[MISSION]

[daddyscythe]

Characters: Open to Mission Goers
Location: Norad, Colorado
Rating: R
Time: August 22
Description: It's time for the mission to rescue Marie.

Comments

[MEDICS AND RUNNERS] DOCTOR, HEAL THYSELF.

[daddyscythe]

Are you anxious, that you there's no word coming in from the groups? Now isn't a good time for the communicators to be busted, but it seems like there are equipment in the base doing it.

It's about an hour into the operation, just when the second batch of partners have entered the Norad base, that it happens: Two kishin eggs come in from the side, staggering to the perimeter like a pair of drunks. They're rather large, and look very, very menacing.

POWER! one of them shrieks before launching itself at them. The other one makes a good attempt at trying to catch everyone else.

[nerdable]

Shouichi wasn't necessarily the fighting type. Then again, this is why he signed up for this medic thing. Okay well, Spanner did, but the guy was his best friend! He knew him best anyway. Mentally, Shouichi was rather frazzled, wanting to know why the communicators weren't working. How were they supposed to stay in contact with anyone if they needed them!

What Shouichi wasn't expecting though was the fact that two rather large kishin eggs were coming towards them, and he panicked. He wasn't used to upfront fighting. Giving orders was one thing, but just the thought of being attacked like Kikyou was kind of freaking him out.

For the first time in his life, Shouichi stopped thinking.

[weldable]

At first sign of the communicators going down, Spanner whipped out his toolbox and began working, seeing if there was any way he could at least get his up and working, or if he could hack his way in. When the Kishi eggs approached, however, he looked up and closed his communicator, pocketing it.

Looked like it was going to have to wait.

Running up to Shouchi, he pushed him toward the fray. "Let's go," he said. When the normal tactic would be run and hide, it seemed they'd have to stand and fight this time.

[nerdable]

Shouichi backed away a bit, wanting to run away. Everything was harder when you weren't behind a monitor, shouting commands and letting other people do the work. He was scared, he didn't want to fight. Running away was the better choice. However, when he looked to Spanner, he calmed a bit, looking back at the kishin egg. Steeling himself, Shouichi could feel himself start to gain control of his fears, stepping forward. It was like he completely changed.

"We'll have to attempt to move fast, towards the side first. It may be large, but it'll best if we confuse it first." He said, his voice even despite his slightly shaking hands. Holding his hand out, he looked to Spanner again.

"Let's go." He repeated, "This is how we do these things, right?"

[SNEAK GROUPS A AND B] ALL THE SINGLE LADIES

[daddyscythe]

The mission is simple: Find Marie and bring her back. Try not to engage with a witch if possible, and avoid them with the use of Soul Perception. Team A to the basement and Team B to the top. Kishin eggs abound, and maybe something else...

[daddyscythe]

This was all very nervous-making. Not because they were in here -- no, Spirit was used to dealing with witches, however dopey he looked. He was still a Deathscythe, after all, and the strongest in Shibusen -- but because they had dragged everyone else to this mission with them and he couldn't keep track of their progress as he'd hoped. Damn the madness wave and its effect on the communicators -- they really had to get BJ to fix that when (if) they got him back.

Spirit hoped BJ was still alive.

For now, Spirit and company were walking along a dark, twisted corridor, making their way up to the higher floors of the base.

"I wonder if Maka is all right," he fussed, trying to get his communicator to work for the umpteenth time.

[antiakuma]

Allen sticks quite close to Spirit as they walk, tagging along with him as he had expected he'd be doing.

The low buzz of madness wavelength makes it more difficult to focus on keeping Soul Perception maintained than he thought it would; it's like a lot of whispering at the back of his skull, like something clawing at the back of his eyes and a strange experience like having woken up and feeling like he'd been dreaming but the memory of the dream itself was just a sense, fuzzy and just out of reach. Except it didn't feel like trying to recall the memory of a dream but real ones instead.

The exorcist shakes his head slightly, tried to clear his mind and focus more as they walked, scanning the area constantly and trying to pick up on any witch souls, or Marie's. Spirit had said he'd know them when he saw them, so despite the discomfort inside his head he had to stay focused and alert.

He glances to Spirit then as he speaks and smiles faintly.

"I'm sure it's natural for a parent to worry, but do you not think she can handle herself

Xanxus and Kasai can jump in any time!

[daddyscythe]

"She can," he replied immediately, without thinking about it. "She can," Spirit repeated, and then sniffled. "But I know she's worried about Marie, and despite how Maka looks, she can be a little rash, too!" Oh, his brave little girl. She'd gotten into a lot of trouble with witches and the kishin lately, so it was a little understandable if daddy was worried! Right? This wasn't the sort of mission Shibusen gave to students, either, but Spirit had made up for it by including two deathscythes in the lineup.

Spirit glanced at his partner and their groupmates, but turning back to Allen. "How are you guys holding up, anyway?" This level of madness wavelength mostly just bounced off him, but he was pretty sure even this would turn Stein into a psychotic monster. He wasn't quite sure how the others would fare, somewhere in between the two extremes.

[GROUPS 1 TO 4] HANG ON

[soul_mods]

Those immediately outside the Norad base will notice a spike in the madness wave. You don't know why. Maybe it's because of the chaos and littered souls in the area. You have no idea where it's coming from, but it drives the kishin eggs into a frenzy. Hey, at least you've already significantly thinned their numbers down.

[GROUP 4]

[bulletcarnage]

The combat being waged outside the base had, for Kanda and Heine at least, been relatively straight forward. The kishin eggs were threatening enough to require attention and alertness, but not enough to cause any real danger to the pair.

It had become very clear to Heine that on some level this was very much what Kanda did; he tore through targets without a second thought. They weren't too dissimilar in that area. It made Heine nostalgic. Well, perhaps nostalgic wasn't the right word, but it did make him think about what he had been built to do, the kind automatic target mode he had been trained to know and understand. See it, attack it, kill it, repeat. The numbers would rise, you'd get praise, a verbal pat on the head and then--No, that had never been an existence to be proud of.

But this was different, wasn't it? It was teamwork--Badou would be so proud--working together to clear an area. It was different. Right? It was relying on someone else to provide back-up like before, it wasn't the reason for being. Yeah, it was different

[GROUP 4]

[kandescence]

Kanda knew the feeling too, but he knew it from Heine.

From his perspective, the spike in the madness wavelength would have been like a wave of nausea and vertigo passing over him. It made the mind reel, but ground oneself against it and it could be overcome. But the sudden crackling shift of restlessness, of raw atavism...

Kanda knew what was dwelling inside of his partner. He had met it before. He recognized it now. And he would be damned if it was going to beat him this time.

His grip tightened around the hilts of the blades, a kind of mental digging in of heels. Let the thing inside of Heine pull and snarl and snap. Kanda would be damned if he was giving even an inch of ground.

"Heine!" The hell are you letting that thing come between the two of us now.

Prussia/England hop in whenever? /spams for now

[bulletcarnage]

He knew. He knew that feeling. He knew the push and the pull with his dog, the swing and weight of being chained to one another. And he wasn't letting go, it was just the shake up, the stability rocking and Heine needing to find a footing again. That's all it was. He knew how to ride this out, he'd done it before.

He'd done it before. So why was this so much harder to keep his head above the surface of?

And then there was a something to grip to. Something gripping to him, more accurately.

Jeeze, this guy...

"I know." I'm not that far gone. I'm still here.

[GROUPS 5 TO 8] LOOKS LIKE YOU'VE FOUND SOMETHING

[soul_mods]

You barge into one of many similar chambers inside the Norad base and see a bunch of prisoners -- soldiers, human, and still alive if barely -- in various cells. They are obviously starving and cold, but it's not their haunted, frightened features that horrify you: It's where they're being kept. Above the cells are signs bearing words like SWEET, SOUR, BITTER, SALTY, SPICY, and so on and so forth.

Looks like you’ve found out how the witches have been controlling the kishin eggs.

GROUP 5, sorry for the delay! OTL

[karmafree]

Running from the witch had not been entirely ideal, but it wasn't too long before Mukuro found something else to divert his attention.

"Well, what's this?"

The Meister slowed down, surveying the prisoners with a cool, critical eye. He made no immediate move to help them, of course. This was nothing but a curious thing to behold, for the moment.

[suchselfishness]

Rhode was still stewing in her temper from their retreat, and Mukuro's comment on their surroundings only managed to catch her attention because of her curious nature. The girl was disappointed, however, and it was apparent in her indifferent tone.

"Oh. It's prisoners, that's all."

What did catch her interest, however, was the signs.

"Souls have flavors?" She kept her voice low, almost talking to herself. "How do they figure that out?"

[closedmarket]

"By tasting and color, most likely." His voice might have been about as deadpan as a voice could get, but really, if they'd both been in human form and he had been inclined to touch her for any reason, she would've had her ear twisted rather sharply for that.

He did wonder vaguely whether it wouldn't have been best to turn back into a human, but Arashi was stepping forward where Mukuro stayed still, and something could still be around.

Not moving toward any cell in particular, only in the middle of the hall. "I do not suppose they are the type to leave keys laying about." With all of the magic he'd seen by then, just rushing the bars didn't seem like a good idea. But they would have to free the soldiers. They were Shibusen's, and they... looked a bit alive.

[SNEAK GROUP A]

[soul_mods]

It's some time later that Group A is finally able to reach the deepest floor of the base. There are cells there, mostly empty if not for the occasional kishin egg being kept inside. It's dank and cold, and rats skitter about as you come.

Finally, at the furthest cell in the corridor, you spot a dirty head of blond hair. There's Marie, shackled to the wall and looking mighty unhappy about it.

[willyoumarieme]

Unhappy didn't even begin to describe how she felt. Grabbed on the night of an important dinner date, kept shackled in a cell for months without even so much as an interrogation attempt, heckled daily by Witches with lizard tails (and death wishes)... They wouldn't let her shower, had forever ruined her good dress, and furthermore allowed her make-up to run and cake and crack in grotesque patterns on her face. She felt awful and disgusting and they rubbed it in with every visit, cackling to themselves about how unsightly women were when they crested marriageable age.

No, Marie Mjolnir wasn't unhappy, she was seething! She had faced months of humiliation, but today there would be payback. Today she had managed to inch a toe forward, to stretch herself enough to touch the metal bars that held her. She had practiced, had channeled a strong electrical current through them, and now she waited for the next petty Witch to come close enough to feel the lightning sting of her scorn...

((OOC: First one of you around that corner is going to

ask and ye shall receive xD

[blindingrevenge]

Whatever mistake Sasuke had made before, he still knew how to function as a ninja. Once this new information came up, dark eyes and squared on Maka's face, and he nodded firmly. This was getting into dangerous territory, especially with Marie right around the corner. Whatever dangers they'd faced with kishin would be nothing compared to a witch if the rumors were true. And he doubted a prisoner of such high priority wouldn't be guarded by one.

Sasuke slipped back to the head of the group, where he'd been most of the way in. His left hand came out, blocking them from passing him as he leaned against the wall, listening for any tread of footsteps. When he heard nothing, his arm lowered and he inched forward to peek around- and only saw who he had to guess was their target. She was caged like an animal, and though it made something inside Sasuke's stomach twist uncomfortably, his face betrayed nothing.

"Clear," He murmured, before standing and moving boldly around the corner towards the cage.

[willyoumarieme]

As he did, lightning arced menacingly between the bars. The woman-animal-beast in the cell glared full force at him, not seeing a boy ninja from Konoha, but some small, squeaky Witch with a cracking voice.

Marie's visible eye twitched. Twitched more. Remembering every injustice, every jab at her, every flaunted curve and paraded soldier-kishin boyfriend. "Got you!" She cried, her triumph quickly joined by a deafening thunderclap. The crash of thunder was like a tempest of furies clawing viciously at their victim, and the lightning strike was so close that the sound came before the white-hot sear of pain.

ZAP!!

"Ohohohohoho..."