply make his way to the centre of the facility, continuing to avoid the strange entity that was stalking him, before he began his search protocols.  Unlike the others present in the facility, Cloud had little to go on, so he was forced to be thorough, he would use his natural ethereal senses and search the entire facility in blocks, a task that would admittedly take him some time.

Back with the Itamis, Rayne and Ryuu would fail miserably at their task, while Rueben on the other hand had managed to contact not one but two people.  Oddly enough, he would not be able to establish a mental link with Kairi, but he would be able to communicate with his Malaikin counterpart Lya.  He would also manage to raise Takeshu, but he did not appear to be with those two.  Setto and Ran would gain a great deal of information about their immediate vicinity but Ran would lack the sensory range while Setto lacked the scanning ability to actually locate Kairi, forcing them to follow Rueben’s lead, while Juggerknot provided them with the most interesting of information.  Juggerknot’s natural sensory range was rather high, giving him rather extensive Astral Vision and allowing him to pick up the souls of those in the facility.  Obviously, he could see the souls of his group, but as he looked to the centre of the facility he saw five astral presences that he could not recognise.  When he looked upwards and towards the outskirts of the temple, he would sense just two astral presences, but he would be unable to identify these as well.

Back in the centre of the facility, Cloud, Dias and Isis made up three of the souls that the Juggerknot had sensed, leaving the stalker and this mysterious fifth soul that Juggerknot saw.  By now, Cloud and Isis had managed to catch the large Itami group in their sense, noting that they were moving rather quickly, almost as if they knew where they were going.  Cloud growled as he saw his massive pay-day escaping him.  He would be forced to rush now as he attempted to set up his make-shift traps, utilising his acquired equipment along with his ethereally reinforced hair to crap trip-wire traps, each infused with a few cores just for good measure.  Hopefully they would deal with, or at least slow his stalker while Cloud chased after the Itami team.

Their trek would be lengthily, but eventually the Itami team would come upon a large secured room.  On the inside, they would sense two rather powerful ethereal signatures, but what was particularly odd was that these two signatures seemed to be at full output rather than the nerfed outputs that they all exhibited.  Each member of the team would contribute a technique towards opening the door and surely enough, their combined channelling capacity would reveal Kairi and Lya trapped inside the room.

As they made their way into the room, they would feel the draining effects of the facility lift from them, allowing them to power up to full within the Temple for the first time since their arrival.  Now all that would be left was for Kairi to explain to them all exactly what was going on.

Back downstairs, Cloud could sense as a number of his traps were being tripped, a fact that pleased Cloud until Isis began to run some mental calculations.  Based on the location of each trap and the speed at which they were being tripped, Isis would quickly deduce that Stalker was quickly heading their way, and he was closing the distance fast.  Cloud would curse lightly as he activated the stealth of the Mercenary Combat Suit to full, before further boosting this stealth with his own natural stealth techniques.  This would render him virtually undetectable to his pursuer, leaving Cloud to watch as the channeler with long black hair raced past his location and headed in the direction of the room where the Itamis had found Kairi and Lya.  Cloud found this rather odd, but would say nothing, simply allowing Isis to dismount his form and trail behind while he followed the man that had been stalking him for weeks from a distance.  Isis’ analyses would reveal that the man had not taken the full brunt of the detonation from Cloud’s trap, but even given what she assumed that he had taken, he should be far heavily damaged and more easily slowed.

Back at the room, the six man team led by the Itamis would see an odd figure rushing towards them.  Ryuu would recognise the figure first, identifying him as Takeshu, who had had met before.  This put the team at ease as they exited to meet the man that seemed to be in a hurry.  As he approached however, Setto would get a strange feeling, instantly powering up his form and guarding as the man slid to a stop, with a two hit attack. Rueben would be the one unfortunate enough to be hit by the attack, which scooped him off the ground with a low forearm strike before he was blasted into the room behind them by another attack.  This shocked Rueben considerably as he was the one that had informed Takeshu of their location, but the others did not take the time to think about what was going on.

It didn’t take Setto much time to realise that Geon was the one who had given him the odd feeling, and by then he had put two and two together.  Ran would be on the same page and would instantly move to engage the opponent, who’se power outputs greatly surpassed theirs.  Ryuu would quickly move into the fray, while Rayne and the Juggerknot moved around to take up better attack positions before they too began to attack.  Rueben was simply confused.

As Cloud made his approach, he finally realised why it was that Dias had given him the strange warning about the man that was following him.  That man, now identified as Takeshu, had bonded with the half of the Heiarch fragment that had fled to Pandora’s temple.  What Cloud didn’t understand was why then, would a Heiarch host be so interested in acquiring his power, assuming that the man meant Dias.  His was quite puzzling indeed.

Cloud would watch from his stealthed position as Rueben rejoined the battle now, watching as the six man team duked it out with Takeshu in front of the doorway that led to his target.  On the inside, Kairi and Lya seemed to be suffering from prolonged exposure to the Temple’s draining field.  Isis could only make assumptions, but from the looks of things, this room was designed for the architect of temple, allowing him to exist there without being subject to the ethereal tax.  She and Cloud could only assume that Kairi and Lya had found this room and taken refuge there after having spent too much time in Genbu.

This effectively meant that they would be no help in the battle with Takeshu, but Cloud could not stealth in and rescue them without making his way through the commotion, an action that would most likely get him hit by a stray attack.  So for now, Cloud would wait in the shadows and watch the battle progress.  Luckily for the Itami squad, with a guardian in the mix, it made the battle far easier while the group grossly outnumbered Takeshu, giving the channeler, who was still becoming accustomed to utilising Heiarch’s power, a particularly hard time.  His ability to create energy did allow him to counteract the effects of Genbu’s drain, allowing him to function at full output, while providing him with constant regeneration, but at the end of the day, his skills were still that of a level 35 channeler and his proficiency with Heiarch’s unique energy type was not particularly high.

Between Ryuu and Rayne his ethereal abilities would be proficiently countered, while the Juggerknot did his best to attack him from the Spiritual angle.  This left Rueben to attack him psychically, giving Setto and Ran full spectrum back up as they went about dealing with this channeler on a full life force level.  As Cloud watched on, he would realise that this destroyer candidate indeed appeared to be losing, but it was still not safe for him to move past the battle, much to his annoyance.

The battle would not draw out too long, as Takeshu quickly realised that he was outmatched, forcing him to summon a great deal of energy to himself before he exploded with a flash of light, blasting all present away as he vanished from the facility.  Cloud would waste no time now, stealthing into the room to find Kairi and Lya, both barely being able to sustain their capped forms due to the sheer ethereal exhaustion that they suffered as they had tried to stop Takeshu from acquiring the Heiarch fragment, and the exhaustion from the battle which ensued once he had acquired his new power.  It appeared that they were barely able to make it out of the battle alive given their current states.  Slowly the entire story would make sense.

As he made his way up to the exhausted and slowly rejuvenating Itami and Malaikin royals, the Itami team also made their way into the mouth of the doorway.  Ryuu’s eyes would widen as he saw Cloud there but Rueben would not even be remotely pleased.

“We’ve come to take Kairi.  You should leave.”  Rueben stated firmly, but Cloud did not even address him.

“It’s good to see that you are well Ryuu.”  Cloud stated, drawing an amused nod from the youngest of the Itami brothers present, before he turned his attention back to Kairi and began to speak.  Rueben would power up his form to max now causing Setto and Ran to sigh simultaneously.

“You two can’t be serious.”  Ran stated.  “This is not the place or the time.”  He continued as he made his way over to Lya to make sure that she was okay.

“Indeed, our destination is Genaisa... we can deal with whatever this is once my brother and Lya are safe.”  Setto stated, making his way over to Kairi and helping him to his feet.  There would be no fighting today, those interested in the quest reward would make their way to Genaisa and the issue would be dealt with there.

Outcome: Kairi and Lya have been rescued, upon their return to Genaisa, the bounty will be complete.

Rueben: 320 Exp (-1200HP)
Rayne: 290 Exp (-345HP)
Ryuu: 300 Exp (-250HP)

Juggerknot: 320 Exp (-250HP)

Cloud: 260 Exp
  Isis: 260 Exp