Night 50: Sun Room

[its_the_mileage]

[from here]At the front of the group, Indy edged cautiously into the Sun Room, sweeping his flashlight around in a search for movement or lurking figures. A couple of times he thought he caught something, but it was hard to tell in the darkness and with the arrhythmic tramping of six pairs of feet behind him. If something was here, they might just

Comments

[ninelivesonce]

The sound of disaster wasn't always an ear-splitting roar, even in war.  Sometimes it was the click of a finger on a weapons console, the rest of the heat and the noise and the screams swallowed forever by vacuum.  Needler darts only shrieked when they missed; the soft, slightly damp popping sound behind Taura was not unlike the sound when they didn't.

She turned around. Where there had been two, now there was only one; Teresa.  At least there was no body on the floor; whatever had hit Yomi, it wasn't a projectile.  Had the teleportation effect not been removed, but expanded?  If so, she could be anywhere.  Not just in the Institute, but anywhere.  Taura took a couple quick strides to approximately where the noise had originated; they needed three, and the effect might even speed their progress.  Or if it's like last night, he can't yell at us for not showing up 'cause we were off-planet.

Nothing happened, at least not immediately.  Taura turned back to her original heading; they could plan a strategy when they'd found some cover.    

[number1smiley]

A quick glance back at the popping sound and Teresa discovered Hayashi was gone. Narrowing her eyes, she turned back and picked up her pace. With her senses as dulled here as they were - last night's trip to that village had reminded her how blind she felt - the hybrid didn't want to be caught from behind like that.

Silver flickered around the room, still trying to pinpoint where the youma was. Should it get within reach of her, she would kill it. Until then, she'd move forward. Unsurprisingly, she couldn't care less what actually happened to Hayashi. To Teresa, she was nothing more than another youma anyways...

[mind_the_sukima]

There was a moment, just a moment when the wary eyes of the pair of women were pointed in opposite direction, where a blind spot was created between them. A gap in their senses, so to speak. It was from that hole that Yukari emerged.

With a sound like water running backwards, she materialized between them. Even if there hadn't been room, there was now, the gap between the two fighters widened unnaturally to make room for the woman with golden eyes in the white and purple dress, strips of reality floating about her as if she'd torn the fabric of space, revealing the darkness behind the scenes, darkness that stared back with a baleful glare.

"Hello, ladies," she said with a dark smile. "Care to play?"

[ninelivesonce]

"Are you giving us a choice?" Unlikely, but unlikely was the Institute's stock and trade. Taura hedged her bets; she faced the woman squarely, reflected light glinting off metal in both of her hands.

She smiled, all teeth and more teeth, and her next words were almost a purr. "I was reprimanded the last time I had fun before getting to the mission, but I could make an exception if you insist." It wasn't exactly a lie; a chance to try out her new weapons could be fun, and she was entirely sure the woman's original question was entirely rhetorical.

Taura circled, just a little, putting herself exactly opposite the door to the cafeteria. It might give Teresa a chance to move; they were already down from the minimum Homura hadn't bothered to inform her of, but they all knew where the door was. Proceeding separately was still proceeding.

[number1smiley]

It was just a split second before the air seemed to tear, but Teresa felt the youma there. She immediately stepped back, silver eyes assessing the distances around her, and then focused on that spot where the youma appeared. This one certainly didn't look much like one she'd ever seen before, though some Awakened would take to dressing in their own styles, but what was familiar were the gold eyes. Marks of a youma.

She'd let Taura banter all she wanted with it, but Teresa was conditioned to react in a certain way to youma and this one was right next to her. Without a word, without warning, while Taura was still talking, the claymore that had been across the tall warrior's back cut across, parallel to the ground, with an almost supernatural speed meant to cleave the youma in half.

Such a creature did not deserve words.

[mind_the_sukima]

"Well, you can play... or be played with, is the choice," said the youkai with a smile, every bit as toothy as Taura's. "Though in the end, you're both still just toys. We all are."

Yes, this was just a game and they were all pieces on the board. The difference was that these two were pawns and she had been promoted to a queen, even if just for one night. Which meant that while these two were limited in their movements, she could attack in any direction. And of course, defend in any direction. Often both at once.

Even though her attention was on Taura, the moment Teresa swung, one of the strips of reality floating about Yukari moved to intercept, the gap swallowing up her blade on its downward swing, catching the sword at the end of it at about shoulder-height. Of course, it didn't simply go nowhere. No, the same instant the gap had moved behind her, one had moved in front of her and the other end of the sword came swinging out of it at Taura.

"Or I can let you play with each other."

[ninelivesonce]

Reflexes were good things. Very, very good things. Before she'd even realized what had happened, Taura had moved to block the blade with the top spoke of her shuriken. Metal clanged. Taura stared. The two ends of the sword were separated by a good meter, but that swing had been strong.

Taura stepped back, out of Teresa's newly extended range. "And what if we decline?" Did this woman have no armaments of her own? That would be too easy. But they could avoid giving her more. Or Taura could; the look in Teresa's eyes before she'd struck had held something she couldn't identify. Rage? Fear? Recognition? "What are you?" It was ostensibly addressed to the new arrival, but she'd meant it for Teresa.

Okay, it was a little bit for the woman attacking them as well, though she might not take it as the insult Taura meant it as. It presumed human was no possibility; dismissed the woman as a danger, but not an equal.

[number1smiley]

For all the combat situations she'd been in since reviving at the Institute, this was arguably the most frustrating. She should have felt the youma manipulate its youki to do that enough to avoid having her sword captured in its youki pocket. Which is what Teresa was calling it. She'd seen many different unique variations on youki techniques and it was hard to be surprised by anything new. It didn't make it any less irritating with her not being even a tenth of what she normally was.

"Youma," came the answer to Taura's question, though there was no emotion in the word. It was stated as a fact. She did note in the back of her mind that it was a good thing Taura had decent reflexes or she would have taken the woman's head off which would have lead to her having an inconvenient conversation with Homura the next day.

Reversing the sword, Teresa was content to rip the blade through the reality hole if she must. Yet, the claymore wasn't the only weapon she possessed. Everything about a hybrid was a weapon. At the same moment, she stepped in, grabbing for the youma's arm with her free hand, bodily moving in, and following her sword's motion by spinning around to cleave low at the youma's legs.

[mind_the_sukima]

"Close, and I've been called that, but you're one kanji off," replied Yukari conversationally. "I prefer youkai."

It seemed she didn't have much more time to answer though as the hybrid attacked again, grabbing her arm. Despite being caught, the youkai didn't seem very concerned at all, even as the claymore slipped easily from the gap that had swallowed it, almost as if she'd let it go intentionally. She watched as the blade came swinging around, and as easily as if it were cutting through air, it sliced through her legs.

Or so it would seem.

In fact, cutting through air was all it did - in perfect alignment with the blade's path, a foot-wide portion of the youkai's dress - and her legs, too, it would appear - was entirely missing, as if she were a drawing that someone had simply run an eraser across, and it was through this gap that the warrior's blade had harmlessly swung through.

"Please be a little more clever than that," she said, tilting her head back over one shoulder to smile disdainfully at Teresa. "You'll need something of at least this level to even touch me."

"This" turned out to be a gap opening on the floor between them and a traffic sign shooting up out of it, the metal plate aiming to knock the hybrid right upside her jaw. If that was the level Yukari expected, then Teresa had little chance, not by herself.

[ninelivesonce]

"Teresa, stop!" Taura's shout went unheeded; at least this time the blade didn't come spitting out at here. "If she can't...oh." There went the theory that all the -- what was the word she'd used? Yokai? -- couldn't do anything but move objects they'd brought with them. The sign hadn't been in the room before; even if the woman could only bring in things from the vicinity, that was more than enough trouble.

Taura was too far away to do anything about the sign; either Teresa's reflexes mirrored her own, or they didn't. What she could do is use the time while the yokai was gloating to launch two attacks. Her left hand led, shuriken point forward like a spear. Her entire body went with it; she was aiming to grapple. If the woman wanted to move things, she'd move Taura with her, claws and blunted teeth and all.

A wave of static hit her ears as she stepped into the space where the sword had protruded before; it wasn't until her next step-and-thrust that she realized it wasn't coming from the woman in the center.

[let me know if triggering the event isn't OK]

[number1smiley]

Seeing the ineffectiveness of her claymore, Teresa followed her swing through to hook the blade at her back. She still has a hold on the youma, so she wasn't worried. Just irritated.

There was a faint buzzing in the back of her senses, a warning, just before the sign shot up put of the floor. Any normal person would have been surprised by that, but Teresa was not human and though it was dulled, she could still sense the flow of youki. Kind of.

As the tall warrior leaned back enough for the sign to pass in front of her, the wind from its passing whipping across her face, she yanked on that arm to pull the youma toward her. At the same time, her free hand caught the metal shaft of the sign and she whipped it around to strike the youma. She felt a twinge of pain in her shoulder, but it was ignored. It would repair.

[event go!]

[mind_the_sukima]

As fun as this was, close combat wasn't really Yukari's specialty, and she was liable to actually get hurt if she continued this. Of course, first she'd need to shake off the blonde holding onto her - and not get stabbed by the other one, of course.

In the face of the two impending strikes, Yukari jumped up into the air, body seeming to fold in on itself impossibly before unfolding in the air above, presenting the youkai upside down with dress and hair hanging up in all defiance of gravity, though her arm was still more or less how it had been, captured by Teresa.

The floating strips of eyeball-filled darkness, still floating around her, opened wide and spewed forth a wave of kunai at her attackers. The moment one of them touched the traffic sign, the metal disintegrated like an illusion. Of course, the flying blades wouldn't do any such thing to the patients, but they were still flying blades.

[ninelivesonce]

Oh hell. The air was full of the unholy offspring of a jump drive, a needler gun, and an entire Barrayaran district's worth of knives. The disc of the shuriken blocked several blades, but some got through Lines of red blossomed in several places on her legs, and one on her left shoulder, though none were deep. It was, however, enough to slow Taura's advance long enough that she neither hit the woman nor fell past her into Teresa.

I've fought in and out of a gravity well, but never with it being an individual option. She'd have to suggest it. At the very least, it would be entertaining.

Taura hissed with pain as she she flung the throwing star up, but it was a feint, not a necessity. The flapping bits of flimsy clothing were more of an irritation than a few surface wounds. She just didn't think their attacker needed to know that. The blade missed the woman, passing harmlessly between two strips. Taura dropped into a crouch and grabbed for a fallen knife or two to replace it, her eyes never leaving her opponent, and her pupils wide in the near-darkness.

Or, at least it missed on the way up. Taura's aim had been absolutely perfect. She didn't dare glance at the curving trajectory, but she didn't need to. What goes up...

[number1smiley]

There was an almost irritable sigh as the youma reversed itself in the air, forcing Teresa to adjust the swing of the sign. The sigh was then audible as the improvised weapon disappeared under a hail of oddly shaped blades. This was an odd ability she hadn't seen before. Perhaps this one wasn't just youma, but an Awakened. Or the equivalent thereof.

Keeping a vice-like grip on the wrist, squeezing with her considerable strength hoping to feel bone crush beneath her hand, Teresa spun and weaved. Clang, clang, clang, clang! Blades bounced off of the large sword across her back, leaving not a scratch on the blade itself. Like Taura, a few got past, cutting into her skin, including a shallow scratch across her neck.

Silver eyes flashed up to the youma, a faint smile touching her lips as the red line slowly closed itself up, and Teresa tired to slam the youma directly into the ground. That should keep it distracted enough for Taura's weapon to make its way back...

[mind_the_sukima]

Yukari didn't mind that none of her barrage made a vital strike, mostly grazing them. She had far more where that came from.

The youkai stepped back in midair, neatly dodging the shuriken though she barely even needed to. The blade did shred several of the gaps that had been spewing projectiles at the pair, but those were really just superficial. It would be easy enough to open up a new set of gaps. That is, if she weren't being pulled out of the air and slammed into the ground.

"Whoopsies," said Yukari with a note of surprise as she was hauled bodily down. But then she grinned right back at Teresa. "Just kidding."

The floor opened up and instead of slamming into the floor, she went slamming through it, hand twisting suddenly, inhumanly in the warrior's grip and slipping out of it as the youkai disappeared into the hole she'd opened, her hand going last. The portal closed just in time for the shuriken to slam into the ground, narrowly missing getting Yukari's hand.

Where the youkai had gone didn't remain a mystery for long though as amused laughter filled the room, the source up by the ceiling where Yukari was leaning out of a gap like one might lean out a window, waving at them.

"Up here, girls," she said with a smile before waving her fan. At her summons, a large tombstone dropped out of the gap above her head, plummeting down at the two of them.

[ninelivesonce]

That was the problem with gravity.  Someone always had a bigger rock.  Fine by Taura.  This wasn't the fight she'd signed up for, and this gave them, no pun intended, a gap.  Even with two perhaps they could learn something of value.   Certainly they needed no further proof that Landel enjoyed brainwashing fighters.

She sprang into motion, grabbing her throwing star and heading past Teresa for the cafeteria. She hoped Teresa would follow; Taura wasn't worried about her ability to dodge.  Then the stone hit,and the world lurched. The impact had been close, and loud.  Concussive shock, she noted, as that much stone on tile -- Teresa hadn't been crushed -- was effectively a kinetic bomb, and her ears would be ringing for several minutes.

She was halfway to the doors when she realized that the woman's final taunts had been before that, and she still hadn't understood them.