Post by Delashano on Mar 29, 2014 4:15:20 GMT -5
Jenn let out a few heavy breaths as she slumped against a wall to catch her breath, thanks to her battle with that madwoman Tsuki it had been necessary for her to do a heavy amount of backtracking throughout the floor to get to another exit point to the third floor, presently she was just down the hall from the very exit she sought but it was necessary that she rest she’d been moving at full speed since the fight had ended and had already aggravated some of her wounds more by doing so in order to put as much distance between herself and Tsuki’s body as possible. The woman was apparently important on some level if the fancy title that had preceded her name was any indication and if that was the case there was a chance that others might converge on where she was in order to see how the battle had gone. Jenn gritted her teeth as she wrapped her shoulder with bandages that she had manifested on the way here, the rest of her wounds didn’t necessarily need bandaging but her shoulder needed a bit more protection now.
While Jenn couldn’t identify it as such she was presently taking refuge in a supply closet of sorts it had been the first closed off area that she could find that also didn’t look to be somewhere that people might immediately head into in search of her once they realized that she had taken down Tsuki. She needed time to rest for a few moments, to regain some energy and take stock of her situation. Things were… tough, that much was certain. She felt some amount of confidence due to just how much progress she had made; her map indicated that she had made it through seven floors already and that just left three floors before she could make her escape. However the process of getting to this floor had taken FAR more out of her than she had anticipated, short of those few brief moments in her fight with Tsuki everything she did felt like it was taking easily twice as much to accomplish as she was used to. What had changed? Jenn looked over herself and immediately realized what it was, the bracers. They looked innocuous enough but they were most certainly NOT of her design and if she focused her energy detection on them she could feel something radiating off of them.
With the problem identified now she just needed to deal with it, Jenn's first attempt was the most simple. She smashed the bracer against the nearest and heaviest object in the closet her intention had been to break the bracers but unfortunately all she had accomplished was putting a few dents into the strange metal object that she had hit. The next attempt in bracer removal had been using finely controlled energy blasts to try and blast them off and frustratingly the bracers seemed unaffected by her attempts, she KNEW shifting was not a viable option as they had simply reshaped along with her when she had made her initial escape attempt. Her options were exceptionally slim in how she could deal with them, the only truly guaranteed option was of course the removal of her arms, something Jenn had NO intention of doing until she learned a method of using shifting to reform lost limbs or heal herself. Creating additional limbs was a possibility but actually surviving the removal of her arms was not something Jenn had the means to accomplish properly which meant that was really only an option upon escaping BUT upon escaping she had many more potential options with which to deal with the braces AND they became far less of an actual issue. As things stood she really only cared as much as she did because they hindered her ability to fight and move as quickly as she was used to.
Ultimately it was fairly likely that it would be necessary to shelf her plans to deal with the bracers. She knew that she DID have a means of mitigating the drop in power, she had felt it during her fight with Tsuki, once she’d used it everything suddenly became MUCH easier, she had moved and acted with the power she was more used to, heck it felt STROGNER than what she was used to. She simply needed to find a way to tap into it more reliably. And what better time to look into tapping into that power then while she took her time to regain some energy? With a sigh Jenn adjusted herself so she was sitting comfortably, closed her eyes and began to look inward turning her energy sensing upon herself as she began trying to draw on all of her strength bringing as much to the forefront as possible. Jenn felt herself ‘peak’ at just about where she had approximated, far below than what she was used to having available to herself and certainly nowhere near what she had used against Tsuki to end the fight.
“I need more than this…” Jenn thought to herself as she attempted to push past what felt like a barrier of sorts something caging her true power, restricting her, as Jenn pushed harder against the barrier without really realizing her she began to grow more and more frustrated, her anger began boiling over as her mind was flooded with every problem that she was facing now, she was trapped in a strange facility filled with psychotic people like that Woman and Tsuki, there was someone she needed to avoid at all costs, and at least ONE more person like Tsuki considering the notation her being from a ‘second division’, on top of that even if she DID escape she wasn’t truly free she would have to return to Kemuri’s command and with how her luck had been recently it would be LONG before she got a chance to get back in contact with Kaladar on the Lookout, and to top it all off the only person she’d met that hadn’t attacked her yet or would have attacked her if not for use of shifting was almost certainly apart of this, AND WHAT SORT OF NAME IS NO. Jenn felt her rage boil as the last seemingly inconsequential annoyance just drove her over the edge, her smokey blue mist quickly shifted to an angry red whipping about like a small storm. “This… this is the power I used against him…” Jenn muttered to herself, she felt VERY strong now, stronger than she was normally and WAY beyond where she had been moments before. The only problem was she could feel something... wrong… about this ‘form’ it was driven by anger simply trying to bring its power about had brought along with it all of the anger she had been holding back over her situation, even how it was difficult not to simply lash out at the ROOM to destroy everything before her because at least it belonged to the people who had wronged her.
Jenn let the energy fade with a heavy sigh, now perhaps it would be a bit easier to summon the power even if it meant losing a bit of control over her emotional state but then again it would certainly end up focused on whoever she was fighting as there was little to no chance she would encounter anyone she DIDN’T want to hammer into the ground. Normally she wasn’t exactly fond of killing but everything about this place just felt so… WRONG and Tsuki had made it rather clear that if she DID fail if she did fall in battle against them that what was in store for her was almost certainly some form of torture. This was a real fight and perhaps she simply couldn’t afford to hold back against these people, they certainly had no intention of doing so for her
Jenn’s thoughts were interrupted by the unexpected sound of a knock on the supply closet door, the sound almost resulting in Jenn unleashing a wave of energy at the door out of surprise alone but something in her mind held her back just long enough for her to realize that if someone was KNOCKING they didn’t know who it was that was inside here as if they DID then knocking was unlikely to be how they would seek entry. Blasting the door down and attacking was more likely from what she could tell from her experience with Tsuki. She couldn’t FEEL anyone behind the door which at this point didn’t even phase her, the woman, No, AND Tsuki had all been undetectable and in fact the ONLY person she could sense was the man No had warned her about. Barragon, she’d felt some of the ‘Basics’ when she had been relatively close to them but the majority were just so below what she was accustomed to actively detecting for that they usually didn’t even register to her. Noting that Jenn expanded her senses seeking even weaker beings and still found nothing. “Jeeenny, can I come in?” Sounded the annoyingly sweet voice of No causing Jenn to groan in frustration despite her immense relief “Yeah, sure, why not.” Jenn muttered rolling her eyes as she heard a happy ‘squee’ from No as the door opened and scurried into the closet that was certainly not made to house two people at once leading to Jenn needing to press herself against the wall.
“Hi Jenny! How are you doing?” No said giving Jenn a bright smile that caused Jenn to roll her eyes. “Oh just wonderful No, this whole experience has been just the MOST fun.” Jenn said her tone utterly dripping with sarcasm, No however seemed impervious to sarcasm as her smile brightened. “Oh that’s great! I was worried that you would be mad because of all the fighting and running and stuff. I guess since you ‘ve only had to fight Tsuki things aren’t really THAT bad.” No said with a shrug as she began inspecting the machine that Jenn had damaged while trying to remove her bracers poking at it a few times and causing a knob that had only been barely holding on to fall off. “I just wanted to poke in and make sure you were still ok, Tsuki isn’t that tough but she can hit pretty hard if she gets mad and you made her REALLY mad.” No said with a laugh, the comment on Tsuki not being ‘that tough’ caused Jenn’s eye to twitch in frustration. “Not that tough? Does that mean there are people here that are stronger than her?” Jenn asked hoping that perhaps No was simply exaggerating. “Oh yeah of course there are! You are, Barragon is, I am, TOIU is, a bunch of people are she’s only a section head and even then she’s probably the weakest since she’s pretty new.” No said with a matter-of-fact shrug that had Jenn so frustrated she was just about ready to tackle the other woman and start strangling her.
“You seem to know a lot about this place No, are you like me? Someone trying to escape? We can work together to get out of here if you want.” Jenn said after a few moments, it was hard to bring herself to ask No to join her what with how frustrating the bubbly woman could be but she certainly seemed to know a significant amount about the building, and more importantly she didn’t actually show up on the eye patch, heck the thing didn’t even seem to recognize that she EXISTED unless Jenn really focused on her and even then it just started displaying random numbers and letters all over the place. “Oh that would be fun!” No said with an excited grin “But I can’t, TOIU would get really mad if she knew I was out here and even MORE mad if she knew I was out here with you.” No said with a laugh. “Also maybe could you not tell anyone about me being out?” No said with a grin as Jenn simply tilted her head to one side in confusion. “You are a very strange woman No, but more importantly who is TOIU and why would she be mad about you escaping?” Jenn asked it was strange that No might care about the opinion of someone who wanted to keep her locked up. “TOIU is the lady in charge of UNITY, she made me!” No said giving Jenn another of her bright similes as Jenn tried to understand her statement.
Unity was of course this place and evidently TOIU who was the woman who would ‘get really mad’ if it was made known that No was out and about was in charge of the facility, almost certainly the very same woman was not particularly impressed with her own escape attempt. But the strange thing was that she had ‘made’ No, which was a particularly strange way of saying that the woman was her mother, strange enough that Jenn decided to ask about it. “What do you mean ‘made’ you?” Jenn asked, the fact that No was tied to the woman in charge of this whole thing made Jenn a whole lot less interested in being around her BUT if No was still a prisoner then there wasn’t that much of an issue and if No was willing to cooperate they could theoretically use that to their advantage if her mother wasn’t interested in seeing No harmed, a fake hostage situation could be exactly what they needed to escape.
“Exactly how it sounds, TOIU made, before I was No I was someone else I think but then TOIU was working on a big important project but then things went wrong and the project turned into me! TOIU doesn’t want me running around because she says it’s dangerous but it’s so boring being cooped up in my room and helping you is lots of fun!” No said with a grin as Jenn stared at her barely comprehending what the woman was saying, some of it sort of equated to concepts Jenn was aware of but as far as the golden haired woman had made it sound UNITY lacked the magic capable of accomplishing the similar concepts she was aware of. “I’m not quite sure I follow but No perhaps you SHOULD try and escape with me. You shouldn’t have to be locked up; you should be allowed to be free.” Jenn said, as much as Jenn found the woman irritating and frustrating the fact that she seemed to be a prisoner of some sort without perhaps entirely realizing it simply made things worse. No smiled in a far more genuine manner than she had earlier “Thank you Jenny but I know I need to stay here. I have to make sure people like you have a chance to escape. And it looks like times up for us to hang out. They’ve sent a group after you now, looks like TOIU’s making things a bit harder now, but you’ve got this Jenny I sent over some of my energy to you so that you’d be more prepared for them. Good luck!” No said giving Jenn a quick and surprising hug before suddenly falling through the floor as if it weren’t even there.
Jenn stood there simply staring at where No had been moments before trying to comprehend not just what she had said but No as a whole. The woman despite how she presented herself was far more aware than Jenn had given her credit for, she wasn’t STUCK here she chose to be here to help others. Jenn let out a heavy sigh at the thought as she realized that No HAD somehow given her more energy she had been at about half strength before there encounter and now she was nearly back at full strength or at least as ‘ full strength’ as she could be with the bracers on. “What a strange woman...” Jenn muttered as she began contemplating how to deal with her present situation. No had warned her that a GROUP was now after her but hadn’t actually mentioned how strong they were. It was better than nothing but still left her with very little to go on. Regardless she NEEDED to move on, it was likely that eventually they would find her in here and a closet was not exactly the most ideal place for a large battle.
With that Jenn opened the door and carefully stepped out listening intently for any sign of anyone else being around, the people here were for some reason beyond her ability to detect normally despite being on or around her own power range. Once it was certain that the coast was clear Jenn began making her dash for the exit to the third sub-basement floor, perhaps if they were searching for her HERE they would not have as many people searching the above floors. Meanwhile as Jenn darted down the hall way a figure hidden away in a dark ceiling corner dropped down to the floor without a sound, long metal tendrils swayed around the figure like serpents seeking out prey. “Subject is on the move. Erebos, Ixia intercept on hallways alpha five of sub-basement three.”
Her target was a strange one; lady TOIU had beset her upon the ‘Genie’ from the moment that Mahajenn had exited the lab. Unlike usual her mission was not to directly take her target down and in fact until the order was given she was not to directly harm Mahajenn in any manner, simply she was given the task of watching her and sending others into battle with her at present she had the authority to send primarily those below her own position despite the fact that dealing with the genie would be significantly easier if she was allowed full command over the security section heads. She HAD been given authority to send Tsuki into battle but the newest physical defense head was… rough around the edges to say the least and had only been sent as a means of gauging the Genie’s strength level. For the most part she had been unimpressed to begin with, the genie had a good mind which was certainly something respectable but had displayed little power with which to USE that mind… that was until the smokey aura of hers had turned red, THEN the running had stopped and Tsuki neutralized.
She wondered if perhaps the genie had forced a long chase in order to exhaust Tsuki in order for her plan to have better success? A novel concept if not for the fact that such a thing was not possible, she had made a note that it was unlikely that Mahajenn was aware of the capabilities of androids as while the attack she had launched had been viciously powerful and certainly fatal to an organic being in most situations it had not actually KILLED Tsuki, sure It would have her in for repairs and further mechanization due to the loss of additional organic parts of herself but Tsuki would be up and running within the week most likely presuming none of the more important medical facilities were damaged in the genie’s escape. Such a thing was certainly unlikely as she had already forced the genie to maneuver in such a way as to avoid anything particularly important, it was an unfortunate mistake that she had happened upon the tenth floor’s research department but thankfully the woman was ignorant of what had been in that room and only taken an eye drive, a BASIC one at that, newer model certainly with it’s ability to copy data that it encountered such as the maps of the facility but otherwise a mostly non-threat. For now she would allow the genie to use the drive, it was a good way to make her THINK she was making the decisions on where she went. Floor three was where she planned to end things, the genie was forcing far too extensive of an evacuation procedure and her shape shifting capabilities made her a significant escape risk even if she was kept in visual range at all times, she had nearly been lost when she happened upon a group of basics and thus it had become necessary to sacrifice a few in order to draw the genie out of hiding, another benefit of having sent Tsuki the woman had NO qualms with killing those weaker than her if given the opportunity, usually reined in by the rules of the facility she had given Tsuki just enough leverage that the woman had made the logical leaps necessary to start blasting people. Only her actual squad was aware that this was all being directed by her, Tsuki while loyal was not someone that she could confirm to be unwilling to provide information under the pains of torture, something that she had been unsure if the genie would be willing to partake in in order to gain information.
Thankfully that had not been the case; the Genie seemed to hold herself to some level of moral standard as she had been visibly distressed over the apparent death of Tsuki. That was a fortunate benefit but not one she would rely upon, even those unwilling to kill could be pushed to do so when backed into a corner and while she might not entirely realize it Mahajenn was most certainly fast approaching a corner. Erebos and Ixia with any luck would be enough to deal with her they were two of her best gene-altered warriors Erebos had even been a personal project of lady Toiu. Failure was at present not a likely concern. There was however one thing that kept nagging at her, WHY, why did lady Toiu want things to be done in this manner. She had made it clear that the genie was not to escape and that if necessary could even but put down BUT she would not allow for her to be dealt with in a logical manner, it would have taken her MINUTES to neutralize the Genie herself, the woman was smart but relied upon her extrasensory energy detection abilities to recognize incoming threats making her a simple target for someone as well versed in stealth as herself. But no, it was required that she only send a certain class of warrior after the woman, and the majority of those at her command were BELOW the genie’s power she only sent Erebos and Ixia as a duo because they had such tricky power sets that it made of up there weaker power levels. It was… strange but of course lady Toiu had a reason for everything that she did, and it was not her place to question, she had a task to accomplish and while tedious in its nature it would be a success.
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Jenn was pleasantly surprised to find the way to the stairwell that lead to the third sub-basement was empty a part of her had expected someone to be waiting there for her barring her way to the next floor but thankfully that was not the case, once inside the stairwell she transitioned into her flight form zipping up the stairwell in a matter of moments not wanting to waste a second, the longer they thought she was on the fourth basement the longer she had to maneuver her way through the third grabbing hold of the doorway to the third floor Jenn threw open the door and dashed into what her map indicated was a large atrium of sorts, the third second and first floors all possessed atriums like this and Jenn wasn’t entirely certain why the others lacked them, perhaps these floors were not as much a part of the strange things that went on in the lower floors? Jenn didn’t get much time to think on that concept as suddenly she found that she was not alone in the room, and she realized this only a few moments too late as she detected TWO energy signatures, she’d only detected them because of how close they were rather than her actively seeking out such, she’d not even been bothering anymore with trying as until now nobody of note had an energy signature worth detecting save for Barragon.
Jenn quickly leapt back to avoid a swirling sphere of emerald energy as it crashed into the spot she had been in moments before lingering for a few moments in the form of emerald fire before dispersing. Jenn then needed to rocket into the air as an energy signature drew close to her and she turned just in time to see a woman dressed primarily in green wielding strange green blades charge at her position she once again narrowly avoided the attack as the woman swung her blade where Jenn had been letting out a frustrated grunt as she twisted around to spot Jenn in the air. In the air Jenn was able to take stock of the situation for a moment scan the room with her eyes an energy detection searching for any other hidden opponents. She found that she had been correct in sensing only two opponents, the woman who had attacked her with the green blades and a man on the far side of the room wearing a heavy red and black cloak and wielding what appeared to be a rather old staff and generating another one of those green energy spheres. And not too surprisingly both figures came up on the eye patch as she glanced over them though the third line of information was completely different for them than it was for Tsuki.
Security Agent, Erebos
Security Division Three
///Meta229
Security Agent, Ixia
Security Division Three
///Meta318
“I would advise a quick surrender, I have been informed that while you possess an advantage in terms of overall power that myself and my companion are more than a match for you due to our abilities and raw power which while individually is not on par with your own together should be more than necessary to handle you.” The man, Erebos said in a rather matter of fact tone, his request did little to actually make Jenn more interested in surrendering, in fact it made her want to fight them even more to show them exactly who they were messing with. “Yeah I don’t exactly do willing surrenders” Jenn said giving the man a smirk “Plus I really have to doubt the idea that you two can take me down, energy blasts and swords are not exactly groundbreaking abilities.” Jenn said a shrug as she took a moment to manifest a bow, if a fight did occur she wanted herself armed BEFORE things got started and the few moments that she had as her opponents digested her retort was just enough to do so. “Awesome I was hoping she’d choose to fight, I wanna show the boss that we’re better than Tsuki, maybe if we do I can get her job!” Ixia said with a vicious grin on her face, much to Jenn surprise the green clad woman disappeared from her sight and immediate ability to detect appearing a few seconds later near Erebos taking up a defensive position.
“Alright so it looks like at least she had an interesting trick up her sleeve, but it won’t do much good against me if you can’t get up here.” Jenn said with a smirk as she manifested and knocked an arrow into her bow waiting for the duo to make a move. “And that is why among other reasons I am here.” Erebos said as his eyes and staff began glowing with emerald fire and shortly after Ixia too began to glow as she slowly lifted off the ground, the green clad woman shifted into a offensive position as she began to float and then once again without warning disappeared from Jenns sight though this time Jenn was able to catch the brief image of the woman seeming to begin to dart to the left. With that little information Jenn took a blind shot shot at her left with a low powered arrow and to her surprise she heard a quick ‘clang’ of metal on metal as suddenly Ixia appeard a few feet away from her having stopped moving in order to deflect the incoming arrow her arm still half way into the motion of having taken a swing at the arrow, Ixia looked quite surprised to have been forced to defend herself and in that moment Jenn took the advantage she had and shot two arrows the first aimed once again at Ixia and the second aimed at Erebos himself.
Ixia once again seemed prepared to defend herself from the arrow but was rather surprised to find this one to be MUCH more powerful than the one she had just deflected the energy clad arrow bore into the woman’s green blade and while Ixia managed to deflect the arrow with some effort the blade itself appeared ruined from the effort required as a good chunk of its edge appeared to be shorn off by the arrow, Erebos made no move to avoid the arrow and instead simply launched the sphere of energy that he had been charging at it, the sphere was more than enough to consume the arrow and exploded into a shower of blue and green light upon meeting it. Jenn found that a tad frustrating but was glad that at least she had forced him to utilize a powerful attack that he had been building up on defense rather than offense. As Jenn manifested another two arrows she watched as Ixia’s blade began to glow and reform itself regenerating from the damage dealt to it and with that done Ixia disappeared in a flash again.
Much as she had before Jenn noted the brief window in which she could see where Ixia was going, the window seemed to widen the more she was able to watch the green woman but the technique itself was worrying, if Erebos decided to become more active in the battle being able to keep track of Ixia would become much harder. The woman had dashed right this time and Jenn in turn fired an arrow to meet her, unlike her first attempt however the arrow simply flew through the air without meeting any resistance… which meant she had missed, or taken too long to fire. Jenn braced herself suddenly as a flash of green appeared before her and Ixia brought her blade down on her, Jenn barely managed to rbing an arm up to defend against the attack and it were because of the bracer that limited her strength that much of the strength of the blow was lost, her wrist hurt something fierce because of the impact but it was better than losing the arm entirely. Now with Ixia in sight Jenn lashed out quickly grabbing hold of the green womans wrist in an effort to keep her from darting off.
Under normal circumstances Jenns plan would have worked quite well, however she had forgotten the green aura surrounding Ixia from whatever Erebos was doing and upon grabbing Ixia Jenn’s hand was wracked with immense pain as if she had grabbed hold of a hot iron, Jenn immediately released Ixia and let lose a blast of energy in the same motion earning a yelp of pain from Ixia who had not expected the quick reactionary blast. Grabbing was now out of the question, the aura in addition to evidently providing Ixia with the means to fly also granted her an ultra-hot energy aura. “Hehe bad choice!” Ixia said with a smirk as she took another swing at Jenn who quickly reacted by manifesting a large metal shield to protect herself, the shield formed itself onto her arm and absorbed the impact of the blade however the raw power of the attack caused the shield to crack and dent even after only a single blow. Jenn gritted her teeth as she summoned a knife and winged it at Ixia from behind the relative safety of her shield, the damaged metal would likely at most survive one or two more attacks but perhaps before then she could ward off Ixia and get some breathing room. Without entirely realizing she had done it Jenn had imbued the knife she had hurled at Ixia in the same manner she had her bow and arrows and as such the blade was a far larger threat than Ixia realized as it slammed into her waist and cut deep eliciting a shriek of pain in response some of the emerald energy from around Ixia began coalescing on the wounded area and in a few moments it appeared to have made a sort of seal over the wound at least appearing to prevent bleeding though not likely to be doing any actual healing which jenn was quite happy to note.
With her wound dealt with Ixia turned on Jenn once again and brought her blade down upon the shield with much more power than she had before causing the shield to crack straight down the middle leaving it only hanging together by the leather strap that Jenn wielded it by it was gone within seconds as Jenn knew it was useless now and soon after replaced by another, Jenn knew simply hiding behind normal shields would not work out for her in the long run, Ixia was no weakling and now that she seemed to be taking things more seriously the blows were coming even harder, Jenn began deflecting as many of the blows as she could with the shield rather than outright taking them but soon even her second shield fell against Ixia’s strikes however as Ixia brought her blade down on Jenn once more Jenn unleashed a wave of energy that sent the green woman tumbling backward through the air finally giving Jenn a bit of space, she needed to sue this time to work out a new method of defending herself against Ixia, with a rush the idea came to her, it was actually almost TOO simple, it was something she had already done to some extent. Much as she created more powerful ranged weapons to attack with why not create a more powerful shield? With Ixia still reeling from the attack Jenn began manifesting a newer, stronger shield, and as she manifested she drew upon more energy and imbued the shield with that energy. The shield took form over her arm once again and already Jenn could feel a difference, firstly it had taken a rather nice chunk of energy to create but the shield was lighter than normal for shields such as this as if she had created it out of a lesser metal but appeared to without a doubt be made of the strongest steel she knew of and giving off a faint blue glow at that denoting that it had been successfully reinforced with energy. Jenn smirked at her handiwork but found herself quickly needing to defend herself as she caught sight of a green light out of the corner of her eye.
Jenn twisted and raised her shield in defense just in time to block another of Erebos’ energy spheres, the impact was enough to send Jenn flying backward all the way to the entrance but her shield held firm having absorbed a significant portion of the power behind the attack, some had of course bled through and over the shield but for the most part it had done it job and more importantly it had withstood the attack splendidly displaying no structural damage that Jenn could not from her side of the shield. “Now things are gonna really heat up” Jenn said with a smirk, she had her means of protection and now it was time to go on the offensive. Ixia had during the attack regained her composure and as Jenn recovered was on her in a flash her blade clanging against Jenn’s shield as the green woman attacked wildly. “Why won’t this thing BREAK” Ixia growled in frustration as she instinctually blocked and deflected Jenn jabs and kicks as they came from around the shield, some slipped through the woman’s passive defense but Jenn was amazed with just how well Ixia could fight and defend simultaneously. Taking a brief moment to take her eye off Ixia Jenn cast a glance at Erebos to see what he was up to and to her surprise there was no energy sphere being summoned; instead it appeared that Erebos was blocking attacks from the air? Jenn was confused for a few moments before she began to notice a pattern, Ereboss movements were an exact mirror for Ixia’s defensive movements.
That was the trick, Ixia while certainly an impressive fighter was allowing Erebos to provide her with the means to attack and defend almost perfectly AND as well providing her with a means of flight AND an additional passive defense mechanism. THAT was why he had claimed that together they would be more than a match for her; they were essentially layering each other’s powers onto Ixia and all the while Erebos could provide covering fire, with Ixia’s speed it impressed upon an opponent the need to focus on her. It was actually really impressive and a pretty scary combination. But now she had figured there scheme out and could act against it. Ixia was a danger certainly but Erebos was the primary target, if she had to guess the technique was likely not two-way as unlike Ixia only Erebos’ eyes and staff were glowing. With a grin Jenn decided on a plan of action, now that she had them figured out it was time to stop playing around and show off some REAL power. With a burst of energy Jenn’s smoke shifted to red as her power began to climb rapidly, Ixia let out a gasp of surprise and in that moment Jenn struck the woman in the face and chest with her shield sending her flying across the room, even after such a powerful blow Jenn could see Ixia moving and knew she needed to act, turning her attention on Erebos Jenn rocketed towards him and noted with a bit of grim satisfaction a look of surprise on the man’s face. Jenn came in hard and fast striking at Erebos with all her might with fists legs and shield as the man put up his best defense, summoning forth an emerald sphere of energy around himself as a sort of last defense Jenn smirked as she brought her own shield down on it cracking through it with ease. “I think I get it now, you’re not just giving her extra powers your own energy is fueling her, which means you’re even weaker than you feel normally.” Jenn said with a chuckle as she stalked closer to the robed man. “I think I’ll be nice, even if every part of me is screaming ‘kill him now’” Jenn said as her hand zipped forward snatching Erebos around the neck. “Cut off the energy link and drop the staff or I snap you like a twig.” She growled letting the anger that fueled this form have its way at leat on some level. It felt nice to cut loose a little.
Gasping for air Erebos released his hold on his staff which also immediately severed his connection to Ixia. “Very good, now go to sleep.” Jenn said as she hurled the robed man at a wall, Erebos hit the wall hard and found himself promptly unconscious, Ixia without Erebos’ energy to sustain her flight fell from the sky only barely managing to drive her blade into the wall to keep herself from hitting the ground. “I’d stay over there; you’re good but not nearly good enough to fight me without his help. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to keep myself from ending you if you come at me again.” Jenn said giving Ixia a threatening glare as she picked up Erebos’ staff, Ixia for her part simply nodded and clung to her blade not sure if it was even safe to drop down at this point. Looking over the staff Jenn could FEEL the magic in it, it was an ancient item perhaps not necessarily as old as she or even from when she had last been on this plane but certainly old and magic. What was this doing in the possession of someone from UNITY? Hadn’t the golden haired woman said that they didn’t know how to use magic? Perhaps the staff simply didn’t perform the sort of magic that she wanted or perhaps didn’t do enough? Jenn swung the staff around a few times to test it out, it would make for a decent weapon as well actually and perhaps with time she could figure out what it did… Jenn then realized it was perhaps NOT the best move to have knocked out Erebos so quickly.
It was too late for that now as the deed was done and he was unlikely to be back on his feet any time soon, what she needed was a means of storing the thing; it was a bit too large at the moment for quick travel. Jen was surprised as with the thought of needing to store the weapon she found the staff had disappeared and a sharp pain wracked her left arm as if she had suddenly been burned. The pain was very short lived however and Jenn found after she recovered from the shock that the staff was gone, and in its place was the image of the staff depicted upon her arm, the staff was shrouded by emerald flames for but a moment before they turned the same crimson red as the smoke around her. Jenn raised an eyebrow at the strange new development and then felt a sharp pain pierce her mind itself much like the pain in her arm it was a sudden almost burning sensation but unlike before it was on her thoughts themselves, as the staff had been written upon her arm so too was something being written upon her mind. After the pain subsided again Jenn found new and foreign information in her mind, knowledge of the staff ‘Jiga, the Staff of One’ it brought forth and enhanced the mystical abilities latent within a being if such abilities so long as the staff considered the wielder it’s master. But what exactly had it DONE, she didn’t actually feel any more powerful? And then the thoughts came to her, Jenn took a deep breath and shortly thereafter let loose a wave of flame from her mouth, an interesting new power and yet it felt surprisingly ‘right’ perhaps because it was as far as she knew something that was a part of her already and simply something that the staff had brought out from within. The new technique would with any luck be quite useful as she made the rest of her way through the facility, with any luck though it wouldn’t be necessary.
-----
While Jenn couldn’t identify it as such she was presently taking refuge in a supply closet of sorts it had been the first closed off area that she could find that also didn’t look to be somewhere that people might immediately head into in search of her once they realized that she had taken down Tsuki. She needed time to rest for a few moments, to regain some energy and take stock of her situation. Things were… tough, that much was certain. She felt some amount of confidence due to just how much progress she had made; her map indicated that she had made it through seven floors already and that just left three floors before she could make her escape. However the process of getting to this floor had taken FAR more out of her than she had anticipated, short of those few brief moments in her fight with Tsuki everything she did felt like it was taking easily twice as much to accomplish as she was used to. What had changed? Jenn looked over herself and immediately realized what it was, the bracers. They looked innocuous enough but they were most certainly NOT of her design and if she focused her energy detection on them she could feel something radiating off of them.
With the problem identified now she just needed to deal with it, Jenn's first attempt was the most simple. She smashed the bracer against the nearest and heaviest object in the closet her intention had been to break the bracers but unfortunately all she had accomplished was putting a few dents into the strange metal object that she had hit. The next attempt in bracer removal had been using finely controlled energy blasts to try and blast them off and frustratingly the bracers seemed unaffected by her attempts, she KNEW shifting was not a viable option as they had simply reshaped along with her when she had made her initial escape attempt. Her options were exceptionally slim in how she could deal with them, the only truly guaranteed option was of course the removal of her arms, something Jenn had NO intention of doing until she learned a method of using shifting to reform lost limbs or heal herself. Creating additional limbs was a possibility but actually surviving the removal of her arms was not something Jenn had the means to accomplish properly which meant that was really only an option upon escaping BUT upon escaping she had many more potential options with which to deal with the braces AND they became far less of an actual issue. As things stood she really only cared as much as she did because they hindered her ability to fight and move as quickly as she was used to.
Ultimately it was fairly likely that it would be necessary to shelf her plans to deal with the bracers. She knew that she DID have a means of mitigating the drop in power, she had felt it during her fight with Tsuki, once she’d used it everything suddenly became MUCH easier, she had moved and acted with the power she was more used to, heck it felt STROGNER than what she was used to. She simply needed to find a way to tap into it more reliably. And what better time to look into tapping into that power then while she took her time to regain some energy? With a sigh Jenn adjusted herself so she was sitting comfortably, closed her eyes and began to look inward turning her energy sensing upon herself as she began trying to draw on all of her strength bringing as much to the forefront as possible. Jenn felt herself ‘peak’ at just about where she had approximated, far below than what she was used to having available to herself and certainly nowhere near what she had used against Tsuki to end the fight.
“I need more than this…” Jenn thought to herself as she attempted to push past what felt like a barrier of sorts something caging her true power, restricting her, as Jenn pushed harder against the barrier without really realizing her she began to grow more and more frustrated, her anger began boiling over as her mind was flooded with every problem that she was facing now, she was trapped in a strange facility filled with psychotic people like that Woman and Tsuki, there was someone she needed to avoid at all costs, and at least ONE more person like Tsuki considering the notation her being from a ‘second division’, on top of that even if she DID escape she wasn’t truly free she would have to return to Kemuri’s command and with how her luck had been recently it would be LONG before she got a chance to get back in contact with Kaladar on the Lookout, and to top it all off the only person she’d met that hadn’t attacked her yet or would have attacked her if not for use of shifting was almost certainly apart of this, AND WHAT SORT OF NAME IS NO. Jenn felt her rage boil as the last seemingly inconsequential annoyance just drove her over the edge, her smokey blue mist quickly shifted to an angry red whipping about like a small storm. “This… this is the power I used against him…” Jenn muttered to herself, she felt VERY strong now, stronger than she was normally and WAY beyond where she had been moments before. The only problem was she could feel something... wrong… about this ‘form’ it was driven by anger simply trying to bring its power about had brought along with it all of the anger she had been holding back over her situation, even how it was difficult not to simply lash out at the ROOM to destroy everything before her because at least it belonged to the people who had wronged her.
Jenn let the energy fade with a heavy sigh, now perhaps it would be a bit easier to summon the power even if it meant losing a bit of control over her emotional state but then again it would certainly end up focused on whoever she was fighting as there was little to no chance she would encounter anyone she DIDN’T want to hammer into the ground. Normally she wasn’t exactly fond of killing but everything about this place just felt so… WRONG and Tsuki had made it rather clear that if she DID fail if she did fall in battle against them that what was in store for her was almost certainly some form of torture. This was a real fight and perhaps she simply couldn’t afford to hold back against these people, they certainly had no intention of doing so for her
Jenn’s thoughts were interrupted by the unexpected sound of a knock on the supply closet door, the sound almost resulting in Jenn unleashing a wave of energy at the door out of surprise alone but something in her mind held her back just long enough for her to realize that if someone was KNOCKING they didn’t know who it was that was inside here as if they DID then knocking was unlikely to be how they would seek entry. Blasting the door down and attacking was more likely from what she could tell from her experience with Tsuki. She couldn’t FEEL anyone behind the door which at this point didn’t even phase her, the woman, No, AND Tsuki had all been undetectable and in fact the ONLY person she could sense was the man No had warned her about. Barragon, she’d felt some of the ‘Basics’ when she had been relatively close to them but the majority were just so below what she was accustomed to actively detecting for that they usually didn’t even register to her. Noting that Jenn expanded her senses seeking even weaker beings and still found nothing. “Jeeenny, can I come in?” Sounded the annoyingly sweet voice of No causing Jenn to groan in frustration despite her immense relief “Yeah, sure, why not.” Jenn muttered rolling her eyes as she heard a happy ‘squee’ from No as the door opened and scurried into the closet that was certainly not made to house two people at once leading to Jenn needing to press herself against the wall.
“Hi Jenny! How are you doing?” No said giving Jenn a bright smile that caused Jenn to roll her eyes. “Oh just wonderful No, this whole experience has been just the MOST fun.” Jenn said her tone utterly dripping with sarcasm, No however seemed impervious to sarcasm as her smile brightened. “Oh that’s great! I was worried that you would be mad because of all the fighting and running and stuff. I guess since you ‘ve only had to fight Tsuki things aren’t really THAT bad.” No said with a shrug as she began inspecting the machine that Jenn had damaged while trying to remove her bracers poking at it a few times and causing a knob that had only been barely holding on to fall off. “I just wanted to poke in and make sure you were still ok, Tsuki isn’t that tough but she can hit pretty hard if she gets mad and you made her REALLY mad.” No said with a laugh, the comment on Tsuki not being ‘that tough’ caused Jenn’s eye to twitch in frustration. “Not that tough? Does that mean there are people here that are stronger than her?” Jenn asked hoping that perhaps No was simply exaggerating. “Oh yeah of course there are! You are, Barragon is, I am, TOIU is, a bunch of people are she’s only a section head and even then she’s probably the weakest since she’s pretty new.” No said with a matter-of-fact shrug that had Jenn so frustrated she was just about ready to tackle the other woman and start strangling her.
“You seem to know a lot about this place No, are you like me? Someone trying to escape? We can work together to get out of here if you want.” Jenn said after a few moments, it was hard to bring herself to ask No to join her what with how frustrating the bubbly woman could be but she certainly seemed to know a significant amount about the building, and more importantly she didn’t actually show up on the eye patch, heck the thing didn’t even seem to recognize that she EXISTED unless Jenn really focused on her and even then it just started displaying random numbers and letters all over the place. “Oh that would be fun!” No said with an excited grin “But I can’t, TOIU would get really mad if she knew I was out here and even MORE mad if she knew I was out here with you.” No said with a laugh. “Also maybe could you not tell anyone about me being out?” No said with a grin as Jenn simply tilted her head to one side in confusion. “You are a very strange woman No, but more importantly who is TOIU and why would she be mad about you escaping?” Jenn asked it was strange that No might care about the opinion of someone who wanted to keep her locked up. “TOIU is the lady in charge of UNITY, she made me!” No said giving Jenn another of her bright similes as Jenn tried to understand her statement.
Unity was of course this place and evidently TOIU who was the woman who would ‘get really mad’ if it was made known that No was out and about was in charge of the facility, almost certainly the very same woman was not particularly impressed with her own escape attempt. But the strange thing was that she had ‘made’ No, which was a particularly strange way of saying that the woman was her mother, strange enough that Jenn decided to ask about it. “What do you mean ‘made’ you?” Jenn asked, the fact that No was tied to the woman in charge of this whole thing made Jenn a whole lot less interested in being around her BUT if No was still a prisoner then there wasn’t that much of an issue and if No was willing to cooperate they could theoretically use that to their advantage if her mother wasn’t interested in seeing No harmed, a fake hostage situation could be exactly what they needed to escape.
“Exactly how it sounds, TOIU made, before I was No I was someone else I think but then TOIU was working on a big important project but then things went wrong and the project turned into me! TOIU doesn’t want me running around because she says it’s dangerous but it’s so boring being cooped up in my room and helping you is lots of fun!” No said with a grin as Jenn stared at her barely comprehending what the woman was saying, some of it sort of equated to concepts Jenn was aware of but as far as the golden haired woman had made it sound UNITY lacked the magic capable of accomplishing the similar concepts she was aware of. “I’m not quite sure I follow but No perhaps you SHOULD try and escape with me. You shouldn’t have to be locked up; you should be allowed to be free.” Jenn said, as much as Jenn found the woman irritating and frustrating the fact that she seemed to be a prisoner of some sort without perhaps entirely realizing it simply made things worse. No smiled in a far more genuine manner than she had earlier “Thank you Jenny but I know I need to stay here. I have to make sure people like you have a chance to escape. And it looks like times up for us to hang out. They’ve sent a group after you now, looks like TOIU’s making things a bit harder now, but you’ve got this Jenny I sent over some of my energy to you so that you’d be more prepared for them. Good luck!” No said giving Jenn a quick and surprising hug before suddenly falling through the floor as if it weren’t even there.
Jenn stood there simply staring at where No had been moments before trying to comprehend not just what she had said but No as a whole. The woman despite how she presented herself was far more aware than Jenn had given her credit for, she wasn’t STUCK here she chose to be here to help others. Jenn let out a heavy sigh at the thought as she realized that No HAD somehow given her more energy she had been at about half strength before there encounter and now she was nearly back at full strength or at least as ‘ full strength’ as she could be with the bracers on. “What a strange woman...” Jenn muttered as she began contemplating how to deal with her present situation. No had warned her that a GROUP was now after her but hadn’t actually mentioned how strong they were. It was better than nothing but still left her with very little to go on. Regardless she NEEDED to move on, it was likely that eventually they would find her in here and a closet was not exactly the most ideal place for a large battle.
With that Jenn opened the door and carefully stepped out listening intently for any sign of anyone else being around, the people here were for some reason beyond her ability to detect normally despite being on or around her own power range. Once it was certain that the coast was clear Jenn began making her dash for the exit to the third sub-basement floor, perhaps if they were searching for her HERE they would not have as many people searching the above floors. Meanwhile as Jenn darted down the hall way a figure hidden away in a dark ceiling corner dropped down to the floor without a sound, long metal tendrils swayed around the figure like serpents seeking out prey. “Subject is on the move. Erebos, Ixia intercept on hallways alpha five of sub-basement three.”
Her target was a strange one; lady TOIU had beset her upon the ‘Genie’ from the moment that Mahajenn had exited the lab. Unlike usual her mission was not to directly take her target down and in fact until the order was given she was not to directly harm Mahajenn in any manner, simply she was given the task of watching her and sending others into battle with her at present she had the authority to send primarily those below her own position despite the fact that dealing with the genie would be significantly easier if she was allowed full command over the security section heads. She HAD been given authority to send Tsuki into battle but the newest physical defense head was… rough around the edges to say the least and had only been sent as a means of gauging the Genie’s strength level. For the most part she had been unimpressed to begin with, the genie had a good mind which was certainly something respectable but had displayed little power with which to USE that mind… that was until the smokey aura of hers had turned red, THEN the running had stopped and Tsuki neutralized.
She wondered if perhaps the genie had forced a long chase in order to exhaust Tsuki in order for her plan to have better success? A novel concept if not for the fact that such a thing was not possible, she had made a note that it was unlikely that Mahajenn was aware of the capabilities of androids as while the attack she had launched had been viciously powerful and certainly fatal to an organic being in most situations it had not actually KILLED Tsuki, sure It would have her in for repairs and further mechanization due to the loss of additional organic parts of herself but Tsuki would be up and running within the week most likely presuming none of the more important medical facilities were damaged in the genie’s escape. Such a thing was certainly unlikely as she had already forced the genie to maneuver in such a way as to avoid anything particularly important, it was an unfortunate mistake that she had happened upon the tenth floor’s research department but thankfully the woman was ignorant of what had been in that room and only taken an eye drive, a BASIC one at that, newer model certainly with it’s ability to copy data that it encountered such as the maps of the facility but otherwise a mostly non-threat. For now she would allow the genie to use the drive, it was a good way to make her THINK she was making the decisions on where she went. Floor three was where she planned to end things, the genie was forcing far too extensive of an evacuation procedure and her shape shifting capabilities made her a significant escape risk even if she was kept in visual range at all times, she had nearly been lost when she happened upon a group of basics and thus it had become necessary to sacrifice a few in order to draw the genie out of hiding, another benefit of having sent Tsuki the woman had NO qualms with killing those weaker than her if given the opportunity, usually reined in by the rules of the facility she had given Tsuki just enough leverage that the woman had made the logical leaps necessary to start blasting people. Only her actual squad was aware that this was all being directed by her, Tsuki while loyal was not someone that she could confirm to be unwilling to provide information under the pains of torture, something that she had been unsure if the genie would be willing to partake in in order to gain information.
Thankfully that had not been the case; the Genie seemed to hold herself to some level of moral standard as she had been visibly distressed over the apparent death of Tsuki. That was a fortunate benefit but not one she would rely upon, even those unwilling to kill could be pushed to do so when backed into a corner and while she might not entirely realize it Mahajenn was most certainly fast approaching a corner. Erebos and Ixia with any luck would be enough to deal with her they were two of her best gene-altered warriors Erebos had even been a personal project of lady Toiu. Failure was at present not a likely concern. There was however one thing that kept nagging at her, WHY, why did lady Toiu want things to be done in this manner. She had made it clear that the genie was not to escape and that if necessary could even but put down BUT she would not allow for her to be dealt with in a logical manner, it would have taken her MINUTES to neutralize the Genie herself, the woman was smart but relied upon her extrasensory energy detection abilities to recognize incoming threats making her a simple target for someone as well versed in stealth as herself. But no, it was required that she only send a certain class of warrior after the woman, and the majority of those at her command were BELOW the genie’s power she only sent Erebos and Ixia as a duo because they had such tricky power sets that it made of up there weaker power levels. It was… strange but of course lady Toiu had a reason for everything that she did, and it was not her place to question, she had a task to accomplish and while tedious in its nature it would be a success.
Jenn was pleasantly surprised to find the way to the stairwell that lead to the third sub-basement was empty a part of her had expected someone to be waiting there for her barring her way to the next floor but thankfully that was not the case, once inside the stairwell she transitioned into her flight form zipping up the stairwell in a matter of moments not wanting to waste a second, the longer they thought she was on the fourth basement the longer she had to maneuver her way through the third grabbing hold of the doorway to the third floor Jenn threw open the door and dashed into what her map indicated was a large atrium of sorts, the third second and first floors all possessed atriums like this and Jenn wasn’t entirely certain why the others lacked them, perhaps these floors were not as much a part of the strange things that went on in the lower floors? Jenn didn’t get much time to think on that concept as suddenly she found that she was not alone in the room, and she realized this only a few moments too late as she detected TWO energy signatures, she’d only detected them because of how close they were rather than her actively seeking out such, she’d not even been bothering anymore with trying as until now nobody of note had an energy signature worth detecting save for Barragon.
Jenn quickly leapt back to avoid a swirling sphere of emerald energy as it crashed into the spot she had been in moments before lingering for a few moments in the form of emerald fire before dispersing. Jenn then needed to rocket into the air as an energy signature drew close to her and she turned just in time to see a woman dressed primarily in green wielding strange green blades charge at her position she once again narrowly avoided the attack as the woman swung her blade where Jenn had been letting out a frustrated grunt as she twisted around to spot Jenn in the air. In the air Jenn was able to take stock of the situation for a moment scan the room with her eyes an energy detection searching for any other hidden opponents. She found that she had been correct in sensing only two opponents, the woman who had attacked her with the green blades and a man on the far side of the room wearing a heavy red and black cloak and wielding what appeared to be a rather old staff and generating another one of those green energy spheres. And not too surprisingly both figures came up on the eye patch as she glanced over them though the third line of information was completely different for them than it was for Tsuki.
Security Agent, Erebos
Security Division Three
///Meta229
Security Agent, Ixia
Security Division Three
///Meta318
“I would advise a quick surrender, I have been informed that while you possess an advantage in terms of overall power that myself and my companion are more than a match for you due to our abilities and raw power which while individually is not on par with your own together should be more than necessary to handle you.” The man, Erebos said in a rather matter of fact tone, his request did little to actually make Jenn more interested in surrendering, in fact it made her want to fight them even more to show them exactly who they were messing with. “Yeah I don’t exactly do willing surrenders” Jenn said giving the man a smirk “Plus I really have to doubt the idea that you two can take me down, energy blasts and swords are not exactly groundbreaking abilities.” Jenn said a shrug as she took a moment to manifest a bow, if a fight did occur she wanted herself armed BEFORE things got started and the few moments that she had as her opponents digested her retort was just enough to do so. “Awesome I was hoping she’d choose to fight, I wanna show the boss that we’re better than Tsuki, maybe if we do I can get her job!” Ixia said with a vicious grin on her face, much to Jenn surprise the green clad woman disappeared from her sight and immediate ability to detect appearing a few seconds later near Erebos taking up a defensive position.
“Alright so it looks like at least she had an interesting trick up her sleeve, but it won’t do much good against me if you can’t get up here.” Jenn said with a smirk as she manifested and knocked an arrow into her bow waiting for the duo to make a move. “And that is why among other reasons I am here.” Erebos said as his eyes and staff began glowing with emerald fire and shortly after Ixia too began to glow as she slowly lifted off the ground, the green clad woman shifted into a offensive position as she began to float and then once again without warning disappeared from Jenns sight though this time Jenn was able to catch the brief image of the woman seeming to begin to dart to the left. With that little information Jenn took a blind shot shot at her left with a low powered arrow and to her surprise she heard a quick ‘clang’ of metal on metal as suddenly Ixia appeard a few feet away from her having stopped moving in order to deflect the incoming arrow her arm still half way into the motion of having taken a swing at the arrow, Ixia looked quite surprised to have been forced to defend herself and in that moment Jenn took the advantage she had and shot two arrows the first aimed once again at Ixia and the second aimed at Erebos himself.
Ixia once again seemed prepared to defend herself from the arrow but was rather surprised to find this one to be MUCH more powerful than the one she had just deflected the energy clad arrow bore into the woman’s green blade and while Ixia managed to deflect the arrow with some effort the blade itself appeared ruined from the effort required as a good chunk of its edge appeared to be shorn off by the arrow, Erebos made no move to avoid the arrow and instead simply launched the sphere of energy that he had been charging at it, the sphere was more than enough to consume the arrow and exploded into a shower of blue and green light upon meeting it. Jenn found that a tad frustrating but was glad that at least she had forced him to utilize a powerful attack that he had been building up on defense rather than offense. As Jenn manifested another two arrows she watched as Ixia’s blade began to glow and reform itself regenerating from the damage dealt to it and with that done Ixia disappeared in a flash again.
Much as she had before Jenn noted the brief window in which she could see where Ixia was going, the window seemed to widen the more she was able to watch the green woman but the technique itself was worrying, if Erebos decided to become more active in the battle being able to keep track of Ixia would become much harder. The woman had dashed right this time and Jenn in turn fired an arrow to meet her, unlike her first attempt however the arrow simply flew through the air without meeting any resistance… which meant she had missed, or taken too long to fire. Jenn braced herself suddenly as a flash of green appeared before her and Ixia brought her blade down on her, Jenn barely managed to rbing an arm up to defend against the attack and it were because of the bracer that limited her strength that much of the strength of the blow was lost, her wrist hurt something fierce because of the impact but it was better than losing the arm entirely. Now with Ixia in sight Jenn lashed out quickly grabbing hold of the green womans wrist in an effort to keep her from darting off.
Under normal circumstances Jenns plan would have worked quite well, however she had forgotten the green aura surrounding Ixia from whatever Erebos was doing and upon grabbing Ixia Jenn’s hand was wracked with immense pain as if she had grabbed hold of a hot iron, Jenn immediately released Ixia and let lose a blast of energy in the same motion earning a yelp of pain from Ixia who had not expected the quick reactionary blast. Grabbing was now out of the question, the aura in addition to evidently providing Ixia with the means to fly also granted her an ultra-hot energy aura. “Hehe bad choice!” Ixia said with a smirk as she took another swing at Jenn who quickly reacted by manifesting a large metal shield to protect herself, the shield formed itself onto her arm and absorbed the impact of the blade however the raw power of the attack caused the shield to crack and dent even after only a single blow. Jenn gritted her teeth as she summoned a knife and winged it at Ixia from behind the relative safety of her shield, the damaged metal would likely at most survive one or two more attacks but perhaps before then she could ward off Ixia and get some breathing room. Without entirely realizing she had done it Jenn had imbued the knife she had hurled at Ixia in the same manner she had her bow and arrows and as such the blade was a far larger threat than Ixia realized as it slammed into her waist and cut deep eliciting a shriek of pain in response some of the emerald energy from around Ixia began coalescing on the wounded area and in a few moments it appeared to have made a sort of seal over the wound at least appearing to prevent bleeding though not likely to be doing any actual healing which jenn was quite happy to note.
With her wound dealt with Ixia turned on Jenn once again and brought her blade down upon the shield with much more power than she had before causing the shield to crack straight down the middle leaving it only hanging together by the leather strap that Jenn wielded it by it was gone within seconds as Jenn knew it was useless now and soon after replaced by another, Jenn knew simply hiding behind normal shields would not work out for her in the long run, Ixia was no weakling and now that she seemed to be taking things more seriously the blows were coming even harder, Jenn began deflecting as many of the blows as she could with the shield rather than outright taking them but soon even her second shield fell against Ixia’s strikes however as Ixia brought her blade down on Jenn once more Jenn unleashed a wave of energy that sent the green woman tumbling backward through the air finally giving Jenn a bit of space, she needed to sue this time to work out a new method of defending herself against Ixia, with a rush the idea came to her, it was actually almost TOO simple, it was something she had already done to some extent. Much as she created more powerful ranged weapons to attack with why not create a more powerful shield? With Ixia still reeling from the attack Jenn began manifesting a newer, stronger shield, and as she manifested she drew upon more energy and imbued the shield with that energy. The shield took form over her arm once again and already Jenn could feel a difference, firstly it had taken a rather nice chunk of energy to create but the shield was lighter than normal for shields such as this as if she had created it out of a lesser metal but appeared to without a doubt be made of the strongest steel she knew of and giving off a faint blue glow at that denoting that it had been successfully reinforced with energy. Jenn smirked at her handiwork but found herself quickly needing to defend herself as she caught sight of a green light out of the corner of her eye.
Jenn twisted and raised her shield in defense just in time to block another of Erebos’ energy spheres, the impact was enough to send Jenn flying backward all the way to the entrance but her shield held firm having absorbed a significant portion of the power behind the attack, some had of course bled through and over the shield but for the most part it had done it job and more importantly it had withstood the attack splendidly displaying no structural damage that Jenn could not from her side of the shield. “Now things are gonna really heat up” Jenn said with a smirk, she had her means of protection and now it was time to go on the offensive. Ixia had during the attack regained her composure and as Jenn recovered was on her in a flash her blade clanging against Jenn’s shield as the green woman attacked wildly. “Why won’t this thing BREAK” Ixia growled in frustration as she instinctually blocked and deflected Jenn jabs and kicks as they came from around the shield, some slipped through the woman’s passive defense but Jenn was amazed with just how well Ixia could fight and defend simultaneously. Taking a brief moment to take her eye off Ixia Jenn cast a glance at Erebos to see what he was up to and to her surprise there was no energy sphere being summoned; instead it appeared that Erebos was blocking attacks from the air? Jenn was confused for a few moments before she began to notice a pattern, Ereboss movements were an exact mirror for Ixia’s defensive movements.
That was the trick, Ixia while certainly an impressive fighter was allowing Erebos to provide her with the means to attack and defend almost perfectly AND as well providing her with a means of flight AND an additional passive defense mechanism. THAT was why he had claimed that together they would be more than a match for her; they were essentially layering each other’s powers onto Ixia and all the while Erebos could provide covering fire, with Ixia’s speed it impressed upon an opponent the need to focus on her. It was actually really impressive and a pretty scary combination. But now she had figured there scheme out and could act against it. Ixia was a danger certainly but Erebos was the primary target, if she had to guess the technique was likely not two-way as unlike Ixia only Erebos’ eyes and staff were glowing. With a grin Jenn decided on a plan of action, now that she had them figured out it was time to stop playing around and show off some REAL power. With a burst of energy Jenn’s smoke shifted to red as her power began to climb rapidly, Ixia let out a gasp of surprise and in that moment Jenn struck the woman in the face and chest with her shield sending her flying across the room, even after such a powerful blow Jenn could see Ixia moving and knew she needed to act, turning her attention on Erebos Jenn rocketed towards him and noted with a bit of grim satisfaction a look of surprise on the man’s face. Jenn came in hard and fast striking at Erebos with all her might with fists legs and shield as the man put up his best defense, summoning forth an emerald sphere of energy around himself as a sort of last defense Jenn smirked as she brought her own shield down on it cracking through it with ease. “I think I get it now, you’re not just giving her extra powers your own energy is fueling her, which means you’re even weaker than you feel normally.” Jenn said with a chuckle as she stalked closer to the robed man. “I think I’ll be nice, even if every part of me is screaming ‘kill him now’” Jenn said as her hand zipped forward snatching Erebos around the neck. “Cut off the energy link and drop the staff or I snap you like a twig.” She growled letting the anger that fueled this form have its way at leat on some level. It felt nice to cut loose a little.
Gasping for air Erebos released his hold on his staff which also immediately severed his connection to Ixia. “Very good, now go to sleep.” Jenn said as she hurled the robed man at a wall, Erebos hit the wall hard and found himself promptly unconscious, Ixia without Erebos’ energy to sustain her flight fell from the sky only barely managing to drive her blade into the wall to keep herself from hitting the ground. “I’d stay over there; you’re good but not nearly good enough to fight me without his help. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to keep myself from ending you if you come at me again.” Jenn said giving Ixia a threatening glare as she picked up Erebos’ staff, Ixia for her part simply nodded and clung to her blade not sure if it was even safe to drop down at this point. Looking over the staff Jenn could FEEL the magic in it, it was an ancient item perhaps not necessarily as old as she or even from when she had last been on this plane but certainly old and magic. What was this doing in the possession of someone from UNITY? Hadn’t the golden haired woman said that they didn’t know how to use magic? Perhaps the staff simply didn’t perform the sort of magic that she wanted or perhaps didn’t do enough? Jenn swung the staff around a few times to test it out, it would make for a decent weapon as well actually and perhaps with time she could figure out what it did… Jenn then realized it was perhaps NOT the best move to have knocked out Erebos so quickly.
It was too late for that now as the deed was done and he was unlikely to be back on his feet any time soon, what she needed was a means of storing the thing; it was a bit too large at the moment for quick travel. Jen was surprised as with the thought of needing to store the weapon she found the staff had disappeared and a sharp pain wracked her left arm as if she had suddenly been burned. The pain was very short lived however and Jenn found after she recovered from the shock that the staff was gone, and in its place was the image of the staff depicted upon her arm, the staff was shrouded by emerald flames for but a moment before they turned the same crimson red as the smoke around her. Jenn raised an eyebrow at the strange new development and then felt a sharp pain pierce her mind itself much like the pain in her arm it was a sudden almost burning sensation but unlike before it was on her thoughts themselves, as the staff had been written upon her arm so too was something being written upon her mind. After the pain subsided again Jenn found new and foreign information in her mind, knowledge of the staff ‘Jiga, the Staff of One’ it brought forth and enhanced the mystical abilities latent within a being if such abilities so long as the staff considered the wielder it’s master. But what exactly had it DONE, she didn’t actually feel any more powerful? And then the thoughts came to her, Jenn took a deep breath and shortly thereafter let loose a wave of flame from her mouth, an interesting new power and yet it felt surprisingly ‘right’ perhaps because it was as far as she knew something that was a part of her already and simply something that the staff had brought out from within. The new technique would with any luck be quite useful as she made the rest of her way through the facility, with any luck though it wouldn’t be necessary.
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Techniques Learned-
Energy Bulwark(Barrier, Shield): In the vein of her Ranged Attack Manifestation Jenn can create shields enhanced with her energy, with an expenditure of energy she grants the shield greatly enhanced ability to defende her against incoming attacks of both physical and energy nature, the size and strength of the shield will however inhibit Jenn's overall fluidity of movement and the sheilds onyl provide protection when Jenn is actively defending with them and as such an attack on say her back if left undefended would not be weakened in any way by the shield. Sufficiently strong opponents or simply taking too much abuse will result in the destruction of an Energy Bulwark however a new one can be created if Jenn so chooses to expend the energy to do so.
Efreeti Flame Tongue: With obtaining the Jiga Jenn is now capable of using a latent Efreeti technique even when not actively using the Efreeti Rage transformation, the Efreeti Flame Tongue is a large cone shaped gout of flame unleashed from Jenn's mouth, the technique can be unleashed in two ways one which is a mid range and quick blast of flame and he other which is a short range sustained line of flame.
Items Obtained:
Jiga, The Staff of One: A strange staff obtained after defeating UNITY member 'Erebos' this staff unleashes latent mystical talents of it's wielder though the process of which is not particularly pleasent. Jenn believes the staff itself may make for a suitable weapon as well but for the moment keeps it in it's sealed state in the form of a tattoo on her arm. (Mostly Fluff, will perhaps turn the Staff itself into a technique at some point at the moment however it is a vehicle for future developments.)
