Final Five

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Indeed, the shadow did seem to understand English; its red eyes narrowed and with a flick of its hand the swirling mist of darkness surrounding it began to collect in a twister of abyssal energy. Like clockwork, the red circle on it began to glow, and soon enough Runa, along with the detached weapon of mass heroism, were sent off into the unseen. The shadow came together, compressing into a solid black mass once again.

It was high off the ground, dark cloaks hanging low to the floor like an regal dress of the abyss. With a spin, it flourished before extending its arms outward towards the party that remained. The very air around them began to vibrate, and within seconds their bodies too began to vibrate. Every facet of their forms seemed to rumble violently, wracking both their mind and nerves equally.

Only Kyouko and Tian-Gui seemed capable, then, of standing up amidst the soul-wracking attack. Iphigenia and Ling were brought to the ground, their bodies visibly resonating with an unheard vibration. Within the alternate dimension, Runa was offered a few extra seconds to levitate Tian-Gui's lance off the ground, enough that there was enough time for her and the party to initiate the plan in the real world.

With a final push with its hands, the shadow unleashed a final surge of supernatural force on the party, striking Ling and Iphigenia with another, single, but far more painful surge that nearly put them out of commission. Kyouko remained standing, and Tian-Gui was once again punched right in the soul, as far as his senses could imagine. He still stood, but lurched from the strike.

The shadow dissipated, and Runa returned to the waking world, her connection to the lance severed. But two or three seconds were available to them.
 
Unsurprisingly, Runa disappeared amidst a flash of red as the shadow materialized again. The distance between him and the group didn't seem to matter to the creature as it caught every single one of the four remaining members in its attack. Unable to pull away as his form shook uncontrollably, Ling collapsed to the ground as his ability to levitate failed. Without the ability, he wasn't even able to lift the weight of the Coffin and was forced prone until the attack ran its course.

The severity of the attack seemed to intensify with each second before it surged in strength and then faded. Still… while the attack might have ceased, the pain still remained and caused Ling to thrash against pieces of the Coffin too heavy for him to actually move. Even the pain began to fade though, and the loss of his levitation seemed only temporary. With it restored Ling managed to lift himself up from the ground and try to focus with limited success. His senses were frayed and distorted, like he was trying to see and hear through water. He could see five other distinct shapes though, so Runa had made it back. That meant they had to prevent the shadow's materialization for a few moments before the magical bomb detonated.

Unsure if his magic would do anything to set the mark on Runa off, Ling decided his efforts would best be spent on Tian and the walls he could create. Rather than lob projectiles at his armored comrade like usual, he drifted forward unsteadily until a shadowy hand touched Tian's shoulder. It was much easier to simply push the energy through with physical contact, and given how hard it was to concentrate at the moment, Ling would take anything that made his task easier.
 
Runa accepted the lance from Tian and did one better than just hold onto it, wrapping the parts of the weapon she grabbed in strands of rapidly growing flesh to secure it to her body as closely as possible. At this point, she could probably manage her own shot at Tian's usual finisher. She gave him a quick salute as she disappeared again. Once in the other world, Runa detached the lance from herself and quickly threw it upwards into the air, in the general direction of that figure she'd seen before. No need to really aim, but it didn't hurt to try. She did what she could to form a gravity well that would hold the lance in midair as long as she was around, with the weapon slipping slightly at first, before she got the hang of it.

And right about then, she reappeared in the real world. "Not long now," she cautioned the group, as she made absolutely sure there wasn't a lane floating nearby, and cut off her earlier attempt at floating it just in case that could transfer between dimensions.
 
In hindsight, it seemed, it would have been better to communicate in a language that was not the most common tongue in the world. Iphigenia had been made aware earlier that their foe seemed to attack with a psychic element to it, but even she was completely unprepared for what such a thing seemed to entail. She had been about to prepare to ramp up her electromagnetic field, but the shadow's frightful attack put an immediate halt to that.

Ensnared in the insidious attack, it felt like every nerve ending in her body had been pulled end-on-end, as if it were moving to rip her entire nervous system out of her body. Her mind was equally assaulted, penetrating the hallowed barriers around herself as it seemed to jumble memories and feelings alike. Letting out an agonized scream, she faltered, dropping to the ground on her knees and hands. Biting down on her teeth, she managed to endure the remainder of the invasive assault without collapsing any further.

Breathing heavily, she looked at the shadowy form with a look of contempt. "You… cheeky cunt," she spat out, rising to one knee. Not down for the count yet, she glanced at the massive electronic billboard rising above their enemy. Concentrating the latent electromagnetic energy she had summoned earlier, she directed the focused waves towards the jumbotron. Groaning under the stress of the magnetic pull, it came down in magnificent display of sparks, sending the massive screen to a crash atop their shadowy foe.

How do you like your cake now, you piece of shite?
 
Kyouko quite liked Runa's plan, she wasn't so sure about that other dimension thing but if it allowed her to beat that shadowy bitch up, why not? Though, before she even had a chance to grab onto Runa's... tentacles, their self-proclaimed leader shout out new orders that the tentacle girl quickly followed. Alright then, distraction.

"Hey you shadowy bastard!" She didn't know if that thing could actually understand her, but it seemed kind of, well, sentient? If it could screw around like it did earlier. "If you have two bodies or something, you could at least make one of them pretty! You make y-" Well, apparently that was already enough to incur the thing's wrath as it unleashed another assault on them. The air around her was literally trembling, yet, Kyouko managed to stand. Regardless, it attacking them meant Kyouko had a chance to attack! Thus, the Brunette managed to move closer and closer, she had wall to uproot anyways.

Before she could manage however, the thing retreated back to its sanctuary, and the heroine was standing in front of Tian-Gui's giant wall. For a second Kyouko doubted herself. Super strength? Her? All she had was guts and this thing was just gigantic...bigger than the jumbotron that was about to fall down. "Screw it." She already failed twice today, and as everyone knew three times was the charm. Not to mention the moment the Brunette was supposed to shine was kinda...well, no one really cared, and who could blame them for that?

Wrapping her arms around the standing wall, the girl gave it her all. "Hooooo...." For a few seconds it did not move at all. "Screw...." Progress! Now the into the ground stuck construct slowly became free as Kyouko managed to lift it centimeter for centimeter. "...YOOOOUUUU!" After the initial trouble, the rest was rather easy, and Kyouko pulled out the entire thing in one go. "HOOOOORRRRRYYYYAAAA!"

Now, armed with a giant baseball bat, Kyouko waited for the jumbotron to be in range. "HYPER...." Moving her entire body to hit the jumbotron with the oversized baseball bat to propel it towards whatever direction their enemy was dodging."....KYOUKO...." she followed it up by doing a 360° to gain more monument to ultimately throw the pillar itself towards the shadow woman. "FINAAAAAAL!"
 
Oh, that shadowy villainess was scared now, wasn't she? Even if she understood what they were doing, that knowledge wouldn't do anything for her at all. After all, the whole idea is that the plan revolves around her attacking. If she refuses to attack…well, then they could just go on doing what needs to be done. Now, it was just about making sure that the shadow-psychic couldn't materialize to safety before anything else could happen.

Tian-Gui liked simple objectives, and as the monster displayed its imperial wrath, he stood firm, his feet locked to the ground as he withstood the assault. The vibrations wracked his body and the invisible blows hammered him mentally, but despite all the effort on the regal monster's part, he withstood it, coughing in pain. Naturally, it hurt like mad, but now that he understood that it was merely a phantom pain...

"Grin and bear it," he said to himself through grit teeth, pushing strength into legs that were on the verge of collapse.

Iphie brought down the giant monitor while Kyouko smashed it in the direction of the mist. The two of them were showing some rather nice teamplay, and that made Tian-Gui smile at the sight. Adversary brought people together, it appeared. Ling was powering him up as well, mystic hands transferring arcane energy into the Flamestone armor, while Runa was now back on scene, her own delivery mission having been successful.

Good.

It's time to finish this.

"FLAMESTONE JAIL!"

As his gauntleted fists burned with the radiant light that was Ling's arcane power, the hero smashed them into the ground. Spiderweb fractures rose up all around him as a golden glow shone through, before the entire floor was changed. Instantly, countless golden walls sprouted up and around shadowy being, Kyouko's own projectiles shattering them and sending them in even more directions.

They were the weakest walls that Tian-Gui could produce, but in exchange for that weakness, he could create an innumerable amount of them.
 
The jumbotron flew like a mountain-busting meteor towards the shadow, almost too fast to make the entire ordeal count. A fraction of a second faster, and it would have passed harmlessly through the shadow and beyond before it could decide to materialize. However, be it luck or the benevolence of a higher power, the giant television unit enveloped the shadow just as soon as Tian's unseen lance detonated in the face of an unknown entity beyond.

The shadow glared for but a moment, and suddenly coalesced into a solid form just as the jumbotron smacked into it. Continuing onward, the black figure was crushed between it and the wall of a building further down the street. The wall crumbled and the jumbotron skidding to a halt before tipping backwards with a heavy crunch on the broken concrete.

The shadow was obscured by rubble until it furiously dug itself out. The broken pieces of the wall shot outwards, and the shadow rose into the air with a clearly displeased look in its uniformly red eyes. Hovering out of the open hole in the building, it made its way back onto the street, still a solid form. As it rose its hand, the air around the Final five began to resonate again when...

The world shattered. Like a mosaic of glass, the scene before the final Five crumbled into infinitely thin pieces, unveiling a blank, white space before them. The shadow stood before it as a contrast and quickly turned to meet the uncovered realm behind it. Suddenly, a mass of black hands reached out from the nothingness, grasping the shadow in droves. Before it could escape, run, or even finally let out a voice, it was pulled into the white, dissipating into nothing as its form touched the flat space like ink dispersing into a piece of paper.

The scene returned to normal, compressing into a meld of colors before stretching back into shape. The broken building remained, as did the jumbo-tron. The shadow was gone.
 
Tian-Gui let out a triumphant whoop as Iphie and Kyouko's teamwork wombo landed, intersecting the shadow's body right as it materialized into existence. With a terrible roar, it was driven through the forest of golden walls that he had erected, before smashing into a building. The plan had gone off without much of a hitch, and he was about to turn around to high-five his intangible friend, before an explosion from the rubble alerted him of the fact that their foe still wasn't downed. Now that its body was physical, however, there was nothing to fear. He called forth the arcane forces that Ling had granted him, flames converging over his right fist, a meteor in its own right as the world began to shake once more at the psychic might of the shadow-monster.

Before either attacks could be unleashed, however, something unexplainable happened, breaking Tian-Gui's concentration and dispersing the white-hot flames swirling around his gauntleted fist. The world was suddenly lost, turning into a two dimensional canvas of white from which inky-black hands sprouted. They clung onto the shadowed figure, and before the Final Five could even be graced by her voice, she disappeared into the white chasm.

And, just like that, the world returned to normal, back to a place with broken buildings and underwater stuff. Allowing his helmet to turn back into dust, the white-haired Tian-Gui allowed himself to finally retch out the contents of his lunch. Even if the pain wasn't physical, it had still hurt himself enough that he felt like throwing up, and now…well, he did.

"Ahaha," he laughed, tasting the bile that had passed through his mouth, "Anyone up for all-you-can-eat for dinner? Think we deserve to splurge after all this shit."

With that, he used Ling's power once more to thoroughly vaporize the half-digested meal on the pavement.

"Thanks for having my back, friend."
 
Runa just stood there dumbfounded for a moment. "Uh...what the hell just happened?" She really didn't have much else to say about the strange snap to a white room and back, but it seems that the way stood open for now. Either their last trick had worked, or...it had upset something else which did their job for them. She wandered over to Tian and thumped a hand on his back a few times. "You ok? I'm always happy to get more food, but we're still got things to finish here."

She looked around, trying just a little to figure out the layout of the place. They probably wanted whatever that facility eleven was which had a control system, but the place was practically a city in miniature, so just finding it would be a matter of dumb luck, without a map. "So, uh, nobody was nice enough to give us directions, so I guess we'll just have to wander around and see what we find." Even if it wasn't something they were specifically, it would be interesting.

She decided to start wandering in a randomly chosen direction to take her own advice, skipping along as if she were on her way to the corner store.
 
Closed off to the external world as he focused to channel the greatest amount of energy into Tian, he was blind to the antics of the rest of his teammates, His focus only turned outwards once more after he felt the energy begin to burn within Tian as the formation of Flamestone devoured it. Clinks and clatters filled the air as risen walls were broken down immediately and Ling watched on as the fallen jumbotron plowed through the street and embedded itself in a building. The fragments of Flamestone fell to the ground in the meantime as both the air and street was littered faint glows of orange, yellow, and red before the energy within was completely burned out and the material dissolved.

His attention naturally went towards the explosive exit the shadow made from its burial by jumbotron, fragments and debris flying every which way. He only managed to pull his hand away from Tian before the air began to tremble under its power and Ling found himself unable to act. Unable to act Ling could only squirrel his focus inward and brace for the attack as best as possible.

Yet when nothing happened, he turned his attention outwards once more and was met with an odd sight. The shadow seemed to splash across the white realm like a drop of ink, and colors swirled together to hide the scene from him. With a snap, everything returned to normal and left Ling more confused than ever as he slowly turned to the others who seemed just as confused or lost. He turned back towards Tian as the hero retched and vomited, and simply placed a hand on his shoulder again. Couldn't really do the back pat like Runa given his hand would dissipate if he tried to apply any noticeable force to his armored comrade.

"You're welcome," he murmured as the Coffin shuddered unstably. "I will rest for a moment…" he continued after a moment, apparently unable to control his movements as well as he would have liked. The Coffin clattered to the ground lifelessly as his form bled and spread out like a thin layer of shadowy mist over the ground. Spread out as such, it was hard to form distinct thoughts, but indeed, the unfocused nature of his conscious made it all that easier to relax.
 
A satisfied smile was drawn across Iphie's face as she watched the results of her actions. The loud girl's combo had ensured that the massive electronic display had come down dead on its mark, and at the same time that the shadow monster seemed to materialize. The heavy debris of the jumbotron continued to fall, visibly compressing and contorting the black shapes of their foe. The sight was as gruesome as a pierced shadow could be, if you happened to be a shadow thing. Initially, the blow did not seem like a mortal one; after thrashing about, their enemy managed to extricate itself from the destroyed board. It seemed to glower, if a shadow could do so, and ready to launch a fresh onslaught against them in retaliation.

That attack never came, though, as brilliant whiteness engulfed their undersea realm. For a moment, it was almost as if Iphigenia had appeared in an empty computer simulation; it was simply white. As she took this in with confused fascination, deep black hands appeared from the white, surrounding the blackness and pulled it into the white, almost like a dying star collapsing into a singularity. And then, it was normal again. Well, as normal as could be after witnessing what appeared to be a shadow being banished to the shadow realm. It was odd because it didn't seem as nearly as something that was engineered as she thought, but it didn't seem to matter much for now. After all, ding dong, the witch is dead.

Iphie finally stood up, just in time to bear witness to losing his meal. She stepped clear of his lunch as she did so.


"Fantastic show, guys," said Iphie, dusting off her jacket, albeit gingerly. Nobody seemed to be dead, but one or two of her companions could probably do well with some hospitalization. She shrugged that off though, they'd probably be fine for a few more hours. She was hungry too, but they still had yet to venture further than the entrance of the lab. The place was too intriguing to just leave after arriving.

"I think that's a great idea, but maybe after we give this place a sweep. We haven't actually seen anybody or anything yet," she pointed out, in agreement with Runa.
 
What...just happened? Kyouko's initial joy about finally doing something good was replaced by pure confusion. Just what happened? Was that another one of those strange attacks? For some reason Kyouko was capable of comprehending the last assault, but this? Whatever it was, before Kyouko could draw any conclusion it was already over, scenery returning to normal. So...did they win? They did? They really did! It was probably nothing outstanding for the other three people but Kyouko felt fucking great.

Great enough in fact that she, just like Tian, started to laugh. "Another one bites the dust!" Bumping her fist into the air as to make some sort of victory pose it took her only a few seconds before the joy vanished. Thinking more serious about what just happened Kyouko was asking herself what actually happened. She was attacked, yeah, but then, this voice she never heard before... and now...she just...knew? Kind of, that she held a power that seemed too much for her to handle. But with this... Kyouko shoke her head, it felt like the moment the Brunette joined the Final Five she spend way too much time being down. Yeah, if anything, she should be happy, with this power the heroine was actually worth of her title, no?

Regardless, it was still rather dubious and if anything, Kyouko had to see it for herself again. Taking out a snickers that she had conveniently stored away the entire time she was unwrapping it before taking a bite. "Alright..." Stretching out her arm that hold the ominous snack bar, Kyouko fixated her sight on it. She wasn't even sure if that was needed, but that was besides the point. "Neu Anfang!" And voila, it worked. The snack was complete again, just like that, and Kyouko had a grin on her face as if she had just won in a lottery again.
 
For much of their time in the White Coat facility, nothing more was gleaned than the fact that the announcement PA was trapped in a loop it could not stray from. Whatever tasks had been going on in the city-like research zone seemed to have been quickly interrupted by something unknown. No one was around to address the computers serving the facility that it was time to move on. Given the sheer size of it all, too, it was difficult to piece together much beyond the obvious fact that Abyssals (or rather an Abyssal) were being experimented on, and that everyone had disappeared suddenly.

Eventually, however, Iphigenia had come across a hard drive with easily accessibly records of the day's events in both written and video form. Countless hours of facility surveillance were available to her at the click of a few buttons. It was almost surprising that such a thing was practically free to use, though given the secrecy of the place in its entirety, it seemed a reasonable protocol.

What she witnessed on the more recent video recordings disturbed her. The very same shadow she fought mere minutes prior was seen on the camera, floating through various portions of the facility. Scientists ran from it, only to be suddenly and inexplicably turned into clouds of glowing energy. Others suffered even stranger fates, instead simply vanishing in a blink with nothing left but empty air. Eventually it came to a point where there were none left to vanquish, and still the shadow patrolled the buildings and halls, slowly. Going back further revealed the chaotic calamity that was the Abyssal breaking out of its confinement field and rampaging back to the surface of Shanhu.

Tian's phone rang. On the other end was Limov, sounding a tad bit worried. "Tian? There? This is Limov. Have not heard from you friends awhile. Everything good? No one hurt? Could not reach your phone due to some interference. Is gone now, yes? What is down there under water?" he asked hurriedly.
 
While Ling recovered, Tian-Gui moved off to do some exploration. It really was quite the underwater city, large enough that one could probably play American football AND futbol here, with enough space space for some baseball and some hockey as well. It was utterly devoid of life, and it looked like the only people who lived in there were the scientists. He passed by the residency area, searching for anyone that may have survived the onslaught of the shadowy figure, and found no one. All that remained were scattered belongings, photos of family and friends, memorabilia from the surface, and so many other things that humanized the bastards that thought it was smart to attempt capturing an Abyssal.

The road to hell was paved with good intentions, huh?

Tian-Gui scratched his head, before heading on back to the others. Perhaps a more detailed search could be done later, but it didn't seem like this research facility had a self-destruct mechanism in place, so the support organization could handle the rest. By the time he headed back to where Ling was, it appeared that Iphigenia once again did a good job, having found a hard drive full of surveillance information. Patting her on the head with a grin, Tian-Gui said, "Nice job. Really putting in work, eh, rookie?"

Before the Chinese superhero could check out what was actually in the hard drive, however, his phone rang once more, and Tian-Gui flicked it out, taking the call. Limov, eh?

"Good day to you too, Limov," he replied, relaxed, "We ran into some sort of interdimensional psychic shadow, and Ling's a bit messed up. Looks like I'll be needing some nanogel as well. Probably fractured my ribs or something."

"As for the place itself…it's better off checking it out yourself. Basically, it looks like everyone in the facility vanished, without taking with them any possessions or keepsakes. All the data's still here as well, and Iphie's got a hard drive."

"Hey guys," Tian-Gui called out, "Wanna head back now? Or is there some place we haven't checked out yet?"
 
For Iphigenia, exploring the vast underground facility was like a child in a sweets shop. Scientific matters always had been a thing of interest for her, and the nature of the lair they had infiltrated was a source intrigue for her. Several of the buildings appeared to be research facilities filled with mysterious equipment in sterile looking laboratories. The computers in these labs yielded nothing short of undecipherable papers and mathematics, but she made sure to download these and take pictures of the nifty looking gear in each place.

Some more adventuring in the high-tech city finally led Iphigenia to a more central looking facility. It took a bit more effort for the girl to enter than the other buildings on account of a more robust security system, but it was nothing that applying voltage directly to electrical locks couldn't fix. It was a three-story structure like some of the others, but the feel of the building had more of a command oriented direction to it, with offices, screens, and locked doors abound. Like every place else in the underground city, it was eerily quiet the entire time she made it up to the third floor, with the only sound being the broken record of a PA system.

The third floor was impressive, though; it was clearly a surveillance facility for the entire complex, with rows of workstations neatly arranged towards an array of large screens in the front of the room. Static filled these screens, and below them on some of the computers displayed a myriad of errors, some of which Iphie couldn't recognize.

Finding the issue with the screens to require a simple rebooting of a centralized system, the first thing that Iphigenia did was to stop the repeating PA system with prejudice. Upon running through the startup programs of the system, the screens began to display a massive array of camera feeds throughout the facility, covering every nook and cranny of the secret laboratory. Iphigenia could even see Kyouko eating an old bar of Snickers with a shit-eating grin.

Having identified where the video logs were being stored, Iphie quickly found the records for the past day, and she found the relevant material within a few minutes. Throwing the files up on the big screen, she watched as the very same abyssal they had fought before break its containment field, and the selfsame shadow roam about the facility, decimating its corps of scientists into clouds of air or energy. This footage rolled on until the feed cut, probably when the system restarted.

"Neat," she commented, before moving to copy all the data to an offsite location. If all the inhabitants of the place were seriously gone, vaporized, or whatever, then that meant there was nobody to operate the facility… or protest if somebody took it. Working with one hand as she pulled out her cell phone, she started a transfer of all the data to an isolated, external node. People from the supporting organizations or her company were definitely going to want to look at some of that data. Dialing a number, she proceeded to walk around the floor in pursuit of the server room.

"Hey, it's me," she said as she entered a well air-conditioned room. The temperature was a tell-tale sign that it housed the more important equipment. "I need engineers from Shanhu Semiconductor and Standard Electric in Shanhu by tomorrow morning. I'll tell you why later," she continued, as she peered over rows of rack mounted server equipment. After having the lab's population destroyed by the shadow and the place itself partially damaged by the Final Five, it would be a good idea to have some more qualified people look at the place. "Oh, and have the legal team here too. Big stuff." Hanging up, she picked up a spare drive and proceeded to jury rig it to a console in the room. Using it as a second source, she transferred the same information to the drive before disconnecting it and returning to the main room. Picking up the PA, she directed the attention of the other members over the intercom to have a gander at what she'd found.

Tian was first on scene, but he didn't seem to care much about the particulars nor the moving pictures on the large screens. Instead, he seemed fond of patting Iphie, producing protest and disapproving glares from the girl, who took the repeated patting as disrespect. Chucking the drive at the tall hero, she dropped down onto an office chair with a pout and rolled away.
 
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Runa's aimless wandering didn't yield much in terms of results. The entire place was completely empty, like some sort of ghost town. Either all the scientists cleared out long before the Final Five arrived, or something weird was going on. Particularly because she saw no signs of animal life, either. The emptiness of the place was unsettling, as she wandered through abandoned labs full of equipment and experiments she couldn't identify. Whatever happened, everyone sure left in a hurry. The more she looked around, the more mysterious it got. The lad resembled nothing so much as an underwater Mary Celeste the size of a city block.

Iphigenia's announcement took her completely by surprise, and she quickly made her way out of her building to fly over to her location and check things out. She arrived along with a small storm of debris picked up by her quick flight over, which showered the ground around her when she shut off her gravity well. She ran into the building and up to meet the others. "Hey...find something," she asked, still a little winded from her hurried approach. She stopped short not long after arriving, and just stared at the video footage Iphie had found and displayed. "So...that's what happened. It's horrible," she opined. That black shadow, whatever it was, was really bad news. "I really hope we got rid of that thing, and didn't just chase it off."

"I don't think there's much else to find," she said to Tian. "So, we might as well leave and go look for more food or...something. You did say something about hitting a buffet for dinner." She thought for a few moments. "Are there many left that haven't banned the both of us, though?"
 
It was hard to tell exactly how much time had passed given his thoughts and perception of the world around him wasn't coherent in the slightest. He was only vaguely aware of the silence that fell over the underwater complex when the PA was shut down. An indeterminate amount of time later and Ling finally directed his focus towards more coherent thoughts. Naturally his body followed and coalesced together, swirling about until his humanoid form reformed. He drifted over towards the fallen Coffin pieces and with a few shudders they rose up and enclosed his shadowy form once again, giving it a distinct outline.

It seemed that Kyouko had elected to stay and eat her Snickers with a smug expression while the others had scattered to god knows where. Ling turned about for a moment, unsure of which direction to drift off ominously in, but a simple choice was presented to him when Iphigenia's voice crackled over the PA system. "Kyouko, let's go." Aside from that, he turned and lazily drifted off towards the building Iphigenia had mentioned in her announcement. Naturally, dark wisps drifted off him ominously, leaving a brief trail that dissipated rather quickly.

It took him a bit of time to actually arrive given Ling wasn't all that fast on his own. He entered the room without a sound, nothing the video coming to an end, and took in the others. Iphigenia seemed sulky for some reason while Runa and Tian were, of course, talking about their next meal. If the mission was over then he would probably just hitch a ride with Livmov and go rest up a bit more. While no longer in pain his mind was still a bit muddled, his thoughts slower than usual.
 
Considering it really worked a myriad of thoughts were going through the girl's head, starting at only needing one snickers to feed her for the rest of her life up to fighting world hunger, though ultimately her guts feeling told her this was something she shouldn't do just like that. Ultimately the one interrupting her thought process was the Flying Coffin. Let's go, where? Confused for a second, it was only now that she realized everyone but her and the creepy guy were gone. Not much of a choice, the brunette simply followed.

Walking through the soulless complex an awkward silence soon emerged, as short as the way may seem, it was Kyouko who asked Ling. "S-So, how do you feel!?"

Ling paused as the headpiece swivelled around to look at Kyouko for a moment. He resumed his forward drifting and admitted, "Shitty. Mind's still fuzzy."

His mind was still...dizzy? Yeah, probably, did he even feel physical pain or anything? Not like Kyouko felt something akin to that against the shadow being either, but still, the Flying Coffin's body was just bizarre. Though Kyouko wouldn't judge him just because of that, after all, she was friends with a monster, even if just for a short time. "Well, if you want to, I can heal your injury!" Maybe. She wasn't quite sure, but thought it was in the realm of possibility.

His headpiece tilted slightly as Ling considered Kyouko's offer, unsure how her ability actually worked. His form made recovering from injuries a matter of mostly time and rest more than anything. "How does it work?" he asked before coming to any decision.

How did her power even work? Yeah, that was a good question. Kyouko knew how it functioned, yet she didn't. Or maybe she wasn't simply understanding it herself yet. It was similar to reading from a manual that explained everything but was too complex unless seen in action, or so she hoped. "Well. It's kinda like rewinding time!" Yeah, that should do. It was pretty much what she did yet wasn't explaining any of the details whatsoever, though considering how careful the Coffin was, he would probably decline by now.

If he could have made an expression it probably would have been of surprise at the moment. An ability similar to the reversal of time was quite powerful indeed! Still, it had been some time since he had been initially injured and currently Ling felt better than he had for most of their stay in the underwater complex. "No, but thanks." He might have tried to emulate Tian, but his shadowy clawed hand was certainly more ominous so he refrained.

What a bummer! Well, she wouldn't force him or anything, his body probably had some sick traits of its own. And thinking about it, right about now was a good moment asking him about how he became a Flying Coffin thing or whatever. Her question however was cut short as it looked like they finally reached their destination, moving directly towards the entrance of a building that set itself apart from the rest.

"Hey~" Greeting the rest of the group, her attention was immediately glued to the playing record of what happened inside the facility. Apparently, people died when they were killed. Right, there was actually no one around except for them. Did that thing...kill them all? Did it maybe even kill them in the same fashion that Kyouko was facing? Forgotten by everyone? That was just sad, as bad as they may seem. No one deserved such a ending. Not even them.

And then, an idea came to her, staring at her empty hand she was asking herself: Could she rescue them? Moreover, could she actually bring back the dead? But...similar to the snickers… it felt like something she was not supposed to mess with. But Kyouko did a lot of things she wasn't supposed to do… .
 
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There was a sound of mechanical whirring and then a shudder in the ground, as if it had suddenly dropped several inches. There was silence for a moment, before the PA system ultimately turned back on.

"Inactivity threshold reached. Executing Order 000. Unlocking facility grapples. All occupants should proceed to the exit immediately."

The whole facility rumbled again, and sunk another couple inches in an instant. The PA system repeated itself before tacking on another mention.

"Lock Array 2 retracted. Unlocking Array 3."

With each additional announcement of the PA system, the facility continued to take sheer, abrupt drops. The elevator they had taken to get to the place was, unfortunately, already several dozen feet from the ground they stood on before they reached it. The platform attached to it, however, granted them a foothold with which to stand on and use the transportation... if they could get up there.

Of course, for any mundane white coat, it was probably a lost hope unless they were also working on jetpacks on the side. The Final Five, however, ultimately would never have such an issue. Ling's ability to float up, and Runa's manipulation of gravity made the ordeal far less drastic than it might have been.

Up onto the platform, through the elevator shaft and city-bound, the rumbling in the elevator signaled that the facility was still shifting. Even when they had exited and returned to the heavily flooded hallway, there was still a faint sense of shaking. Slogging through the waist-high water, the made it past the hole that continued to pour water into the area. Pieces of the robot they blew up floated around them.

There was a loud 'clink' beneath them, and the periodic rumbling finally ended, presumably with the facility finally letting go and sinking into the depths of the Pacific.
 
"So...I guess that's a job well done," Runa asked, cheerfully assuming the best. "High fives all around?" She lifted both hands and presented them palm-outwards toward the other members of the team, along with two large locks of hair which shifted and flowed to tipped by hands or reasonable facsimiles thereof.

After any brief celebrations or polite declines of her offer, she wondered out loud, "I guess we just go back to base now, huh? Not much else for us to do, beyond wonder who the hell could be that well-funded and who or what the hell wanted them all dead so bad." That part still bothered her. There was something else out there that got to these people first and wiped them all out, and that wasn't justice. It was just more killing.

She didn't have any plans of her own, beyond either following Tian around like a lost puppy, or getting to know the new members, one of whom looked to be about her age. So, for the moment, Runa was in no hurry to split off and go her own way.
 
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