7th Protocol--[Action all over the place] ☢

[idkmybfforin]

[This wasn’t the first time someone precious to her had gone quiet. Orin had stopped talking right several days ago, but Okuu assumed she would come back to her senses soon.

But she didn’t.

She should have expected this; it happened to her master, her master’s sister…and now her best friend. For a brief, horrible moment, she felt like the only creature in all the world.

Then the yatagarasu had started whispering to her, and Utsuho knew she was not alone. The voice preached fire, unfettered burning destruction like a sun allowed too close to the earth. Normally, discipline kept the voice at bay—what little discipline could be forced into her head. It was easy to ignore the voice when one barely heard it.

…but this time, it was different. This time, that all sounded like a very, very good idea.

Utsuho shook out her wings and leapt into the air, heat shimmering at the edges of her feathers.]


[ACTIVE STUFF]

[The hell raven was moving fast this time; no lazy, mindless circling today. The heat gathering at her wings flickered into flames now, as if the air around her was catching light. More heat gathered into the octagonal cannon covering most of her arm until the light grew too bright to look at—and then tore free in a fiery beam that seared an ugly scar into the formerly pristine road below.

When Utsuho cast her other arm out, suns appeared at her fingertips—tiny, miniature suns that grew alarmingly and then sped away as if thrown, arcing out across the sky until they burned out the instant her focus went elsewhere. Some fell to the ground like stars and burn out in the grass there or hiss and spit clouds of steam when they sink into the pond; the hell raven wasn’t really paying attention. She wasn’t aiming at the ground for the most part, some small bit of her remaining conscience saying her master might be down there, her best friend, her master’s sister…most of her anger was directed at the sky, but engaging a challenge was not beyond her senses.

For all that could be said of Okuu’s lack of intelligence, there certainly wasn’t much remaining in her eyes now. She was angry, very angry, and wasn’t thinking and didn’t want to think.


It probably won’t be too long before she gets herself droned, but in the meantime.

For today’s forecast there is a chance of angry gods flying overhead. You know, the usual for Mayfield.]

Comments

[walking_nuke]

[You can bet a light show like that hasn't escaped the notice of this guy. He'd been on an afternoon physical training regimen in his recruit gear—though this time he does have his big honkin' AFS pistol with him, as well as the shotgun he borrowed from RED Sniper in a shoulder sling.]

[The shotgun is what's currently in his hands as he jogs to within shouting distance of Utsuho. She looks like she's completely lost it—exactly what he feared ... as much as he wants to hit her with a surprise attack and bring her down before she kills somebody, he does see that she's mostly just firing up at the sky. And, he remembers Satori's request ... not that he knows she's been droned. Besides, Balin still doesn't have his armor or his own nuclear powers yet.]

[So for now, he's going to try and talk her down.]

Yo!

[idkmybfforin]

[A voice.

But not Orin's voice; not Satori or Koishi or Enkidu's voice, either

Utsuho spins around and blasts at the source without much thought processed beyond that.


...granted, she wasn't really aiming either. But it's the (astounding lack of) thought that counts!]

1/2

[walking_nuke]

Holy sh—

[Suffice to say, Balin instantly regrets trying to call Utsuho out first. He's got pretty good combat reflexes, though, so the moment that blast registers in his mind, he sprints forward (having enough adrenaline in his body to actually use Sprint), then performs a leaping roll behind a car.

[For the brief moment he had Sprint active, his feet were glowing bright red and trailing some sort of motes of light.]

2/2

[walking_nuke]

[Well. If she's going to attack anyone who talks to her unprovoked, she's a clear and present danger to the whole town.]

Ahright'en, bitch. No Mr. Nice Guy today.

[Rising from his cover, Balin manifests his Tabula in one swift motion of his hand. The glowing, almost holographic "tablet" has one big element flickering and shimmering on it:]



[Balin punches his Tabula-armed hand out toward Utsuho. For a brief moment, the air around Balin (and Utusuho) changes, as if it were full of static electricity. And then, a thick bolt of Lightning shoots out of Balin's hand, right for the hell raven—with a thunderclap loud enough to stun even non-human creatures.]

[idkmybfforin]

[Challenge gone, already?

--no, no it wasn't. There was something that itched at the corners of her mind still, something else.

Then something very real crackled in the air around here, warping the atmosphere into something that smelled of ozone and made her smallest feathers stand on end.

Then, only light--bright, white light, far too fast for her to even think of dodging. The sound and force struck her head-on, knocking the hell raven out of the air like a stone.]

[walking_nuke]

[After throwing that bolt out at Utsuho, Balin tensed up immediately in anticipation of a counterattack, or something—so seeing the youkai fall out of the sky like a game of Duck Hunt makes Balin stare in wonder, for just a moment. Did he really just off this chick?]

[Balin thinks back to when Keine—at least, thinking back on it he's pretty sure it was Keine—went nuts and attacked him that one night, with a more beastly appearance. She was tough as nails. And having seen Utsuho devour cannibals fast enough to win any eating contest among humans, well—Balin's brief wondering wears off quickly.]

[He briskly walks up to where Utsuho landed. If Utsuho's fallen on her stomach, he's going to nudge her over into back with a boot. Either way, though, he's going to be planting one boot on her stomach, and the other on one of her arms—while holding the shotgun's muzzle right against the crook of her control rod-laden elbow. His finger isn't on the trigger, but ideally he's put himself in a good position to blow her arm off if he has to.]

Wake up, sunshine.

[That would have been a friendly joke to anyone else, but there is no friendliness in Balin's voice right now.]

[idkmybfforin]

[It's the eye that stirs first, the slit pupil seeming to look directly at Balin--dilating and narrowing as if focusing on something particularly interesting.

The rest of Utsuho is slower on the uptake; full of jerking convulsions and lacking any sort of control initially.

But recover she did--and when her proper eyes could focus on him again, she all but lunged at his face with a snarl.

...that gun barrel pressed against her arm would probably have been noticed in any other case, just not this one. IT'S KIND OF SLIGHTLY IMPORTANT.]

[walking_nuke]

[Well hello there Okuuboobs. That the eye seems to be acting like a real eye piques Balin's own curiosity, for the moments that Utsuho is not fully awake. That he didn't see it on her body the past few times he's met the hell raven is ... troubling.]

[Any further thoughts on that, though, are cut off by a snarling hell raven coming to her senses. Utsuho's pretty damn strong, enough that it's almost enough to cause him to stumble off the hell raven's body—but he redoubles his effort to keep her pinned down, pushing down harder on her stomach and more forcefully shoving the shotgun's muzzle into her elbow.]

You so much as fuckin' spit at me an' you're gonna be missin' an arm.

[His finger is actually touching the trigger now, if only because he's not sure he can match Utsuho's strength. Not with what he's seen her do.]

[idkmybfforin]

[COME AT ME BRO

The prospect of injury doesn't deter her in the slightest--if she even heard it at all to begin with.

Utsuho thrashes furiously, the temperature around her spiking and her wings arcing up from the ground to begin beating again and fire beginning to gather at her hands once more.]

[walking_nuke]

[Balin grits his teeth, continuing to shove back down on Utsuho with his boots and the muzzle of his shotgun as she attempts to get back up. It isn't until he notices the heat, though, that he reacts.]

Wrong answer.

[Balin pulls the trigger. Youkai flesh, meet lead shot.]

[In a failure of cosmic irony, Balin is not actually using birdshot in his shotgun.]

[idkmybfforin]

[The flesh and tendon and bone part almost instantly at such point-blank range, severing the hell raven's arm and showering them both with a spray near-black and near-boiling blood. Utsuho shrieks furiously, but as her arm comes off so does a burst of strength enough to toss Balin off of his feet--or at the very least off of her.]

[walking_nuke]

[It all happens too fast for Balin to react—he's thrown to the ground by Utsuho's newfound rage, several feet away from her. He was too busy processing the fact that Utsuho's blood is black—and scalding, from the sensation of what bits splattered on to him in the midst of getting thrown off.]

—Fffffuckin'!—

[The shotgun fell out of his hands in the midst of all that, but it's still strapped to that sling, so it isn't far from his reach. He's already trying to scramble to his feet while picking it up with one hand, as adrenaline starts coursing into his body.]

[idkmybfforin]

[The hell raven rises to her feet, raises her wings, and takes off again--but low, sweeping very, very close to Balin.

She leaves the arm cannon--and the still twitching arm inside--behind.]

[walking_nuke]

[Balin's just getting to his feet to see the hell raving coming right at him. Losing her arm hasn't slowed her down at all. These youkai must have a lot of willpower to be capable of feeling pain yet still fully function ...]

[Balin pumps the shotgun and starts running perpendicular to Utsuho's flight path, looking to duck behind another parked vehicle on the street. He might not get out of the way in time, though—and knowing this, he turns and fires another shotgun shell at her.]

[idkmybfforin]

[The shell caught Utsuho full in the face, tearing open her cheek and blasting her jaw apart. That made her pause, and made her wrathful bellow sound distressingly warped.

She clutched at the ruin of her face with her remaining hand, the bleeding stump of her right arm flailing uselessly. Whatever regenerative power was intended for it was instead redirected towards the head wound, the more pressing issue.

The jaw knit back together first; burning red strands like muscles lacing the bone into one piece and then connecting the jaw to the rest of the face like proper muscles. The skin was slower to recover, but once the hell raven could snap her fangs together again she didn't seem to care.

Where had he gone?]

[walking_nuke]

[Balin didn't stop moving even when he'd seen his shot land in her face; he ducks behind another vehicle, giving the shotgun another pump while tuning out the youkai's inhuman roaring. He waits for a minute before peeking around the corner of the vehicle to check where Utsuho is now—]

[—Damn, he really did get her good. Not good enoough, though, as he now sees her rapidly mending the damage. Regeneration ... should have known. Well, he knows how to counter that.]

[Standing up from behind the car just as Utsuho finishes with the haphazard mending of her body, Balin manifests his tabula once again. Only this time, there's two Logos Elements shimmering on it.]



[He keeps his hand splayed out toward Utsuho. Something like a vapor is spiraling out of his palm and lancing right toward her body—not instant like the lightning bolt, but it's homing directly onto her. That "something" just so happens to be a mist full of superantigens and virulent toxins, like the kind produced by flesh-eating bacteria. It's the Improved Rot form of Ruin.]

[While these toxins are designed to work on any organic-based physiology, there isn't enough of these toxins to kill Utsuho, should they be fully infused into her. They'll definitely wreak some havoc, though.]

[idkmybfforin]

[There he is. There he is. Her hand drops away from her face as she lashes out again--and as if thrown, not-so-little balls of flame follow, streaking towards Balin.

That strange cloud she didn't notice until too late, when her next breath burned like the fire had turned against her. The mangled stump of her arm had begun to glow with regenerative light, but the light quenched into an ugly blackness, as if the limb were turning necrotic. The hell raven gags on the next breath after that--and the next after that, coughing a substance between inflamed tissue and blood.

She backwinged away from the cloud, uncertain what to make of this strange smoke.]

[walking_nuke]

[And this is what cover is for! Balin drops to the ground, behind the car—and letting those goodness gracious great balls o' fire sail overhead. The ambient heat created by those fireballs is still painfully hot, though—it singes the back of his hair and leaves something like a sunburn on parts of his skin.]

[He clenches his teeth as pain washes over his body. It might not be nearly as bad as the damage he's inflicted on the hell raven ... but she can regenerate.]

[Once the fireballs have sailed past, Balin pops up from behind cover again, taking advantage of Ruin's effects on the hell raven—by firing two more shotgun shells her way.]

[idkmybfforin]

[JUST WALK IT OFF MAN

That unnatural burning recedes, replaced instead by pain she was far more familiar with. Wounds opened up again on her leg and torso, making the yatagarasu's eye flare briefly.

Then she hops forward, lands heavily on the car Balin's hiding behind, and peers over the top.

Boy, she sure is mad.]

This makes me wish I took more screencaps of Balin casting Logos Abilities back in TR. XD

[walking_nuke]

[Balin had been ducking behind the car deciding on his next move; the sound of hell raven feet slamming onto the car startles him. Instinct takes over.]

Shit!

[Balin springs up out of his crouched position, heading for the back side of the vehicle while turning to face Utsuho. He's manifested his tabula, with the script of the Eloh flickering and scrolling through its holographic-like form, but he hasn't actually invoked anything yet.]

[idkmybfforin]

[Utsuho snarls terribly at him, fingers twisting into the metal beneath her hand.

Near-black blood dribbled from the wound in her face, from her torso and ruined stump of an arm, making her look quite savage. Her wings were tented to either side like massive tripods, keeping her upright where she might have wobbled.

She was gathering her strength again. All of those wounds and the whatever-it-was-from before made it hard to lunge immediately to the next round.]

[walking_nuke]

[For a moment, Balin wonders if she's had any sense knocked into her yet.]

[But that lasts only for a moment, given her animal-like snarling. At this point, she might only talk if she's been worn down almost completely.]

[Another Logos Element appears on the Tabula:]



[Yep, he's unleashing another bolt of lightning on Utsuho. This one isn't nearly as loud, but the bolt itself is still pretty strong. Less taxing on his mental stamina to use Discharge instead of the stronger flavors.]

[idkmybfforin]

[Utsuho was prepared this time--at least, a little bit. She still didn't get out of the way in time, but that prickling, burning light didn't put her out as much. It made the hell raven shudder, but not fall.

The fingers of her remaining hand dug into the metal even before the convulsions stopped. The instant they did, Okuu beat her wings to lift off again--and carried the car with her. With one arm.

And then she threw it at him. Also with one arm.]

[walking_nuke]

[Following the Discharge that Balin unleashed on Utsuho, Balin continues to back up and get distance between him and the rampaging youkai, keeping his shotgun trained on her center of mass as best as he can manage.]

[When she takes off, Balin tries to shoot her down with the remaining shotgun shells in the magazine—though the spread of lead shot and the car getting in the way probably kept Utsuho safe from getting hit. It's only after he's out of shells in the magazine that he takes a moment to be amazed that the youkai is flying while holding on to a car with one arm.]

[... Uh oh.]

[Balin triggers Sprint again and takes off running just as Utsuho throws the car at him—running toward Utsuho in hopes that'll keep him from getting crushed by heavy metal.]

[It works—to a degree. A piece of the car is snapped off by the impact and rebounds backwards, striking Balin in the back and causing him to tumble to the ground.]

—Ungh!

[He's still got enough adrenaline in his body to try and walk it off. He's staggering to his feet, having let go of the shotgun and letting it dangle freely by the sling while he reaches for that big ugly sidearm in his thigh holster.]

[idkmybfforin]

[The hell raven sails by overhead, not paying any mind to all those fresh injuries that opened up on her wings and shoulders. Freed of the car's weight, she sails up above the roof of the nearest house, turns about in her hovering--and drops to the roof, wings resting on the eaves.

She doesn't launch st him again immediately; her arm was too busy glowing, reforming and regenerating the severed surface. It was much slower going than what it had been on her face, with the light a much duller, almost sickly looking rust color.

Instead she's just perched there, only a little ominously. She could stamp that life out whenever she liked, but...in a moment. When she caught her breath.]