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No title.
(2013-07-31 - Now)
No description.
Alberic Lux Some say New York is the city that never sleeps. Others refer to it, especially these days, as a wretched hive of scum and villainy. A few more -- and these few are the important ones at this particular moment -- instead look at it as a city of opportunity.

The Research and Development arm of the Murasame Zaibatsu are part of the last camp. Of course, with the departure of Dr. Abramson and the Mad Doctor having taken a fair amount of their budget and personnel for his own purposes, their 'camp' has seemed smaller and smaller... which means the work gets spread around some. Mostly this means it goes to the relatively new people.

Like, say... Kyra.

Someone in R&D needs some information from a contact of theirs in Manhattan. They're looking for what amounts to a secured flash drive, apparently with important information for one of the myriad projects undertaken by the department. The drive has already been provided to Kyra; there was a brief moment where a pair of eyes looked out of a slit in a security door, squinted, and pushed it through before slamming it shut. Basically, she's just got to walk home, now.

The trip back involves crossing a skybridge between two of the massive buildings that make up Manhattan's skyline. It's mostly metal and (perhaps strangely) lightly-fogged glass, with featureless grey carpet from one side to the other. It's pretty in a minimalist kind of way. With the sun setting, it does provide a wonderful view of the skyline and the river from up here, if nothing else.
Kyra Proxy Manhattan was very...quaint. To Kyra, it did remind her just a little of the sprawling city-continent of Ramuha. The Times Square area in particular was pretty close to the ever-present lights and billboards in her home. It was clearly missing endless cloud cover, rain, and lightning, though. The technology level also seemed several decades below what she was used to.

She wouldn't mind visiting that much if she hadn't been sent on what was effectively a gofer trip. Years of schooling, days of experimentation, and her talents were being wasted on THIS? Couldn't they get Haneisuru guy to fetch this thing? When would she have the chance to do some actual SCIENCE?!

She can't help but feel a tiny bit of unease on this errand. This city was an unknown, she didn't know if monsters roamed the sewers and alleys. Fortunately, a skybridge seemed to be far enough away from both of these things to provide a sense of security. She slows on the bridge to turn to see the sun setting over the skyline. It's a new scene for her, surely.

Her hands slide into the pockets of her hoodie-where she has stashed the flash drive, in fact.
Alberic Lux There aren't many people around. A couple pass her by, moving in and out of the skybridge and ignoring her all the while. Most are smartly-dressed corporate types. A couple are slightly more average; one in a tee-shirt and jeans, similarly on a delivery run; another, a man in a green coat, hustling to his destination with a phone pressed to his ear. Nobody is moving like they're afraid of monster attacks, even with the presence of the Heartless.

It is thus a little surprising that that very thing is what she should be watching out for. The fogged glass was the only warning she would really get.

The rug slides silently out from beneath Kyra's feet, leaving her standing on a wood-paneled walkway as she looks out over the skyline. There's no feeling to it, no sudden tugging, no abrupt drop; it's as if it was receeding from her instead of being tugged out from under her. The glass gradually begins to clear, like some kind of fog was finally clearing up from the interior.

Kyra might see the dim outline of the thing behind her reflected in the clear glass. It's easily six feet tall, hunched, and comprised of solid blackness. It's reaching out for her, trying to close its massive pincer-like claws around her midsection and her neck from behind. It does not look terribly friendly.
Kyra Proxy At this time of day, Kyra supposes work is winding down, so a skyway between two corporate buildings might not get much action. Maybe this city had a lively night life. She had half a mind to find out-but at the same time she really wanted to just get this little errand done and over with. There'd be time to make a trip back and with that new gig she has in the new nightclub, she'll be coming back to Manhattan pretty often.

The carpet goes unnoticed as she stares out at the skyline, watching the sun set. Though for her mind, this scene couldn't occupy it for long. A hand slips out of her hoodie pocket, now firmly clutching her Ma Belle. Such a lovely sunset should be photographed at least once. Holding up her phone horizontally, she lines it up with the skyline, checking back and forth until she sets the built-in camera off.

The flash goes off and just afterwards, Kyra sees that something-a /thing/ behind her. Her eyes widen at the reflection and she whirls around, finding herself staring into the stark blackness of a Heartless. An involuntary scream escapes her and she throws herself sideways, tumbling to the floor as she barely manages to evade the grasping claws. Right away, she flips over onto her back and starts scrambling across the wooden floor, mashing her phone against the ground with each movement.
Alberic Lux Kyra dives to the side. The claws go over her, grasping air and clipping the window. The glass cracks, fracturing vertically. It turns around, one massive, baleful eye in the center of the shape that seems to be its head following her. It's slitted like a cat's, a black pupil in yellow in black.

If you were to choose one word to describe the thing, it would be 'hulking.' It doesn't really have legs; it kind of slithers, dragging its black bulk forward with its massive arms to use the distended crab-like claws to snap at Kyra as she backs away. It keeps just missing her, the loud 'CLACK' of the pincers slamming together getting closer and closer as it adjusts its aim.

Kyra's running out of places to back away to. There's a crash of metal, and behind her, she can see that the security screen -- a metal cage for blocking places like this, and for some storefronts -- has been dropped to the ground.

The monstrous /thing/ suddenly lets out a wet, gurgling hiss and lunges forward, throwing its bulk at its unfortunate prey. Behind it, the far path seems to be still opened... though there are two more masses of darkness billowing up between her current problem and the exit.
Kyra Proxy In situations like these, Kyra can be extremely speedy. Even awkwardly crab-walking backwards she covers a lot of distance and she covers it extremely fast. Every time she wants to get back up, those pincers come down and snap at her. Each time, they seem to get closer and closer and the white mage figures that she won't have the time to stand back up if she continues like this. Right after the pinces snap at her, she pushes herself to her feet and turns, running.

She hadn't realized what the crash of metal behind her was when it happened but she soon finds herself running against the metal barrier that was dropped over her exit. Her free hand reaches out to tug at it while the other frantically shoves her poor, abused Ma Belle back into the pocket of her hoodie. She tries to tug the barrier upward until the moment the thing chasing her makes that gurgling hiss. It's all the warning she gets before it hurls itself at her.

Again she dives for the floor, this time a little prepared, seeking an opening just below one of its snapping claws. With any luck, it's flailing would destroy the barrier-or get it caught in it. Rolling back to her feet, she takes off sprinting down the hall, spying those billowing masses of darkness now rising to block her off between her and the still-open side.

Though she didn't think it at all possible, Kyra manages to run even faster. No time magic involved. Maybe she could make it before the other two monsters formed...!
Alberic Lux The slug-cyclops-crab hurls itself forward -- against the security grate. It slams into it with a tremendous crash, bending the interlocking steel bars outward with a screen of metal and a gurgle of protest. It seeps partway through it and resolidifies, like it wasn't a terribly solid mass to begin with. It's somewhat stuck, now. It snaps at the metal, trying to tear itself free --

Kyra runs past the two others. One of them manifests an arm before she can get entirely there, shooting out a four-fingered hand to try and grab her ankle to slow her down before she can reach safety. The thing crawling out of that looks a little more like a normal Heartless, though it isn't as... dark-looking, maybe, as one would expect. It's a little closer to a dark grey than pitch blackness, not like the other.

The grate on the other side comes down a moment before Kyra can dive out it. It drops faster than it should, guided downward with an external force acting on it and yanking it straight to the ground. On the other side, the man in the green coat that passed her stands, one hand resting on the bars nearly level with his face and the other on the top of a white and red rod by his side. His one eye watches her, and the two -- nearly three, now -- monsters with her.

"Are you simply going to run from any problem with which you are faced, Kyra Hyral?" Alberic Lux tilts his head to the right slightly, looking askance at her from beyond the far side of the metal cage she's found herself within. "That would be a terrible example to set for your poor, impressionable, /adorable/," he adds, with a slight edge to his voice, "sister. Wouldn't you agree?"

The big one that was caught on the bars has pulled itself free. There are gaps in the tar-like blackness, wounds that slowly seep closed. The third mass rises, a spidery thing bringing itself to its feet, its many yellow eyes scanning the interior of the skybridge.
Kyra Proxy Just from the sound of the metal against semisolid Heartless behind her alerts Kyra to the fact that her gambit did work. If things went south along this end, then perhaps the way she ran from could be opened as a more viable option. It could take a few judicious applications of Holy, but...

A four-fingered hand closes around her booted ankle. Her forward momentum is suddenly arrested and Kyra falls forward, flung flat to the ground. An arm curled around her head prevents her from smashing her face against the floor. Desperately, she claws her way forward against the ground, trying to pull herself free, reaching for the other end, when the second grate comes down, nearly smashing one of her hands.

"No!" she croaks, realizing that there was definitely some form of foul play involved here. It's then her green eyes focus upon the one-eyed man standing there on the other side. Recognition quickly dawns. "You!"

Anger fills her. So much for /working/ with this guy. Grabbing onto the metal grating, she pulls herself free and hauls herself to her feet, fixing a look of hatred upon Alberic before turning away. "Betrayal, I see how it is." she murmurs, the fear apparent in her voice.

One hand reaches and unzips the length of her hoodie, allowing her access to her scores of vials and materials beneath. Three are torn free, one held between fingers of one hand, hot red liquid roiling in each glass. With all her might...

(Which frankly isn't much, but for her own materials, it's enough)

...hurls the vials down against the floor between the second monster and the third one starting to form. Immediately, an explosion rocks the corridor and flames shoot in all directions as the napalm-like substance makes contact upon the breaking of glass.
Alberic Lux Lux meets that look of hatred with a decidedly nonplussed one. "If you believe that, then clearly," he says, "you do not."

Kyra's vials of Greek (Ifriti?) Fire wreak havoc with amazing effectiveness. The explosion is bright, and the fires scorching. The heat wave that rushes out of it buffets the width and breadth of the bridge, rocking the entire edifice. The sound of glass breaking is secondary to the initial blast, and the rush of flame as it hungrily spreads. Shards of scorched glass fly outward, the sides blasted from the bridge and the roof sagging from the sudden damage.

The spidery creature and the humanoid one are both instantly incinerated. There's a momentary warble from both of them, and then their bodies catch, the fire feeding on them like they were soaked in oil. They boil away, the grey-black stuff seemingly shrinking in on itself as it burns, reducing them to smoking spots of pitch blackness on the metal plating of the skybridge. (The wooden facade has, of course, been turned to so much ash.)

"Ah. There; you see? The proper motivation is all that you required. Let that be my second formal lesson to you: all you should ever need is a motive, and the means will follow." Lux pauses for a moment. "That was an impressive blast," he adds offhandedly. "Unfortunately..."

The crab-thing on the far side of the bridge starts pulling itself forward. It drags its body through the fire, the hungry stuff trying to climb onto it and roaring in intensity, as if gasoline was just dumped into it. The monster's 'skin' starts to slough off in layers, leaving a chitinous thing beneath. It's just getting faster. Faster and angrier. It raises its claws, the gurgling noise now a rumbling that vibrates the damaged bridge.

"...that one does not appear so off-put by your pyrotechnics. Now --" Lux releases the cage and his rod, and claps his hands together, twice. "-- show me another product of your intellect, oh would-be student!"
Kyra Hyral "Then what other purpose do you have, setting your creations upon me like this!?" Kyra calls back seconds before she throws down the napalm-like substance that sets the corridor ablaze. Judging by how she's holding her footing, she half expects this skyway to burst open and maybe even start to tilt downward like a set of trap doors. Indeed, one hand remains clutching the metal grating trapping her with the creatures, prepared to hold on should the ground disappear beneath her.

Once the explosion is set, she lifts her free arm to shield her face as glass and fire flies through the air. Shards blow past her, scoring deep marks through her clothing and upon her skin, but fortunately not her face. The bleeding wounds are disregarded for now, viewed as little more than a nuisance Kyra will heal a little later.

Lowering her arm, she's pleased to see the blast seems to have taken out two of the creatures. As Alberic continues to talk, realization dawns upon her. Though this apparently wasn't some act of revenge or malice, to suddenly become an unwilling student to some awfully brutal teaching methods does not assauge her feelings over this incident.

The final creature still lives, hauling itself towards her on wicked claws. She watches it move, observes its skin melted off by the flames to reveal an exoskeleton beneath. It's speed picks up.

Kyra doesn't acknowledge Alberic's words, too busy pulling free a gun-like device from one of the holsters beneath her armpit (normally hidden beneath her hoodie). It's clear from observation that it isn't a regular gun meant for bullets, especially as she pulls a pointed ampoule from one of her bandoliers. The vessel is shaped differently from the trio of tubes she had just flung and seems specifically designed to fit comfortably in the firearm that Kyra currently wields.

Contained within the glass ampoule is a green mass that resembles slime mold on first glance.

Kyra aims her gun at center mass upon the creature, trusting what she's observing of it's appearance. It's not just some Heartless. It is a creature with working organic anatomy. Cells. Cells that could be disrupted and devoured by the voracious bacteria contained in her fired projectile. Of her own creation, it was an organism genetically programmed to destroy and extinguish itself within a minute.
Alberic Lux If they're monsters of Alberic's making, there is a pretty even chance that it is some kind of artificial Heartless or just an awful bio-monster. This one seems to be a little closer to the latter, with a small degree of the former thrown in for maximum awful. It looks like it's working out okay, but...

Kyra fires the ampoule into the charging creature. It hits the oozing thing with a 'spat,' sinking in. The glass cracks as it gets sucked beneath its bubbling, oozing 'skin.' It keeps closing, the distance between itself and the young chemist shrinking alarmingly quickly. The monster lifts its claw, drawing them back with clear intent to smash them down on the cornered girl --

It stops. The thing's entirely body quivers. It seems unsteady for a moment.

From behind her, Alberic quietly remarks, "A-ha," watching it.

The monster's claw suddenly falls down on top of it. The gurgling, rumbling noise it makes turns into a deflated sort of whine, the chitinous innards dissolving in fast-forward as the bacteria attaches to it, growing and spreading and eating as much as it can. It collapses inward, the goop sinking to the floor. There's an unpleasant burning smelll, and a hissing sound from the mass.

It suddenly empties out of the skybridge through a brand-new hole in the floor. The goop, the remains and chunks of the floor of it fall away. The black stuff hisses away into smoke as it falls; the rest is going to make an interesting mark when it hits the empty street below. Kyra's idea to grab hold in case the whole thing tilts turns out to have been a good move. The damaged floor is flaking away, gradually spreading towards her.

"Bravo," Lux says. He watches the degredation of the bridge, making no move to open the steel cage between the two of them. "Though you would hardly be in this position if you had paid attention in the first place. Let that by the first lesson, though the second observed: always pay attention to your surroundings."
Kyra Hyral Kyra shrinks away, her back against the steel grating separating her from Alberic as the monster advances. Frantically, she's reloading in case the monster needs another dose or, Cosma forbid, even /more/ bacteria in its system to have an effect. With a one-handed grip, she points her weapon up at the looming monster, aim unwavering, but eyes focused upon the entry point of her previous ampoule.

Then it freezes and starts to jitter. Relief floods Kyra's system but she doesn't show it quite yet. Not until the monster has finished melting in on itself and chewed a hole through the floor. That last part is a little bit of a surprise to Kyra and she assumes it due to some kind of super-acidic state.

"Paid attention to what exactly? You stalking me throughout the city?" She does remember she saw him on the skybridge moments before the attack but hadn't paid the green-coated man much mind. She looks to the slowly crumbling floor and her hand tightens upon the grating.

Calmly, she turns to face Alberic and points her toxin-loaded gun at her teacher. "Raise this gate, please."
Alberic Lux The super-acidic reaction is right on the mark, though Kyra won't really know it unless she outright asks. Which, as both of them know, probably won't happen even a little bit.

When Kyra turns around, Alberic is holding... something else. The white-and-red rod that is Damocles is still resting next to him, well inside arm's reach; however, in his hand, he's holding something totally different. It looks a bit like an aerosol can with a pistol grip behind it, all in chrome with a rubberized grip and tiny black text all along the outside of the canister. He's pointing it at her, level with her chem-launcher.

There's a hissing sound when he pulls the trigger. A cloud of white vapor issues from the front nozzle of the 'weapon' that the one-eyed man holds, wafting over the front end of the toxin-filled weapon. The bars between the two of them are suddenly white with frost; the toxin-gun's nose is quickly getting to be about the same. The entire thing is getting very, very cold, very, very quickly.

"While I appreciate your attempt at politeness," Alberic says, his voice a touch more calm than usual -- a touch colder, too, if the descriptor could be applied right now without a horrible pun being associated with it, "especially given your precarious situation, it is typically considered bad form to point a weapon at the one who can prevent you from plummeting to your death."

Lux leans to the right. He looks past Kyra at the floor, watching it flake away. It's slow, but in that 'rope keeping the safe from falling on you is slowly fraying' way. Terrifying either way. Alberic twirls the cryogenic weapon on one finger. "I wonder, do they teach you Alexander Academy students to fly as part of the curriculum?"
Kyra Hyral When she turns, her eyes widen to see that Alberic has pulled a weapon of his own upon her. She squints, spotting that little canister there and immediately pegs it as some kind of gas or vapor dispersion device. With the puff, she withdraws her hand from the bars suddenly, feeling the cold pouring forth and knowing that it could easily freeze her hand to the bars. She quickly yanks her own gun away, terrified at the prospect of the ampoule's glass cracking and the bacteria being released upon /her/. Granted, they shouldn't activate against her (always out for a safety precaution, Kyra knows better than to design an organism capable of killing its creator).

"Some help you are." Kyra scowls, putting away her gun. A quiet murmur follows and Alberic is finally able to witness some of the girl's magic. It's a very basic spell, from what his senses can tell him. One that significantly reduces the effects of gravity upon Kyra and enables her to float in the air about three or so inches off the steadily-crumbling floor. It's pretty obvious right away that it isn't true flight.

From her arsenal, Kyra produces another vial, this one containg some kind of syrup-looking golden liquid. Uncorking it, she rubs it over her hands, then turns away from the grated non-exit towards the rapidly crumbling skybridge. Her hands lift up to the remaining glass walls and press against it, anchoring her. Lux will hear her hands making a sticky-sounding suction cup noise every time they're removed from a surface.

The combined magic and strange substance seems to enable her to glide over the vertical surface until she makes it to the open edge. Then, swinging around, she is latched on to the outside of the sky bridge, her drastically lightened weight making the task of hauling herself up on top of it by her hands far easier.

She doesn't wait for him once she's on top of the sky bridge, especially since shortly the sky bridge will be no more. Sprint-floating across the top, she heads for the nearest neighboring building, ready to scale to the roof.
Alberic Lux Alberic slips the cryo-gun beneath his coat somewhere. He watches Kyra with her glue-stuff and the Float spell -- exactly what he expected her to have -- start clambering up and out. He nods again, apparently approvingly, and then turns on his heel and walks away from the grate. Damocles floats after him. A moment after he leaves, there's the sound of a fingersnap from down the hall, and the security cage starts to very slowly rise.

She /did/ say please.

Kyra goes up and then across the bridge. The top seems a little more sturdy; unfortunately, the outsides of the nearest buildings are all solid sheets of glass, all the way up. These are newer structures, built to be like mirrors above ground floor, rather than to have attractive window-ledges for things to perch on, be they pidgeons, adventurers, or costumed crime-fighters. There's some statuary at the corners, lions or somesuch. It's difficult to tell in the dimming light. It doesn't look like there are any exterior accesses, though...

There's a sound of something landing on metal. Kyra is on the other side of the bridge when Lux straightens, standing on the nearer side. He holds Damocles in front of him with both hands on the pommel, the device in the form of a pretty typical straight sword with a cruciform hilt. The point is slightly pressed into the metal-topped skybridge. Behind him is an open window, the pane apparently just... gone. The bottom edge of the gap in the building is a couple feet higher than the top of the skybridge.

"The exit is this way," the one-eyed man says. He gestures behind him with one hand, and then returns it to the pommel of his weapon. He cants his head to the side again, regarding her from across the way. "That way is... shall we say, dangerous?" He smiles slightly. There's a sense of unease from the building opposite him. It's beyond the glass.

"Tell me, Miss Hyral," Alberic calls. "Why did you join the Murasame Zaibatsu's research and development division in the first place? It strikes me as... out of character, for someone like you."
Kyra Hyral The effects of the please have come a little too late! It would have been nice for that grate to rise before the floor crumbled out from beneath her. In her current position she's only slightly aware that this has even changed! She walks right up to the building and peers upwards at the flat surface. Her current combination could help her scale it...if she did it quickly enough. The sticky goo encoating her fingers only stayed sticky for so long and it would be a disaster if it stopped in the middle of a tall ascent. She could break one of the glass windows and make her own entrance, which seemed much more plausable.

As she considers her options, she hears the clanking of Lux-against-metal and turns, seeing that the scientist has followed her. He has his hands upon his weapon which brings a distinct sense of unease to her mind. She doesn't step forward at first when he indicates an appropriate exit, especially since Lux has, quite pointedly, interposed himself between her and it. A gatekeeper.

Then she steps forward-or float-steps forward, still hovering about six or so inches off the top of the skybridge. "I will let that slide since you hardly know me." Kyra says, looking him in the eye as she approaches. "But Souji has a certain goal that I see it in myself to help him with. Accomplishing this goal would mean defying the natural laws of the world and snatching something that not even the powerful first gods could achieve. I am speaking, of course, of true ressurection."

Her hands unfold. "Is it not the duty of the scientist to challenge what is commonly regarded as the impossible? Is that not what creates progress? Though don't get me wrong, I still have my..." she looks at Lux warily, "...ethics."

 
This scene contained 16 poses. The players who were present were: Kyra Proxy, Kyra Hyral, Alberic Lux