In Medias Res

[Lagunamov]

I hate leading the charge.
Back in Venice, Assassin's Creed 2 OST.
July 29th, 2010.

It had been two days since Elrick and Lillian had encountered and joined up with two new people. Normally, he’d be more than glad to have more companions on his journey, but this wasn’t the case. After years away, Elrick was finally going home to ease his mind, and if his sister wasn’t lying, get new equipment that’d improve his performance by leaps and bounds. On the way to Eurydice, leading the charge, he had gone over a proper course of action countless times. Alone, he would just make a basic plan and wing his way out. But with other people’s lives at stakes, he had to consider almost everything.

First order of business was laying low. His uniform would stick out like a sore thumb, regardless of whether Orpheus had changed its designed in those passing years or not. It was still their uniform, it still bore their emblem, and he was still somewhat known around there. So, removing everything related to them, he changed into a light grey hoodie, and changed his boots to a pair of regular black shoes. He tucked his arm braces below the sleeves, and made sure all his equipment was in place. His gauntlets hidden bellow a pair of black woolen gloves, and his sword remained on his back. Pulling the hood up, and grabbing three sets of black cloaks he had stolen some months ago from some strange castle, he opened a corridor and left his ship.

It took only a matter of minutes to get Lillain, Raen and Lanying onto his ship through the corridors, giving each of them one of those cloaks so that they wouldn’t contaminate themselves with the darkness. With the party assembled, Elrick flew the ship close enough to his home world so as to open a corridor in the city. Any closer and they’d be shot down most likely, so the stealthy entrance was a must. And approaching this close with too many ships would be dangerous.

The entrance corridor opened in a tight alley in the Commercial District. Elrick was the first one to step out of it, calling for the others once he checked that the coast was clear. But, it wouldn’t remain like that for long, most likely. Still, it was almost dusk. Checking around the corner, he saw a large mass of people moving all over, the commercial district in boom. At least that hadn’t changed, thankfully. The main street was buzzing with activity; shops opened all over the place, from small food markets to clothes vendors. The main market square could be seen on the other side of this street, its tall columns visible over the small shops here.

“Ok, we move into the crowd and start making our way to the Residential District. If you get lost, just remember it’s clockwise from here… And please, hide the cloaks,” he told his invading party, before smoothly blending into the crowd and leading the way. It wasn’t after too many steps that he started noticing his main problem. Orpheus soldiers patrolling, clad in black ornamented armor from head to toe. Always moving in pairs of trios, spread around the street and monitoring corners. Great. “Enjoy the scenery while you can, we have company. Just… try to act like locals,” he turned around as he walked as whispered to them.

[Fate]

Ready to go.
--

Everything had been planned for the last two days, Elrick going over countless times about the right courses of action when going into this world. It was going to be tricky and they had be extremely covert in this operation. They had to not stick out in this world as much as possible, look normal and not like they were on a mission of any sorts. With this in mind, Lillian changed into a simple pair of blue jeans and a black tee-shirt with black shoes, getting rid of her usual Libertas top for now but keeping the leather jacket.

That all went under the black cloaks Elrick found to not let them be contaminated by the dark corridors he was using. She shouldn't have been surprised that he used them, but for a mission like this, they were necessary. The entire group got on his ship to get there, leaving their own behind to not arouse suspicion, and then embarked onto the world via corridor to make their entrance go unnoticed. Hopefully, they'd be able to keep themselves unnoticed the entire time. She doubted they could and that they'd probably run into some sort of trouble, but that was what her guns hidden under her leather jacket were for, if necessary.

Off with the cloaks, time to blend into this world. She did away with it quickly, then looked around Eurydice-- she had gotten the proper spelling for it at long last. It was busy, dusk hour, and loaded with people. It was actually a rather pleasant looking world from first glance. Obviously Elrick had told her and the others otherwise. They were heading to the Residential district now, clockwise from here. She nodded to what Elrick said, then walked into the crowd as well, keeping her distance from him somewhat to make it look at least a little normal.

And, of course, troops were there. Elrick told them to continue acting like the locals, completely natural. It certainly didn't make things any easier for them, and it did put a twinge of uneasiness in Lillian, but she kept moving and looking around. If she indeed got lost, she had to memorize at least these beginning surroundings.

[/font]

[Nothingness]

Love Me Some Covert Ops

If what Elrick said was to be believed, then this entire mission would be far from a walk in the park. One wrong move, one minor mistake and it could cost them more than just their lives. Since they had to blend in, Raen tore off the patch from his jacket and left behind his sword. The lack of weight felt greatly unnerving, but he'd prefer to stay low-profile and not risk everyone's necks. Besides, he knew that he could still use his ice abilities without it, and he could sense it if anyone grew suspicious of them.

When Elrick came onto his ship through a Corridor, Raen half-expected to see Zexion stepping out of it, but was relieved to find otherwise. Though, when he offered Lanying and him cloaks, Raen politely declined--his heart was already darker than the other threes combined, and was purified by the Champion, too. There was no need for the extra weight on his end. Still, when they all stepped through the Corridor, he was relieved all the same to find that it didn't affect him in any way.

"Okay, act calm. We're all coming back together." He thought, both calming his worries and psyching himself up for the mission at hand. Raen immediately homed in on Lanying, Lillian, and Elrick's emotions once they were on the world. Should they get separated he could find them again. After Elrick finished his explanation of the plan, Raen nodded and walked into the crowd, trying his best to keep Elrick in sight while not giving himself away.

On any other occasion, he'd have thought visiting this world would be pleasant--it seemed lively and looked rather beautiful in the current light. But he didn't even need Elrick's whisper of warning, seeing all the soldiers and sensing what truly lie in their hearts. Raen doubted that there would be a willing return trip here any time soon. Or ever, for that matter.

[Aerith]

A whole new world. Not a magic carpet in sight, though.
--------

Despite her reluctance, Lanying had agreed to go to Elrick's homeworld--Eurydice--first. The journey through the Corridor Elrick summoned was surreal and a little bit intimidating, but at least he had provided them with cloaks for protection. The moment they were safely on his ship, though, Lanying removed her cloak, too perturbed by the reminder of Zexion to keep it on for much longer.

Since it was important that they blend in with the crowd on this world, Lanying had left behind her bow. Her Keyblade would be enough and would conveniently stay hidden until she needed it. If all went well, she would not need it.

Now, she wove through the crowds of people, following Elrick and trying her best to stay close to the others without looking took conspicuous. Blending in was much more difficult for her because of her racial difference, but her petite size helped make her a lot less noticeable. Had she been towering over most of the crowd, she would have immediately attracted attention. And probably not the good kind, either.

The uniformed men patrolling the streets were obvious threats, even if Elrick had not told them such. Noting the others' silence, she kept hers, as well. She wanted to concentrate fully on not getting lost in this strange place.

[Lagunamov]

This is bad. This is very, very bad.

Security all around had been certainly reinforced. Amidst all the chatter of the regular citizens and the stream of people coming and going, the presence of guards every where was starting to become even more notorious. Their numbers weren’t exactly increasing, or at least Elrick didn’t think so, but rather, some of them had started moving with the crowd. Seeing a group of three coming in his direction, Elrick turned to his side casually and approached a fruit vendor, standing behind a woman picking up what appeared to be everything on sight. He asked her to move aside a couple of inches, approaching the stand properly and taking a glance over the food as the soldiers passed behind him.

Noticing that the lady in charge of the stand was staring at him for blocking the way without actually purchasing anything, he picked up a couple of green apples, put them in a bag the lady gave him, and after paying for them carried on. As he rejoined the crowd, he grabbed one of the apples and started eating it as he walked along, something that was not that unusual to see. One out of every ten people seemed to be snacking as they shopped anyway. He turned his head around, noticing that because of his detour the others were closer to him that before, so he approached Lillian. “Oh, hi. Been a while, hasn’t it?" he pretended to meet her as if he hadn’t seen her in months, handing her an apple… And then saw something high above and far away that almost made him freeze on the spot if it weren’t for the people pushing him.

The screech would have made people run in fear a couple of years ago. Now? Nobody even noticed. Good Lord… the image forever ingrained in his mind, Elrick saw as a wyvern heartless landed on a roof only a block away and behind his party, followed shortly by another two. There were a couple of archers on the same roof, not bothering to even act. And then he saw them mounting the monsters and taking flight above the city. They had domesticated heartless as mounts. This was bad. Very bad.

And then, to make the odds even worse, once Elrick started to pay attention to where he was walking again, he began to notice the periodic shadows of the archers on the roofs along the street projected onto the buildings to his right. And from what he could count, there were an average of two or three per roof.

[Fate]

And now I'm left wondering if someone owns a Shadow as a pet.
--

The guards they first saw weren't the only ones around. They were everywhere, around every corner. They were moving with the crowd now even, making things uncomfortable. None of them seemed to notice any of the travelers though yet, which was a good thing. Would they eventually? Most likely, and they pretty much all knew that. Right now, they just had to keep walking, act natural, and not do anything that would draw attention to themselves. Elrick was getting something from a vendor now. She kept walking, looking back at Raen and Lanying to make sure they were all right.

Now Elrick was coming back with an apple, pretending not to have seen her in years. Right, she could play along with this. "Yeah it has. Nice to see you again," she replied, taking the apple and taking a bite. Then, a loud screech echoed from above them, making her stop in her tracks while the rest of the crowd kept moving. Wyvern Heartless. Ugh, not those things. Even though she could aim at them while they were flying, they were still annoying to deal with.

But they weren't going to fight the Heartless this time. No, they were going to watch as people mounted these creatures and soared over the city with them. Really? They had domesticated the Heartless? You just don't do that. But she couldn't focus on that. She took another bite of the apple, continuing to walk. Ignore them. They're nothing. And... were those archers on the roof? Yeah, those were archers. She should probably ignore them too. Avoid shooting first if you could was her chosen tactic. If they shot her, Elrick, Lanying or Raen, then hell yes she would shoot back.

[/font]

[Nothingness]

We can't kill them with our awesome, can we?

Raen kept walking, trying his best to follow Elrick's general direction while avoiding the guards, who seemed to be closing in on them. It wasn't until he heard the ear-splitting shriek that the threat of being spotted really hit home. Looking to the sky, his eyes widened in surprise. "What the hell? Wyvern mounts?" Yeah, he knew that one guy in the Shield could control Heartless, but actually taming them like that? That wasn't something he'd ever seen before. Just what the hell kind of world was this?

Kneeling down, he began to retie his shoelaces, looking around to see what else he was missing. "Guards on the ground, guards in the air, and...archers on the rooftops. Well, shit." They were covered from every angle. If they were spotted, then there wouldn't be any way of escape for them.

He finished tying the laces and started walking towards a small magazine stand opposite of Elrick and Lillian. It was clear to him that all of their stress levels were rising, though constantly reminding himself to stay calm wasn't helping.

Taking up a magazine, he leaned against a wall, watching Lillian and Elrick over the top of of it, as well as glancing towards Lanying. It wasn't until the first two started moving that he waited a moment, returning the magazine to its rack, before continuing to follow them.

[Lagunamov]

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck...
The Brotherhood Escapes.

Still walking through the crowd, Elrick’s nerves were about to get fried from the pressure. Guards were everywhere, between the ground, roofs, and god knows how many flying in the sky out of sight ready to attack. He tried to remain as calm as possible, eating his apple as he walked with Lillian on his side. "They should have left me come alone… No, I should have just ditched them…" he kept thinking, knowing things weren’t going to end well here. And he was getting confirmation of that already.

The shadows projected from the roofs onto the building to his right caught his eye, two archers side by side slowly taking a hold of their bows and aiming. Aiming downwards. And from the way the shadows were projected, he was pretty sure where they were aiming at. At who they were aiming at.

Decided to act before it was too late, Elrick threw the apple into the air and pushed those around him aside, including Lillian, just in time to move out of the way of two arrows. The crowd started panicking the moment the shots hit the ground, and using the chaos as cover Elrick ran forward, drawing his sword. He passed his left hand over the blade, green tinted energy covered it. He was intending to draw fire onto himself, hoping to allow the other three to get out of the chaos with the crowd.

Two guards jumped out of a corner at Elrick, spears pointing at him. Sidestepping to the side, he slashed at them with his sword, sending them backwards crashing into a wall, their chest armor crushed and blood pouring out. He took that corner, leaving the main street, and halfway through this road he climbed quickly onto the roof. A guard greeted him with an arrow as soon as he showed his head, avoiding it by ducking. He flung his sword above him in his general direction, sending an energy blade at the guard, getting confirmation of his demise from the sound of something heavy falling to the ground below.

Pulling himself up, Elrick wasted no time and started running through the roofs, arrows from other archers flying past him.


[Garudyne Blade activated. Two remaining posts. Two remaining ranged slashes.]

[Fate]

This welcoming party sucks.
--

Aaaaaaaand now they were getting shot at with arrows. Fucking fantastic. Elrick got them out of the way quick enough before they got hit, and that's when the chaos started. Lillian followed the crowd a little bit, moving with them just enough until she could find a way to get to the top. Besides, knowing the way those two worked, she was going to give them as much room as they needed so they could go all out if necessary. Oh course, she couldn't just follow the crowd since the guards were after her too. Guns out, she started shooting at the approaching spearmen, nothing special in these shots. There had to be a way up some--

Awesome. She stopped shooting and ran over to a rope and lever near a building. She kicked the lever as quickly as possible, then grabbed the rope as she was brought straight to the top of this building. Three archers were shooting at her as soon as she came up, not a surprise. Guns were faster than arrows though, much faster. She was shooting straight back, activating her black shots. Who fucking cared if they were made of darkness right now? She sure as hell didn't.

That knocked one archer off the roof, but the other two kept shooting. And more were coming to join them. Great. Different idea this time. She aimed her shots for two of the archer's feet, hitting her mark and causing mini explosions that got those two off of the roof, the others startled at best. That was good enough for her, but they were still in her way. She aimed up this time at their chests, which unfortunately did not send them flying but bloodied them up quite a bit. No time to really look though. She went straight for the next roof, the arrows continuing to fly and panicked yells sounded below.

[Battle Report:
Lillian used Demolition
Remains activated until after following post.
Four posts after following until next use, three uses remaining]

[/font]

[Nothingness]

So Much for Covert!

Divine Hate (Vergil ver.)-Devil May Cry 3

Before he even knew what was happening, pandemonium broke out in the street. People were running everywhere screaming, shoving, falling. The sheer intensity of it forced Raen to break his tie to the other three or else he'd be overwhelmed by the chaotic emotions of those around him. Even then, keeping them at bay was hard enough on him.

It didn't take long for him to find out that Elrick's cover was blown, and thereby all of theirs. He saw Elrick immediately fight back and take to the roofs and avoid the barrage of arrows being sent at him.

Turning around, he saw one guard approach him, raising his sword to strike him down. Without a moment's hesitation, Raen fired off two spears of ice, one landing on the man's mouth and wrapping around it, while the other struck his knees, locking them together. A cruel glint danced in Raen's eyes and he stole the sword from the suffocating soldier, leaving him to his cruel fate.

A few more soldiers began to runs towards him, as well as arrows from above, but it was all for naught. The soldiers on the ground soon found their feet frozen to the ground, and the archers arrows glancing off his body. With a fluid motion, Raen sliced through the immobile guards, watching their torsos fall and dangle, unable to touch the ground yet.

Running away from the slaughter, he began looking for Lanying. They couldn't afford to split up now.

[Raen used Dark Blizzara and Frost's Damnation (Weakened), two posts and three posts until next use]

[Aerith]

Flying around on Heartless? Bitch, I have a dragon.
--------
[Oriental Flower from the Blazblue Calamity Trigger OST]

This situation was much graver than she had imagined. Not only was Elrick rightfully worried about all these uniformed men, but there were also archers on the roofs. Worse still, some of those archers were using Heartless as transportation.

She shuddered. How could they use the creatures like that? How could they touch, much less ride, those beasts of relentless destruction?

There is something wrong about this place, Small One. There is much imbalance, too heavily in favor of the dark.

Will you help me fix that? She did not smile, but her voice held the promise of one. A very grim one.

Call me.

She did. There was a burst of light that scattered the people around her, more than they already were scattering. The light blossomed in the sky and exploded, causing many of the archers on the rooftops to shield their eyes. A roar reverberated around the city as the light coalesced into the form of the Azure Dragon. He shot down to Lanying, ripping into one of the Wyvern Heartless on his way down.

You have grown, she observed with much awe. The urge to reach out and touch his shimmering face did not go unfulfilled.

The dragon made a sound very like purring, but deeper and more vast. Yes. You have helped me, Small One. Very soon, I may at last regain my old strength. Climb on my back.

Qinglong bent down and allowed Lanying to mount him. Once she was settled, he released another air-shattering roar and lifted into the air.

The closest undamaged Wyvern was still disoriented when the dragon tore into him, claws and teeth reducing it to mere wisps of shadow. The rider upon its back tumbled down to die against the ground.

Lanying summoned Maelstrom's Dragon and beat another Heartless into submission. As it screeched its last, the heart it had held captive floated into the sky.

Get me closer to more of them!

Qingling complied, shooting toward Wyvern after Wyvern, each one falling beneath Lanying's Keyblade, each one giving up a heart. And each one dropped a rider that fell to his death.

"Raen! Get to the roofs!"

From here, she would make sure he got there safely. She also kept an eye on Elrick and Lillian. All the while, she would cut down any Heartless that dared approach her.

[Lanying has summoned Qinglong, the Azure Dragon of the East.
He remains with her for two more posts.]

[Lagunamov]

Well, that certainly wasn't a pile of hay...

Elrick’s plan of drawing fire onto himself to give the others a chance to escape seems to have been blown out of the water by them deciding to fight the moment his cover was blown. He wasn’t sure whether to smile, or curse them under his breath, so he would do neither until the whole mess was sorted out. With another archer on the next roof, he jumped towards to and launched his third ranged slash at him. This one was quick enough to dodge it, rolling on the tiles to the side. But he wasn’t fast enough to draw his weapon again before Elrick reached him and kicked him in the head, knocking him out.

Using the chimney to his side as cover, Elrick caught his breath for a second, examining the helmet of the archer he had just downed. It looked like a regular helmet at first sight, but upon closer inspection, he noticed high tech equipment underneath it. “Probably a facial recognition system… Cover was blown the moment I stepped into this world…” he thought, looking around for a few seconds to see how everyone else was doing. Lillian was on the roofs already, her guns were certainly giving her an advantage. Lanying seemed to have summoned a dragon and was now wreaking havoc above them all. The only one he couldn’t see was Raen, and if the sounds from the street were anything to go by, he was probably more than fine.

Sighing, he looked to his left. Two more blocks until they reached the bridge over to the Residential District. It would probably be blocked, so he’d need to figure a way to cross it easily without being noticed. A bridge was not a good place to fight, escape routs being next to none.

Standing up quickly and running as fast as he could, he launched his last ranged blast at a wyvern in the sky in front of him, cutting off one of its wings and making it plummet to the ground, crashing onto another one on its way. Elrick prepared to jump towards the next roof… only for one of the arrows that had been flying past him all this time to finally hit. The hit made him lose his concentration and balance, tripping on the edge of the roof and falling down into a dumpster down in the alley, its lid falling shut right after him. “Oh… crap…” he mumbled in pain, examining his left shoulder. “Oh good, it went straight through…” sighing in relief, he held onto the arrow with his left hand and cracked it in two. Then he was careful enough to remove it from his shoulder slowly, before exiting the dumpster and starting to walk through the alleys, still in the direction of the bridge.


[Garudyne Blade over. Four post cooldown.]

[Fate]

Too busy to think of title.
--

"Stay the fuck still dammit," Lillian muttered to herself, attempting to shoot down two archers on the next roof at once. Unfortunately, they were dodging and were also firing at her at the same time, which forced her to duck. She took a second to check on what the others were doing and holy shit there was a dragon! Lanying was doing fine it seemed. Yeah, she and her summoned dragon were doing well. And, judging by the streets below, Raen was doing pretty damn well too. Good.

Back to shooting. She took a second to stop ducking and shoot at one of them in the chest, ducking shortly afterward. Target was hit, darkness exploding and sending him and his buddy flying. As soon as they cleared, she jumped on that roof and looked around. More archers, more military everywhere. She finally found Elrick though, at least that. He wasn't that far ahead, maybe a couple roofs. A Wyvern was coming behind him, which she promptly shot at. Unfortunately, unlike the archers, it didn't go down as quickly. It took more than just a couple shots to send it and its rider down, but it was successful.

And then he got shot by an arrow, falling into a dumpster. Fuck. Though, judging by how he got out of the dumpster and kept going, he'd be okay for now. Key words there. Still, fuck. Now she was glad she pushed to join him in this hellhole. Well, not glad, but whatever. She turned her attention to the archers that were now shooting at her, ducking quickly. They needed to get to the bridge, which wasn't too far away either. But these damn archers and military people and crap were making that difficult, slowing her down. She needed speed.

That's what she got. Using her speed ability, she stopped ducking and started firing faster at the archers, Demolition still activated. Exploding shots hit archer after archer as she jumped to the next roof. She kept looking around, keeping tabs on everyone. Lanying pretty much had the Wyverns and Raen had the streets below for now. He'd probably be joining her on the roof though since they all needed to get higher up. She better keep taking care of the archers then since they were posing the biggest problem.

Not moving from her spot, but getting lower to keep herself from getting hit with arrows, she aimed for the archers across the way from her.

[Battle Report:
Lillian used Speed Demon
Will remain activated until next post.
Three posts until next use, four uses remaining]

[/font]

[Nothingness]

This Could've Gone Just a Bit Better

Holy shit! Lanying's dragon had grown quite a lot since the last time he'd seen it. Not to mention now she was riding it and tearing through the Wyverns like tissue paper. He heard Lanying's voice and replied quickly, still quickly cutting down any soldiers that got in his way. "I'll be up there in a sec!"

Quickly taking down one last soldier with a quick stab through the spine, he began running down the alleys, looking for any sort of fire escape he could take. There, at the end of the alley! He ran at a breakneck sprint, not even stopping, just jumping onto it before clambering up the rusted ladder.

As he got onto the roof, he was greeted by volleys of arrows, though he could hear Lillian's gunshots a building over or so. "Dammit, where's Elrick?" He muttered to himself, taking cover behind the edge of the roof.

[Aerith]

You want to go home and rethink your life.
--------

Raen had heard her and gotten to higher ground. Good. Unfortunately, it seemed the tide of archers and soldiers would never stop. Lanying spotted Elrick relentlessly heading for a bridge. He had the right idea, then.

After taking out a couple more Wyverns, she flew down closer to Raen and Lillian. "I can see Elrick. There's a bridge he's moving toward. If you follow him, I can cover you all from up here."

Realizing they wouldn't be able to see as well as she could, she spat out quick directions to Elrick's location, then shot back into the sky before Qinglong was subjected to a volley of arrows. She hoped that would be enough to help them all regroup.

First order of business: relieve Lillian of those archers. The Azure Dragon's jaw opened and spewed fiery destruction across the rooftops. Those archers who weren't immediately incinerated in the blaze quickly scattered, diving behind anything and everything they could use for shelter.

If anymore thought themselves brave enough to shoot at her allies again, they would learn a harsh lesson.