Aethertouched [IC/PG-16/Not Currently Accepting]

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

It took only one hour to make the heartbeat of Tokyo stop almost completely. Following the attack on the Metropolitan Government Office, the city entered a state of total shutdown as the government blockaded the City to keep the terrorists from escaping, and most of the city’s population being in the designated shelters. Patrol cars and the JSDF roamed the streets to find the ones responsible for the act, while guiding people that were at loss due to panic to the nearest shelters. Staying at home was not advised, and for the most part, the people agreed to move to the shelters for the time being.

 

Of course, there is a reason for that.

 

 

“Alright, we just get the clear to do this.” Waiting outside of a shelter, a man in suit put down the comm unit in his hand as he addressed the group of JSDF soldiers around him. The man didn’t really look comfortable with the current situation, but as he spoke to the soldiers, he tried to sound as firm as possible.

 

“We’ve been briefed about this earlier, so I’ll have this as a quick reminder. We’ll go in there soon, screen everyone inside with this-“ the man pulled a device that looked like the handheld LED batons used by traffic polices from a bag near him “-and if the sensor picks up a signal, just detain the individual for further questioning. Do not hesitate - we are currently facing an unknown kind of enemy. Worry about what would happen next later. Do not make a scene however - a panic-induced riot is the last thing we want to happen here.

 

Is the instruction clear enough?” The soldiers nodded in response to that prompt. Without any further exchanges, the man packed up the bag on his side, and together with the soldiers, entered the elementary school that had been converted into a temporary shelter. And across the city, the same thing happened. Men in suit escorted by the JSDF entered the shelters and initiated a screening session on the refugees inside using a strange device. Some people asked them of the point of doing so, but none of them was willing to answer these questions.

 

 

Around the same time, with the source being completely unclear, whispers started to spread on the shelters as rumors, further fueled by the direness and muddied situation of the time. It was said that the shelters were meant to gather people so the government could pick up who they suspected as the terrorists and deal with them immediately. The people started to worry about how would the government pick the targets – a fear that was just amplified once the screening session started. Most of them just wished for the nightmare to be over soon, but they couldn’t help but wonder about how much worse it would get before it could get better.

 

 

“The government dogs have arrived, sir.”

 

“So they’re adamant that they could sniff us well enough now. In that case, pin down the other Aethertoucheds whose presence you have reported earlier as soon as possible, give them the lead as intended, then get out of the shelter to regroup on the specified place. Contact the others immediately and inform them of this.

 

The dogs have lurked the streets, avoid getting caught at all cost. Remind them of the protocol on what to do in a worst-case scenario if necessary.”

 

“Understood, sir.” As the figure on the small mirror disappeared, the man holding it smiled a bit before putting the mirror back on his coat. He was alone on an alley, and he could hear the sound of the JSDF soldiers moving around not too far away from him.

 

Things had progressed well.

 

“I wonder how long would it take until everything just collapse…?” Mumbling those words to himself, he disappeared from the alley just moments before a soldier turned to check the alley.

 

---

 

[spoiler=About the Post]

-Government agents are trying to find aethertoucheds to detain them. The JSDF soldiers were lightly armed, but would not employ firearms for the most part as they’re in small, isolated indoor space filled with civilians. If they detect someone with power, they will force that someone to a van outside to be questioned. It’s perhaps best to avoid getting dragged there, by escaping of course.

-the terrorists had spread rumors about the govt that made the refugees feel at unease. A riot could happen, but it might not happen. Depending on whether you want to include it in your post or not, some of the terrorists also might sooner or later try talking with the characters, possibly trying to pass as a clueless aethertouched. They would be pretty minor, so it’s fine if you want to invent details about them. They’ll tell you to meet them outside once you get out.

-If you’re outside right now, the JSDF would potentially try detaining you if they spot you and you acted suspicious, otherwise they’ll lead you to a nearby shelter. Escaping a shelter means you’re painting a target on your head.

-Other than that, feel free to do anything now in response to this.

 

 

[Aix]

Seeing men in uniform arrive at the movie theater, Masahiko furrowed his eyebrows slightly. He heard the rumors around him, and the arrival of the JSDF now only served to confirm them. It was unlikely that the Japanese government would decide to "deal" with terrorists on the spot, but the fact that the Defense Force was here, at an evacuation center good distance away from the terrorist attack, meant something was up. No, no, he shouldn't jump to conclusions so soon, he remembered Haru telling him he never seemed to be able to look at things from more than one perspective. It was something he had to work on. Now, what other—

 

"Y-You! You there with the glasses! Come with us!" barked a soldier not two feet away from him. Two more came and surrounded him and the blind girl.

 

Masahiko was started by the voice. He stayed still as he glanced at the men around him. Why were these men so overbearing? It couldn't be that they were really going to deal with people here. He grasped hold of his calm. At closer inspection these men seemed as alert and on edge as he was. "What... What's going on?"

 

"Private Kururugi, don't cause a scene!" An older soldier hurried over with a firm rebuke. Then, he turned and gave Masahiko a bow. "Sorry, mister, he's a little inexperienced and scared by the terrorist attacks happening. My sincere apologies. Please come with us for a moment, we have some questions for you... and the young lady here."

 

"I would like to know what's going on. I have no connections with the terrorists," said Masahiko, attempting to regain control of his own situation.

 

"We just have a few questions for you. Please duly comply, we're going to need all the help and information we can get in these dire times," said the old soldier.

 

Masahiko stared intently at the soldier as he pondered his situation. Finally, he adjusted his glasses and responded. "I do not know what help I may be able to provide, but I will do my best for the sake of Japan."

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

---

 

Sure enough, Katsurou's sense of an approaching Aethertouched individual was accurate, as the girl he saw on the street marching toward him, fire in her eyes. Lifting his head to face her, he tilted it back and forth, his vertebrae making loud 'pop' noises. He couldn't help but laugh silently, realizing that she must have assumed him to be the attacker. 

 

“I have no damn idea what you’re planning but I do know that you’ve got something you’re hiding. I wouldn’t have bothered following this gut feeling to this place otherwise. Spill it now before I wring your neck.”

 

Glancing toward her outstretched hand, he made note of the position it took, as if it were holding a weapon neither of the two could see, but they both were aware was present. Well, it definitely isn't a firearm. Sword? Staff? Something of the sort. Grinning, he brought a hand up to scratch the back of his head, "Hiding? I'm hiding just as much as you are, kid. The only difference between you and I is I don't want to fight here." His eyes darted toward the entrance to the room they were both located in, monitoring the officers just outside, as they fiddled with a piece of equipment he did not recognize. Raising to his feet, he began slowly backing toward the wall furthest from the officers, as they waved the glow-stick-like device slowly from one side of the room to the other. That had better not be what I think it is... Katsurou held his gaze against the tool as its aim was moved from one civilian to another, eliciting no particular reaction, until it pointed to the girl he had hardly met, the other Aethertouched in the room.

 

As he feared, the baton flashed red, emitting a high-pitched beep, confirming its purpose. An officer began to approach Valerie, holding the small light in front of him as if he believed it could provide some sort of protection. Katsurou locked his vision on the girl's right hand, fearing for the worst as the officers behind the lead cautiously placed their hands on the grips of their firearms, unlatching the loop that held their pistols in places. This is bad. She was ready to fight without even knowing who I am. Even if these guys want to take her peacefully... that just isn't how it is going to go down... 

 

"Ma'am, we are going to need to take you in for questioning. Please turn around and place your hands behind your back so that you may be cuffed. Don't be alarmed, we will not hurt you, we just need to restrain you for the safety of the civilians in this building" Even as the lead spoke of peaceful intentions, Katsurou watched the other two prepare to draw their guns at a moment's notice. This is bad, this is bad... His hand hit the wall behind him, indicating that he had no room left to withdraw. 

 

BGM

 

"Well, guess it is time to show these guys what they came for."

 

Holding both hands in front of his body, with his palms facing down, Katsurou manifested his soul. Rather than the brief flash of light he demonstrated for the American, this was the real deal. In each hand, a beautifully ornate club appeared, shining brightly before he closed each hand, gripping his newly formed weapons tightly. Before the unit had a chance to react, he brought both arms back, slamming the soul manifestation against the sheet-rock wall that had previously blocked his path. From the outside, it would seem as if a massive explosion had taken place, the entire section of wall blown out, chunks of brick from the outermost layer breaking windows across the street. However, the inside room was left unharmed, the energy of the blast having been directed completely outward. Using the momentum from the controlled explosion, Katsurou was propelled forward, bringing his feet forward in mid air, the soles of his shoes colliding with the chest of the lead officer, knocking him back into the hall. Landing on both feet between the other two, who were now bringing their guns up to point at him, Katsurou placed a palm against each muzzle, Vajra once again blasting away what it comes into contact with. The pistols shattered, unable to resist the force, as their wielders were launched across the room, each hitting their own respective wall with a solid thud.

 

Turning back toward the girl, the weapons once again vanished from his hands, a moment of irritation apparent on his face as he muttered to himself, "That was at least 2 seconds. Sloppy." Nodding toward the hole he created in the outside wall, he continued, "I don't think answering their questions would have helped much, and I doubt you would have been willing to do so anyway." Walking on past her toward the improvised exit from the shelter, he glanced back at the girl, "I am going to find the guy who did this, and kill him. You can come along if you want, just don't get in the way. Whatever you choose, you should do it soon, these guys aren't going to stay down forev-" Katsurou paused, his sentence interrupted by a loud 'bang'. Blinking twice, he attempted to get a handle on what had just occurred, his thoughts drowned out by the ringing in his ears. Looking down, he could see blood staining his shirt. Did I get shot..? There is nobody in front of me. The pain hit him all at once, as he could feel the hole in his back. Ah. In one end out the other. That explains the wound on my chest, then. Slowly turning around, he coughed, tasting aerated blood in his breath. It hit a lung. Looking at the source of the shot, he saw the first officer, whom he had kicked in the chest, his own gun now drawn and pointed at Katsurou.

 

Katsurou coughed once again, more blood escaping through his chest and mouth. Looking the man who shot him in the eyes, his expression shifted to one of rage, Vajra reappearing in his hands, electricity visibly arcing up and down his arms. Fearing for his own life, the officer leaned in to the walkie fastened to his shoulder, shouting his last words before unloading his magazine at Katsurou.

 

"SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!"

 

Vajra quickly shifted form, orbiting around its owner at high speeds, its four prongs blocking and deflecting the 9 millimeter rounds flying at him. After the last shot had been fired, the officer dropped his gun, scrambling to attain a standing position so that he could escape. Before he could even reach his feet, Katsurou was mere inches away from him, his manifestation having returned to its offensive form, The Unstoppable Force. Unfortunately for the officer, he was not himself an Immovable Object, as Katsurou hit him in the chest with full force. The blast killed the officer instantly, vaporizing his body completely, and took out a large portion of the shelter behind him, but due to the angle of attack, it was directed large upward, preventing more civilian casualties.

 

Falling on his back, Katsurou looked up at the sky through the makeshift window he created, Vajra disappearing from his hands as the light faded from his eyes.

 

---

[Aix]

"Thank you. I'm glad Japan still has fine young men like you," said the old soldier, giving a firm grin as he approached Masahiko.

 

However, at that point when everyone seemed to be going peacefully, there came a broadcast on the radio for all to hear.

 

"SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!"

 

There was a moment of silence as all who heard processed the message. Then, a gunshot sounded. Masahiko's eyes widened as a sudden pain struck his side. The young soldier from before had suddenly jumped back and fired.

 

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" roared his officer.

 

There was a clatter as Masahiko's glasses fell onto the ground when he doubled over in pain. He didn't even notice them falling, because another had taken their place.

 

"Sir! You heard the broadcast! T-The suspects are hostile! They are to be shot on sight!" cried the soldier, his hands shaking as he held the gun. "Don't move! I-I'll shoot!"

 

Wasn't the Japanese Self Defense Force meant to protect the citizens? His mind, having calmed down earlier, suddenly flared with outrage as he managed to pull himself upright and take stock of the three young soldiers—no, enemies—that surrounded him. All three of them now had their guns out and pointed at him. He did not favor his chances here at all, and there located six more enemies spread around the theater. How did it come to this? The rumors from before were true, it seemed.

 

"You decided to just shoot without asking questions?" demanded Masahiko.

 

"E-Eh?! Your glasses fell, didn't they? Yet they're—There's obviously something wrong with you!" stammered Private Kururugi. He raised his gun towards Masahiko's eyes.

 

"Something wrong with my glasses? That's why you'll shoot me?" Masahiko asked. "Haha... ha... ha—" An accusing finger pointed at Private Kururugi's face.

 

"NO!!! There's something wrong with you!"

 

*BANG*

 

"Huh?"

 

*Clink* There was a sound as the bullet dropped between Masahiko's feet.

 

There was a pause as Masahiko himself was surprised. He saw the trigger being pulled and... However, he immediately jolted into speech, spouting an extremely manga-like line. "Get the funk out of here you bastards, your meager bullets cannot hurt me any more."

[Mr. Hyde]

Hitomu's eyes wandered around the shelter.  The whole purpose of this place was to make people feel safe, but the opposite had come to fruition.  Everyone was on edge.  Faint whispers that he could make out were certainly not helping the cause.  Whispers of the terrorists sneaking in.  

 

"I'm just a start-up terrorist," Hitomu thought, "I haven't done anything wrong...recently.  No need to be so jittery."  The tingly sensation he was feeling hadn't receded, not since he had laid his eyes upon that one man in the chair.  A slight shuffling of boots made him shuffle against the column he rested upon.  It was some sort of military force, the JSDF of course, supposedly giving pat-downs to the occupants inside the hospital.  "Again...I don't have anything to worry about.  No weapons on me...they can't pin me down for s***!"

 

Lines were formed, and Hitomu reluctantly followed instructions.  He was surprised he could understand the language of pigs.  The JSDF officials revealed what looked to be metal detectors.  Hitomu scoffed.  He was a better metal detector than anything those officers could ever wish to obtain.  When it was his turn to be scanned, the baton lit up, and emitted a beeping noise.  Hitomu's eyes twitched...he didn't currently have anything that could be traced by these detectors...so what were they detecting.  The crowd around Hitomu backed off suddenly, as if a ghost had been standing behind them the entire time.  Hitomu smiled...he almost barfed.

 

"Uh...something must be off with your device there chief!"  Hitomu rubbed the back of his head, he was cornered.  

 

"You'll have to come with us son.  We're only going to ask you a couple of questions."  

 

"Yeah right..." The words almost escaped his mind.  

 

"But officer, I can assure you that I don't have anything made of metal on my person!"  Hitomu took off his backpack and opened it up to reveal its contents.  Nothing more than pens and notebooks, along with a newspaper.  

 

"Son, please, don't go scarin' all these innocent people around you.  Lets just go outside and have a chat."  

 

Hitomu's teeth were grinding behind his mouth.  He had to comply with the government not twice, but three times today.  So be it.  He walked with the officer, and another that had scanned him.  They were both armed with semi-automatic rifles...metal ones.  If things got stick, it would be an easy win.  When they finally got outside, Hitomu noticed how barren the streets were.  

 

"Listen kid...we know what you are, now if you don't mind, we're going to have to take you in."  He had been found out!  Already?!  The government knew about aethertouched, and knew hot to detect it as well.  Infuriating.  Hitomu cracked his knuckles, and the officers placed their hands on their weapons.

 

"My my officer...that didn't sound like a question to me.  If you don't mind...I'm going to have to insist that you..."  Hitomu turned his back towards the police.  Static could be heard, emanating from the radios the two officers possessed.  

 

"SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!"

 

"Drop dead..." single shots from both officers could be heard.  Hitomu didn't flinch however...he had to concentrate intensely for the mere fractions of a second that were necessary for his survival.  He could feel the metal in the air, he could feel them shifting their trajectory, back to the original shooters positions.  The sound of metal hitting flesh was a sound he'd never get tired of.  Hitomu manifested a single revolver in his hand, and spun it around his pointer finger.  "Heh...didn't even have to use these bad boys.  Better start using plastic, pigs."  As he went to holster the weapon, it disappeared into thin air.  

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Valerie didn’t like the way this guy called her kid, but she did like how fearless he seemed. She could tell somehow it wasn’t exactly underestimating her, but some kind of confidence on his part. Interesting, very interesting. But a terrorist could be confident, so she wasn’t going to let him off that easily.
He had said not wanting to fight here, but maybe she could convince him to get out of this building and find a place to go all out.

Sadly the police had come in to interrupt her interrogation before it could really get started. They were waving some kind of weird device around, metal detector? Something like that it looked like. The boy had discreetly moved farther away. Suspicious to the extreme. She could easily point this out to the police, but f*** them, she wasn’t going to rely on those posers when she had the situation under control.
So she strode up to them willingly and let them wave the silly device over her. And it went off. What the hell she wasn’t carrying any metal...that wasn’t a metal detector, was it? s***, Val made this realization just before the police acted.

Seemed these little piggies wanted to play. She was totally up for some bacon about now. Course she wouldn’t kill the idiots, but damned if she was going to let them “detain” her in any way. She still had to figure out that culprit and have her showdown.

That’s when the stranger boy took it upon himself to show her his moves. And they were some damn fine moves indeed. While frustrated she had been beaten to the punch, she nonetheless had to appreciate the show of strength. If this guy turned out to be the baddie, he’d be fun to bring down. The explosion gave Val enough cover to get out of the way to allow the other guy to take the cop down.

"I am going to find the guy who did this, and kill him. You can come along if you want, just don't get in the way.

“f***ing course I’m going with, finding the bastard was my plan all along.” She thought. His words seemed to contradict his actions, but when she thought about it, it was clear he hadn’t meant to cause any permanent harm. That he could’ve killed the cops easily. She began to leave, knowing she wanted to get out of there before she ended up having to hurt the dumbass cops unnecessarily.
‘bang’
Val’s mouth dropped agape as the cop shot the man. She barely registered his words as he continued to shoot at the other Aethertouched, and then get obliterated. She took a step towards the injured man but stopped herself. The blank look in his eyes were familiar to Valerie. There wasn’t anything she could do.

Valerie’s blood boiled. These stupid pricks, there were real threats out there, real dangers, and they go and do this. Demean her, try and detain her, because of a little device telling them she was a big bad scary freak. And then damn everyone slightly similar because of one’s actions. Ignorant pieces of s***.

Valerie stormed out of the hole the dead man had created. She could see a group of police starting to swarm the area. “Stop right there, or we will be forced to shoot!”

“You want me to stop? You lost the right to tell me what to do, get out of my way or I’ll MOVE you out of the way!” Flames flared up, centered around her arm, and her soul manifested. A long and wicked looking spear, bright red in color. The cops on the scene seemed startled by this, and the shot one took went wild, missing her. But that was all she needed to snap.

With a surge, Valerie rushed the cop that shot at her, swinging her lance horizontally and catching him with the shaft. She heard a couple bones break, though she aimed for a non-lethal area. Nonetheless the sudden impact and pain dropped him instantly. Valerie then turned to several other of the cops that were readying their weapons. With a swipe of her hand, flames appeared from nowhere, and forced the cops to scatter. She heard one of them remark about the nature of her power, something along the lines of “Is that the one?” Whatever they meant didn’t matter, what mattered was Valerie had an opening.

She ran between the former blockade of cops, punching one in the gut that tried to stop her, flipping another over her shoulder, and straight up head-butting the third who was stupid enough to get directly in her path.

She was getting farther from the police when a pair of police cars pulled in front of her. The cops driving got out and took up position behind the cars. “Aw hell no, you better move if you don’t want to end up extra crispy.” Without furthur warning, Valerie stepped forward forcibly and yelled at the top of her lungs. “Blazing Soul Phoenix Piercer!” She thrust her lance forward and a massive torrent of fire surged towards the police cars. The cops behind it were able to move out of the way, but the cars were struck, and completely totaled, blown apart and demolished. Valerie hopped over the wreckage and kept going, picking up speed to make a break from it. She couldn't let herself be stopped now.

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

---

---

 

"Emergency... Office in flames. We go... to shelter," said the girl with the umbrella, although Jessica could tell her English was broken. Still, it was better than nothing.

 

"Why thank you. See, people? That wasn't so hard, wa-?" suddenly Jessica dropped her sarcastically-nice-sounding falsetto as she paused in though. "Wait a sec. An office? In flames?! Holy mother of... this I gotta see with my own eyes! Berightbackkaythanksbye."

 

Before the umbrella lady could say anything more, Jessica took off in the distance.

 

...

 

Eventually, after taking some mean photos of the office being burned down, Jessica made her way to the movie theater which... she guessed was one of the supposed emergency shelters? Of course, she only made the assumption judging by the sheer number of innocent citizen cramped inside; even someone like Jessica would highly doubt so many people would all decide to go to the movies all at once. Something was seriously wrong with this picture as it was, but things got worse when one of the soldiers that had arrived had shot at a blind girl in front of everyone... for no apparent reason!

 

As the soldier who'd opened fire was trying to justify his actions to who appeared to be his superior officer, Jessica sneaked away from the scene trying to find a fire exit; the look on her face showed very clearly that she wanted nothing to do with whatever the hell was going on all of sudden. Another gunshot rang through Jessica's ears a while later, but thankfully she managed to bust her way outside. She immediately whipped out her phone, and immediately dialed her mother's cellphone number. Unfortunately it wasn't picking up, which meant that she had to leave a message...

 

 "...funk," Jessica cursed under her breath, before breathing a huge sigh, and holding the phone against her earphone, "Mom? We need to talk. Urgently. I'd literally tell the cops this if I could remember what their emergency hotline thingy is here. Meet me back home. And if I find that this is still on your charger, I'll kill you!"

 

...what choice did Jessica have? She ran.

[VCR_CAT]

As Yu followed the crowd to the designated safe zone, something felt off. For one, Maurice was still out there. For two, there was an odd number of very heavily armed policemen out patrolling the streets. Sure, there were those ushering the civilians to the shelter, but there were too many not doing that for Yu to not feel suspicious. Yu glanced around at the streets for a way out of the crowd moving towards the shelter. This wasn't the time to just lay low; there was someone out there that Yu needed to find and meet, and hopefully work with. She also needed to make sure Maurice was okay in this whole mess.

 

Side-stepping out of the crowd, Yu slipped into a nearby alleyway, turning the corner as fast as she could. Breathing a sigh of relief, Yu turned around to find a police officer staring her down.

 

"Ma'am, I need to ask you to return with the rest of the crowd; you need to make your way to the designated shelter as soon as possible," The officer calmly explained as he gripped his weapon tightly.

 

"I-I'm sorry, sir," Yu said, faking a nervous tone quite well. "I'm looking for my brother; he went out to find directions and hasn't returned since; I just need to make sure he's okay."

 

"We'll find your brother. ma'am. But while we look for him, I need you to make your way to the shelter."

 

Yu got closer to the officer; a ring materializing on her finger as she did so.

 

"P-please sir, you wouldn't leave me alone without my brother. Couldn't you let me go with you?" Yu ran her fingers up the officer's chest as she brought her body closer.

 

"Ma'am, I apologize, but if you do not follow orders, I'm going to have to-- HRGHK" The officer's words were cut short as Yu's fingers swiftly and gingerly wrapped around the officer's neck. While he tried to move towards his weapon, the choking noise escaping his throat became more strained with pain as his arms twitched; unsure of what to do. The area around where Yu's hand made contact began to glow brightly.

 

"I'm sorry, you'll have to what? Make my life more difficult? Because if you do not let me go freely, I'm going to have to do something we may both regret," Yu whispered in the officer's ear; his skin drenched in sweat as a series of sickening snaps and cracks could be heard coming from the officer's neck; blood slowly and steadily seeping between Yu's fingers. Almost immediately, the last breath of air escaped the policeman's lips as Yu let him slump to the ground lifelessly. "Or maybe it was something only you will regret," Yu whispered to herself. As Yu turned to the leave, the officer's radio crackled to life.

 

"SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!"

 

Yu turned to look at the officer. She need to leave, find Maurice, as well as hopefully who was responsible, as soon as she could. What was going on was becoming more serious than she thought it would become. Yu sprinted down the alley, keeping her head low and an eye out for other officers. She needed to find Maurice.

[👀 REP 👀]

---

 

Things were getting more and more tense by the minute. Not just with the crowd - although with all these rumors spreading, they definitely weren't having a good time - but for Rose herself. The air felt...heavy, like someone had flooded the room with water and the pressure was gradually getting to her. More specifically, her heart felt heavy. She decided to take a good look around her. She could feel a sudden shock when she tilted her head towards a group of three - a young man and 2 young women. Somethings about them felt made Rose feel odd. Maybe they were like...her? It was a possibility.

 

. . .

 

Before she could advance to the group, however, a group of what seemed to be soldiers suddenly flooded the classroom, each of them holding...glow sticks? Rose wasn't quite sure what those actually were. All she knew what that, when one of them was suddenly aimed at her, it turned red.

"M-Ma'am, we're going to need you to come with us..." The soldier that was talking to her - and still had that weird baton thing pointed at her - seemed to be accompanied by 2 other soldiers behind him. The one with the stick seemed to be the youngest of the three, and you didn't need any Hunter Sense to tell that he was nervous.

"Oh? And why is that?" she spoke, swatting the sensor away from her head. The three soldiers seemed to jump at her sudden action - one of them even pulling out their gun. Looking up, she took a closer look at the soldier. Sweat was visibly dripping from his forehead, and his hand was shaky.

 

"We ne-need to take you in for questions. We promise your saf-" As she was standing up, a broadcast played in the school.

 

"SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!"

 

"D-DON'T MOVE!" The soldier who had raised his gun earlier suddenly spoke out, walking up to her with his rifle steadily aimed at her. The other two soldiers had also pulled out their guns and had them aimed at Rose as well. This didn't phase Rose as much as it probably should of, especially since she was backed up against a wall. This, of course, made the soldiers even tenser"

"Alright fellows, let's all calm down." She said calmly, causing one of the soldiers to twitch his gun. "There's no need for..." before she finished that sentence, she jumped over the trio. One of them had been a bit more observant and fired before she jumped, but Rose was much too swift for them - the bullets just barely missed out on hitting her right leg as she seemingly flew over them with ease. "...violence!" She landed near the farthest of the soldiers. Manifesting her claws, she quickly grabbed one of the soldier's chest, digging her claws into it. Using the injured soldier as a meat shield, she declared to the other soldiers "I'd advise you all don't shoot those guns of yours!" She raised the soldier up a bit, grabbing his rifle with her free hand and aiming it at his head. "Not just for his sake, but you wouldn't want to hit all these civilians, now would you?" She was sure that there was a better solution to the problem at hand, but this is the route she had taken. Hopefully the soldiers would comply.

 

---

[King K. Azo]

Mac was at an extreme loss for words. While in the shelter, which really was just an elementary school, some official-looking cops started using some newfangled device to sweep across the room. Was that a metal detector? Well, that was just plain stupid, anything could set that thing off, be it loose change, buttons, or even keys. To his surprise though, the device didn't seem to react to anyone in the room.

 

"Maybe Japan likes plastic?" he thought to himself right before the device started flashing red and beeping at one girl in particular. The same girl he felt that... thing from eariler. She... she was like him, wasn't she?

 

"Ma'am, we are going to need to take you in for questioning. Please turn around and place your hands behind your back so that you may be cuffed. Don't be alarmed, we will not hurt you, we just need to restrain you for the safety of the civilians in this building," Even as the he spoke with peaceful intentions, Mac could plainly see the others draw their guns, just in case. He didn't want anyone to get hurt, so the American champ went to turn himself in. After all, he wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew that he was innocent, and that's all that mattered. Wait a minute...

 

That Japanese man from earlier... he held both hands in front of his body, with his palms facing down, and... something appeared in his hands. They looked like very decorated clubs, ones that he could just feel were dangerous. Before the unit had a chance to react, he brought both arms back, slamming the weapon against the wall that his back was to. The wall exploded as he propelled himself through the air and smashed the leader right in the chest before making quick work of the rest of the grunts around him. No, no, no! You moron! You don't fight the police! That never ends well!

 

The Japanese man was about to go out the hole in the wall when a loud bang was heard and a bullet went through his chest.

 

"SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!" That was the final words of the man that fired before the Japanese powerhouse managed to completely vaporize him. However, he then fell over lifelessly. Dammit, you fool! You could have still been alive if you hadn't made yourself a bad guy!! Okay, now he had better get out before---

 

“You want me to stop? You lost the right to tell me what to do, get out of my way or I’ll MOVE you out of the way!” Mac heard the girl yell as flames flared up, centered around her arm as a long and wicked looking spear bright red in color materialized in her hand. The cops on the scene seemed scared by this -as they should very well should be!!- and one fired. They missed, and she went to town. She rushed the cop that shot at her, swinging her lance horizontally and catching him with the shaft. He dropped instantly from the attack. Valerie then turned to the others, and with a swipe of her hand, flames appeared from nowhere, and forced the cops to scatter.

 

"She can produce fire?!" He thought in frantic shock as she ran between the former blockade of cops, punching one in the gut that tried to stop her, flipping another over her shoulder, and straight up head-butting the third who was stupid enough to get directly in her path. She was getting farther from the police when a pair of police cars pulled in front of her.

 

“Aw hell no, you better move if you don’t want to end up extra crispy.” Without further warning, she stepped forward forcibly and yelled at the top of her lungs. “Blazing Soul Phoenix Piercer!” She thrust her lance forward and a massive torrent of fire surged towards the police cars. The cops behind it were able to move out of the way, but the cars were struck, and completely totaled, blown apart and demolished. The fire girl hopped over the wreckage and kept going, picking up speed to make a break from it. 

 

He had to make a choice now... go with her or be left behind. He dashed out of the hole in the wall, landing in the middle of the cop horde. To their credit, the cops were able to recover from their shock quickly and all aimed at him, firing almost in sync. His eyes glowed a light blue and suddenly, the bullets started crawling in the air. Well, to him anyways. He drew back his fist and aimed, seeing a light blue arrow being drawn in his mind's eye, tracing itself in the direction of girl that was running. He threw the punch and zipped off, his feet leaving the ground as he flew past everyone until he caught up with the girl. This took less than five seconds in real world time. The planet went back to normal speed as he landed on his feet and did the only thing he could.

 

Mac jogged. 

 

[Makο]

"..."

 

"..."

 

The battle continues.

 

"..."

 

"..."

 

The guard's radio sparked to life.

 

"SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!"

 

"..."

 

"..."

 

"I'm gonna go now."

 

"You do that."

 

A mutual respect was felt.

 

Having abandoned his idea of "protecting the shelter," Conner needed a new plan. None of which involved putting away his SMG, despite it being the thing that made him suspicious in the first place. I'm law-abiding, not a pushover, dammit. Hopping on his bike, he barreled his way north through abandoned streets and empty cars while in deep thought, planning his next course of action. He could go straight to the source of all this nonsense, at that whatever building that caught on fire. After all, maybe everyone would finally calm down after the culprits got a couple pieces of lead stuck in their noggins. Though, on second thought, it's probably too late for that. The panic is already ensued, and if the gunfire he could hear across the city was any indication of anything, shіt was already going bad. So, that wouldn't work.

 

He turned a corner and almost ran headfirst into a fire hydrant. Almost.

 

So, how about discovering what brought him here in the first place? His father's rental was certainly a good pretense on going, but something else was dragging him around. A couple of theories floated around in his head. Perhaps there's some ancient power here that's reacting to his own, and it beckons him? Possible, but there's no evidence for it. Maybe he's some kind of artificial creation, birthed in a lab and sent out to live in the real world, and signals have been sent out to call him back? That could be the case, but seemed rather highly unlikely. A third thought crossed his mind; perhaps those terrorists talking about the aether whatevers were calling more of them towards them? For all intents and purposes, magic exists, so he didn't exactly question how they would call everyone with powers like his own.

 

Some form of world-wide recruitment, eh? I'll see to it they regret that.

 

He stopped pedaling. Taking a couple of deep breaths, he focused. Clearing his mind, stopping his thoughts, focusing on anything that might tug him in the right direction...

 

He found it. Or the strongest of many, at least. Some sort of premonition gave him the intense desire to go due west. He checked his SMG to make sure a bullet was in the chamber, before pedaling off in the required direction.

[mitchermitcher]

Tokyo

Father Kujikawa

 

The hospital was filled with various people who were led there by the police or the government-sent text message. Other than the details from the latter, no one had an inkling of the situation and undeniably, everyone was confused and a little nervous. It was the memorial day for the Skytree attack just two months ago, was it not? What on earth is the terrorists' goal? Why are they doing this? What's going on in Tokyo? Eventually, a group of armed soldiers arrived and caused quite an impression. It was the Japanese Self-Defense Force. And again, they were armed. Perhaps they came to guard the shelter? Some began to reason and calmed down, but the sight of armed men did not allow most to stay too relaxed.

 

For some reason, they started lining up the citizens in the shelter and searching them with some sort of baton that seemed to be a metal detector but did not light up as often as it should. Kira himself was in line and from what he's seen, it lit up for only one person so far. A young man who was just a few cues before his. He was promptly escorted away and for some reason, Kira had a feeling that man wasn't a typical citygoer.

 

Eventually it was his turn. Kira tried to remember if he had anything strange on his personage but for the love of God he couldn't think of anything.

 

But the baton glowed.

 

"...Huh? I apologize. I was pretty sure I didn't have anything metal on me but I must've remembered wrong. Let me search myself a second." Kira said that but he only had his pant pockets and a shirt pocket, and he was positive all three were empty except for his cellphone. And almost everyone here had a cellphone and the baton didn't glow for them...

 

"Two now? Sorry sir, but we ask you cooperate and come with us. Like with that young man, we'll need to ask you some questions."

 

"Of course, ask awa-"

 

One of the soldier's radios buzzed to life. "SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!"

bgm

 

Instinctively, Kira raised his hand as five guns were pointed towards him. At the same time, two gunshots sounded and immediately, the crowd went into a frenzy, panicking. "What's going on?"

 

"We would shoot you right now but we won't risk injuring bystanders. Surrender yourself and come with us, now. No questions." At the very least, bullets weren't flying around, Kira was thankful for that. He felt very tempted to let out a sigh of relief but that might've been the last straw before they opened fire. And those two gunshots. Did they kill that young man they escorted outside already?

 

"What am I being suspected for?" As soon as Kira finished, a shot rang and cracked the concrete ground in front of Kira.

 

"That's our only warning shot. Comply, now."

 

"..." Kira was troubled. He was absolutely willing to submit himself to questioning before but suddenly he wasn't as sure of the situation anymore. Are they really the JSDF? Would he survive if he complied? Perhaps not but surrendering was probably the optimal choice for the sake of public safety. He thought twice about trying to escape, and why would he?

 

Do you want to live on that much, Kira?

 

A flagpole bursted out from Kira's hand and struck the ground, the weight of it causing cracks in the concrete. At the same time, he willed himself to become quite, quite heavy. The floor around Kira broke and he fell down, narrowly avoiding bullets as the soldiers opened fire. Screams rung out as some of the fired bullets hit those who were behind Kira. It was a disgusting sound.

 

Kira was lucky there was an underground floor below them. He landed in a hallway, and an elevator leading up back to the ground floor was just a few short dashes away.

 

Immediately, Kira rushed towards the elevator, evading gunshots from the hole he created above. Undoubtedly they were heading for the elevator as well. Kira wouldn't look back but he was sure, one of them was going to jump down the hole and corner him. He must hurry and reach the elevator before then. This time, he willed himself to be lighter. Like a feather, or a butterfly. Too light and he would lose his momentum as his steps send him upwards, but just heavy enough and he would still be firmly on the ground.

 

He leapt. And with a finger outstretched, he aimed for the elevator button. If the elevator wasn't already parked on this floor then it would be over for him. He had decided, on a whim, to escape and try to stay alive and he would bet his life that the elevator was parked on the B1 floor of this hospital.

 

His finger impacted against the elevator button, and the metallic door immediately slid open. His momentum from the jump pushed him inside, and with his flagpole he aimed for the top floor of the hospital. He saw one of the JSDF officers pointing a semi-automatic right at him, his own face reflected as a target in the officer's eye. He was determined to shoot.

 

Then the door closed.

 

He heard several loud impacts on the steel frame but the bullets didn't penetrate.

 

"Thank God..." Kira laid down, breathing a sigh of relief he wasn't able to let out since a few seconds ago. He was positive he managed to hit the elevator button for the top floor before the soldiers above in the ground floor managed to hit the button sending the elevator down. This particular lift wouldn't stop until it reached the top floor, before descending down. He was safe.

 

An artificial ring sounded, signalling Kira reached the top floor.

 

Kira stepped out and after verifying no armed soldiers were in the vicinity trying to kill him, he headed for the stairs for the roof. He could hear the sound of hurrying foodsteps towards this floor but it was too late, he could reach the roof before they could reach him. He ran up to the door upstairs and threw it open. He spent a second admiring the scenery at the top, before rushing to the side to look for a secluded area nearby. There was a park a few blocks away that was quite close to the Skytree. That was good enough. Kira jumped down, adjusting his lightness until he was almost floating, and kicked off the walls towards that park. Again he landed, this time in the park, and was far enough that he wouldn't be found by the people in the hospital's vicinity. There was no one else around, as everyone was led to a shelter.

 

One more time, he jumped, and aimed for the tree just in front of him. It was grown and plenty with leaves that he could hide reasonably well in. For now, he would rest here, regaining his breath.

[Super Chaos Sonic]

Gareth didn't exactly hear a response from the two girls, when he watched as JSDF soldiers came walking in, with glowing batons. Oh this can't be good... he thought, as he began to excuse himself from the women, but not before one of the soldiers moved up beside him, holding one of those batons...it quickly started glowing refusely...not good.

 

"Sir, we need you to come with us." the soldier said, putting his baton away now.

 

He wasn't greatly in the mood for this today. Nevertheless, Gareth knew if he caused a scene, pretty much everyone's lives would be in danger. Protecting the innocent, it almost felt like he was becoming a real knight already. "Of course. I don't really speak good Japanese, much...but I'll help how I can."

 

With this, Gareth was escorted out of the shelter. A sigh escaped his lips, as he was glad that the other civilians would've been out of harms way. Then again, he was curious on what even these soldiers wanted with him in the first place.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!"

 

Gareth heard these words squawked out on the soldier's radios once they were outside and things weren't looking good. However, these soldiers seemed to be contemplating the direct order.

 

"Shoot on sight? It wouldn't be a good idea...especially within such close quarters of civilians being in there." the one soldier said simply. "You. Tell the others in there to apprehend the suspects. I'm not letting any civilians get hurt on my watch."

 

"Yes sir."

 

With that, the other soldier returned back into the shelter, to relay the message to the others. However, this still left Gareth with the first soldier. He was already getting a bad feeling from this...but now it was even worse.

 

"Alright, hands up where I can see them." he said, lifting up his rifle, pointing it at Gareth.

 

Gareth went stiff for a moment, seeing how quickly the situation escalated. He slowly lifted his hands up, and cleared his throat some. "What seems to...be the problem?" His answer was only a shot fired on the ground near his feet, which made things even worse.

 

"Listen. I don't want to hurt you, but if you don't surrender right now, things will probably turn ugly...fast." he said, the rifle still locked on Gareth. "Now, come quietly."

 

BGM

 

A moment of hesitation kept Gareth from moving, but he finally sighed. Suddenly from his right hand and at his waist, a blinding light was shone. As quickly as it came, it faded and within Gareth's hand was a blade, and around his waist: it's scabbard. The young man lowered his hands as he gripped the blade's hilt, seeing the soldier getting freaked out.

 

"I-I'll shoot!"

 

"Gotta hit what you can see, first." Gareth smirked.

 

Suddenly a flare of light flashed before the soldier, taking him back some, as he couldn't see anything. Gareth moved swiftly thanks to this opportunity and rushed the soldier, only to slash at the soldier's gun, forcing it to split into two pieces and fall from his hands. Once the soldier regained his sight, he was at sword point by Gareth. However, oddly enough, Gareth removed the sword from the soldier's neck.

 

"I'm not the enemy here...rather...I'm the light to ignite the darkness." he said, simply turning away, sheathing his blade. "Besides, what sort of person would I be if I used Excalibur to take the life of an innocent."

 

With this, Gareth ran...he ran away from the elementary school shelter. He knew that he'd probably be chased after, which would mean that the others in the shelter would be little fish. But this whole situation made him wonder however... What are they after? Is it because of what I am?

[Aman Indra]

Just as Asmund was about to leave the theater with Manami and Arthur to investigate further and get out of the place. Asmund was rather happy with the turn of events as he really started to have an itch in his hands and wanted to indulge in some traditional ass kicking and was glad that he was blessed with 2 companions with great skills and passion as him.

 

The argument between Arthur and the cop seemed a bit hilarious to Asmund and he enjoyed from a distance as Asmund always had a funny reaction towards cops in particular and was waiting for Arthur to strike through him but it subsided after a moment and they continued their way outside until........................

 

A group of JDSF soldiers burst in the theater as if their wives were kidnapped and seeing them made Asmund laugh again " Haha, lol look at the soldiers, as if they can handle the culprits better than us .........." and Asmund remained aloof until he saw the number of soldiers increasing dramatically and their intense searching with a weird seeming device. Asmund quickly realised that this was the real deal and he whispered to Arthur and Manami quietly 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

"Damn, this seems serious and they have started even threatening that guy over there.................. i think we should separate for the time being and quickly optimize this time and make it out of here. I hope to see you outside, take care sisters"

 

Having said this, Asmund detached himself from the group and began to quickly make his way across and out of there only to accidentally bump into one of the JDSF guy whom he expected to be a random civilian due to the random environment. He ignored the soldier, gave him a smile and moved on........... and just when he was about to go....... the alarm on the device the soldier was carrying set off and suddenly Asmund was surrounded by a couple of cops. 

 

"Uh-Oh.........Any reason you all giving me that look.........just because i look like i am just freshly out of a costume party doesn't mean i can blow up a damn building........"

 

"Do not act aloof while we are around boy, you might look tough but you need to follow us outside. Nothing to worry just to ask some doubts and inform your parents not to let their wards dress up like goofy touri..........."

 

Just when the soldiers were ganging and acting tough a loud and clear message rung from their radios......

 

 

"SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!"

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Before Asmund could react to the situation, the 3 cops surrounding him quickly pulled their guns out and pointed them towards Asmund and this time their looks and stances were damn serious.

 

"Do not move son, this will be over in just a moment, just close your eyes, we will take care of your loved ones but it's time to meet your creators now tough guy".

 

Asmund knew that this was not a place and not the moment for violence but he knew he would wind up dead if he didn't react and the soldiers did cross the limits this time.

 

"You know officers...............i think i lied..........I can blow some serious s*** up........no i would rather prefer smashing and burying the damn thing"

 

Just as Asmund delivered those words, he conjured both his hands in the air with his relic seeming bracelets on each hand and the whole area was temporarily exposed to a fairly mild sand storm but enough to disrupt the soldier's vision and as soon as the soldier standing to his left rubbed his eyes and tried to see what happened, the poor lad got smashed by a brownish hammer of considerable size with a golden looking crest right in his face. Asmund quickly reversed  the hammer and hit the soldier behind him in the stomach and dragged his by his collar and slammed him on the crest of the hammer knocking him out.

 

The last remaining soldier who had detected Asmund tried to reach for his radio to call for back up but Asmund swung his hammer and caught his ankle in the process and stomped on his radio.

 

Asmund had attracted a lot of crowd attention in the process and began to run for everything and just as he was about to reach the exit, he got surrounded by JDSF soldiers by the door and on the outside and got cornered as every soldier pulled out their guns.

 

" You leave me no choice "

 

Asmund swung his hammer and smashed it on the ground and the crest gave a brownish sparkle for a few seconds, the entire area surrounding him turned into a sand pile and blocked the JDSF soldiers as piles of sand knee length began to immerse and created chaos in the theater making it almost a sub Arabian location and the JDSF and the people were taken aback while Asmund successfully made it outside and ran in the left direction just out side the theater waiting for his companions.

 

" Damn, i think i overdid it, i hope Arthur and the others are OK, by the grace of Odin, can this day get any worse ? "

[Yui]

---

"No, I should have been paying attention myself. My apologies...It's very impressive that you can navigate through downtown Tokyo like that. How do you do it? You must have special powers."

 

"That would be something," Usagi had replied.  Of course she did have special powers...but this wasn't something you just went around announcing to everyone.  It was then, however, that her phone vibrated.  A text.  Goodie.

"Ah just a moment...The city has issued an evacuation notice. Would you like help getting to a shelter? It will be difficult for you when everyone starts rushing to safety."

 

So that was what was up then.  "Yes, please."  Usagi didn't know where these shelters were to begin with, and as this boy had noted, it would be difficult to get there once everyone started rushing to safety.  Denying the assistance would just be a poor decision to make.

 

"Pardon me."

 

Next thing Usagi knew, she'd been scooped up off her feet.  This was not the help she expected.  She expected something a bit more subtle like a "follow the sound of my voice" kind of deal or even just guiding her by the hand.  Whoever this boy was, he was at least a little bold, just picking a girl up off her feet like that.  Usagi was fine with that.  If things were to go south, it'd be much better to have somebody like that at her side than somebody who would run away and leave her for dead or something awful like that.

"Here we are, it seems they've converted the theatre into an evacuation centre. Yare yare daze, of all the places to bring a blind girl. I... hope you don't mind."

 

"There's worse places.  Not like it's an art gallery or something."  Movie theaters were okay.  Movies still had sound - that was a very important element in movies - so Usagi could at least hear what was going on.  Art galleries, museums, and places like that, on the other hand...no such luck.  While she would have preferred a concert hall or some such over a movie theater, the bottom line was that they were here to evacuate and avoid potential terrorist attacks, not see a movie and share some popcorn.  She was in no position to complain.

 

And here in the theater, a pair of men - soldiers, Usagi had guessed by what they were saying and the more panicky one being addressed as Private - were talking as well.  Questions for the boy and herself?  Well sure; she didn't really have anything groundbreaking to hide, and it wasn't like they--

 

"SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!"

 

The next thing Usagi heard was a gunshot.  She flinched, unsure for a split second if they'd shot her or somebody else.  It was loud, and everyone in the theater seemed to go just as quiet as she did when the gun was fired.  Once that split second passed, however, she confirmed two things with herself.  One, she hadn't been shot.  Two, whoever fired that gun had just given her the layout of the room and everyone in it.

 

"You decided to just shoot without asking questions?"

 

"E-Eh?! Your glasses fell, didn't they? Yet they're—There's obviously something wrong with you!"

 

"NO!!! There's something wrong with you!"

 

Another gunshot fired.  So it was the boy next to her being shot.  That...was actually really sad.  He seemed like such a nice guy, and got her here, and now he was dead?

 

"Get the funk out of here you bastards, your meager bullets cannot hurt me any more."

 

Okay, apparently not dead.  But standing up to armed soldiers like that was stupid, no matter who you were or if you were somehow able to deflect bullets.  Usagi had a plan.  It was dangerous in at least two different ways, probably broke some laws, and would give her away as an Aethertouched since that was now such a big deal.  But if the alternative was to just stand in here and get shot and killed, Usagi would much rather take a roll of the dice.  Her powers needed a bit of exercise now and then anyway.

 

The start was the hardest part by far.  Triggering two powers at the same time, Usagi went invisible and deployed a clone, which ran around the soldiers and deeper into the theater.  She heard more footsteps following it; hopefully the soldiers.  Next step, activate [My Perspective] to blind everyone in a 20-meter radius, grab the boy by the hand, and run in the direction opposite the fake Usagi.  That is, make a mad dash for the door while everyone can't see and get out into freedom, turning right as soon as she was out of the door, tracing along the wall with her fingers and turning into an alley once she couldn't feel any further wall.

 

Of all the things she expected to do today, "run away from soldiers with a boy she'd just met" wasn't among them.  Leaning against the wall and out of breath, Usagi asked "You're not hurt...right?"

[Sethera]

"Hey, hey..." Arthur said, her tone comforting. "Alright, Manami. Can you hear me?" She spoke in Japanese this time. Fluent, Manami noted. "So, what I'm certain right now is that Asmund and I will be going out soon. The bad feeling about this place is getting stronger for us, and it's probably better if we go out there and try helping in investigating or catching the culprit. The evacuation's probably supposed to mean that the police are hunting down the criminals that were on the run, no? But...something else feel like it'd make the entire deal worse sooner or later. 
 
"But yeah. Maybe there's a ride outside that we can borrow.
 
"So...I guess let's go now."
 
With that, Manami and the others followed the brunette's lead. Briefly, she wondered how that blonde from before was doing, as she had run off soon after her reply. The atmosphere crackled with electricity, though it couldn't be seen, only felt. Twirling her umbrella nervously, Manami considered replacing it with her white one for protection. The red string of fate ties us all...but... it wasn't the most pleasant feeling. She felt as if all her nerves were overloaded, her fingers numb.
 
While Arthur argued with the police officers, the Japanese lady glanced around the area. For better or worse...the course is decided. And that thought brought with it a sense of courage. It was past time to wonder on the wisdom of their choice. All that was left was to move forward. "Even if it all falls apart," she muttered. "Love will get us through." Love was the great motivator of the world, after all. It had caused wars and brought peace. It was the single highest constant of humanity. If they trusted in love...they would make it.
 
As they were about to exit, a group of soldiers dressed in the familiar uniforms of the Japan Self-Defense Force entered. The strange fantasy game man, Asmund, started laughing. "Haha, lol look at the soldiers, as if they can handle the culprits better than us .........." But when the soldiers searched the crowd, armed with scanners, even his face turned grave. "Damn, this seems serious and they have started even threatening that guy over there.................. i think we should separate for the time being and quickly optimize this time and make it out of here. I hope to see you outside, take care sisters."

 

In a flurry of activity, the man found himself surrounded, and Manami held a hand to her mouth in fright. They...they were going to kill him! All because of an order, when he himself had shown no resistance. "No," she whimpered. "They can't do this. We're just people..." and then she was standing at ground zero, fingers sooty, surrounded by wreckage. "No...we're..." Monsters. She shook her head. I'm not a monster. So if I'm not a monster, then what am I? What is Arthur? What is Asmund? We're just people with monstrous abilities.

 

As if her thoughts had transcended the psyche to reality, Asmund summoned a sandstorm and a giant hammer, which he used to bowl through the soldiers like ninepins, culminating in a sand pit that left them helpless. He ran out the door, and without thinking, Manami started to run after him. "I can't stay here...not if this is how they'll treat us," she said to Arthur. Her mind couldn't think beyond that. Panic had overtaken it, leaving nothing but the urge to fight...or to flee.

[Dad]

Carefully evading the authorities, Maurice jumped from rooftop to rooftop, hoping Yu would get back to him soon.  Unfortunately, not soon enough, as his cloaking required a bit of recharging.  Find a chimney stack to hide behind, he gave himself time to recover, as he checked his phone.

 

"Drat.  Still nothing.  I certainly hope she's alright," he whispered to himself.  He had finally made it outside of the immediate smell of smoke from the burning Government building, when he heard a loud, heavy thud.  Like a body hitting pavement.  He leaped a few buildings over, but cut his jumps short when he heard a radio crackling below him.  Ducking flat on the rooftops, Maurice remained perfectly still.  What happened next angered him, but only because he had no context on what was going on.

 

"SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!"

 

"Well.  That would be rude," he said getting up to a knee and peering over the ledge he hid behind.  As he did, he caught just a glimpse of a black jacket sprinting silently down an alleyway below.  He nearly, mistakenly, called out to her.  But catching himself, Maurice found he was completely rejuvenated now.  Carefully checking his surroundings, Maurice waited until he was absolutely sure that no one was around him, or following him.  Now, cloaking out of sight, he gave chase.

 

With silence being his ultimate advantage, he took agile leaps down and off the walls of the alleyway, and slid to the ground.  He rolled around the corner, slipping through and silently twisting around the narrow corridors of old stores.  Finally dashing ahead of her, Maurice remained cloak, as not to get caught off guard.  As she passed him, Maurice slid out his hands, placing one of her mouth, and the other around her back, snatching her out of the alleyway in a sudden jolt.

 

He remained cloak, immediately whispering to her, knowing full well she could kill him if he didn't identify himself soon enough. "It's me.  Don't panic.  I know, I look a mess, but there's no one else around.  I'm going to let you go, okay?  One, two. . . " and with a silent three, he let go of Yu.  Through his invisible face, Maurice whispered.  "What the bloody hell is going on?  'Shoot on sight'?  Who's gone and put us all in a lick of trouble this time?" he asked as softly as possible.

[Astolfo]

---

Jun & Reira

---

Jun was leaning against the plastered brick that made up the school walls when a brown-haired young male came striding over with a stupid, goofy grin on his face. Instantly on the defensive, not trusting random people that came out of nowhere, and least of all a guy. In addition, the strange resonation feeling that only Reira used to give off ended up coming from this new face as well. His attempt to flirt was groan-worthy, but this was just suspicious. Was this person supposed to be someone like them too then? Looking him up and down with a piercing gaze, Jun spoke calmly, with just the slightest hint of venom in her voice.

 

"Well, Mr. Apollo, you certainly seem to be handling that stress just fine. What you can't seem to handle though, is flirting with girls."

 

Reira too, felt rather disgusted by the guy walking over to them. Upon arriving in the elementary school, Reira stayed together with Jun the whole time, making sure to keep the tanned girl in her sights while she nonchalantly played some simple magic tricks with the kids at the shelter to pass time. The man who identified himself as Gareth started to make smalltalk with them. Well, not smalltalk, but rather a really bad attempt at flirting. Reira rolled her eyes and switched back to her usual rough personality from her idol-like persona.

 

”Of course we’re handling this just fine. We’re not some weak-willed girls who need looking after, dear sir knight." Reira put on her cap and got off the wall she was leaning on. "If you’ll excuse me, I need to go to the washroom." She closed her eyes and walked around him with a sense of arrogance in her steps, deciding she needed to get away from Gareth. Jun flashed a look of distaste at him before following Reira so she could go rinse off her face and get a break.

 

"Hey, Jun." Reira sighed a bit, calling out to her newfound companion. "Do you get guys like him approaching you often? I can’t stand people like him, really. Like, since I have to protect my image from the circus, I usually can’t lash out against creeps." While the two was were washing their hands, Reira started going off on a rant on Gareth. Her tone was very casual and relaxed, as if there’s no tension at all despite the fact that a state of emergency had just been declared.

 

Splashing her face with some cold water, Jun looked up from the sink. "Guys like that seriously piss me off, they think they're'a supposedly being nice or charming or good-lookerin' or what have ya', and they think that makes 'em look like any less of a creep." Jun used her shirt to dry her face. "I just don't bother with 'em anymore, and I know martial arts, so I'll kick their ass if they try any funny business."

 

Wiping off her wet hands on her shorts, Reira suddenly turned around and grabbed both of Jun’s hands. "Friend…!" With a sparkly look of admiration in her eyes, she suddenly pulled Jun closer to her, both their hands parallel with their chest. "You’re soooo right! Guys like that are just the worst! It makes me really happy to see someone agree with me on this! We should, like, totally stay in contact after this whole thing is done. You’re fun to be around, Jun!" Reira gave a cheerful smile before letting go of the smaller girl’s hand.

 

When Reira suddenly pulled her closer, Jun was caught off-guard. "W-Wha-? Oh, yeah, defini-"

 

At that moment, someone barged their way into the bathroom. It was one of the female JSDF's members, from the look of it, and she had a strange looking flashy detector in one hand and a walkie-talkie in the other. Catching sight of the two girls, her eyes lit up. "Oh, you two girls there, mind if I do a quick scan of you? We're doing uh… a security check thing, to make sure the terrorists haven't bugged people or something. Just listen to us, okay?" Sliding on a switch on the baton-like device, the JSDF soldier swiped it through the air in front of the girls before either of them could react. At that moment, it started to bleep and flash with bright lights, and the woman's expression changed entirely. Her gaze coming back to meet the two, it was as if she had come face-to-face with a bunch of cockroaches. Her voice flat, she spoke in a cold, commanding tone. "I would like you two gir-... you two... to come with me. Please do not resist, this is for the good of Japan." As she spoke, one of her hands dropped to a semi-automatic rifle latched to her side.

 

Reira looked at the situation with utter confusion. The moment the JSDF soldier walked in, she instinctively put her hands up and froze. From experience, she knew going against authority is nothing but asking for trouble, so she just followed her every instruction without fighting back. Which is why when the soldier’s voice changed tone, she got very confused. To her knowledge, she hasn’t done anything wrong.

 

...Right? Owning some kind of unique power isn’t a crime, or at least that’s what she believes.

 

Jun, on the other hand, instantly got defensive, dropping into a fighting stance. "Why should we go with ya? We're not criminals, and are you even the real thing? The JSDF exists to protect the citizens, yet you're going and grabberin' for that big ole' toy o' yours just because some flashin' bee-bop went off."

 

Reira was shocked hearing her friend’s reaction. She turned around towards her, with a look that can be best described as “What the heck do you think you’re doing?!”.

 

The woman's expression twitched slightly. Repeating her earlier statement with an edge clearly detectable in her voice, she then reached for the walkie-talkie. "Two suspects found." Things couldn't get any worse, could they? As if some sort of god of jinxes had heard them that moment, a blaring, ear-piercingly loud alarm went off. "SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!" All three of them froze as their brains took a moment to process those words. The woman reacted, pulling out her gun, but Jun was a split second faster, and slammed the base of her foot into the woman's hand, and a sickening crunch could be heard. This was getting worse by the second, because apparently this woman wanted to kill them now.

 

Jun leapt forward and threw a punch, but the soldier was obviously trained in fighting to disarm and kill far longer than some high-school girl could have been. Simply spinning around and lashing out her foot in an arc, it slammed into Jun's chest, sending her crashing back against the wall, choking. Both of them had murder in their eyes now. Drawing out a wicked-looking combat knife, the woman ran forward, beginning to slash at incredibly fast-speeds. Jun batted away what she could, but her body was beginning to be broken down by cuts appearing all over her body. The look in her eyes showed Jun was far from giving up yet.

 

Watching the action unfold before her, Reira couldn’t do anything to intervene. If she were to fight back, she’d be arrested for hindering investigation, but at the same time, she couldn’t stand seeing her friend get beat up. A dilemma ran around her mind for a bit, before she suddenly decided to simply run away. Using the drama to her advantage, she quickly dashed out of the washroom, closing her eyes to avoid feeling the guilt of leaving someone behind. "Please don’t think badly of me for this, Jun..." The only thing she left behind was a weird, ornate-looking saber where she stood before.

 

Hearing footsteps running off, Jun whirled around to see Reira disappearing. She reached out a hand, shouting. "W-Wait! Rei-" In the few seconds she took her eyes of the battle, the other soldier slammed a fist into Jun's chest, and the sounds of ribs cracking could be heard. Shouting in pain, Jun's mind began to blank out. Everything was over, her friend left her, and with that, so did her hopes. There was no way she could've won this fight anyways. Maybe that was good though. She bought time for Reira to run away.

 

LIKE HELL SHE WAS GOING TO GIVE UP LIKE THAT. Jun was pissed at hell, and she swore under her breath she was going to go back and yell the sheet out of her at Reira when she found her again. Which meant she couldn't lose this fight just yet. Summoning her rope dart like it was second nature, her eyes turned as cold as ice. Regular people couldn't see it for whatever reason, and this was a battle of life and death, and Jun had no intention of dying here.

 

Reira kept running and running, not looking back even once. Soldiers are.. Scary. And seeing someone get beat up was even more scary. She kept charging through the school’s hallways, before running into what felt like a solid brick wall. Looking up, she noticed it was another JSDF soldier. This one was much larger and bulkier than the female soldier from earlier.

 

"Ah… Oh, no.." Freezing in place, she could hear the loud beeping noise emanating from the soldier’s baton, who promptly handcuffed her and roughly pulled her along by the wrists.

 

“You are coming with us, miss.” The soldier spoke with an intimidating, bone-chilling tone. Reira silently resigned herself to fate, still deathly afraid of fighting back even though she could’ve easily summoned a clone to bail her out of the situation. "At the very least, I can do this, right…?"

 

In her silence, Reira concentrated her soul at the location she previously was. All of a sudden, the saber she left transformed into a picture-perfect copy of herself, ready to help Jun out. If she can't make it out alive, at the very least she can go out helping a friend.

 

Jun had immediately swung around the rope dart to smash apart the taser the officer pulled out into fragments, making the woman flinch as an invisible force broke her weapon. Although she could see nothing when she looked at the small high-school girl, this girl was supposedly some sort of monster like the ones that took down the Skytree Tower. She would never forgive those people, who had taken away her friends, who had been visiting there that day. Pulling out a second gun from her pocket, she raised the gun straight at Jun's chest. All of a sudden, another person slammed into her out of nowhere, making the soldier stumble backwards in surprise. There should have been no one, she saw and detected no one. Whipping around to look, she saw the girl who had ran off. What was this magic? Did she never leave and was that an illusion? Or was this the illusion? It certainly felt real enough though. Didn't matter, it would still probably die if she shot it multiple times.

 

Jun was just as surprised by the clone of Reira that sprung out of nowhere. Looking around, Jun noticed the saber from before had disappeared. The hope that Reira had secretly been there disappeared, but, this meant that at least Reira still cared to help, which was somewhat of a bittersweet feeling. Not willing to let the chance go, Jun spun around the rope dart at blindingly fast speeds, before slamming it straight into the soldier's abdomen. It smashed through the Kevlar and tore through the fabric clothing, embedding itself into the soldier's guts. Ripping it back out, a large splatter of blood found its new home on the bathroom walls.

 

This'll certainly be a sight for those little kids to see.

 

The woman's eyes were filled with utter, burning hatred as she stared down Jun, even in this state. Spitting, she pulled out a grenade, trying to end both of them, but Jun leapt forward, her speed enhanced now, and ripped it out of the soldier's hands, before hurling it out of the window at Mach 1. Jun gazed at the soldier with a completely apathetic expression.

 

"You're not worth killing. So don't get in my way, unless you want me to change my mind." Before the woman could respond, Jun bodily lifted the woman off the ground before hurling her against the rock wall hard enough to crack the plastered brick. Grabbing the Reira-clone and running out as fast as she could, Jun prayed to find Reira. The fact the clone was still here meant the user must still be alive. Jun wanted to kill Reira for leaving her, but she realized that in her place, she would have probably done the same. This situation must have been terrifying. Even so, it still pissed the sheet out of her, and she wasn't going to let some bastard kill Reira before Jun could chew the sheet out of her.

 

Jun sprinted through the halls, looking for the familiar face. It seemed as if soldiers had surrounded everyone else as well, looking for similar suspects. Scanning the halls as she ran past, Jun skidded to a stop. There was an ape-ish looking man who seemed like some sort of steroid-junkie'd fighter, with tall, brutish features, and massive muscles to back it up. More importantly than that though, there was Reira, handcuffed and looking like she had given up on everything. This was stupid as sheet, and Jun wasn't about to let her get away with it.

 

"Whaddya' think you're doin' you goshdarned idiot?! You tryna' get yourself killed 'cause ya' feel guilty for leavin' me out to dry? Well, don't worry, 'cause I'm gonna chew the sheet out of you right after this! But I can't do none-a-dat if you're dead, and I know you got those fancy power tricks of yours, so use them! Or do you want me to take out this gorillahead myself too while you sit back watching all pretty?"

 

Despite being in an obviously terrible condition, with cuts and gashes everywhere, as well as bruised and swelling sores across her face and body, Jun's eyes had an unquenchable flame. She'd die before she was going to let this dumb crap go on any longer. And if Reira decided to run again, well then, so be it. Jun was still planning to beat the sheet out of this ape-man anyways, even as she heard her body beginning to complain. Humanity might as well have ended, with the protectors of humanity now going around to slaughter people because of some shiny little flashing device. So, killing those who betrayed humanity themselves would be a reasonable thing to do. Her rope dart ready to lash out at any moment, she stared down the alleyway.

 

Reira was surprised upon hearing Jun’s voice. Calling a light in the midst of darkness would be overdramatic, but that’s certainly what it felt like. “Jun-!” She turned around to see her friend, but before she could call out her name…

 

*BANG*

 

The soldier leading her around was no pushover. He’s got killing intent, possibly due to vengeance over what happened Skytree, and upon hearing the “Shoot on sight” command, he’s glad to do just that. A stream of blood escaped from Reira’s mouth and the large, bullet-shaped hole in her abdomen. The JSDF soldier had shot Reira. Straight through her stomach. It wasn’t a lethal shot as he was only using a pistol, but both shock and sudden blood loss was more than enough to make Reira faint. “One target down.” He holstered his pistol again, before kicking Reira’s unconscious body aside.

 

He grabbed the army’s standard-issue M4 Carbine on his back and took a readied stance at the other Aethertouched before him, the one already battered and battle-scarred. “Please do put up more a fight than this girlie here. My revenge won't be fun if it ends so easily.” His face turned to that of bloodlust, and prepared to open fire on Jun.

 

Meanwhile…

“Scheisse.” Uttered a strange, foreign-looking silver-haired woman standing outside the cinema in response to the JSDF activity around the area.

 

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!"

 

Whatever happened before and sometimes after those words were said felt blurry to Arthur. She could remember going back inside the shelter since Asmund, Manami, and Charlotte took a while to get out, but then some soldiers entered the scene. Asmund quipped about something that she could barely remember, but then the soldiers surrounded him, and those words started to blare out of nowhere.

 

It’s a joke, right?

 

Asmund used his power to turn the shelter area into desert by flooding it with sand to stop the soldiers, while Arthur might or might have not stood by Manami’s side, her sword being on the ready. Why would the soldiers attack them? They did nothing wrong – heck, they’re supposed to be the heroes this time!

 

"I can't stay here...not if this is how they'll treat us” Manami’s voice pretty much made it clear that she was shaken by this turn of event as she ran towards the door. Not being able to see Charlotte, Arthur sighed in regret before turning around.

 

“…There must be some sort of misunderstanding here. The-the soldiers would just be panicking and desperate due to the events, right?” She said to herself. Her voice was filled with uncertainty. She didn’t ever expect something like this to happen. Even back in London, she would never be in the threat of attacks from the police, despite them disliking her actions. It didn’t make any sense, none at all, but as a bullet grazed her shoulder, Arthur realized that it was not something she should ponder on more as she summoned the full set of her armor, deflecting the rest of the incoming bullets before she utilized her whip sword to disable the attacking soldier as she pushed forwards. Apparently, some soldiers had decided to come in after their companions had been disabled by Asmund earlier. Soon, she was close to the exit, but a soldier was there. His weapon was pointed towards her. She could see some shaking. Was it from herself? She wasn’t sure.

With her mind simply desiring to make sense of the situation, desperately so, Arthur threw her sword straight at the soldier instead of using her armor to protect herself. With the force she was throwing it with, the sword pierced his throat. The soldier unceremoniously fell down, and Arthur silently walked towards him to pick up her now-bloodied sword. Without a word, she wiped the soldier’s blood using her white dress. It was a shame that she had to do it, but she had to. With her dress being bloodied at it was, she decided to look behind once more to see if she could locate Charlotte.

 

However, in the distance, what she could see was the judging eyes of the other refugees. She could see them looking at her, blaming her. What she saw was not the face of people that was rooting for their hero to survive. Everyone that looked at her casted a look that blamed her of all the mess that happened, as if she was the cause of everything.

 

‘Just die already.’, ‘Stop making our country grieve.’, ‘Go to hell.’ their expressions all were saying those words to Arthur. In response, Arthur was silent. Slowly, it dawned on her that right now, she was not going to be the hero of the people. Despite her intents, despite everything, the people see her as the villain now. It’s just because she had this power…it’s not the power to save others. Even the soldiers she fought…they’re more righteous than she was at the moment. Perhaps the soldier under her was hesitating to shoot her, which would be a reasoning why he didn’t immediately do it despite his order. The one that shook earlier was not her. It was the soldier. And she could have just used her armor again.

 

It all felt like a dream.

 

Something inside her broke at that moment of realization.

 

Hiding her emotions and expressions behind the helmet that covered her face, she ran towards the exit, outside, and kept on running.  She passed Asmund and Manami as her armor started to fade, but she did not slow down or stop, continuing to run. She couldn’t bring herself to see Asmund’s face, nor Manami’s shaken face.

 

“I’m sorry.” It was all she whispered to them as she passed them.

 

---

[Aix]

"No, I'm quite fine... you saved me. Thank you," said Masahiko. In that situation, he was sure he was done for; this turn of events completely exceeded his imagination. The whole situation was ridiculous in the first place, Masahiko cursed those incompetent soldiers who would open fire on their own country's civilians. Why? What the hell was wrong with them? Did they have no empathy? And what coordinating center would allow for this to happen? Did they completely lack competent communication? After a moment's pause, he cooled himself a bit and turned his attention back to his companion. "You do have special powers after all." He gave a slight smile, before turning serious. "We have to hide out somewhere while this whole incident blows over. I should contact my family, they'll be able to help us... Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Kurosaki, Masahiko Kurosaki of Kurosaki Corporation. May I have the pleasure of your name?"

[Mr. Hyde]

Before Hitomu had committed murder, he made sure to send an electric pulse, to disrupt any camera or recording device that would catch him in the act.  Now it just looked like a sad accident had occurred on that street corner outside the hospital.  Maybe an argument about a love triangle, or a good cop finding out a dirty one.  Who was to say...only he knew.

 

He was sure to stick to the alleys leading towards his home.  If anyone found him out in the open during such a state of alarm, he would surely be found out again, and it would be back to square one, do not pass go, do not collect two-hundred dollars.  Looking around a corner, he made sure to clear it.  He ran down the street that lead towards the Skytree monument, only to be met with a familiar feeling he had felt beforehand.  Another aethertouched, just like him, headed this way.  

 

Hitomu walked out of the alley to find a green-haired girl in a state of panic.  He blocked her path and held out his hand.  "Excuse me ma'am...are you having issues with the law?"  He shot her a devious smile, one he had practiced in the mirror so many times before.  "Would you believe me if I said I was in the same boat?"  

[Yui]

---

"No, I'm quite fine... you saved me. Thank you. You do have special powers after all."

 

Usagi Yoshida the blind heroine.  That had a ring to it she wasn't quite comfortable with.  All that attention that would get to her, and could become a problem after a while.  No, that wasn't at all the kind of thing Usagi wanted.  But being able to save somebody's life once in a while?  That was fine with her.

 

"We have to hide out somewhere while this whole incident blows over. I should contact my family, they'll be able to help us... Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Kurosaki, Masahiko Kurosaki of Kurosaki Corporation. May I have the pleasure of your name?"

 

"Yoshida.  Usagi Yoshida, of the Yoshida Corporation," Usagi answered, taking her right hand and feeling around until she found Masahiko's face, then feeling around a little bit more until she found his cheek.  "Now that I've saved your life and we know each others' names..."

 

Usagi reared her hand back off of Masahiko's cheek, then swung it right back around to slap him in the face.  "Are you crazy!?  Standing up against armed soldiers like that and acting like some kind of shonen manga hero!?  You could've gotten yourself killed!  You could've gotten me killed!  Do you have any idea how lucky you are that they shot you instead of me!?  If they hadn't, we'd both be dead or in police custody right now!"  She'd seen perceived people doing stupid sheet before, but this by far took the cake in recent memory.  Of course, yelling at Masahiko for his hero act served two purposes.  One, she had a lot of stress to blow off that had built up in a very short time.  Two, now she knew where the wall opposite him was.  Not far at all; alleys will be alleys.

 

Taking a couple steps back to lean against the opposite wall and slumping down into a sitting position, Usagi finished "I can't be too mad I guess.  We're both still alive, and that's more than I expected not long ago.  Sorry I yelled at you.  Just try not to scare me like that in the future, alright?"

[Cosmo.]

The small, very unusual group was organizing to investigate about the weird events, when suddenly a bunch of armed soldiers entered into the building.

"SUSPECTS ARE HOSTILE! SHOOT ON SIGHT!"

 

"Oh f**k!" Charlotte exclaimed as she saw them enter. She was overwhelmed by a bunch of people, losing sight of Arthur and the others. "Just move you bunch of cows! I lost a friend!" She said as she tried to pass through the overwhelming group of people, who didn't even bother listening to her. Luckily in the middle of the crowd she saw a reassuring sight, a traditional umbrella. Obviously belonging to Manami. She ran through the crowd, possibly hurting a few people, who were shouting at her. "I told you to move before, if you aren't going to listen it's your fault, you piece of rotten cheese!". She finally got over to Manami.

 

"Hey, is everything okay?" Charlotte said as she fixed her hair which was all messed up. "Let's get out of here asap. If the police is going to block us, i got the perfect trick. Now let's go before things get anymore chaotic." 

 

As she was running out with Manami following her, two policemen blocked them "You ain't going anywhere, miss!" He said. "You really sure about that?" She said as she summoned her grimoire, and formed a runic circle right around the two policemen. "Water Sign - Diamond Dust!" She said as the spell was casted, the runic circle turned a bright cyan color and the legs and arms of the two policemen started to freeze in a big block of ice. Then Charlotte ran past the two. "Never underestimate a pink-haired girl! We're always the protagonists in animes!" she said while laughing at them. After that, Charlotte ran out of the building, hoping that Manami would follow.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

---

 

"What a pain in the ass..."

 

Leaning up against the outer wall of some random building, a young man panted, holding his hair up out of his face. When the evacuation/quarantine mess started, he had decided to just stay in his home, and avoid all of what was going on out there. Surprisingly, the military officers who had apparently taken over Tokyo in the space of an hour weren't too keen on his plan, and found him quickly enough. Of course, that wasn't really an issue until a voice on their radio told them to shoot him. That was not something Hayaichi was hoping for that day. Rather than taking the time for a fight, he decided that escape was a much better bet, as he used his superior speed to flee from his home.

 

Unfortunately, these guys were a lot better at their jobs than Hayaichi had expected. He had sprinted miles in the last few minutes, but the damn soldiers were around every corner. His heart racing as he tried to think of a safe place for him to hide, he felt a pull on him, centering in his chest. In the years of having his ability, he had not felt this before, and really had no idea what it meant. Of course, he didn't have many other options as for where to go, so he took a few deep breaths, tying back his hair into a ponytail to keep it out of his face, his boots appearing on his feet as his shirt glowed red. "Let's see where this takes us." Bringing his earbuds up, he placed them in his ears, pressing the button on the cord to play his music.

 

BGM

 

Briefly pausing before he began to sprint again, he raised an eyebrow, pulling his phone out of his pocket and looking down at the screen, "The hell is that song doing there..?" Shrugging, he pressed the 'skip' button, dropping the device back in his pocket before dashing forward.

 

 

As he ran toward the tugging feeling, it grew stronger and stronger. He still hadn't the slightest clue as for what it was, but he knew that wherever it was taking him, it was where he was meant to be. An excited grin slowly appeared on his face, before dissolving in an instant as a small metal ball was tossed in front of him from an alleyway. A split second before grabbing it from the air mid-stride, he realized what it was. It was a grenade. Ducking backward, Hayaichi looked up at the grenade, sliding under it before resuming his sprint toward the mysterious pull, hearing the explosion behind him. These bastards are damn good at keeping up with where I am... How haven't I lost them yet?

 

Before he could contemplate much on their knowledge of his kind, he could feel himself coming up on the spot he was being drawn to. Realizing just barely too late what the scene before him was, Hayaichi scrambled to turn around, his boots skidding against the pavement as he found himself in the middle of a battle in progress. Glancing about him, he saw two younger girls, one seemingly dead, before a soldier carrying some sort of rifle he didn't quite recognize instinctively turned the muzzle toward him. 

 

"sheet."

 

Hayaichi was gone before anyone present would have a chance to blink, let alone pull a trigger, his sudden leave heralded by a shockwave jostling the ground around him, an incredibly loud boom resulting from his own speed surpassing the sound waves travelling ahead of him in the air. He didn't care what would become of those two girls, he just knew that that place was definitely not where he was meant to be.

 

---

 

Yawning, another man placed a hand on the back of his neck, jerking it to either side to elicit a series of loud 'pop' sounds. The plan had been simple enough. Break into the building, and burn it to the ground just like last time. They weren't supposed to be ready for him. Before he had much of a chance to deal serious damage, he was under fire from soldiers that had surrounded him. "The hell did they know I was there..." Spitting on the ground, he turned to face the road, the saliva crackling and burning on the asphalt. He could feel another Aethertouched approaching, fast, and not one he recognized. Grinning, he placed a hand over his brow, in a manner almost resembling a salute, as he saw the new contender speed toward him, riding a bicycle.

 

"Well then, let's see if the new kid wants to play..." Clenching his hand into a fist, the man's arm was engulfed in fire, an edged gauntlet forming itself from the flames. Thrusting his soul-clad arm in the direction of Conner, a thin line of fire shot out of his palm, striking the bike in the front wheel, destroying it in a large plume of smoke and fire. Letting out a sadistic giggle, he slowly walked forward toward the wreck, "You still alive, kid? Don't tell me you croaked that easily! That would just be disappointing!"

 

---

[VCR_CAT]

Yu made her way down the alleyway, trying to think of where Maurice could be and how she could possibly find him. If she could find him; he was probably in a much better position to find her in the first place. Pausing to catch her breath, Yu stopped to think for a moment; how could she best find another one like her or Maurice. All she knew was that around Maurice, she felt a presence, sort of like that feeling when you're being watched but you can't really see by whom or from where. A feeling kind of like the one she was having now--

 

And then the feeling of a hand covering her face, and an arm around her back. Yu could not see who or what was grabbing her, and the shock of it all caused her fist to clench tightly, ready to drive it into the stomach of anything that was in front of her, but her instincts told her that if she could not see who or what it was, then it was probably Maurice. Being whisked away around the corner, a voice whispered out of nowhere.

 

"It's me.  Don't panic.  I know, I look a mess, but there's no one else around.  I'm going to let you go, okay?  One, two. . . "

 

Yu let out a short sigh of relief. "God DAMMIT, Maurice, I could've gutted you on the spot," Yu exclaimed as she felt the adrenaline wear off.

 

"What the bloody hell is going on?  'Shoot on sight'?  Who's gone and put us all in a lick of trouble this time?" Maurice asked in a whisper.

 

"Hell if I know. The evacuation warning told us there was a fire of some sort, but I've yet to see any immediate danger that would warrant evacuating everyone on the streets," Yu whispered back, glancing around. "There's too much military around and not enough emergency workers to convince me the city's on fire, or that anything's happened to where they would need to get everyone off the streets. I think someone high up is looking for someone, and they want the civilians out of the picture."

 

"So what are you suggesting?"

 

"I think we need to try and find them first."