Scenario: Exponential Invasion (IC)

[R-9 Pilot]

[fieldbox=", #5fd4a3, solid"]

Ellen didn't pay those she passed on the way to the roof any mind, beyond to get out of their way. Some rumors would no doubt grow out of this, if not a manhunt. But, it wasn't her main concern at the moment. No time to stop and explain things or help, and it would likely just make things more difficult, not less. The sharp sound of gunfire down below caused her to stumble and need to catch herself from falling down the stairs. She hoped it wasn't aimed at anyone she knew, but there was no time to worry just yet.

She had to carefully keep herself from giggling at Remi's offer. "I can at least get down on my own," she replied. "But, I might as well take you up on the offer." It wouldn't hurt anyone, and it would be rude. She draped her arms over the younger girl's shoulders, and with a bit of a hop, managed to wrap her legs around Remi's waist. It was a bit of an awkward sort of carry, though to Ellen's surprise, it didn't seem like the smaller girl was anywhere near snapping like a twig, as she would have expected. At this point, the leap wasn't even unexpected.

"Let me know if you want some help with the landing," she offered. "We can deal with any first aid once we're in the clear."

[fieldbox="Condition Monitor, #5fd4a3, solid"]
Heat: 43 = 49 - 6 active cooling
Processing: 0/12
Active Modules:
None
[/fieldbox]
[/fieldbox]

 

[Izurich]

[fieldbox=, Red, solid]

Barely a minute passed since Akni seperated herself from the group, but each passing second felt excruciatingly slow for the twintailed redhead. Her footsteps were heavy, not just because she was wearing Cybertech boots. The Doctor's mad raves, Yu-Ri's enraged rants, Ellen's revelation, and last but not least, Remi's suspicion, all played over and over in her mind. Akni believed her actions were based on everyone's best interest, the greater good, but after seeing the results, she began to wonder if she was actually being selfish instead...

...No, nothing's wrong, she should have expected this from a team filled with teenage schoolgirls, choke full of raging hormones. Yu-Ri was just venting off her fear to her, their personalities didn't exactly match anyway, and Remi's reaction was justified, Akni too would be suspicious if she was in the blonde's shoes. Ellen was all cool and while Mita might not get a verbal reply from her, Akni appreciated her efforts. Chie on the other hand... "Sigh... Chie, instead of teasing me, I think you should pay attention t-" Gunshots, "...Told ya." Time to get out of here, ASAP.

Arriving at the courtyard through an alternate entrance, Akni shook her head to stop the annoying static only for them to persist. Clicking her tongue, she ignored them for the time being, focusing on going over the current situation in her modified SmartView instead. More officers were swarming to the vicinity, including choppers and drones. All in all, nothing she should inform the rest about, everything was pretty much obvious really.

Heaving a breath, Akni picked up her space as she ran forward towards the opened back entrance of ReVizion Clinic just as Chie soared above her. Confident she could take care of herself, Akni focused on getting herself out by going through the clinic to exit from the front door then disappeared into the alleys after disenganging her Cyberframe.

[fieldbox=Condition Monitor, Red, solid]
Heat: 79 (85 (Previous) - 6 (Active Cooling))
Processing: 0/12
Modules:

• None

[/fieldbox]
[/fieldbox]

 

[ERode]

Farron spoke words that hit deaf ears, Yu-Ri not even glancing back as she strode away. Joined by Remi and Ellen, the trio ascended the staircase, passing by a couple of other civilians that were straggling behind. There was no pity for the father who was trying to help his children retreated. There was no sympathy for the old man that struggled to safely descend without any assistance. Yu-Ri had seen to both the declaration of a threat within the hospital, as well as disposed of that threat. She didn't have to care about them anymore.

The rooftops were nice and cool, a night breeze blowing by. It brought with it the sound of rotors rapidly spinning, signalling the arrival of the CDF's aerial forces. From her vantage point, Yu-Ri could see the flaming silhouette of Farron, once again attracting attention with her exit, while Chie went off to follow her. Was that her preference? Flat-chested, vulnerable kouhai?

Yu-Ri turned away, looking down. An eight story drop into an area where plenty of civilians were already gathered. Unpleasant, given her lack of flight capabilities. The raven-haired girl watched as Ellen was once again carried by someone else, and another nasty assumption brewed underneath. She discarded it, focusing instead on the reward that would be obtained from handing the head in.

Closing her eyes, she manifested her Positional Anchors and jumped off the side of the building. Her feet struck the translucent barriers, breaking through but slowing her descent. Yu-Ri rolled as she landed, ignored the pain in her legs, as she ran off once more, leaping off the side of the next few buildings and using her barriers to break her fall once more, until she reached the five story garage. Without breaking momentum, she leapt off the side and shot out her Swallowtail Wings. The six blades struck the concrete pillars, embedding themselves and retracting rapidly to slow her descent. Barriers continued to break underfoot as she slowed down more and more, before finally, Yu-Ri landed.

With that, she dashed off, accelerating in search of an alleyway in which she could find some shitty plastic bag to put this product in.

Condition Monitor

Heat: 71 + 4 (SW) + 4 (SA) + 4 (PA) - 2 (Net Cooling) = 81
Processing: 10/12

Active Modules:
Rating 2 Swallowtail Wings (0 Accuracy, 0 Power, 2 Grapple)
Rating 3 Speed Augmentation
Rating 3 Positional Anchors

Loaded Modules:
Rating 2 Swallowtail Wings
Rating 3 Speed Augmentation
Rating 3 Positional Anchors
Rating 1 Reaction Enhancement

 

[Insomnant]

27092115581979055.8​

With the mission not even finished yet, things had already taken a rough turn. Chie was lucky enough to dodge most of the pot shots taken at her, and the couple that came close enough to nick her arm and thigh were repelled by her deployed defenses, allowing her to escape unharmed. Though not unaffected. Once more her heat levels had risen right back to alarming heights and as a result the flickering of the world around her seemed to grow... worse. Unavoidable now, messing with her ability to read the small text on the signs in the courtyard. And what's more, though far quiet despite the late hour, a gentle background crackle and hiss began to tickle her eardrums. A constant white noise now invaded her senses until it was inescapably apparent that something was wrong.

Fortunately for her and Akni, if they stayed together and took the sensible option of ducking out of sight, there'd be no further interruption or delay. Perhaps it was the gruesome sight that distracted their pursuit from immediately swarming the courtyard, or else maybe a fear of an ambush, but either way the five-man assault team moved slow and methodically down the hall rather than darting after Chie. The team's duo of hotheads need not engage in any further action tonight.

Likewise, the trio on the roof had managed to evade any additional attention since their departure had gone unnoticed entirely. Carrying Ellen, Remi was able to bound away an entire block, clearing the area entirely and setting down a bit heavier than comfortable due to the... extra weight. Managing with much less cooperative equipment, Yu-Ri pulled off a controlled gradual plummet until she found herself at ground level again. And sure enough there were onlooking civilians surrounding the building, though most of them had their gaze aimed upward at the drone swooping around overhead, or at the pair of helicopters with searchlights sweeping the building and the courtyard. Only one or two murmured exclamations met her arrival on the ground, though when she took off for an alley a small collective gasp escaped a trio of young adults sitting in a car with open windows that leaked puffs of smoke. Otherwise no one attempted to stop her.

At this point it seemed they had made it out. And now there was time to reflect. They were split up and no doubt being hunted, but there was still more to be done. Mita had followed after Remi as fast as her crystal wings could take her, and she was puttering the last few yards as she caught up to the duo. "Gwuh, feh... You girls... sure can move fast!" she blurted out, collapsing on Ellen's shoulder. "Uhh... did you all set a meetup location for afterwards? Or, oh you can contact each other, right?" she seemed anxious about being on the street, not wanting a passing CDF patrol car to spot them. "Plus, there's still... the matter of extracting the- uhm, well the sample, for analysis..." The sample which still resided within the doctor's severed head.

Yu-Ri could certainly find a discarded bag within which to deposit her grisly trophy. But in order to get the eyes out of it they'd need to do a bit of surgery... or just get medieval. The eyes were only the start after all, as most ocular augmentation operations involved artificial nerve replacement as well as supplementing the visual cortex with a microchip to aid the brain in interpreting the data. In other words, a full removal of the compromised cyberware for a post-mortem examination was going to be a messy process, to say the least.

 

[Atenthirtyone]

[fieldbox=, pink, solid]

As Chie leaped out of the window, she could hear the controlled burst fire of the rifles. It seemed like those defense modules really worked. The defensive matrix managed to deflect most of the bullets, and those that it were unable to pierce her active armor. Good, she got out unhar -----. Chie's sight were blurry and her Cyberframe's vision seemed to flash repeatedly. Her ears were blasted by sounds of white noise. It was so disorienting that Chie lost her balance. She quickly reached out her hands, attempting to catch herself from falling.

But, it wasn't the cool grass lawn or dirt that her hands touched. No, it was something ridiculously warm and smooth. It was like a cylinder shaped object, like a very thin street light pole. The object also managed to support her weight, keeping Chie from falling over. But, it was so... interesting. Chie squeezed a bit harder to further inspect the material. The texture bounced back with a bit of elasticity, but was mostly firmed with resistance. After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably no more than a few seconds, Chie's vision returned to normal. She found Farron in front of her.

And both of Chie's hands were holding onto tightly around her left thigh. Chie quickly shook her head hard repeatedly, as if she would be able to shake the white noise out of her ears.

"V-valiant Red. My apologies. I must be getting exhausted. We need to leave. Both of us can probably sneak off quietly while using our movement modules."

Chie activated the Potential energy Capacitors, and felt strength return to her thighs. It was like her muscles were being reforged into something far stronger than human flesh, bone, and muscle.

[fieldbox="Condition Monitor"]
Heat:: 91 = 90 (Previous turn) - 3 (Active Modules) - 2 (Passive cooling)
Processing: 2/12

Active Modules
Legs: Improved Potential Energy Capacitors (Rating 2) [Output 2]
[/fieldbox]
[/fieldbox]

 

[Izurich]

[fieldbox=, Red, solid]

"Ugh?! ...what the actual fu-...?" Akni's sound plan to quickly escape the block through ReVizion Clinic was sorely interrupted by none other than her fellow Valiant, Valiant Boob-Window to be more precise. The redhead could only stare back in utter disbelief as Chie's unsettling fixation of her left thigh as if it was made of gold and precious gems. "......." Only seconds passed in reality, but for Akni, the sheer awkwardness was enough to make her wish time could tick faster. At long last, the older girl recovered, released her grip, then apologized promptly.

Shrugging, Akni decided to ignore the strange behavior for the time being, she had seen much worse than a thigh-worshipping upperclassman. "Yeah, no prob, let's get out of here and..." Akni raised an eyebrow, "No need to use any modules, but suit yourself, just don't overdo it. Come on, through here." With Chie closely following behind her, Akni ran into the Clinic's back entrance, passed the blaring alarm lights, then out the opened front doors, arriving at the street. "Okay, good, now we gotta split up, Chie, pick an alleyway and hide, I'll contact you girls later."

Not taking any arguments from the taller Valiant, Akni dashed off into the night, crossing the empty street, then into the alleyway beyond. Whether through coincidence or sheer luck, this particular alley had no hobos or pot-smokers laying about, just her, dumpsters, and random boxes. Gulping, Akni took a spot behind a green dumpster, concealing herself before disenganging her Cyberframe. The futuristic armor vanished in puffs of smoke, leaving a redheaded girl in hoodies, steams hissing out of her warm body.

"Ha... ha... nnngh..." Panting in exhaustion and stress, she quickly peeked around, still no one here, good. Stepping out of her spot, Akni pulled up her hood as she walked away from the chaotic CDF-swarmed block behind. Accessing her SmartView, she began mentally typing a message.

"Hey girls, how are you all doing? All safe, I hope. We need to analyze the... 'Sample' asap. Let's meet up at my apartment, I live alone..." She stopped... "Or you can just give me the 'thing' and go home, I'll handle it." 'You' implied Yu-Ri of course, but Akni refused to explicitly mention her name, not now.
[/fieldbox]

 

[Ailucia]

[fieldbox=, yellow, solid]

As the duo landed, Remi let out an audible "Oof" as her legs buckled a tad. "Heavy landing huh." She said, focusing on the heavy aspect as she was able to feel two heavy weights against her back for the whole ride over to this location. She dismissed most of the little mecha-fairy's questions. "There's something more important to worry about." The blonde girl responded, motioning to the cuts on Ellen. For whatever reason, Remi carried her patient over to an abandoned alleyway, not wanting to be seen by anyone that could considered an enemy. As she put Ellen down, she heard the voice of someone not particularly high on Remi's Like List at the moment.

"Why should we let you handle it?" Remi said to her red-headed teammate. "Yu-Ri is capable herself." Whoever Farron was talking to was still very much on her mind, not trusting how she wants everyone to meet up at her house, or leave things to 'her' and possibly whoever Ms. Reed was.

She took a deep breath as she stopped focusing on her Smartview, there was still something important to do. Remi turned to her upperclassman, staring her in the eyes. "I'm going to start up my treatment, show me where you got hurt." The little girl's chest started to glow as the module began to start up. This was the one module she didn't really test out before, and had no idea how it would work. Maybe It's a healing beam, or a healing touch? Sadly, she soon figured out how it would manifest. She could feel a strong build up inside of her mouth that tasted slightly like a lily flower. She began to smack her lips as her suit began to inform her how she would have to apply her healing "solution" to the afflicted area.

[fieldbox=Resource Monitor, yellow, solid]
Heat: 71 (73 (Base) -2 (P. Cooling))
Processing: 0
Modules:
Improved Medical Treatment - Standby

[/fieldbox]
[/fieldbox]

 

[ERode]

Yu-Ri dashed through alleyways, ignoring the looks she received from another few random strangers. Sure, they could anonymously tip the CDF about some black-haired exhibitionist going through the alleyway, but they would be doing that tomorrow, if ever at all. Her identity, presently, was safe, and eventually, she founded a plastic bag to toss the head in. Now that the straps were digging into her flesh, it felt much heavier than before, but she paid it no heed. She was still strong. Now, she just needed to find a way to get it Srade.

Was there something that the spaceship goddess-thing mentioned about how to get back to her place? The blood-stained Valiant frowned, trying to recall, but ultimately gave up. It was safe, at least, to linger a while longer in the empty alleyway. Her Cyberframe had no flashy lights on it, and the black coloration made for half-decent passive camouflage. Dropping down to her knees, she leaned with a sigh against a dumpster, cradled the plastic bag in her lap, and began to check through the messages that were spinning once more through her Smartbook.

Farron wanted them to meet up in her home. She also wanted to have the head.

Remi was against that. Almost vehemently so, but she smiled because of it.

It was sorta nice.

Bringing up the augmented reality keyboard, Yu-Ri began to type down her messages, first sending a message to the entire group.

We do not need to analyze it. Srade does. Go home. I will handle it.

Following that through, she typed down another message, this time directing it to Remi and Ellen.

Is Mita with you? Does she know where we need to head to meet with Srade again?

And finally, Yu-Ri took in a deep breath, leaning her head back against the graffiti-stained walls.

A final message was sent to Remi.

I dislike Farron. You?

Condition Monitor

Heat: 81 - 6 (Active Cooling) = 75
Processing: 10/12

Active Modules:


Loaded Modules:
Rating 2 Swallowtail Wings
Rating 3 Speed Augmentation
Rating 3 Positional Anchors
Rating 1 Reaction Enhancement

 

[R-9 Pilot]

[fieldbox=", #5fd4a3, solid"]

"We'll keep in touch and regroup," Ellen answered Mita's question. The rest, well...she wasn't sure about, so she kept silent. Her family was in the cyberware business, so she knew it wouldn't be the easiest task to just get some parts, and she highly doubted that she could secure the cooperation of anyone she knew in the company to help them operate on a severed head they just happened to have. Certainly not without too many awkward questions.

She got to her feet and pulled away from Remi, once the girl had landed. "I've got to get some better mobility systems," she said, and sighed. She didn't even feel very useful so far, even if some of it wasn't her fault. "It's nothing too serious, but anywhere I'm bleeding is pretty much it." The lacerations in her cyberframe were obvious enough. "Thanks for the help, again." It was the least she could do to be polite and hold still or otherwise present and wounds for easy access, as directed. Coming home with mysterious injuries under unharmed clothes would just unnecessarily alarm her family. She'd likely be in enough trouble as it was.

She checked her messages while she waited, and replied as she could. "It won't be easy to do anything. Cyberware's never just skin deep, so to speak, and it'd take a trained surgeon and proper tools to really manage a clean extraction anyway." She resisted the urge to rant about just how extensive the work on replacing an arm or a leg was, compared to what everyone probably thought. It wasn't like they can just magically weld something onto a little port the plant on a stump. Things were a lot more involved, and the thought that she'd lost a fair bit of healthy tissue still irked her at times. Limbs were generally trickier than eyes, what with the need for proper mounting and maintaining joints, leverage, and so-on, but still...

"Mita's here. I'll ask her for you," she replied to Yu-Ri's query, then spoke up to do so. "Hey, Mita, question for you." she waited for the little cyber-fairy to acknowledge her before continuing. "How are we supposed to meet Srade or actually get any...materials...up to her, anyway?" It really was the important question to ask. She had another one, if the problem did lead back to the doctor's cybernetics, but it wasn't something she'd forget any time soon, so she could wait until it came up in conversation.

[fieldbox="Condition Monitor, #5fd4a3, solid"]
Heat: 37 = 43 - 6 active cooling
Processing: 0/12
Active Modules: None
[/fieldbox]
[/fieldbox]

 

[Insomnant]

27092115581979057.0​

While doubt and mistrust and resentment built within the team, Mita began to realize that perhaps she should back off for a bit- her presence seemed neither helpful nor wanted. She got up off Ellen's shoulder to flutter in the air, giving the two some space. Fortunately she hadn't flown off as she was still needed, and she nodded her head while straightening up to attention. "Oh! Well Srade can project her hologram at any point if you'd like...? But it is better saved for indoors so as not to attract too much attention, I think. But getting the materials to her is easy! Just need to expose them to the open air, no roof above or anything, no organic matter enclosing them, and she'll beam them aboard for analysis!" Luckily it didn't sound like much precision was needed in the recovery process.

The nice thing about the murder having taken place at the hospital was a lack of need for an ambulance to carry the victims away. Or it would have been if it weren't for the fact that the entire first floor had to be evacuated after the witnesses had been interviewed. Cordons were set off and the first floor so that the investigation could take place undisturbed. Patients had to be transferred to a nearby hospital so the ambulances were busy driving back and forth, staff called in to work late into the night. The sounds of wailing sirens and grumbling engines provided the urban orchestra of the night.

 

[Ailucia]

[fieldbox=, yellow, solid]

Srade sounded like a pretty useful ship, it would be easy to give her items to examine and just plain talk to it seems. The cries of the ambulances that began to fill up the city streets reminded Remi of her own little back alley duty that she was about to do, hearing a ping from her Smartview as a message reached her. She would read it in a bit, healing Ellen was more important. "No need to thank. This is part of my duty."

"Keep calm." The blonde little girl stated, not sure exactly how her healing someone would feel for her, or for the patient. She brought her lips to the bleeding areas, trying her best to tune out the metallic taste of Ellen's blood as she coated the wounds with the solution. After a few seconds of being on the wound, the solution bubbled up and gave a cool sensation as it began to work it's magic on Ellen's body. In a few minutes the bubbles would fizzle, only perfectly cured skin remaining.

Finally finished with her work on every laceration she could see on her teammate's body, Remi exited her cyberframe, feeling that being in it now would be more of a liability than a help. The little girl could feel herself a lot more hot than usual, almost as if she had been in a car in the sun for too long. She turned to both Ellen, then to Mita, giving them a small bow. "Thank you for your help today." Remi began to walk away, checking up on her device to look for a map home.

"Oh yah." She said aloud to herself. There was still that message that was sent to her. After getting her directions, she read Yu-Ri's message. Well, as if it wasn't obvious. She thought, reading the girl's distaste for their fiery comrade. She wasn't planning on telling Yu-Ri anything important until she could get more solid information herself, but she did want to at least respond.

[bg=#404040]I dont trust her[/bg]

Remi decided to send a message of her own to everyone.

[bg=#404040]if u got hurt. come visit me, sister wont care. only 2 help injured, not a meet up. msg me for info[/bg]

Her sister would probably be ecstatic to know that Remi was socializing again. She'd probably misunderstand and think they're her friends. She should be home by now, probably wondering where she was at.

[fieldbox=Resource Monitor, yellow, solid]
Heat: 78 (71 (Base) +9 (Heat) -2 (P. Cooling))
Processing: 4
Modules:
Improved Medical Treatment (Rating 2, 1 Socket (Amplifier Rating 1), Overcharge 1)

[/fieldbox]
[/fieldbox]

 

[Atenthirtyone]

[fieldbox=, pink, solid]

Chie landed in a dark alley after jumping off a street light, assisted by her Potential Energy Capacitors modules. The feeling was absolutely addicting, why won't she always use it? The strength and speed was incredible. But, there wasn't any need for it anymore. She turned off the module, and felt her thighs return back to normal. What a shame. Chie closed her eyes and breathed a few times to relax. It was hard to believe that the Valiants had just went and finished their first mission in less than twenty minutes ago. It would probably be best if she started to cool her suit before turning it off. Right, the active cooling module. Chie mentally turned it on, and her body began to feel a bit cooler.

[bg=#404040]if u got hurt. come visit me, sister wont care. only 2 help injured, not a meet up. msg me for info[/bg]

It was a message from Remi. Remi... Remi. Right, the short blonde underclassman with that cute little tongue clicking. Chie wasn't sure why she did that so much, but it felt along well with her cold stare that she had given a few times. Perhaps, the poor little girl had a speech disorder. No matter, Chie really needed to go home, have dinner, and soak in the bathtub for a good hour or so. She could feel the sweat building up underneath her Cyberframe.

Chie deactivated her Cyberframe, and was covered in more sweat than she thought was possible. She had a bit of trouble breathing, as if she had been in a hot sauna room for way too long. Her school uniform had returned with her, but the blouse was completely soaked. Chie looked down and could see a bit of her purple lace bra. Furthermore, her back felt like she was smacked hard by a baseball. It wasn't too different than that time when some girl intentionally pegged Chie with one in Physical Education class like a child.

What was the reason again? Oh right, Chie rejected that girl's best friend. What a childish thing to do. As Chie's fingers touched her lower back, her back jolted in pain at the contact.

"Aaaaaah!"

Chie shouted with a higher pitched voice than she normally had. She hunched over from the pain. Perhaps, she could get herself some painkillers. But, how? There was no way she would be able to buy any at an automated place without her parents asking questions a month or two down the line. While, Chie had her very own credit line, it was heavily monitored by her parents. They certainly won't be happy to see their daughter purchasing drugs this late in the evening. What about an old fashioned pharmacy location with human pharmacists? No, She's currently in a sweat soaked school uniform. They would report her as some drug addicted teenager, and the consequences for that would be far worst. Perhaps, if it was a male pharmacist, Chie cou--- Remi!

Chie quickly brought up her reply function on her SmartView. A private message back to the blonde underclassman.

[bg=#404040]I might need some medical assistance... [/bg]

[fieldbox="Condition Monitor"]
Heat: 85 = 91 (Previous turn) - 6 (Active cooling)
Processing: 0/12

Active Modules
[/fieldbox]
[/fieldbox]

 

[R-9 Pilot]

[fieldbox=", #5fd4a3, solid"]

Ellen wasn't sure what to think about how close her kouhai was gettng for medical treatment. Somehow...it wasn't what she was expecting at all, and at first, she did react with understandable surprise. "Wha," she squeaked, "Seriously?" She did her best not to squirm and just put up with it as her wounds were treated, then smiled at Remi with a sheepish grin.

"Sorry, I...wasn't expecting something like that. I guess we can think of it as you literally making it better with a kiss." Or taking the whole licking of one's wounds thing too literally, though she didn't add that one, feeling it might be a little...inappropriate a thought. She dismissed her own cyberframe, feeling that any need for it had passed, and her own clothes wouldn't be threatened by any injuries. Hopefully, whatever damage the actual fabric had sustained wouldn't stick around for next time.

She waved as Remi left. "Careful, it's dangerous to wander around alone." ...not that any of them couldn't handle themselves, if need-be. Ellen glanced up at Mita, if the cyber-fairy was still around. "Guess you're sticking with me," she asked. She'd have to think of a way to pass the tiny girl off as something harmless, but it wouldn't be too difficult.

She opened her smartview again to relay the information to Yu-Ri and the others. It was the sort of thing everyone should know, so she pinged the message out to the whole group. "Ok, so, we can contact Srade pretty much any time, though preferably indoors and somewhere with some privacy. She can, uh, beam stuff up if we just get them outdoors, as in open air (so i guess if we're in a dome or arco, it wouldn't work?). Mita said something about no organic material so...um, ew. I don't envy you, Yu-Ri."

After sending the message, she added another to the cold, black-haired girl with the big prize. "I'm no expert on cybernetics, and I sadly don't think I can find us one. but...please try to be careful not to damage those eyes or whatever else is behind them. Don't beat yourself up if you can't get all the little wires or other bits, either, though..." She wondered if she was coming off as some sort of condescending ass. She also wondered if they even needed to be so careful as to get every little bit, or if Srade would be fine with the best they could manage, particularly on short notice. She'd heard rumors that people could collect or sell used cyberware, though she dreaded to think of what must be involved to extract those parts and get them all nice and clean...

Ellen shuddered a bit in the alley, and keyed up her own directions home. It'd take a little while to walk, but...she felt safe enough doing it. She wasn't some harmless little girl anymore, though she didn't exactly want to go and teach anyone a lesson, either. Even if she didn't expect to need to defend herself, the feeling that she probably could buoyed her spirits a bit, as she carefully headed home, sticking to areas with a better police presence or response time when possible.
[fieldbox="Condition Monitor, #5fd4a3, solid"]
System disengaged.
[/fieldbox]
[/fieldbox]

 

[ERode]

I dont trust her

Trust, was it? Interesting way of phrasing that, but all the things that Farron stated, mentioned, or noticed did seem rather strange in retrospect. A hot-headed individual like herself, crashing in without even a small bit of modesty, noticing things that no one else notices? Yu-Ri narrowed her eyes, before letting it go for now, instead scanning through Ellen's informative messages about Cyberware and the extraction techniques of Srade.

Just an open sky? And Srade herself can be communicated with at any time? But the spaceship was unable to extract organic material?

Yu-Ri could feel revulsion building up in the back of her mind once more, but she simply pushed it down, further and further away. She brought up her Smartview, Smartsearched a diagram of cyberware for eyes, and grimaced.

Of course it was connected to the brain. Of course it was a super delicate procedure. Of course the only tools she had here was her blades. The raven-haired girl looked through both sides of the alleyway, saw no one, and finally set her mouth in a grim line.

Physically pulling out one of her Swallowtail Wings, she plopped the head onto the ground, threw up the diagram in augmented reality, and tried not to think about what she was going to do. She cleaved through flesh and bone, scalping the product's head, tossing it into the bag. Next, she reached in, and began to scoop out brain matter. It felt like ground meat, except harder and warm, and Yu-Ri shook violently, trying not to let it get to her. It was a good thing her Cyberframe, for all its frontal exposure, at least had gloves on.

After most of the brain was scooped out, she started to move much more carefully. Cybereyes were attached to the brain through wires. One option, then, is to pull those wires, and thus, the eyes, out. However, she didn't want to risk any damage to those wires, and thus, settled for carving away the flesh that surrounded the eyes.

They were much…larger than expected.

Yu-Ri stared into those dull red eyes, losing herself for a moment, before she shook her head violently, and got back to work.

After the eyes began to dangle from their fleshless sockets, she worked to continuously 'chisel' away at the brain matter. Five minutes later, and the chunks were segmented enough that the package could slowly be pulled out of the head.

Two bloody, mechanical eyes were now in her hands, and what laid in the plastic bag she used as a garbage can was…ground beef. Just…ground beef and bone.

Yu-Ri was thankful for the darkness of the alleyway. Even with the night-vision augmentations her SmartView provided her, the very fact she couldn't see clearly meant that she could lie all she wanted. Picking away chunks of flesh and brain that still hung onto the wired nerves and the silicon eyes, she did as best of a job she could, and finally had a product that was just bloody, instead of also fleshy.

"Good job," she muttered hoarsely. "Srade, can you take this from here?"

Condition Monitor

Heat: 75 - 6 (Active Cooling) = 69
Processing: 10/12

Active Modules:


Loaded Modules:
Rating 2 Swallowtail Wings
Rating 3 Speed Augmentation
Rating 3 Positional Anchors
Rating 1 Reaction Enhancement

 

[Izurich]

[fieldbox=, Red, solid]

Painfully aware of at least two of her teammates' disposition towards her at the moment, Akni was expecting the short blonde girl to oppose her. Such scorn dripping from her voice, Remi didn't even try to hide her contempt for the redhead, so Akni's phone call with Operator Reed bothered her that much, huh? Sigh, might as well consider her cover compromised already, but as she did before, it'd be best to play dumb until Remi - or someone else - directly confronted her about it. However, saying Akni wasn't irritated would be a great big lie. This... pair of black and yellow, Akni had tried her best to get their asses off the CDF's attention, but ungrateful little fucks they turned out to be. they should be arrested for disrupting federal investigation.

Clenching her hands inside her hoodie's pockets, Akni took a deep ragged breath as she gritted her teeth. Her SmartView displaying Remi's messages, thinking how to best respond, only for Yu-Ri to chime in, obviously wallowing in joy at co-bullying her with Remi. She even used Akni's own words against her, twisting them with a vengeful sarcastic flair. "......"

"You bitches don't know what you are doing! I am the CDF Officer, not you clowns! Is it that fucking hard to realize that through the thick layer of dung covering your brain?! Fu|" ...The cursor stopped there along with Akni's body as she found herself standing under a street light, heaving her breath, eyes narrowed, lips twitching much like a volcano ready to erupt at a moment's notice. A second later, her eyes shot open in horror as she quickly discarded the message draft. What in the world just happened? She was never this short-tempered before, perhaps... Her Cyberframe and powers indeed affected her personality somewhat, amplifying her emotions, fitting considering her whole theme. Pursing her lips, she brought up her virtual keyboard once more.

"Fine, be careful and stay safe." It was directed to everyone.

If Yu-Ri wanted to do all the nitty gritty work of examining a mutilated head, then suit herself, Akni just thought it'd be much easier on the taller girl's psyche if she left it to a CDF personnel like her. With the task delegated to Yu-Ri, Akni had more time to handle her report for the Ms. Reed. As she walked home, might as well draft the important points first.

"Incident at ReVizion Clinic and Hope Hospital by Junior Officer Akni Moretz

• Fire Alarms triggered at ReVizion Clinic,
• Hospital Back access breached
• Chaos in the Hospital, likely by the same perpetrator
• Officers arrived to handle the situation

End Report"

Yeah, this should be adequate, she could just say she left after the cavalries arrived, the fact she was advised to strictly observe was helping her case, she didn't have to provide a detailed report, she shouldn't be able to anyway. Remi's little healing services advertisement popped up as soon as she saved the report draft. Akni stared at it for a few seconds... before she replied a quick "Duly noted, thanks."

Next up was Ellen's articulately well-composed message, much unlike Remi's text-speech. The first part was already known, it was the very thing Srade did when she first revealed her holographic self in the teacher's lounge, the next was quite interesting, pulling up stuff into outer space ala classic movie UFOs. The last part gave Akni a real test not to jab Yu-Ri with a well-deserved 'Told ya', but Yu-Ri was a big brave girl, right? She could take care of herself.

"Gotcha, Ellen."

A few chuckles and a slow shake of her head were enough of a reply for the black-haired Valiant. Akni resumed her walk towards her apartment, she'd get a good nice bath, a hot soup, then some shut-eye. This had been a looooong night.

[/fieldbox]

 

[Insomnant]

27092115581979256.8​

After the night's violence- and on a hospital this time no less- the mood in the city was somber, to say the least. News crews were only just now getting in place to begin reporting on this round of murder, from a distance away of course, interviewing people nearby who'd neither heard nor seen anything interesting. But they were all in a frenzy to bring the people of Central City the latest on the hospital attack.

The one thing that gave them any hint of novelty in their coverage tonight was the odd stories beginning to trickle in, from callers or a couple of witnesses found for interview. One intrepid journalist even made it onto an ambulance somehow, and grilled the nurse and patient in a stretcher being jostled around in the back of the vehicle while it drove. They told tales of little girls! Maybe six years old? No they were high-schoolers. A range of ages?

There was definitely only one of them though. Or maybe a dozen? Nope, just three. Well, four. At any rate, they were dressed in some sort of military uniform. Wait... wait... this just in, they were naked. Or actually they might have been cosplayers! They wore futuristic pajamas. They were clad only in exotic lingerie. They were aliens from outer space. One awkward teen swore to the annoyed-looking reporter who obviously resented having to speak to him that the girls were just like the peppy young sidekicks from the niche video game Battle Bi***es but they not only bleeped the name out, they also ended the interview in a huff immediately afterward.

At least all of the reports agreed that they had killed... someone. A doctor? A security guard? A local mom visiting her injured son? Possibly more- reports were still coming in. Stay tuned to receive minute-by-minute updates on this odd turn of events!

Even without watching the news reports it was nearly impossible to escape the chatter about it. Messages from friends and social media updates ensured that the girls couldn't even make it home without finding out they were famous... sort of. At least, caricatures of themselves were famous. Although every official source mentioning the possibility of their presence punctuated the statement with a line about how they were wanted by the CDF for questioning. So... there was that. And with spotlights shining brightly along the sidewalks, CDF squad cars were patrolling the streets, no doubt searching for them.

Yu-Ri had a bright circular outline pass directly over her when one car passed the alley she was kneeling in, but as the tense seconds went by the sound of the car's engine continued to soften as the vehicle drove further away. They'd missed her, and the gruesome work she was doing. Fortunately it was not in vain, as her gory offering was enveloped by a teal pillar of light that shone down from above to stretch over every part of the eyes and the nerve connecting them. Then in an instant they 'faded' upward, as if pixelating into transparency, and then their weight on Yu-Ri's palm vanished. "Yes, I will take over the study of this specimen. Thank you, for your hard work," she spoke to the beleaguered girl.

"You have done well, but I am concerned for your wellbeing. It is not my place to tell you how best to defend your world, but for your sake, I do hope that all of you can work through your differences to present a united from against Lesedra's rage." Her tone was more sorrowful than lecturing, as if it pained her to say anything about it at all but she could not stay completely silent. "I will let you know what I learn from this, as well as have Mita instruct you further regarding expanding the capabilities of your Cyberframes."

Speaking of whom, Mita hovered over Ellen once Remi had left, and gasped squeakily with surprise when questioned, a bit caught off guard. "Oh! I- I guess so! If, that is alright. If not I could always find a place to hide until tomorrow morning?" She could find a paper bag or something to shuffle around in stealthily, make it back to the school. Surely one of the other girls would want to hang on to her- though not Remi... not again. Still, she began to follow Ellen hesitantly when the girl began walking home, looking a bit pensive about being out in the open, especially with the CDF still sweeping the area for their key suspects.

 

[Ailucia]

[fieldbox=, yellow, solid]

"Ah." Remi said to herself as she walked along the semi-quiet path back to her house. She left Ellen sure, but she should have taken Mita with her as well. She wasn't done playing around with the doll and had some outfits she could force onto her. A wicked smile grew upon her face as she imagined what she could do when she gets her hands on Mita again...

"GIMMIE LOVE AND MONEY, I HAVE THE REST ALREADY. LOVE AND MONEY COMING FROM YOU IS WH-" Rang out from her pocket as she received a phone call.

"Remy Wemy, where are you so late in the night?" It was her older sister calling. "I heard something bad happened on the news and wanted to check up on you... don't you have school tomorrow too? I hope little Remi didn't find herself a boyfriend or two~"

The blonde girl could only give out a small sigh, not even sure what she could say in response to all that. "It was... nothing like that, just went out with a few classmates."

"Classmates? So you finally made some friends huh?" Her elder sister joked, pushing Remi's buttons. "Come on, tell me their names, at least one!"

As she said that Remi's phone pinged with a few arrived messages. One from Farron, and one from... "Chie." She said aloud with a hint of disdain. She was going to have to heal her today too then. Not only that, she was going to have to come over her house as well.

"Chie huh? Sounds like a cute name." Her sister chimed in.

"It's NOT like that." Remi almost screamed into her phone, clicking her tongue at even the thought of it. "Anyways, I'm going to have someone come over for a bit okay?"

"No worries, as long as it isn't a guy!"

Remi didn't even give her sister a response past ending the call. She took the time to send Chie the address to her house so they could meet up at the front before going in together.


[/fieldbox]

 

[ERode]

Concerned for her wellbeing? Yu-Ri smiled a faraway smile, before picking herself off the ground. She swayed to one side, almost tripping over the bag of gore placed beside her, before simply tossing it into the dumpster. Only a few cars had passed by, and none had decided to turn into the alleyway. In the darkness, her Smartview visual augmentation couldn't make out the blood on her hands, and the raven-haired Valiant turned up towards that light blue pillar, moments before it dissipated.

"It'd be good if you could make a machine to extract the cyberware next time. This takes too long."

Without waiting for a response, she closed her eyes, willed the Cyberframe away, and felt the weight of her normal clothes phase onto her body once more. The sticky sensation of blood disappeared as well, and moments later, all that remained was a lingering sensation of a warmth that bordered on uncomfortably hot. She wiped her brow with the back of her hand, peeling sticky strands away from her forehead, and let out a long sigh.

It was over. Time to go home and sleep.

CDF vehicles drove through the streets, followed closely by news vans. Her SmartBook was bombarded with news about the hospital attack, about witness testimonies, about her classmates and acquaintances putting in their own vapid opinions about the matter. A few texts from her patrons complained about the midnight oil they were burning, as well as her availability. Her lips curled, but she didn't respond immediately. Her plans for tomorrow, if this was going to be a daily thing, were unknown, ultimately.

But why was she even doing this? Did she have to go that far just to become 'friends' with Ellen and Chie? Or was she doing it now just to spite Farron? Did she even really care about that twin-tailed first year? No, in the end, she was just a…substitute? scapegoat? distraction.

The noise of the helicopters disappeared, and the streetlamps dimmed as she got further and further away from the commotion. The smell of trash, alcohol, and cigarette smoke pervaded the air once more. An argument sounded from a few floors up, heavy thumps and curses heard even down on the streets. A pauper perked up whilst nursing his bottle, only to realize that Yu-Ri was just another resident, uncaring and apathetic about the plights of others. She ascended the stairs, unlocked the door to her family's suite with an old-fashioned key, and walked in.

"I'm home."

No 'welcome back'. No questions about where she had been. No mention of where dinner was. Her father imprisoned himself in his work room, the smell of paint strong behind the door. Her mother drowned herself in classical music, staring out a dusty window, at the brilliant lights of downtown, feet tapping to meters and beats she didn't share with any other.

Yu-Ri walked into the dingy bathroom, an incandescent lightbulb flickering on and off sprodically. A distorted reflection of herself emerged from the cracked mirror, one brown eye too large, her hair a sweat-stained mess, her lips a hard, hard line. She flicked the light switch off, and washed her face in the darkness, cool droplets spraying against her face.

Another long sigh, her tense shoulders drooping down.

And then, Yu-Ri calming closed the bathroom door, positioned herself carefully in front of the toilet, and promptly began to vomit all the good food she ate that day, half-digested chunks of meat and vegetables and bile splashing into the bowl. Her body spasmed violently, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the edge of the sink. Hot tears seared her eyes, her teeth gnashing violently to prevent any sobs from sounding. All those too vivid memories were lashing out now, the blood, the warmth, the smell, the weight, the resistance, the motion.

There was nothing more she could eject. The only thing that remained was a hollow sensation, as if she was suddenly too light, her mind drifting away into the night clouds.

Slowly, she pulled herself together. She cupped some sink water into her mouth and rinsed it, before flushing the toilet.

Everything was under control once more.

There was nothing wrong.

It was just like the first time she had sex.

She will get used to this as well.

 

[R-9 Pilot]

[fieldbox=", #5fd4a3, solid"]

"I don't mind." Ellen beckoned Mita to follow her, and offered the tiny fairy girl a pocket she could use for a refuge, although it wasn't a particularly nice one. Purses were something of a thing of the past or the wealthy, these days. She sighed, and began venting her frustrations to Srade's familiar. "At least we all lived through that...but, damn I feel terrible."

"We're just a bunch of kids, you know? Maybe nobody will take us seriously," as the news seemed to indicate, given how confused and spread out the eyewitness reports were. Looked like whatever appearance-screening system worked. She'd have to try it on someone who actually knew her one day. "But I feel like we just don't know the first fucking thing about what we're doing." Pretty harsh language there, for her. "We certainly couldn't do a damn thing to coordinate or work together. We all probably almost got killed, or worse. And we had to...do all that." She didn't envy Yu-Ri in the slightest. She worried for her, taking all that upon herself. Unless she really was as cold and robotic as she acted. Which was just a different reason to worry about her. Ellen continued to rant, her emotions going from frustration at her own failings and how poorly they'd done, to anger...to choking up over the weight of it all and finally wearing down with quiet sobbing.

She'd have to try and put things together, better. The team, such as it was...wasn't one. Nobody was really a clear leader, either, but they'd have to get organized and actually work together if they didn't want more repeats of the evening. And if this was the easiest it gets, things would just be worse if they couldn't actually pull together before it got worse. Of course they wouldn't just all magically be friends because they're magical girls or whatever. They're all practically strangers.

Any passerby probably just decided not to pay too close attention to the nice girl with the cyberware talking to herself like she was crazy. Ellen didn't notice, but if she did, she'd probably just agree with them. When she finally arrived home, she was greeted by anxious and worried parents. If they were angry for such things as not taking the car, or being out so late, it must have melted into something else as time ticked on.

"Ohmygosh, Ellen, we were so worried," her mother exclaimed as she pulled her daughter into a crushing hug. "Why didn't you take the car?"

"It was a nice night, and we needed the fresh air," Ellen replied. "Sorry it took so long." How long was it, even? It seemed like an age before she left, but it couldn't have been more than an hour or two at most.

"You've been crying. Is everything okay? Nothing happened, right?" The concern in her mother's voice was genuine, and not surprising, given what had already happened to her only daughter.

"I'm fine. I was just...thinking about some things." Any luck, and it'd just be passed off as teenagers being teenagers.

"You weren't anywhere near anything that happened tonight, were you?"

"No mom," she lied. It was easy enough to clam up when she needed to.

Things eventually settled down into a nice and sedate conversation, and Ellen at least admitted to worrying about some friends at school, and wondering how to get them to get along better. The conversation continued along that tack for a while, before she eventually retreated to the safety of her own room, and carefully took Mita out and set her on the desk. "Sorry about...all that," she apologized to the doll-sized automaton. "It's been a long night."
[/fieldbox]

 

[Atenthirtyone]

[fieldbox=, pink, solid]

Chie had just arrived in a small house in a residential district of Central City. It was relatively small house, probably with two or three bedrooms at the most. Probably. Chie had never been a commoner's house before. An apartment complex sure, but never a house this small. It was like a doll house, small and cute. Oh, kinda like that tongue clicking girl. Name was... Romi? No, Rami? Remi. That was it. She had offered to use her Cyberframe's healing capability to fix up Chie's back. Chie cringed slightly at the pain that she experienced less than twenty minutes ago.

She had managed to purchase some fresh fruit on her way here. They were fresh berries of all sorts. The shop keeper was utterly shocked when Chie asked for five pounds of it. Were fresh berries that expensive to the common people? Well, that didn't matter. Chie really needed her back to be fixed. There was no way she could hide such an injury to her archery club upperclassmen. They were already ready to have her removed from the club. Chie would not stand as those harpies tried to have their way. Not to Chie Mont, heiress of the Mont family.

Anyway, no sense in waiting. Chie rang the doorbell. It was an old fashion model that was clearly out of date, and needed to be replaced by something more efficient. For heaven's sake, it was a model that couldn't even allow you to customize the sounds of it.

"Remy wemy~. Did you forget your key? Silly girl~. Must had some hard making out session with some boy beforehand and lost your key!" giggled a voice as it quickly approached the front door with a running footstep.

The door opened and revealed a tall young woman with blonde hair and... very womanly features. Chie looked in surprise, as she was expecting that short little flatboard toy of tongue clicking.

"Hello." greeted Chie as she gave a very deep and polite bow. "Is Remi home, miss? I was invited by her for this evening." It was probably unnecessary for Chie to be so formal, but years of whipped conditioning had made bowing and being polite second nature to her.

"Ara ara. So Remy really wasn't inviting a boy. But an upperclassman! How cute! Come in, come in! And sit! I'll prepare some tea! Little Remi should be home soon."

So is this how families treat each other? With nicknames and warmth. Chie tensed a bit on the worn, but comfortable couch as the presumably older sister rushed into the kitchen. The woman was silly, as she forgotten to introduce herself at all. Well, she was probably Remi's older sister, if not... well Remi's parents certainly started to breed young. Wait, but don't the economically impoverished do that anyway? Na, it was probably an older sister.

Eventually, the young woman returned with tea. The young woman eventually introduced herself as Becca, the older sister of Remi. The two of them engaged in small talk, mostly about Central City Primary School, some topics about Chie's family, the likes. Chie's own family. That was a hard question to answer, but thankfully it only pertained to her parents' occuptions and how many siblings Chie had. Zero. Please, as if mother could stomach to be away from work for more than one pregnancy. Fortunately, the topics returned to the 'Little Remi', and things were for more comfortable and interesting.

Che had began to genuinely laugh at the humor that Becca displayed. Furthermore, apparently 'Little Remi' was quite an interesting little girl. Oh, and all of these little embarrassing childhood stories that Becca gossiped was amazing. Almost as amazing as how little Becca revealed about Remi as the nature of the stories themselves. Chie had to hold her hand to cover her mouth to laugh a bit more than she had in a long time.

Then the front door began to open.
[/fieldbox]