Final Five

[Skyswimsky]

Kyouko still sound asleep early in the morning, it was ultimately the sound off a rather childish notification sound from her smart-phone, signalizing Tian-Gui's message has indeed arrived on the right device, that served as sort of alarm. Giving off some really bad sounds from herself, the girl took a quick glance. First, the time. Yes, way too fucking early. Next, the identity of the sender whom deserved a thousand deaths: Tian. Finally, the content of the message itself. Something about an Operation and time for a week or so... Kyouko was way too tired to think, or read, more about it. What was important that she was already on a week long vacation? Drifting back into the land of dreams

The sun was already high-up by the time Kyouko declared her awakening with a big yawn. Giving her mobile-phone another glance the brunette shook her head, why couldn't she just turn it off while sleeping? Deciding to care about herself first, the heroine-in-training didn't even bother picking it up from her comfortable bed and instead proceeded for a nice, long, warm morning shower. Only then, after what felt like half an hour, Kyouko was reading over Tian's message again. A camping trip? That sounded awesome and fun! Though it didn't even take a minute to already start doubting this act of...bounding? Regardless, a training session sounded like something she would need. Thus, giving Tian finally a quick[/] answer:

That sounds totally awesome! Count me in! Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ

 

[Asuras]

The first text John had recieved from Tian-Gui was met with wide eyes; he hadn't actually heard about the attack yet. A few seconds later, he received a phone call from Anfisa that elucidated him as to what the steely Final Five member was talking about. The informant shot back a text immediately to Tian-Gui.

On it.

At the entrance to the twin's unfettered shelter, Tian-Gui was received with a slightly-ajar door and a pair of dull, insomnia-ridden eyes. Atop Yigga's head was a 20th century soldier's helmet, unbuckled, as if she were prepared for some sort of firefight. She looked down at his outstretched hand and slowly grabbed his phone before retreating back inside without a word.

There were, undoubtedly, a few news helicopters that may or may not have snapped some photos of Tian-Gui in the gutted penthouse, but in the days that followed, nothing surfaced on the news stations or papers about their ordeal. Either someone on the Final Five's end saw it fitting to limit information being disseminated, or the Thremont's themselves paid for a hush-hush.

A few members returned to the penthouse on occasion, namely the housekeepers and Anfisa, who tried to salvage a few research items from the penthouse lab. None stayed, though reconstruction had begun to take place without the aid of either wealthy Final Five member. It seemed as though a certain benefactor was notified of their situation and opted to chip in the total cost of reconstruction. The damage to the rooftop allowed for a second story to be built, and as things began to develop, it seemed as though the nameless benefactor had also submitted a floor design plan for a true "headquarters" for the Final Five. John refused to reveal the benefactor's name when asked.

It would be several weeks before the building, while fast under way, was finished.

Meanwhile, the Final Five had set out on their week-long camping trip. Runa's schoolwork had been resolved, though did necessitate the dreadful need to do the work "while on vacation". She escaped little. The forests of Washington were their destination, and a large open area had been reserved by the team, complete with a campside lake. The Olympic rainforests were vibrantly green and the skies a gentle grey, not quite unlike the general weather of Shanhu most of the year. Limov, of course, dropped them off, spending the entire trip recounting his battle with Thremont thugs in the apartment parking garage several days ago, in an attempt to ensure none of his precious vehicles weren't blown up.

The four members of the Final Five were left isolated in the national park, as Limov ensured he would return in two day's time to pick them up for Operation Cerberus. What they did there, was up to them.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

Elsewhere...

"With Ling's spontaneous disintegration, we are, once again, left with only four members as our main team," said a suave male voice in the darkness. A dull light emanated from behind a large window in the wall. Two were present.

"Do we necessarily need five? Where is the constitution that says we must have five?" replied another man.

"It has more to do with the image and publicity. I'm not sure how the originals would respond if we switched things up too much either... if they ever return that is."

"So why not Luminary? We need her anyways, right?"

"She's too much of a liability. I can't ever see her staying with a group of other heroes. She'd do her own thing."

"So then you propose... this guy?" said the second man, gesturing disapprovingly to the humanoid machine sitting behind the one-way mirror. The first shrugged, stepping closer to the window, light illuminating his front. John stared at the cyborg that sat patiently before him, unaware that they, specifically, were watching him. Or perhaps he was; John didn't research much into the cyborg's capabilities.

"He's been working for an electric company for a long time now."

"And?"

"He hasn't seen much action."

"He's a god damned mercenary, you know that, right? Did you not read the dossier?"

"I skimmed it."

"You're really set on Luminary, huh?"

"...Maybe."

John sighed before approaching the door to the room where Jin-Sun sat, opening it before gesturing for the other man to follow in. John, of course, was a tall and tightly-built individual, cloaked in a white trenchcoat. his hair was a lustrous silver and his equally so. The man that followed him was tall, business-like, and of raven-colored hair. He was clearly either simply a businessman, or some sort of shadowy important individual. Jin-Sun could not identity him regardless.

Both of them sat down at the steel table before Jin-Sun, crossing their arms and leaning forward.

"Alright Jin-Sun, we need to ask you a few questions before we proceed," John said.

 

[Psyker Landshark]

Jin-Sun sat, waiting as he watched the people inside the room in front of him debate his fate. Thermal vision was a damned useful thing to have, and the suits inside probably knew it. After all, if one were to cram the equivalent of a small country's GDP into one cyborg body, it had damn well better feature basic tools like different vision modes.

Still, that didn't mean he could hear them. So when John and an unknown suit entered the room, Jin-Sun was pleasantly surprised to hear that they hadn't rejected him outright.

"Ask away then." He said pleasantly, his hands folded.

"How many operations have you successfully completed for Shanhu Semiconductor?" John opened up.

"Eleven within the past year." Jin-Sun replied. "Should also note that I'm contractually obligated not to disclose information on those missions." He shrugged apologetically. "If I don't get taken on, I'd rather not piss off my employer. And if I do get taken on, I'd rather not piss off my former employer that I'd have to work with."

"Certainly," John nodded, "I'm not interested in the content of them. Though you bring up an important point. Iphigenia. How much interaction do you have with her?"

"Strictly business." The cyborg said, relaxed. "She checks in with me every few weeks outside of jobs. Worried that I took paychecks from someone already on the team?"

"Not at all. I'm sure we'll all be getting some money from the girl sooner or later. Anything helps." John leaned back. "What do you think of her?"

"In the sense of cooperation. How well do you work with her?" asked the other man.

"She didn't cut me open and hack my limbs off, so I'm fine with her. No objections to her and we've found that I'm immune to basically all of her abilities, so we should work fine together. At least there's no risk of friendly fire." The two men looked at one another neutrally before John spoke up again.

"If you… could have one wish granted, what would it be?" John asked.

Jin-Sun sat in thought for a moment, rubbing his metal jaw. "To not have to go through the pain of being cut apart and experimented on, much less have it happen to anyone else. Or to at least have this body be useful in helping others. If I have this power, why not use it for justice?"

"I see, I see… Well then, next question." John reached into a pocket inside his trenchcoat and pulled out a folded stack of thin papers, scribbled on neatly, but heavily. He gave them a gentle toss towards Jin-Sun. "What would you say if I told you that we were after the Thremont sisters and you were coming with us? Hypothetically, of course," he grinned.

"I'd say that this is exactly why the original Five didn't pick me." Jin-Sun leaned in, eagerly snatching the documents and starting to read them over. "And that I'd be even more eager to join than I am now."

"At least you recognize it, which brings up our obvious concern. Few of us look for needless bloodshed, especially when we consider our targets are individuals who, if found dead, would result in severe backlash. We question you because we are unsure of your ability to maintain composure in the face of your captors," John explained.

"In my defense, I wasn't exactly all there in the head when Citadel and Black Star picked me up." Jin-Sun said defensively as he continued reading. "Being put in about a dozen VR training sims where you do nothing but kill people tends to do that to a person. Especially after they already spent a week in sheer agony." He paused, looking up at John. "But I understand. I'll be happy enough to see those three behind bars. Or if it comes down to it as a last resort, no one will suspect the Final Five." Jin-Sun suddenly disappeared into thin air for a few seconds before a non-descript Caucasian man in a suit took his place in the chair. "I can be very discreet."

John laughed. The other man grimaced. "We just want to be sure you won't jump the gun and kill any of the sisters unless absolutely necessary."

"He means not at all," the other man chimed in, "Don't kill them period." The papers that Jin-Sun read contained a series of informational tid bits that John had apparently gathered together; recent research tasks generated by Heavyware, money flow, Thremont sisters' last known locations, and some codewords, symbols, and question marks strewn about various places. It was something only John himself could fully decipher.

"Before we actually let you on the team, however, we'd like to run a few tests of your abilities, if you don't mind," John said.

"Fine by me." Jin-Sun said as he deactivated his Illusion Drive. The hologram covering his body disappeared, and Jin-Sun set down the papers, leaving them on the page of the Thremonts' last known locations. A patch of question marks rested next to Valentine and Renane's names. Nistra's was apparently at a Chinese luxury hotel a day past. "When do we begin?"

"Momentarily," John said, standing up, "We're headed to the Baroque Simcade. Ever been there? Fun place. I'd advise you keep up a disguise though. If anyone sees someone like you walking into a simcade, they'll know what's up." John snapped a finger at the other man, who promptly handed him a small, black digital chip and sighed.

"Craziest one I could find," he said.

Jin-Sun stayed silent as he shifted into an Asian teenager in a hoodie and jeans. "Alright, dudebro. You fucking got it." He said in a voice more befitting someone of his appearance.

 

[Astoria]

In the end, the week that followed was less than pleasant. Hosting Runa and the two caretakers passed without much event, and the hostile gunships that Iphigenia had feared never appeared to destroy the apartment. In the morning, she vehemently protested Tian's camping proposal, but eventually caved on hearing of Ling's spontaneous disintegration on the condition that nobody would complain about the things she brought along.
With the lawyers and engineers conveniently in town that morning, an emergency board meeting for Courtlandt Holdings was called that day to reevaluate its relationship with Heavyware. While Iphigenia was tight-lipped about the details of the previous evening, enough evidence was provided to call in question the business relationship. Civil and criminal proceedings were briefly discussed but ruled out due to their high profile nature, and it was decided that if any legal action were to take place, they would push for arbitration. In the meantime, the lawyers would be digging up as much dirt as they could, and if the engineers were not looking into their projects again, they were now. Iphigenia could only pray that the company didn't turn the whole ordeal into a clusterfuck while she was away.

In regards to the loss of the Final Five's fifth member, Iphie also placed several calls later that day, but quickly afterwards, found herself preoccupied with the more mundane matter of packing for camping. It really wasn't something she'd ever done before. The closest activity she'd done was go hiking or hunting back in England, and even then, it was a day-trip sort of deal. She spared no expenses bringing along items to maintain the highest standard of living, the most notable being Standard Electric's highest quality mobile generator, a universal power supply, a satellite receiver and wifi hotspot, and naturally, her laptop. In comparison, her attire for the trip was more mundane, including sweaters and a windbreaker in lieu of the crisp suits and ties that were her normal attire.

And keeping with the highest of British hunting tradition, she brought along a Winchester hunting rifle from her house in England, and after consulting with Chloe and her absurdly large collection of handguns, was loaned a vintage Browning Hi-Power. Naturally, she bought a nice hunting cap for the whole thing too, because even if camping was going to be horrid, she might as well dress and arm for the occasion.

Ultimately, she had to hitch a small trailer to Limov's car, but she was bloody prepared.

 

[R-9 Pilot]

Runa's own camping preparations were far more flippant and appeared to be more on the side of "what, me worry?" than anything serious. It didn't really seem like she owned any outfits that were particularly geared toward wilderness survival or even particular temperature extremes, so she just grabbed what she did have at hand and tossed it in a duffel bag. Weapons? None. Need for electronics or other major supplies? Some, but mostly because any girl her age wouldn't do without the cell phone if she could help it. And she was bringing various books, for school or other entertainment. The most notable one looked to be some old lab notebook, slightly charred on the cover now, which she called her diary. It didn't look like a typical girl's diary.

If anything, she was likely more a nuisance than anything, wondering out loud why someone would even need so much stuff if they were going out in the woods for a while. She wasn't even bringing a sleeping bag, and had the nerve to question the wisdom of more conventional items. She was treating the entire excursion more like a walk in the park, than anything serious, although she did worry a bit about whatever bizarre and grueling ideas for training they would end up running through.

 

[ERode]

Ultimately, instead of the one week training camp that Tian-Gui had envisioned, their camping trip was only to last for two days. A shame, really, but after Ling's death, it made sense that the past few days were a little more busy than normal.

It felt odd, that he wasn't too distressed at all about Ling's spontaneous disintegration. They were friends, of course, and the Ling-Tian wombo combos were the stuff of legends back when the Final Five was merely a Final Two, but the more that he thought about it, the more the golden sentinel realized that Ling was just a shell of a person. They never truly bonded, and the arcane spirit was so removed from reality, so passive, that Ling's sudden death almost felt...natural.

Now, the Shade's Coffin was back in the storage, albeit for a single piece. It didn't serve as a replacement for Ling's arcane charging, but it was a good memento, laced around Tian-Gui's neck. They might not have been close, but Ling had still been a member of the Final Five. Like Lotte, Citadel, Gigakill, Black Star, and Majorana, he'll live in Tian-Gui's memories, and become a source of strength to draw from in a time of need.

The raven-haired man sighed.

Those thoughts really weren't befitting of him, especially when the remaining four were out in the great outdoors of America. He would have preferred a more exotic location, like Alaska, but, alas, the Washington wilderness was where Limov dropped them off.

Packing up had been easy for Tian-Gui, who could dry lift 1 ton without breaking sweat. He packed enough food for the four of them to last three nights if they all ate as much as he did, an icebox full of non-alcoholic beverages like milk and milk, as well as two tents. They were heading to a cabin, so Tian-Gui doubted that the two human girls would have thought to bring something like that. Needless to say, it was probably a good thing that Limov had a private jet, and that Tian-Gui was as tall as he was, or the whole thing would have been impossible.

When they finally arrived at the lakeside cabin, just a two-hour walk to the base of a neighbouring mountain, Tian-Gui instinctively snapped out his phone and took a few high definition pictures. His clothes were of the hardy, adventurous sort, and, after satisfying his lust for selfies and landscape pictures, the young man looked around and said, "Well now, everyone, we only got two days for this, so everyone, let's get hiking! Heard the weather forecast was going to be clear, so if we spend a whole day climbing to the peak, we can get some nice stars at night!"

 

[Skyswimsky]

Ling was... dead? Kyouko wasn't so sure, she knew next to nothing about the entity titled Ling, and the few interactions she had with him did not aid the cause. It felt strange, much like the deaths she witnessed before, the brunette told herself to feel something... sorrow, compassion, pity? But did she really? Was the girl more heartless than she would like to be? Wasn't a hero supposed to care about every and any human being, good or evil? Kyouko shook her head, why was it that ever since she joined the Final Five and Miku died everything seemed more...complex? The young member was supposed to just have fun and do whatever the fuck she wanted instead of having some silly and dumb deep thoughts at every possibility.

"Let's make the best out of those two days and rock!" Pushing her thoughts back into her mind with loud and unnecessary motivation inside the car until they finally arrived. Much like somebody else Kyouko, too, was anything but prepared for the trip. Some food, a first-aid kit, sleeping-bag and some spare clothes was all she was capable of fitting into her bag. As for her smart-phone, well, she simply had it left home, and it was only natural that Iphie would fetch herself sooner or later a lot of snarky comments from the forgetful-heroine that had her very own vision of how a camping trip should be.

As they were finally released into the wilderness after a way too-long ride, Kyouko was a bit disappointed, there even was a cabin! Pointing at it she said. "Let's make a great big campfire out of this thing! And while we're at it let's throw all this trash Iphie-chan brought along too." Point made. With that said, Kyouko now shifted her attention towards the mountain. Not really planning to take the initiative, she started moving nonetheless. "Into the unknown!"

 

[Psyker Landshark]

The Baroque Simcade entrance was a curved arch filled with an indiscernible number of logos advertising particular pre-made simulations. The fee for each was hefty; it was still difficult to create a high-fidelity, expansive simulation that could serve a broad range of tastes. Inside was a rave of neon lights and individuals watching screens, getting a taste of what was in store if they jumped into that particular simulation. Mascot robots walked about, ensuring customers knew of when and where simulation rooms were open, and what they featured.

John and Jin-Sun walked through the long, tubular hallway, brushing past apathetic patrons as they made their way to the back. A receptionist behind a curved counter looked up and smiled. "Hi there. What can I do for you?" he asked. He wore a tennis cap printed with the Simcade's logo, along with a number of other designs. John handed him two things; the black data chip he had received from the other man, and a badge with some of John's information on it. It wasn't any organization Jin-Sun knew of, but he figured it meant something to the receptionist.

The young man looked down at the monitor in front of him and scanned through a list. Nodding, he looked up to Jin-Sun with an expression of mild curiosity before nodding again. He picked up a set of keys from inside a drawer and beckoned for the two to follow him to a door off to the side.

He opened it up and gestured for John and Jin-Sun to step inside. He didn't follow them in. John offered thanks and waited for the door to close before turning to the set of chairs lined up along the room's edges. Besides them, it was empty of patrons. John gestured to one of the chairs. "Sit yourself down and we'll get started." He moved to a console closer to the door and inserted the chip into a slot before booting up the system.

Jin-Sun nodded, planting his behind down on a chair. Thankfully, it was sturdy enough to accommodate his cyborg body. "Never used one of these before that wasn't geared towards mass murder." He said conversationally. "Had a few friends in the old squad that blew their paychecks on sex sims every leave, though. Anything I should know?"

"Really now?" John said, still facing the computer, "I would've thought you entered a training simulation at one point or another." Pressing a finger hard onto a particular, obvious button, the chair around Jin-Sun revved to life, albeit quietly. A machine above lowered around him. The ring of lights encircled Jin-Sun with a wide berth, and hovered at head level before growing in brightness. John shrugged. "Expect anything and everything," he said. "Good luck." The machine screamed and a flash of light hit Jin-Sun.

His vision returned in the middle of a city intersection. It was generically designed, colored a uniform grey without any sign of deviation in architecture. He could see other intersections down each street. After a moment, there was a slow grow in noise; general human chatter like on a street. As if fading into existence, the world had become populated by a crowd of city-goers. The mundane addition was jarred by a large, glaringly red timer the floated high in the sky.

2 hours counted down.

The people around Jin-Sun seemed to care little of his presence. They at least acknowledged he existed; they avoided bumping into him, and on occasion gave him a silent smile as a greeting before continuing on their way. A loud buzzer sounded out that Jin-Sun, apparently, could only hear. The civilians seemed ignorant of it. Next to the timer in the sky, a three-digit number scrambled, cycling through numbers before selecting one, and then a second, and finally a third. 372 was the result. There was a pause, and then suddenly a rumble. The civilians reacted to it, many of them pausing and looking about. Next to Jin-Sun, a manhole suddenly flew into the air and landed in a crowd of civilians, missing them as they cried out and moved out of the way.

Out of the open hole, a glistening tentacle shot upwards, towering two stories above the street. Civilians cried out and began to disperse. The tentacle reared backwards, cups aimed towards the evacuating people, and seemed poised to crush dozens in a single strike.

"Just because I'm half-Japanese…" Jin-Sun grumbled at what John had selected for his opponent before he drew his sword and dashed forward to slice the tentacle off at its base. Hopefully he'd manage to catch it when it fell so no civilians got crushed.

Jin-Sun's blade cut across the tentacle, slicing it nearly in two, but leaving a section of its flesh still held together. There was a shriek from below and the tentacle flailed about, its distal region useless but nevertheless attached. The lower flesh rose further out of the manhole and swiped along the ground.

The cyborg ninja leapt up into the air in a somersault, whirling over the sweeping tentacle below before he plunged down towards it, blade extended to cleave right through. A large section of the tentacle split apart, leaving the dismembered section squirming along the concrete for a brief moment before falling still. The unseen creature shrieked again and retracted its wounded limb into the sewers. The sky alarmed again, and another three digit number cycled down into a seemingly randomized number.

Above Jin-Sun, glass shattered out onto the street and one of the building walls burst outward. A hulking figure soared through the air briefly before crashing down upon the concrete with a crash. As it turned, Jin-Sun found himself faced with a massive humanoid decked from head to toe in dense armor, and sporting two formidable weapons; an oversized gatling gun and a flamethrower clung to the hulk's arms. It let out a low guttural roar before revving up its gun.

"That's more like it!" Jin-Sun roared as he charged at the juggernaut. Leaping up, he launched a Wire Spear from his shoulder into the titan's head and reeled himself in for a high-speed dropkick with both feet. The wire embedded in the giant's helmet just in time to avoid an upward volley of bullets. His kick hit home, but the beast only seemed mildly fazed, and immediately lifted a hand to grab Jin-Sun. The cyborg was, once again, too fast for his opponent and easily avoided the torso-sized hand with a backflip.

As he whirled back around, Jin-Sun fired a second Wire Spear from his other shoulder and drew his sword as he reeled himself in once more to try to cleave his opponent's head in two. Jin-Sun's sword clanged against the behemoth's helm, embedding halfway into the thick steel that protected its neck. The giant chuckled heartily before leaning back and suddenly lurching forward. Aiming for a body slam, the giant fell upon the ground, only impacting once Jin-Sun had a mere second to dodge the crushing blow.

"High-vibration my ass!" Jin-Sun swore at his sword as he rolled out of the way of the giant's body slam. In real life, he'd started to come across armor that the prototype blade needed to slash repeatedly in order to weaken, so the same principle probably applied to the sim. Twirling the blade around into a reverse grip, Jin-Sun rushed forward, leaping onto the prone giant's back as he hung on with one hand, repeatedly jamming his sword into the juggernaut with the other. With each strike, the blade pushed deeper and deeper into the armor plating. So encumbered by its own defenses, the behemoth could only flail about as it attempted to wrest Jin-Sun off. It only took three stabs to break into the creature's flesh and easily pierced further. The giant began to stumble backwards, and nearly pushed Jin-Sun into a building, but fell over dead beforehand. Blood pooled inside the of giant's armor and seeped through the cracks as it laid like a beached whale on the street.

The buzzer sounded again, and another random number displayed.

666.

The ground rumbled again and the sky turned a deep red. The concrete at the center of the intersection began to crack and split, and with one final heave, exploded upwards and hovered for a moment as some infernal demon rose from the fires that glowed beneath. It stepped forward on thin air, as if using an invisible staircase. Its body was an ashen grey color and rippling with muscle. Two enormous bat-like wings spread across its back, and in place of a horned head was a metal crown held aloft by red flames

"Really, John?" Jin-Sun grumbled at the sky. "You guys put in a Satan simulation?" He threw his hands up in the air, exasperated. The demon lifted a finger towards Jin-Sun before waving its other hand over its head, summoning a sword of fire from the air. With a single beat of its wings, the demon surged forward and slammed its sword into the ground.

Jin-Sun fired a Wire Spear at a nearby building and reeled himself in to avoid the demon's sword. In the middle of the air, he called that wire back and fired a second one at the demon itself, flying in to slash at its wing with his sword. The wire caught into its wing, piercing through and inevitably into the concrete below. Jin-Sun's sword hit home cutting into the leathery wing and causing the demon to roar out. It bled, but did not stagger. The beast swung its sword at Jin-Sun again, narrowly missing as the heat of the blade singed his sensors.

The cyborg ninja flipped over the sword and the demon itself, landing behind the demon as he fired Wire Spears from behind his shoulders and pulled, trying to flip the demon over his head and slam it into the pavement. While the tethers managed to lift the demon from its feet, the winged creature managed to right itself in midair, landing on its knees in front of Jin-Sun. The creature grabbed at the wires that still stuck to it back and yanked them upwards. Before it could get a true pull on Jin-Sun, however, he had a moment to detach and avoid being thrown about himself.

Instead, Jin-Sun let himself be thrown up. However, as he rose in the air, he reeled himself in, taking his blade with both hands and plunging it towards the demon's chest at high speed. The blade pressed deep into the demon's body, temporarily crippling it as it fell to its knees. The flames that served as its head burst, growing in intensity as a disembodied roar cried out. The demon stood back up and lifted its arm across its chest before swinging a back-hand at Jin-Sun.

He ducked under the backhand before dashing in, driving his sword up at the demon with a diagonal uppercut slash. Like a finishing blow, Jin-Sun cleaved a life-ending gash from hip to peck. The demon paused, seemingly petrified, before the flames at its neck extinguished. The creature collapsed into ash. Jin-Sun's trials continued for the timer's duration, each new enemy an utterly random generation and hardly similar to the last. Jin-Sun experienced fighting a squad of highly-trained elite soldiers armed to the teeth, a mechanical dinosaur, an army of genetically engineered wasps, and even a generic magical girl.

"Hraaah!" Jin-Sun roared as he smashed a fist into Mahou Shoujo Kirika's face, finally knocking her out. Magical Girl Kirika burst into a cloud of multicolored hearts, just as the timer hit ten seconds. A final enemy appeared; what looked to be a grandiose phoenix dove down to the street level. The timer hit 0, and before Jin-Sun could attack, the creature simply vanished in a flash. 0:00:00 flashed in the sky, and after a moment, Jin-Sun was pulled from the simulation.

His vision returned to the room he sat in, just as the machine encircling him rose up. John stood before him, arms crossed. "Twenty-three fights. I've never seen this simulation being used before, so I can't say truly how good you did, but it looked mighty impressive to me. How'd you feel? Do you even tire?"

"Could be better," Jin-Sun panted as he stood up, still shaking off the adrenaline in his system. "And of course I do. Didn't my dossier have my specs in it? My chest is still mostly organic, it's just covered in armor."

"We were more interested in your psychological profile than anything," John shrugs, "As far as I'm concerned, though, you've got plenty of mettle to work with the Final Five."

The hologram of the teenage boy that Jin-Sun put over himself grinned widely. "Fantastic. Suppose the decision's not entirely up to you, though." John shook his head.

"Correct. I'll have to put it past a few others, and ask the Final Five themselves, before you can finally be accepted and put on the team. I can only hope we all reach a decision before Operation Cerberus comes about." John sighed. "Well, unless you have any other questions or concerns, you're free to go. I'll contact you when and if we reach a decision."

Jin-Sun nodded. "Alright, then. If you need me, I'll be in town. You already have my comlink, so you can reach me just fine. Suppose I really should buy a cell phone, though." He said as he left the room.

 

[R-9 Pilot]

Runa looked over at Kyouko and grinned widely at her suggestion of torching everything. "Looks like you actually care about roughing it, too. Awesome!" She pauses to lean in and continue in a quieter tone of voice. "But...it's probably better if we don't destroy everything, you know, for the more delicate types."

"Su~re," she answered the suggestion of a hike, and followed along behind Kyouko, quickening her pace to catch up with the other girl. "Well, this should be nice and leisurely," she commented on the hike. "It's some pretty countryside, too, so taking our time to take in the sights is just the thing. Hopefully, we don't find any bears to wrestle." Not that it would bother her, but she'd feel bad for the bear. "So, you wanna just rough it all proper-like? Collect our own food, build a fire, make shelter, that sort of stuff?"

 

[Asuras]

"Heard the weather forecast was going to be clear, so if we spend a whole day climbing to the peak, we can get some nice stars at night!"

Crash/ Not the sort of crash of lightning, or wind for that matter. It was an ocean of water that had produced the sound. A literal ceiling of heavy liquid dropped upon the surface of everything in sight. It wasn't gradual. There was no build up. From empty air to a divine deluge, the sky was suddenly filled with rain of an ungodly sort, as if something massive had just turned over an atmospheric bucket. The torrent continued incessantly, and didn't inclined to let up any time soon. Under the protection of a treeline, Kyouko and Runa received the best treatment, though the streams of water finding their way through the canopy still pelted them, turning their clothes just as soaking wet as the two that stood by the cabin.

---

It didn't take long for Jin-Sun to receive a phone call, though the one who answered his greeting on the other line turned out to be someone entirely unexpected, unknown even. "This is Jin-Sun, correct?" asked a distorted, obviously purposefully modified voice. He could not identify it. The day was filled with unfamiliar people, it seemed.

"We cannot reveal our identity, but we do know of your potential candidacy for the Final Five, and of the organization's planned mission. We would like to make a request of you, should you participate in 'Operation Cerberus'. There will be a man sitting at a cafe table across the street from you. He is wearing a brown long-sleeved shirt and a green bandanna. Should you wish to entertain our request, speak with him discretely. We have information you may want, in exchange for cooperation." The line hung up.

Across the street, through the crowd of city-goers, surely enough was sitting the man that been described to him.

The choice was left to Jin-Sun.[/i]

 

[Psyker Landshark]

Jin-Sun sighed as he tucked his phone away. Another anonymous benefactor, eh? It stood to reason that whoever this was, they at least had a separate agenda from the actual Final Five backers. Likely, they probably wanted something stolen from the Thremonts. Or if he was lucky, they wanted their heads. Shaking his head, he walked over towards the cafe table and sat down across from the man, still disguised as a teenager.

"Afternoon." He said pleasantly, folding his hands together on top of the table. There was no harm in at least hearing the man out. "Let's get down to business, shall we?"

"Hey dude," said the young man enthusiastically. He threw out a hand to shake as casually as he would with a friend. "Yea dude, lets." He nodded. He reached around to a messenger bag hanging on the chair and pulled out a paper envelope. "Found some super dope stuff for you." He handed it over to Jin-Sun directly.

"All we need is for you to beat those tournament opponents. You know like, really beat them. Make sure they know they can't come back to the gaming scene, right?" he laughed genuinely. "If you catch my drift, heh." Inside the envelope was a series of documents, pristine and organized, along with a series of photographs sitting at the bottom.

"...You're going to have to back up a little." Jin-Sun remarked mildly as he started going through the documents and photographs. "What tournament are you even talking about? Wasn't aware I had time to screw around with kids playing Dota 4." He questioned, raising an eyebrow.

The young man leaned forward and tilted his head side to side. "C-c'mon man. How're you forgetting? You serious? The tournament man. With your four buddies? Sponsored by Heavyware?"

"Ah." Jin-Sun clicked his tongue. God damn spy bullshit. This was more of Black Star's specialization than his, really. "So, you want me to do what I was already planning to. Fair enough. What happens if I don't, though? It'd look real bad for me and my friends if people know we did it, you know."

"Yea man I get it. But the agency just can't handle them being on the scene anymore. Cause too many problems. Others will say it's not fair or'll cause a lot of commotion in the fanbase, but my guys just really need them gone. Like, totally." He shrugged. "If you don't do it, can't really bring you any more of the good stuff." He eyed the envelope in Jin-Sun's hands.

Jin-Sun frowned through the hologram he was using as his face. While the offer of intel for killing the Thremonts was an easy choice, the real question was who was behind this? Obviously, they had some kind of in with the Final Five's management. Hell, they could be one of the suits. It still didn't explain how they seemed to be better informed in this manner than John. "This really is some good stuff, you know. Better than the stuff our guy gets, and he's really good at it. How're your guys better than him?"

"Huh? What guy? Dunno who you're talking about man." As Jin-Sun pulled out the documents just slightly, he could immediately discern what the 'stuff' actually was. A Heavyware logo sat at the top of each paper, and a "Classified" label was humorously scribbled across with black ink. The paper titles seemed to indicate some sort of experiment going on under Heavyware jurisdiction, and not just any experiment.

One similar to what Jin-Sun himself had suffered.

The documents were incomplete, revealing only the manner of experiments being performed and on who. The photographs revealed a mug shot of a young girl looking quite unhappy, holding up a serial number as she was imaged from various angles. Her name appeared throughout the experiments. A certain "Nijisu Otodete".

Jin-Sun stayed silent for several moments, simply staring at the documents. When he finally looked up, he fixed the young man with a steely gaze. "I'm in." He said. "Should've lead off with this. Saved us both some time."

"Right answer," someone said from behind. A hand dropped on Jin-Sun's shoulder, and as he turned to look, found John himself standing just behind his seat. "This is the sort of thing we look for," he smiled.

"It figures." Jin-Sun snorted. "I was wondering who would actually be better informed than you." He said, leaning back in his chair. "Saves me from having to worry about who I just sold myself to."

"While there is mild worry about your willingness to go against our own wishes, what gladdens me most is that you're ultimately focused on doing what's right in your heart. We would much rather you think for yourself, than as a mere puppet." john motioned to sit down next to the two of them.

"Here's the next part though. Those documents?" John pressed a finger on the envelope, "They're legit."

"I hope this job just turned into a rescue." Jin-Sun scowled, looking through the experiment document again.

"Perhaps, calling it a 'salvage mission' may be more appropriate. We know when she was abducted, but not how quickly procedures were applied to her. We can only hope." John reached inside his trenchcoat and pulled out another envelope. "We have the rest of the information here. The part our little test required me keep secret." He put it on the table but immediately continued, "Don't bother reading it though, because I'll be telling you the rest." John nodded to the young man in the bandanna, who nodded back and waved to Jin-Sun.

"Good luck," he said, picking up his messenger bag and disappearing. John turned back to Jin-Sun.

"How quickly do you think you can be prepared for an infiltration mission?"

"Give me a fork to stick in an electrical outlet, and I'm good to go." Jin-Sun quipped as he stood up. "When are we starting?" John laughed heartily, pulling out his cellphone.

"Well then, I suppose we'd better be off to Northern Russia!" he exclaimed, standing up. A few moments later, there was a great roar, and from the city skyline descended a preposterously quick flying vehicle. It dove down to just above the street level, dispersing the crowds that were underneath. As they made way, it hovered closer to the street, just enough for John and Jin-Sun to jump aboard the lowered bay ramp at its rear.

"You passed another test," he said over the roar of the angled jet engines, "Was trying to see if you're able to hop into mission situations on the fly. I assure you though, no more petty tests. Hop on board and we'll take your final exam."

Nodding, Jin-Sun stepped inside, deactivating his Illusion Drive as the bay doors closed.

 

[ERode]

Just as Tian-Gui boasted about the great weather that the forecast predicted that night, heaven's gates opened and a torrent of rain descended, drenching him in an instant. The veil of rain was almost too thick for him to see through, and suddenly, that dream of camping up on the mountains and taking in the night sky was shattered.

Down below, the tall youth raised his head up to the heavens, eyes open despite the heavy raindrops that struck them. It didn't hurt. It didn't hurt at all. There was nothing sad about this. No, this was…

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"

He laughed and he screamed, frustration and joy fusing into something that was equal parts hilarious and disturbing. Raising up his hands to the air, Tian-Gui howled with laughter, before reaching out with one hand and clenching it into a fist.

Turning to his nakama, he grinned fearlessly and declared, "Looks like mother Nature has decided to challenge us today! I like your attitude too, Runa! Let's do this shit, and once we get up on the mountains, let's blow this storm out of the sky!"

Going with the flow, Tian-Gui tossed his bags and ice cooler aside, marching off.

"Final Four, DEPART!"

 

[Astoria]

When they landed at the airport, Iphie picked up the rest of the supplies that she hadn't brought over from home. As it was, feeling the absence of what she believed to be proper camping supplies, these goods happened to be jerky and a case of craft beer, which, by virtue of being in America, meant that only her and Tian had the liberty of enjoying the latter. Ironically, a bottle was nearly wasted on Kyouko when Iphigenia mentally restrained herself from clobbering the impertinent girl over the head for her comments. Instead, she gave the more passive-aggressive quip of suggesting to throw the younger girl into the campfire instead.

Upon reaching the cabin, Iphie quickly went to work, setting up shop within the log cabin that was supplied to them. While she wasn't accustomed to housecleaning, she made swift work of clearing the dust and cobwebs from the small building, setting up her generator outside the porch and even climbing atop the cabin's chimney to affix her satellite dish for high-speed internet. If the chimney was tall enough, it could even double as a cell tower for the area, but she didn't bother with, having concluded that it was too low and wasn't worth the power that it would consume. Having finished this, the British girl sat back, cracked open a beer, and admired her handiwork. She was almost a happy camper. Almost.

It didn't take long for her parade to be rained up, literally. Without much of a warning, the sky turned on the waterworks, making Iphigenia literally jump out of the folding chair she sat upon and run for cover, taking as many perishable supplies as she could with her.

Scowling, she eventually returned with a compact umbrella, which was barely holding its own against the torrential rain that had been unleashed against them.

"Bloody hell! Is the weather in Washington always like this?" grumbling discontentedly, she stared incredulously at Tian, rain dripping down from her half-soaked hair. "Are you serious, in this rain? Miserable sudden weather aside, this is flash-flood material. We're staying in the cabin."

 

[Skyswimsky]

"Holding back for the delicate types? Pffff." Iphie was instantly coming into her mind as Runa was sharing her concerns. "AS IF! It's a camping trip! A camping trip! Not a walk in a overgrown park! Firewood, Tents, scary bed-stories and yadda yadda! The whole package! We're gonna rock this Runa!" Yeah, the brunette liked it rough, a camping trip was supposed to be a camping trip and not only a change of scenery after all! "Sight-seeing is cool too! And we will take on the bear-god of this mountain or so-" And suddenly, it started raining.

"..."

It started raining in a fashion that reminded the young ally of justice about a (spicy) flood she had experienced herself just a while ago, the change in weather was just as intense. For a second, she was annoyed, she knew that the words Tian spoke could jinx it, she knew just too well BUT, being wise beyond her years, also knew even just commenting on his sentence would challenge the great force of weather just more. But now...now it already happened, and similar to another individual she had a big grin on her face too. Pointing her finger towards the sky she proclaimed. "We gonna climb up this mountain and beat that asshole high up in the sky up!" Iphie was, of course, ignored, if she preferred to stay down here and wither away, well, for this instance she was her guest.

 

[R-9 Pilot]

"Yeah! We'll roast marshmallows and hot dogs and have a good...time?" The sudden onset of a torrential rainstorm was enough to give her pause, if not completely curb her enthusiasm. Runa shrugged. "I think I know why they call this mountain range the Cascades, now." With this much rain, she was already soaked to the skin, or at least wrote it off as a foregone conclusion. "We're not getting any dryer wandering around out here, so unless we catch a cold or something, no real reason to stop now. We'd be soaked when we got back if it's in a few minutes or a few hours." She briefly considered making some sort of membranous umbrella, but really, there wasn't much point, nor did she particularly care about the sudden inclement weather, beyond that she won't be able to char any meat over a fire pit.

"Yeah, we'll find some way to just blow this weather away! that totally won't have far-reaching and unintended consequences!" She turned around and shouted back toward the camp. "Oi! Tian! Hurry up or we'll just leave you behind!" She continued on, picking her way along the path and avoiding any major puddles that were forming, and waved for Kyouko to follow. She...may not even have a clue where she's going outside of uphill and following a marked trail, but she can't get too far lost. She could just fly up and check her bearings that way if they really needed a scout.

 

[Asuras]

The rain poured harder and harder, as if their being defiant only urged mother nature to pelt them harder. A moment of hail was thrown in as well, stinging their exposed skin, before returning to rain. There was an endless applause under the canopy nearby as the rain clapped against countless leaves and twigs. Their path had already grown muddy, kicking up wet slog with every step. Fortunately it wasn't "sinking" material just yet, though one would worry about driving a car over such a surface. A sign at a fork in the road indicated the left side branched off towards a lakeside dock, while the right continued through the rainforest. It angled towards the short mountains nearby, and so was undoubtedly their best bet at reaching a peak.

Their surroundings became denser and denser with vegetation, and the horizon obscured. Small rivers of water began to form in various places, rushing down the long and shallow hill they climbed. Everything glistened green, and large fronds continually bent as water droplets fell from great heights. The whole forest was animated and loud, drowning out the sounds of their boots squelching in the mud.

The cries of the weather beating upon the forest had nearly drowned out an out-of-place rustling. Were it no for Tian and Iphie's heightened senses, they would have missed the sound of leaves rustling to give way to something headed their way, crouched low along the ground. It was still obscured by the vegetation, whatever it was, and thus seemed quite small, and stopped in place as soon as the two seemingly noticed its presence.

 

[ERode]

Tian-Gui lead the pack, resolutely pushing through the muddy mountain path as if he was simply walking up a set of stairs. Though his feet slid many times on the quagmire of mud and water, the raven-haired man never wavered. Rain streamed down his face, his normally spiky hair lying flat against it. Every part of his body was drenched at this point, and it felt as if he was underwater, but Tian-Gui simply smiled and continued on. This amount of challenge really wasn't enough to work up his heartbeat, really. Maybe if they were literally trying to walk up a swift river, but this? Literally nothing.

Amongst the rainfall and the bowing leaves, however, another sound stood distinct, something that did not match raindrops splattering across vegetation. His eyes pricked and his eyes narrowed in the rain, catching Iphie's own glare. He nodded, and she adjusted her umbrella in return.

At that unexpected gesture, Tian-Gui chuckled, before calling out to Kyouko and Runa, "Looks like we got an animal or something stalking us. Probably not going to be too much of a problem, but Kyouko, just stick closer to Runa, aight?"

 

[Astoria]

Iphigenia still didn't know how the others had managed to convince her to accompany them up that mountain of hell. Either from a lapse in judgement or a temporary mental illness, she didn't know. Regardless, there she was, trekking up the path in a rain-resistant windbreaker with a knapsack and rifle slung over her shoulder, and holding her umbrella that was barely keeping up with the wind and hail that had assaulted them. Without a doubt, she would have been making her complaints quite vocal; the rain had long by now completely drenched the girl, and she was soaking from head to toe. The umbrella only served to keep the rain out of her face and from directly hitting her. Thankfully, her phone was water-proof and wouldn't fail under the circumstances.

The consistent and persistent rain lead to monotony after hours of trekking. Iphie paused when this was broken by a sound that was out of pace of the rain and their steady footsteps. As she looked around, her gaze matched with Tian's, and nodded and tilted her umbrella a bit. If it was indeed an animal, it would be no issue for any of them, but Iphie did come here to at least shoot something for dinner, so she readied her weapon. Not trusting Kyouko to throw away her umbrella while she handled the hunting rifle, she turned to Runa.

"Runa, could you hold this for a moment?"

 

[Psyker Landshark]

Freezing winds battered the two individuals. Their ankles were buried in a foot of snow, and the door before them buried even further. It was almost a wonder that anyone even resided within. Then again, it was unlikely anyone needed guards out in the Russian Arctic, obscured by mountains. No one was there to pave the 'front lawn'.

John wrapped himself tightly in heavy-duty winter clothing, his face visibly flushed. He shivered.

"Fuck this place," he mumbled, stepping forward with huge strides, lifting his boots out of the deep snow. He approached the door and placed a shaped charge on the steel structure. With a push of a button, it began rolling down the side of the door, melting it as it passed. When it hit the ground it stopped itself, and John retrieved it before placing it two more times on the top and bottom borders. Stepping aside, he gestured for Jin-sun to take the lead and bend the door inwards.

With a nod, the cyborg stepped forward and pushed the door down with a tap. As the steel door began to fall, he reached out and caught it by the edge, slowly lowering the door to the ground to avoid anyone hearing it crash. "Agreed." He said as he set the door down. "I barely even feel cold anymore, and I already hate this place."

The interior was just as cold, and far darker. Small lights on the pathway lit the way deeper into the hill they stood before. Whether or not the 'hill' was actually there or merely a tremendous pile of snow… they'd never know. John stepped inside, eyes trained to the ground as he walked.

"Let me know if anything's hiding," he said jokingly, "Can't see anything." The two proceeded lower, and eventually it began to become brighter, and the air warmer. They reached a door… a big one. A number pad stood to the side, which John summarily began to fiddle with.

"I suppose these sorts of security measures are more so the manufacturers convincing the buyers they need them. Ultimately if anyone was bold enough to come here in the first place, this sort of security wouldn't pose a problem," he shrugs.

"You know I have an ultraviolet vision mode, right? I could just scan the pad and see which keys have been pressed from the fingerprints." Jin-Sun asked, even as he allowed John to work. He snapped his fingers and stepped away.

"Right."

Nodding, Jin-Sun stepped up to the keypad. After a moment's glance, he turned back to John. "8, 4, 5, 1. Not sure in which order. These things go off at all if you put in a wrong passcode?" John made a gesture of lacking any surety.

"I can't imagine they'd outright kill us if we messed up once. That'd sure be counter-productive to maintaining employee numbers," he grinned.

"Oh, the Thremonts certainly are such humanitarians." Jin-Sun said sardonically as he began inputting various combinations of the four digits until one finally went through.
Mechanisms cranked and turned beyond the door as Jin-sun, luckily, input the fourth iteration of the possible inputs. The massive door, which seemed quite able to resist a nuclear blast, slid aside to reveal a larger hallway lined with angled windows that looked out over a spacious factory floor. There were scientists all about the place, even one in the hallway just to their left…

John acted quickly, darting forward before delivering a swift grapple that put the frightened man to the floor. A swift strike to his head knocked him out. John dragged him back into the outside hall, in front of the opened bulkhead door. He nodded to Jin-sun.

"The floor plan indicates our target is likely being held in a cell down the hall to the right and down a floor. I leave it to you, Jin-sun. I have other tasks to attend to in our interest," he said quietly before turning down the opposite way.

With a nod, Jin-Sun engaged his Stealth Cloak and began slowly making his way towards the cell, taking care to avoid any scientists walking down the hall. He frowned. He wouldn't be able to leave as easily as he entered, given that the Stealth Cloak only covered himself.

The residents of the laboratory walked past Jin-sun wholly unaware, their eyes trained to notepads or to each other as they conversed about topics Jin-Sun could hardly follow.

After a few minutes of carefully sneaking down the hallway, he finally made it to the stairs. When Jin-Sun headed down the steps to the cell block, he crouched down in front of the cell John had pointed out to him, inspecting what was inside. A single window allowed him a gaze inside the white-washed cell, though it proved to be empty.

"Shit!" Jin-Sun hissed under his breath as he reached up to his head to tap his comlink. "John, we've got a problem. The girl's not in her cell. You have any idea where they could've taken her?" Before John could even have a chance to reply, Jin-sun was presented with the answer. Down the hall, a door hissed open to reveal a pair of armed soldiers escorting the girl in question. They stood at either side, and she walked forward in cuffs, eyes dull. They approached Jin-sun's position, likely headed for the cell.

Without a second thought, Jin-Sun maneuvered around and crept up behind the soldiers, standing up to bash their heads together. Their helmeted heads crashed together loudly, and they promptly slumped to the ground unceremoniously. The girl yelped and darted back, turning to see the soldiers unconscious. She looked to and fro before running towards her cell door, unable to actually open it up.

Uncloaking, Jin-Sun shimmered into being before he knelt down to the girl's eye level, extending a hand out to her. "Otodete-chan? I'm here to get you out." He said as kindly as he could. The girl cowered inwards, keeping her hands close to her chest.

"Why?" she questioned quietly.

Jin-Sun paused for a moment before he disengaged his faceplate, revealing his face to be horribly burned on its left side. "Because I'm not about to let the Thremonts do to anyone else what they did to me." He said simply as his faceplate slid back into place. "Now take my hand and let's get out of here." The girl meekly extended both hands, though latched onto Jin-sun's with only one. She seemed convinced, but still mildly confused. Another door opened; the one Jin-sun had entered from. A pair of scientists stood under it, stopping abruptly as they came face-to-face with Jin-sun. They paused only for a second before turning on their heels and sprinting away.

"It figures." Jin-Sun sighed before putting the girl on his back piggyback style as he tapped his comlink. "John, Jin-Sun. I've got the girl, but I've been made. About to go loud on my end." He looked back at the little girl. "Otodete-chan, I want you to hang on and close your eyes. And whatever you do, don't open your eyes until I tell you to. Can you do that for me?" The girl nodded as she closed her eyes, clutching his neck tightly. An alarm sounded off in the area as a red light began to flash. A ping hit his ears as John tried contacting him.

"I hope this means you found her," he said over the comlink.

"I just said that!" Jin-Sun muttered in exasperation as he drew his sword and started dashing for the exit. "I'm headed for the exit with her now. Finish up whatever you're doing and rendezvous at the jet."

"Well excuse me for being busy!" John said sarcastically, "Better hurry along. No idea what extra defenses they might have." Though their presence had already been alerted, the scientists, of course, seemed heavily uninclined to interact with or stop Jin-sun as he ran past them. His escape was blocked, however, just before the bulkhead door that began to slowly close. Four soldiers stood in front of it, guns raised. Nary a moment of consideration was taken before they opened fire down the exposed hallway.

Snarling, Jin-Sun started spinning his sword in front of his body in order to try to deflect the bullets, taking extra care to ensure that the girl clinging to his back wouldn't get hit as he continued rushing towards the soldiers. The bullets ricocheted from his blade perfectly, returning to sender and instantly killing each of the soldiers that had fired the bullets.

The door was nearing closing as Jin-sun made it through, with John following close behind. A splash of blood covered his jacket and his hands, though he seemed unperturbed; definitely someone else's.

"You can open your eyes now, Otodete-chan." Jin-Sun said before nodding at John. "You finished what you came to do, John?" John brushed something invisible from his shoulders before patting his chest.

"Indeed. I'll have to see if it's truly worth something later, however," he said, nodding to the girl, "Excellent work. Let's get to the jet fast. The girl's clothing is obviously ill-suited to the outside."

 

[Skyswimsky]

If Kyouko could choose, she'd rather have the nice sun out instead of this terrible rain, especially with what clothing she was wearing. Not getting a cold from this was out of the question, however, Kyouko could always cheat death her body. So ultimately it was just getting down to that the weather was cold, though that wasn't a problem either as Kyouko's burning heart was warm enough heat up the north-pole.

"'Stick closer to Runa'?" Kyouko then asked, confused, about Tian's concerns. As far as her senses were going, the brunette didn't see, or feel, anything wrong. "Is it a giant bear? I always wanted to wrestle with a giant bear!" As if she'd would pass up a situation like that! Taking a look at Iphie's hunting rifle she added. "That would be a totally lame way! Not to mention, you'll taste the wrath of Kyouko if it's a harmless deer or a baby animal or something!" Yeah, she had it seen over and over in movies, but she wouldn't even dare to end that thought, as just like with the rain, she could totally jinx it!

In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she was annoyed at the thought of Iphie hurting any kind of wild-life! Screw this, while the heroine didn't know where the apparent attack was coming from, she was ready to jump between gun and wild-life anyways! Sure trying to mess around with Iphie to fuck up her aim was maybe the saner option, but what if she would then shoot someone else by accident? No, Kyouko wouldn't have that, if she was going what she was planning to do, she had to pay for it with her own body! And one gun-shot probably wouldn't kill her.