Racing the Spectral Speeder

[Connor Greaves]

Ooc: Half ctp, half Sp

I knew that if I kept at the pace I was going, that I was eventually going to burn myself out. This was the fourth mission to the world of the living, in just as many months. The moment I had returned from one, I took another one. It was unusual for the squad I was in, and made me seriously consider applying for another one. I was not the type to just relay information, to just be a glorified mail carrier. I knew that it was important for the Seireitei, but only because of how backwards their society was. The power grid was severely limited, only really existing in the twelfth squad, and everywhere else might as well be medieval era technology!

It was enough to drive a man to drink, especially since I considered myself fairly good with technology. So, that was what I did. I was a week into this mission, and I was feeling out of it. It was grating on the mental state to wonder as a ghost, unseen and heard by all those who still lived. The majority of them anyway. I heard of those who had the ability to see the dead, but have yet to personally meet any. Aside from those two anyway, but that was a different issue altogether. Regardless, I had decided that I needed to relax, and sought out a bar after hours of soul searching.

It was a fairly nice establishment, but entirely too loud for my tastes. It was early in the evening on a Friday, yet the building was already serving a fair number of people. I could count at least ten people from the entrance, mostly young men like myself, all watching a game, football from the looks of it. I ignored the booing of the people, and made my way over to the counter. I could have called this place a sports bar, but that would probably be too generous a description. It was more like a bar with a big television, serving the few people that this town had to offer in the way of drinkers, and I had happened to show up on a game night.

I was mostly ignored thanks to this, and made it over to the counter unimpeded. The bartender was focused on the screen as well, but still acknowledged my presence with a quick glance. My gigai was wearing blue jeans, black boots, a white button-up dress shirt, and an eyepatch over my left eye. I despised the lack of a mask, but I knew it would draw the wrong kind of attention. I looked nervous, I could tell as the bartender smirked at me. "What'll ya have?" He asked, voice full of mirth. His team must have been winning. I reached into my pocket, pulling out a small plastic card. "Bottle of whisky. Strongest you have." I said calmly, my voice slightly demanding.

He gave me a funny look, expecting something more. I calmly pulled out a second plastic card, a fake id that the shinigami made for those on extended trips to the human world, or made trips there often. I supposed I was in the category of both. He gave it a once over, and shrugged when he was unable to find anything out of place, before he gave me a large bottle filled with an amber liquid, along with a short glass with a large ice ball in it. I took a seat at the counter, and popped open the liquid courage. I ignored the glass, and chugged about half of the bottle in a single go, giving me that all too familiar buzz that I desperately needed.

I heard a loud whistle of appreciation from behind me. I turned, only to see the group of people staring at me. I blushed in embarrassment, before facing away again, deciding to use the glass for the rest of it. Baring that moment, and me refusing to pay any attention to the laughing bartender, the night continued on without issue. I was noticeably drunk after that, but having a gigai helped buffer the effects of alcohol poisoning for me, leaving me with a heavy buzz. Something I was less than happy with. Sighing to myself, I made to leave, deciding I wasted enough time and money here.

Unfortunately, one of the other people bumped into me. She was substantially shorter than I was, standing at what I could only guess to be five foot five, and was currently leaning on me for support. She was blond, not natural, if her browning roots were any indication, and she was wearing enough makeup to make a clown jealous, even with her tanned complection. She gave me a flirty look, as she grabbed and held my arm. "Hey, Howzit goin?" She asked in a slurred voice. She was a beautiful woman for sure, but this was not something I wanted, especially not from a drunk.

[Connor Greaves]

"I am sorry, but would you please let go of me?" I asked her in as polite a tone as I could. I doubted she would want anything to do with someone like me, but alcohol does that to people, smart or dumb. She, however, brushed aside my request, pulling up closer to me. "Aw come on, scared oh little me?" She taunted me, pulling closer in an act of defiance. And in truth, I was indeed afraid of her. She was making my stomach flip in fear and nervousness. I was unused to such... intimate contact, and the drinks I had were doing me no favors in this situation, wanting me to follow through with the wishes of this woman.

Luckily, or not depending on ones perspective, a loud shout came from where the people were. "Hey!" Came the angry yell of a man. He was of average height, but had the build of someone who lived in a gym. He wore a sleeveless shirt, jeans, and sneakers. His slicked back hair went well with the look of fury on his face. He had been in the middle of putting on his jacket, when he spotted us, and now he was marching over towards me and the woman hanging off me. I did not fear the man, but I loathed conflict like this. It always made me feel like the bad guy, even though I was sure I was the victim.

The fake blond just gripped my arm tighter, making the hold painful. It seemed that she was unhappy with her maybe boyfriend, as they started arguing. I refused to look at the two of them, even as I was forced to stay. I ignored them both, wishing I had another bottle of that good stuff. It was as I was looking away, that I spotted headlights growing closer to the window. And closer... Far too close, at a speed that told me that they were not going to stop. My eye widened, as I turned around, forcing the woman to release me, screaming in shock, before I tackled her and the man. "GET DOWN!"

Sadly, it turns out I was right, as a Volkswagen smashed through the window, spraying glass a debris all over the bar. I could feel a large piece of glass in my lower back, as well as another in my left arm. I groaned, as the blond screamed in my ear. I forced myself up, doing my best to ignore the pain. Thankfully the jock helped me to my feet, sobering up pretty quickly from the crash. I made my way over towards the vehicle, knowing that I would likely be doing my job in few moments. I was slow and injured however, and the other patrons of the bar made their way over to the injured person before I could.

They were drunk, and inexperienced though, having no idea on how to actually rescue him from what was more than likely the metal tomb of the driver. But just when I thought it was over, the car seemingly exploded, sending metal and rocks onto the drunken humans, knocking them all back, much to my horror. Another vehicle had slammed into the first, crushing most of the smaller car. The new machine looked to be that of a highway patrol car, but it looked so old, at least sixty years of age. It looked like someone had dragged it out of a scrap yard, and had magicly managed to make it run.

And then the driver got out of the rusted ruined roadster. He had the body of a human, but his face... "A Hollow..." I tried to grab my sword, but it was stuck in my gigai. The remarkably human spirit was moving too fast, if I tried to get it now, it would kill the driver. So I just moved. I was next to the ghost in less than a second, swinning my fist into its gut. And surprisingly, it worked. The hollow doubled over on my fist, before my other one slammed into the side of its disgusting head. It fell onto the ground, but recovered quickly, getting back to its feet almost instantly, ready to fight.

It threw a punch for my face, but it was slow, sloppy, clearly not used to fighting for its prey. I blocked with the back of my arm, before my foot met its groin, causing it to double over again, resulting in me punching its head again. It tried to get back up, but I was ready this time, as my foot collided with the face of the hollow, sending it back several feet. I went to pull out my pill to get out of my gigai, when the ghost touched the police vehicle it arrived in. The two vanished before my eyes, disappearing into nothingness. My mouth was agape at the sight, not expecting something like that.

The room was silent for but a moment, before one of the humans spoke up. "What the f**k was that thing!?" She said, catching my attention. She had seen it. But that was... I turned to face her, but it was not just her that had seen our fight, all of them had. That left me with two possibilities. The first was that they were all spiritually aware, highly unlikely... or that the ghost could be seen by anyone. This was an issue. If anyone could see that thing... wait... it.. there was... it had no mask... Before I could continue my slight meltdown, I could head sirens approaching us.

I took a seat at the bar again, deciding to wait at the bar for some medics to stitch up my gigai, so I would not need to. I was leaning heavily on the bar. That had taken a lot out of me, and the adrenalin was wearing off quickly. Something clinked into the wood besides me, getting my attention. "Here, it's on the house." The Bartender told me. It was a tall glass of that good stuff, something I did not hesitate to take. It took the edge off the pain I was feeling. It was gone in a matter of seconds. I probably had a problem, but for the death of me, I could not care right now.

"Do you have any idea what that thing was?" I asked him, wanting to know more about what I was about to probably spend the next few weeks hunting. He gave a grunt, palming his now weary face, clearly not wanting to explain it. "It's an old story that most of the kids don't know. I barely know it, but the gist of it is, you don't break the speed limit in this town at night. If you do, old crooked Stan hunts you down." News to me, but I have yet to drive since I died. So, all I needed to do was break the speed limit a night to catch him, hmm? It sounded easy enough, but I doubted it would be.

Just then, the front doors burst open, several humans dressed like medics swarmed in the room. The nurses mostly went to group of humans, but one made their way over to me. They wanted to take me over to the ambulance, and I obeyed. That was how I was forced to spend a night in a hospital. Hopefully I could manage to leave this out of my report at the end of the month. I was sure if I added it, I was never going to live it down by my squadmates. They stitched up my two glass wounds, and left me in a hospital bed for the night. Plus side, I managed to free the souls lingering in the hospital. The down side, two strange men visited me in the morning.

[Connor Greaves]

As the first morning light broke across the horizon, I started to shift back into consciousness. A beam of light to the face generally worked better than most alarm clocks, or at least in my experience. I woke up in my gigai, a necessary evil, as not to rouse suspicion from the hospital staff. It gave me an uncomfortable feeling, almost akin to falling asleep in work clothes, and finding it twisted and wrinkled in all the wrong places. But that, sadly, was far for the worst of it. "Oh my poor head..." I groaned, as I woke up with the worst hangover I have had in a long while.

I sucked it up though, and got to my feet, massaging my temples with my eye screwed shut. I sat like that for probably five minutes, before I heard talking and several sets of footsteps coming towards me. As I was a non-critical patient, I was not actually given a room to myself, but a curtain with a bed, in a long room, filled with other beds. It was as non-personal as the barracks in the seireitei, so I could not really complain. Or, I would just accept that they wish me to be as healthy as I can, and leave it at that. Still, I was expecting one nurse to visit me in the morning, not a group.

I tensed, wondering what the issue was, when my curtain was pulled back by a nervous young woman dressed in scrubs, with two men, dressed in nice suits behind her. Their outfits were black, with white button-up dress shirts. They were both tall, but one was much taller than the other, standing at six foot six, while the other was maybe six two. One a dirty blond, and the other with a small brown fohawk. And both people I recognised. I leveled them with a glare, as they flinched and paled. If looks could kill, they would have died a dozen time over by now. "Well, I'll just leave you guys be. Call if you need me." The nurse said, as she fled the awkward moment.

The taller one coughed, while the other returned my glare with a vengeance. "Why are you here?" I asked them both in a heated tone. I was not ready to meet these two again, especially not in my gigai. The shorter one responded to me, in a tone that told me how equally unhappy he was at the situation. "We can talk about how you're not dead later, but right now, we need to go." He said, voice slightly rushed. He was clearly worried about something, but he did quite the job in hiding it. I probably would have been unable to pick it up if I had been someone else.

Still, I was unconvinced. "And why should I trust anything you two have to say?" I stood up, emphasizing my towering height of seven feet over the both of them. The taller one started to say something, when a set of doors loudly opened up down the hallway, causing the two men to curse under their breaths. The short one grabbed me by my shirt, pulling my face closer to his. "Look, that little stunt of yours grabbed all kinds of wrong attention, and they aren't going to leave here without you. Trust me, if they get their hands on you, you're as good as dead. Or worse." He told me, looking me dead in the eye.

If it were not for the fact that there was a lot of heavy footsteps, I would have been reluctant to believe him, and have likely ignored him. But that was not the case, and I merely nodded my head, and followed his lead. There was a fair amount of scepticism for the men and whatever they were planning to do to get us out of the situation. Each of them grabbed one of my arms, holding them firmly, but not enough to bruise. The tall one pulled out a paper with what appeared to be red symbols covering it. He said a few words in a language that made me think of the occult, before it burned brightly, blinding me for a moment.

I closed my eye to ward off the pain, since my hands were being restrained. All of a sudden, I was plopped onto what I thought was a leather seat, and the roar of a engine came to life, and I was pushed back by sudden acceleration, as the skidding of tires overcame my hearing. I rubbed my eye, attempting to get the sunspots out of my vision. After several seconds, I regained my vision enough to find that I was suddenly in a car, driving away from the hospital. Looking back at it, I could see a swat van in the driveway of the emergency bay. I could feel my mouth hanging open at the fact I was just teleported.

Deciding that I desperately needed to calm down, I started looking around. Whoever these two were, they had a nice taste in cars. Leather seating, red velvet interior, it was a muscle car, as there were only two doors. There was an old fashioned car radio, and the thing was stickshift. It was something I heavily appreciated, being the vehicle enthusiast I was. After taking a deep breath and sighed, I managed to relax a bit, enough to slump into the comfortable seating. I looked forward, seeing a pair of eyes on me from the rearview mirror, before they were quickly diverted.

I was unamused. "So." I started, catching both of their attention. "How did a pair of fullbringers get that kind of attention from the government?" I asked in a bored tone. The two looked at each other briefly. "Not sure what that is, but to sum it up, they want us on their payroll, and we're not interested." I raised my eyebrow at that. The second part I could understand completely. Big organisation deciding to lash out at someone for not giving them their way? Happens all the time, sad to say. But... "You have never heard of fullbringers?" I asked, sounding mildly surprised.

The mirror gave me a weird look. "Should we?" The short man, the driver, asked me, sounding concerned. I weighed my options. I could tell them, and risk getting into trouble with the higher ups if word ever got out, or I could try and brush it off, but the scrutinizing gaze of the man told me that it was unlikely I would get away with that. "What about Quincy? Bount? ...Mod souls?" I asked in quick succession, looking for a reaction. For each one I said, I received no confirmation. "If you are none of those things, then how did you do that back there?" I asked, confused beyond belief.

The man gave me another look. "Trade secret." He told me in a gruff voice, clearly not comfortable with the line of questioning. I glared at him. "Then it appears we are at an impasse." I said. He merely scoffed. "Okay, so how about an easier question? How are you not dead?" The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a zanpakuto. I needed to give them something, or this might turn violent. "Fine." I told them. "While you somehow managed to destroy my last body with that dagger of yours, and severely wounding my soul, I was still able to make it back to my comrades to heal me." I stated, earning another look from them.

Neither side was willing to diverge anything more than superficial information about themselves, and understandably so. I was unable to go into too much detail, mostly due to a lack of information on the spiritually aware races of the land of the living. Meanwhile, these two clearly had a good number of tricks up their sleeves, as well as a bounty on their heads for not complying with the wishes of the government, or so they claimed. I did not yet trust these people yet, especially after how our first interaction went. The questioning would have probably continued, if not for the flashing of sirens behinds us. I turned, only to spot the swat van tailing us.

[Connor Greaves]

The two men cursed at the sight of it, and I had to admit, I was more than a little nervous. This was quickly beginning to look like a confrontation with the living. Those were some of the most base rules you had to follow when of these trips, and to be fair, they were pretty easy to follow, especially for people who could stay invisible indefinitely. Forget being mocked and teased relentlessly by my squad, this was grounds for serious punishments, not to mention suspending me from returning to the living world! And if I was the direct cause of someone dying? I truly did not know what the outcome would be, aside from bad.

"Son of a b%ch!" The driver yelled, the car jerking forward as he sped up. The van accelerated with him. I was panicking at this point, very unused to having something so high stakes tossed at me. "Do you have any more of those paper things?" Even to me, that sounded weak. I did not want this to be my last venture into the world of the living. He reached into his coat, and tossed something at me. I fumbled it for a second, before getting a good hold of it. It was a pistol. "It's gonna take me a few minutes to get it ready, hold them off!" The taller one said, shifting through a backpack.

I was about to ask how, seeing as I had no window, but the van answered for me, as a bullet shattered the rear windshield. I ducked down for a second. How could I do this? How could I fight back without killing them? Could I even fight back against something so heavily armored? I took a breath, before staring at the weapon. I needed to do this. If I faltered... no. I refused to let this beat me. Holding the pistol tight, I raised my head, and aimed. They were close, far too close to be safe. They fired before me, and a bullet grazed my cheek, electing another curse from the drivers.

I ignored it to the best of my abilities, and fired back. Unlike those following, I was not aiming for their heads. Instead, I returned the gesture for their tires. I fired once. It missed, as did my second shot. The third managed to hit. A loud bang followed, as the wheel jerked, and the vehicle swerved, but maintained pursuit. I stared in shock. What caliber rounds were these? A slot opened up in the passenger side of the metal plated windshield. A long barrel pointed out. Realizing what they were doing, I fired at the second front tire. "THEY ARE USING AUTOMATICS!" I yelled at the two.

More cursing, but the driver was way ahead of me. The car started to rapidly switch lanes, something I took away from the riot van. After another two shots, I managed to strike their other tire, slowing it down dramatically, and taking away most of the control from the driver. We still were not safe however, as several more rounds impacted the street where our own tires were. I tried fire again, but the van was practically thrown to the side of the road, impacting a concert barrier. I almost cheered, when I saw what had forced the armed car off the road.

We had traded one police vehicle for another, as the ghost cop from last night was hot on our trail. "What the h#ll! I though that thing only came out at night!" The driver said. The old, rotting cruiser was practically on fire, as the sirens blared ever louder. As fast as the muscle car the humans had was, the ghost was ever faster, moving at a speed I thought impossible for land vehicles. I fired at it, this time aiming for the driver, not afraid to injure or kill this opponent. The bullets passed through the missing windshield, and struck the spirit dead on.

It flinched, but was otherwise unharmed. In fact, if it was angry before, it was livid now. I pulled the trigger, hoping to take out its tires like with the last one, but my gun clicked empty. It would have been my turn to curse If I were a more vulgar man. It continued accelerating, before slamming into our car. "I told you to cover us!" He yelled in frustration. "I ran out!" Was my only response, as the ghostly sirens wailed. He was unable to give me any more ammo, too focused on the road, and I could see the other was speaking something, though for the life of me, I could not hear what.

Then I remembered that I was no human. Putting the gun down, I aimed two of my fingers at the lost soul. This was not something I was very good at, in fact, I was quite poor at the practice. "Arise god of thunder!" I started to chant. "Awake mother of storms!" I could feel the power build up behind my fingers. "Unleash the lighting on the sinners!" Electricity was now visible, as I aimed my attack at the monster chasing us. "Hado #4: Byakurai!" I yelled, as a small bolt of lightning arched at my target. It was so close to us, that I could see the look of shock, heh, on its gruesome face, as it tried to dodge it.

The wraith failed however, and even with my poor use of the spell, my kido struck the car through its hood. I could feel my chest swell in accomplishment as it almost flew off the road from the attack. I knew that I was far from a master, or even strong with such abilities, but it must have been weaker in that regard, as it vanished from view yet again. I knew that my attack had not killed it. Just as that happened however, the tall man had managed to finish whatever it was he did to teleport us the first time, as my vision was suddenly filled with papers. The highway disappeared, and a parking garage replaced it.

[Himitsu Kasumi'Oji]

+100 CTP
+55 SP