Rabid Outbreak [JT, R, Ask to join]

[Nadezhda Esterházy]

Nadezhda pulled a cell phone from her pocket, but upon closer examination one could see this was a toy. "Alright. Give me them digis." She said cutely while holding the toy phone in front of her face. Her eyes quickly swung in Celes' direction. "I learned that from the box where people dance and sing and cry." She explained playfully. Nadezhda's seemingly endless antics were briefly interrupted when Affen roasted the body of the beast. Her face contorted in disgust as she pinched her nose at the smell. "Burnt beasty does not smell nice. No-No. Not nice at all." She shook her head disagreeably as she patted Affen. "Why you so stinky, affey?"

Nadezhda attempted to laugh but ended up sounding like a deflating balloon with her nose plugged.  ”Where… am I? This is ...wait who are you all?” Her eyes went round with disbelief as the plus reluctantly took center stage. He seemed to immediately arrest both Luke and Celes' attention. This was most certainly an unwanted side-effect of killing the monster, one Nadezhda had not foreseen. She wondered if Timor had considered this unpleasant issue. Perhaps this was the reason Timor ventured off so quickly instead of escorting her. 

Nevertheless, Timor wasn't here and this left Nadezhda to manage this situation by herself. ”Uuh… I uuh…right. There was something weird going on. There was talk about a body that had gotten tossed through a window..." Nadezhda slowly backed away as the others focused their attention on the befuddled plus. Her expression receded into the shadows while her eyes narrowed bitterly. She glared menacingly at the plus as he held the key to her conviction. He could potentially point Luke and Celes in the direction of the plus who likely saw Nadezhda and her doll that night.

Even in death people still have big mouths. She thought scathingly. You can't just kill someone and expect that to silence them. Not when they just come back as ghosts and reveal all the details. Stupid people. Stupid ghosts. Nadezhda's added bitterly. He wasn't provided much more than he already knew, so you're safe...for now. Nadezhda was quickly comforted by both Koschei and the ghosts unexpected emotional collapse. If he only knew. Koschei mused. If he only knew what, Koschei? That I've seen much worse than this? Nadezhda's face remained still. She needed to conceal her true feelings so as to avoid alarming Luke. 

Only Timor really knows. She saw you at your most vulnerable —your teeth pressed into bloody flesh and eyes glistening with blood lust. It's true. Timor had seen far more of Nadezhda than any other, and she intended to keep it that way. If she had learned anything from her near century long slumber, it was to keep a low profile. Unfortunately, Nadezhda had a knack for doing the complete opposite. This was to be expected, though. She had come to realize her powers were growing and expanding, as were Koschei's. Koschei had been slowly develop abilities previously unthinkable. Nadezhda would need to be even more careful so to avoid drawing more attention her way.

Celes was a Shinigami and they proved particularly hateful when it came to Bounts. She knew that first hand and it led to her imprisonment by mere humans. If only Luke knew the evils of this world. If he knew the true evil residing in the hearts of humans he wouldn't feel so protective of them. Whoosh. There he goes again. Nadezhda's expression flattened as Luke departed. This was troubling. Nadezhda's original motivations for pursuing Luke were innocent, but after the seance with the beast's ghost it was obvious she needed to keep a close watch on him. Who knows what information he could gather from those busy-lipped pluses. There are bound to be more wandering the halls, especially if Timor killed anymore monsters. 

"I'm not a squirt." She yelled defiantly as he darted off. Her lips puckered and cheeks swelled in discontent. "I don't think I really caught your name little one." Nadezhda couldn't dispel the gnawing feeling in her stomach. She knew she had to either convince the shinigami to follow Luke or ditch her. Either way, she needed to act fast before he escaped. "Ukaž se." She whispered under her breath. Koschei's materialized beside her, but would be imperceptible to Celes. Follow him...I want to know where he's going and why. Koschei nodded as she eerily walked past an unaware Celes, her hollow gaze and lifeless smile directed at her. 

Koschei quickly pursued Luke, exiting the room and darting down the hallway. Meanwhile Nadezhda looked up at Celes and smiled. "My name's Nadezhda." She said sweetly with a curtsy. Nadezhda's feet wobbled beneath her as she bared her teeth in a smile. Nadezhda's expression faltered as she lifted herself and placed one hand on her hip. "Why didn't you curtsy back?" She said quizzically. "As Princess of the Cupcake Kingdom I demand respect!" She said proudly. "Oh, wait!" Nadezhda then reached into her bag and pulled from it a warm, icing-dripping cupcake. The mushy, dilapidated confection was plopped into Celes' hand followed by a smile. 

The cupcake quickly fell apart with clumps of icing falling on her hand and ground. "You better eat up fast, Celery. Princess of the cupcake kingdom hereby extends a, ugh, " she paused and scratched her head before resuming her shtick, "a twig, no a branch of...oh shoot. What was that word again? Ohhh... Wait. I got it. I know it, don't worry." She assured Celes with a wave of her hands. "It starts with an S...yeah, an S. Or wait. No. Yeaaah...an S. I think. Yes, definitely an S. Hmmm. A BRANCH OF SALADARDIDY! GOT IT! Yeeesss!" She said while congratulating herself. 

There's something happening that might be of interest, Naze. Koschei said with some uncertainty in her voice. Oh? Is this about Luke? She asked. Not quite. It involves the battered woman you provided a bandage. She seems...unsettled. So much so that she has begun setting this place ablaze. The soft, motherly voice stated with an eerie calm. "So um...are you one of these..."beants" as well, little one?" Nadezhda tilted her head and smiled sweetly once more. Deal with her, please...I'll be there in a moment. I have to lose this one.

Koschei's vacant gaze focused on Jacqueline as she proceeded from the office. The flames swelled behind the unsuspecting Fullbringer who would be unable to sense Koschei's presence. Koschei swiftly passed Jacqueline, her ghostly stare centered on the fragile Fullbringer. As she neared the staircase Koschei would firmly grab Jacqueline by the arm, squeezing it tightly and digging her claws into her weak flesh. The pain would be instantaneous as Koschei was applying nearly enough pressure to break her arm. Koschei's visage flickered into view, her dead, hollow eyes peering into Jacqueline's. If her grab had linked with her arm, Koschei's would then violently throw her down the stairs and onto the landing. 

"Delicate creatures...you humans." She said with a stiff, unmoving smile. Her face was haunting, but fleeting as she vanished and became imperceptible once more. She then darted down the stairs and made an effort to grab Jacqueline by the hair and began dragging her down the stairs. If it landed, Koschei would then swiftly descend, allowing the stairs to bludgeon Jacqueline. She peered back at her victim with unmistakable delight as she dragged her down the stairs. "Ohohoho." A voice laughed from the rigid, porcelain face staring back at the fullbringer. Koschei then tossed Jacqueline into a nearby room before evaporating. Suddenly the door closed and Koschei grabbed Jacqueline by both wrists and pinned her against the ground. 

Meanwhile Nadezhda was finding it difficult to get away from Celes, but good fortune was upon her. "Me? A Beant? Well, not really, but kinda, sort of, a little, but not as much as others, but more than some, and less than a few. Mr. Clockburn is more a beant than me. He's a crapper." She said with a grin before doubting herself. "Wait...that's not the right word. He's a capper. Yeah, a capper. Wait...no. That's not it either. I know it starts with a C. I GOT IT! A copper. You know. He puts baddies in there place and says, 'stick 'em up or i'll shoot!' You know?"

Suddenly a beast fell from the ceiling and onto a nearby table, shattering the flimsy structure. The creature snarled and looked around confusingly, having not expected the collapse of the ceiling tiles. This is my chance. Nadezhda then leaped behind Celes and pushed her lightly, as if to suggest she protect her from the monster. "It's so scary looking..." She said while backing away toward the door. While Celes was likely distracted from the beast she'd slip out the door and  race down the hallway toward Koschei. It was evident Koschei had gotten rough with the girl, as evidenced by the blood on the ground. "Oh, Koschei." She said lovingly. 

"Does fire interest you?" She said as her black, ashen skin began to glow. Suddenly the door flung open and Nadezhda slowly walked into the room. She slowly closed the door behind her while peering at Jacqueline. She playfully pranced toward them and leaned over the Fullbringer, staring down at her face. "You've been naughty." She said just before the alarm system began to blare loudly and the sprinkler system activated, dousing them and the flames. "This century sure is marvelous." She said as the alarm blared. 

Nadezhda chuckled as the sprinkler's soaked her entire body, her hair now heavy as it clings to her skin. "What compelled you to set those fires?" She asked curiously as she leaned down and grabbed the notebook peeking out of her pocket. "What's this?" Nadezhda opened the notebook and began flipping the pages as the water drenched the paper. Nadezhda's finger gently scrolled across the page as the scribbles bled and smeared on the saturated paper. She tapped the paper and looked back at Jacqueline. "I see a familiar name is scrawled on this page. You know Luke. Hey! Me too!" She declared almost frighteningly. 

"What's his name doing in this thing of yours? Do you like him?" She said while making kissing noises. "Maybe you hate him. That would explain the fire, but maybe you just have a flare for mayhem like me. In another other situation I think we'd get along, but what you did felt pointed. Sooooo, what to do then?" She asked while looking at Koschei. "Should we let her go?" Koschei was silent as she smiled creepily at Jacqueline. "Two against one."  Nadezhda stated with a laugh. Nadezhda backed up and gestured for Koschei to lift Jacqueline's hand. "There's something off about you." She said while placing the notebook in her book bag. "I love crazy, but there isn't room enough for two of us, you know?" She said before leaning forward and abruptly biting off Jacqueline's pointer finger.

She sucked on the finger before allowing it to poke out between her lips. She then spit it out at Jacqueline before biting off her middle finger. Blood dripped down her face, but was quickly washed away by the sprinkler system. She would proceed to bite off the remaining fingers from her right hand before staring down at her victim with a smile. "It's okay if you scream. These glorious bells will drown out all that noise. Me on the other hand? I'll remember your screams for years to come." Nadezhda let out laughter that was like candied derangement. Nadezhda's sweet appearance was a sharp contrast to her sadistic choices. 

"Break her other hand." Koschei then twisted  her left wrist, shattering it with ease. "No fingers on one hand and a broken wrist on the other. You certainly won't be setting anymore fires." Nadezhda then plunged her hand through her wound that had been stitched shut, causing the wound to split open further. "Bad girl!" She said before slapping her across the face, smearing blood all over her cheek. "Now you sit here and behave. If you're a really good girl I promise I'll come back and set this place on fire with you in it. But only if you're really good." She said with a wink before skipping toward the door. "Let's go." Koschei then released Jacqueline and became invisible once more. "Enjoy your recuperation." She said as she dangled Jacqueline's fingers before slamming the door behind her. 

Nadezhda quickly ran down the hall and up the stairs and stood in the hallway. "Ugh...hm.. Oh, I know. CELERY!" She shouted loudly as if she were in distress. "Hurry! I need your help!" Suddenly a creature came charging at Nadezhda, but she simply smacked it across the face and send it hurtling through a wall. "Hehe. I better assume the position." She then ran toward Celery and shouted. "Let's go! We need to find Tim-Tim and Lukey-kins." Unknown to any of them, several beasts were on the roof looking down at the police stationed out front. Without warning they leaped down, many breaking there legs and others managing to stick the landing. They violently attacked the police, tearing off limbs and carving out throats. A couple police offers rolled under their vehicles to obscure their presence as others gunned down a couple monsters before succumbing themselves. 


Note: These are all attempts unless she has the speed and strength to free herself from being pinned down.

[Luke Clyburn]

<sub>Down the stairs he went like a bloodhound chasing a panicked coon. Time was not on the heroes side as the reality of the situation dawned on him. “Bad” was not a good enough term for this predicament. What was rampaging through this hospital were not Hollows, but transformed humans. Something was spreading from person to person and transforming them into beastial mutants. And, as logic dictated, it seemed to be spreading like a zombie virus. If what the spirit of that Doctor had said made any sense at all he was attacked by one of those monsters prior to becoming one himself. This meant that there was an infectious agent at play. But what kind? Magic? Bacteria? Virus? Luke wasn’t going to pretend to be smart enough to figure something like that out, all he could do was take the monsters out and save anyone he came across.

”I think this might be worse than we so far realize.” Windstärke commented from within Luke’s head. He couldn’t disagree. But first things first. He had to find Timor. She may, or may not, know something about what was going on. As Luke descended the staircase he suddenly felt a ping in his invisible radar. A source of reiatsu he recognized rather quickly due to its peculiar and unique feel. Timor. Stopping at the door to whatever floor he was on, Luke pushed it open and stepped out into the next hall. As he did so he looked to his left, just catching Timor leaving a room with a sign that said morgue.

He blinked, noticing she was going somewhere, before he shouted out her name. Instead of sprinting after her, he instead would suddenly vanish from sight only to reappear right behind her with his arm stretching forward like a striking snake and clutching her by the wrist, injuries from her unique hands be damned. ”Hold on. I need to talk to you.” Luke said quickly, not even offering someone he would call a friend a hello. He was in full work mode and right now Timor was a potential suspect. But Luke didn’t realize that shouting her name caught the attention of more than just a few things. In fact, only a few moments later after telling her he wanted to talk, a number of doors suddenly flew open or were smashed off their hinges. Luke looked to his left to see a few dozen growling, drooling, hissing mutated monstrosities lumbering out of the rooms they had been hiding in.

It was the same to his right. Three more, blood mawed, monsters emerged from the morgue that Timor had just left. Had she been running from the morgue cus of them or was there another reason? Shit.. Luke thought to himself in those brief few seconds as the group of monsters drew ever closer, and he still held onto Timor’s hand, until Luke decided that Timor could wait. He let go of her hand just as the horde got close enough to begin lunging at him. But, even surrounded by those numbers, Luke couldn’t help but scoff and smirk. ”Show yourself..” he commanded as the shadows at his feet and around him suddenly came to life, converging upon him like fluid and wrapping themselves around his form to create a trenchcoat shape.

And just as the first bat got close enough to sink its teeth into Luke, there was a loud “POP” as a fist slammed itself right into its face with a satisfying crunching sound. ”ORA!” came the first cry, followed very quickly by ”ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!!” in repeat as Luke, standing in the center of the wave of fangs and claws, was untouched as his Doll moved like a dervish around him. Emerging from the shadows he was wearing was Jäger, his shadow dwelling Doll, who effortlessly moved around Luke and threw out punches with inhuman speed and acurracy. He moved around Luke almost like a conveyor belt, at his full speed, and at some point it even looked like there were two Jäger’s punching with such speed that in the next instant every single bat monster was blown away from Luke in a blood mess all at once. There was even a burst of wind from Luke’s position once it was done. Luke stood there, calm as could be, with his overly buff Doll emerging from the shadows he wore with blood dripped, white gloved, hands.

”Kekek. I knew you were gonna let me run wild at some point.” Jäger remarked, looking over his shoulder at Luke before loudly cracking his neck. Looking at the various bodies strewn around him, Luke made a motion with his hands that Jäger seemingly understood. ”You’re the boss.” the Doll commented before slipping back inside the Black Mantle Luke was wearing, before that Technique was ended and the shadows around Luke vanished, and he turned to face Timor again. Jäger, meanwhile, would reappear where he had an infected shadow and get to work making sure that the monsters were actually dead. ”Sorry about that. Where were we?” Luke questioned before stepping towards Timor. ”I need to know something, Timor. What are you and Nadezhda doing here?”</sub>

[Jacqueline ACK]

Did something hit her or some shit like that? Ow, she thought when touching her head. Something felt like it was rammed into from behind or pushed her. She was clumsy in almost every sense of the word, not comedic clumsy or a bit of an airhead. Nope nope. Something felt like it came from behind and was gonna break her in two. She saw the stairs come into view then shortly after all that, the stairs came at her? Wait a minute, can stairs really do that? Nah. She may have come out of a concussion but that wasn't really a reason to point her finger at when wanting to find the answer to this little dilemma. Hmm.

First off, she was thrown down the stairs, or the stairs came at her. Her noggin felt hazy after that. Afterwards, something pulled her leg. Was there someone there? Someone talking? Ugh. Whoever it was sounded annoying, like some cheap knock off villain from some kids anime. At least her concussion was acting out more so since she was there at the hospital to heal from a variety of injuries still. Her head rumbled and dance almost to the point that she could see little Leprechauns dancing around her eyes. Geez, what else is going on here? The weightless she felt soon after came along before feeling the cold dampness of a room. Rain? In the middle of the day? Can't be. At least that was the thought anyhow. Then, a silhouette appeared, covering her field of vision as much as it could, even going as far as slapping the Fullbringer's wrists up over her head.

Am I in a porno or something? Bondage? Geez, at least do it when I'm feeling better. she thought. She didn't take particular notice or interest considering her own state or the situation she was in. No interest until someone else decided to show up. Someone she did recognize only because of her little present to the Fullbringer. The little squirt from moments before Jacqueline decided to come down the stairs to follow the man. The midget from before didn't seem to be of interest at the time. She, like all the others, were just no face to the Fullbringer. No reason to pay particular to people who she wasn't gonna be meeting again. That was the thought until she felt the girl rustling in her garb. Suddenly, the comfort, the only comfort in the world, was taken from her.

The warmth and safety that Jacqueline placed her entire love and devotion for was taken. Its pages, contents, read by someone who held no appreciation for it. Only then did Jacqueline cried out. Her head throbbed. Wrists wrestled under the grip of the creature that held her down her arms. Hell, the Fullbringer didn't even know what she herself said. The notebook. Her mothers notebook. The only thing that she ever wrote inside. What was left of her mom scribbled down was in that notebook. Jacqueline didn't care about what happened to her body. She didn't fucking care about it. What she wanted was her notebook back. She wasn't fearful. No. That fear, whatever fear that she would have ever felt was replaced by rage. She bared her teeth to that of the Bount, envisioning the different methods of torture that she would gladly put her through.

Pulling fingernails, ripping out each artery from the legs and arms, slowly working her way up. Perhaps removing bits of her teeth before working her way down to her gums. Anything seemed good, but not enough. It wasn't sufficient. The people who preyed on others met their deaths quickly, and somewhat leisurely. But for this girl. No. No. NO. Not for this girl. For touching the notebook she will ensure that her death was with a thousand slashes across her little body. Jacqueline would tear every vein out with her knives. She would make it slow to the point of skinning her alive and hang it out at the center of the city for those that she cares for the most to see it. But that would come later, not now. Not with how Jacqueline was now.

She wouldn't even notice how her fingers were to be bitten off. A scream definitely. A scream of pain that came out with the digits coming away from her before striking the nerve of her rage again. She didn't care about her body, merely what belonged to her; to her mother. There wasn't a need for words, as those words were to be saved. Another scream, then anger. Scream, then hate. Scream, then to a dream. A near dream like state from the shock that the Fullbringer will be put under. A sensation that exhaustion would put her in as she hasn't fully recovered from before. Her hand snapped, broken. Her stitches undone, then a strike to the face. What she came to focus on wasn't the monster, or that of the water that made her body feel cold on the outside of her burning flesh. No. What she focused on was the girl's face. Her mannerisms. Everything about her body. She had a new target.

Was this how her mom felt? Being stuck in that asylum with no one there to really understand or help. Left in a world to rot filled with people wearing masks, to feel helpless in some regard. Was this what her mom felt for all that time spent left in the shadows, the darkness? Yeah. Her notebook told her stories. The pain written in the pages. Despite her mom never coming to know fear or feelings of love anymore, she did feel something when Jacqueline was born. Did her mom hate the world like how she does now? Did she want to see it burn to the ground? Did she want to bury all those two faced fucks like the little girl? Yes. She did. Jacqueline understood it. She understood it well. The water around her turned red. She was bleeding. She was exhausted. What the girl had to focus on now was recovering, with one phrase she had to say, "I'll find you." she said.

She repeated it. Again.......Again......Again..Again. Again. Again.AGAIN.AGAIN to the point that she didn't notice herself laughing. Jacqueline was laughing. They all had to die now. She thought for the shadows to take her as she went ahead to preserve herself.


irl: Will be taking myself out at this point considering she is now unable to do anything.

[Celes Castellanos]

As Celes knelt down and waited for the Bount's answer, it seemed that she would meet the ire of this little girl. Nadezhda suddenly huffed at her. "I'm not a squirt." This caused Celes to chuckle a tad bit. After all, she seemed very young and immature. Yet despite this, her presence was peculiar. Not only did she seem very familiar with the figures around here, but this was or atleast appeared to be a little girl. Far did not seem to grip her and she just overall seemed...off.

It was then that the girl would also reveal her name as Celes prompted. "My name's Nadezhda." This gave Celes some time to think. It was quite the interesting name. Slightly zoning out, she did not notice the bount curtsy to her rather cutely in fact and now especially would earn her ire it seemed. The girl in front of her suddenly exclaimed, "As Princess of the Cupcake Kingdom I demand respect!" The Shinigami raised an eyebrow and was a little perplexed at her next actions.

As she reached into her bag, she seemed to suddenly pull out a..cupcake. It seemed warm and drippy, but at the same time it had a tasty look to it, but it has definitely seen better days. She placed it into Celes' hand causing the Shinigami to nervously chuckle. This was getting weirder by the minute. This girl surely was either crazy or just that, a little girl, but given the circumstances, Celes chose to run with the former. This would especially be confirmed to her as she was rambling on about her position and her "kingdom".

Nadezhda then seemed to ramble from Celes question on her being a bount. "Me? A Beant? Well, not really, but kinda, sort of, a little, but not as much as others, but more than some, and less than a few-" That alone was all she needed to hear and Celes gave her an inquisitve look that also hid some confusion behind it. Before Celes even had a chance to ask any more questions or give any sort of solid remark, the ceiling began to crack and crumble as something before them suddenly fell through.

Almost as if though on cue, the girl leapt behind her and nudged Celes forward. The first thing on Celes' mind was this girls speed and athelicism. Yet despite this, Celes had no time to question it as the girl seemed to feign fear though Celes could not know this. As she slipped out and was left to her own devices, Celes finally had time to look at what even fell through. It was certainly bipedal as it stood on both legs. A mane seemed to fill its neck and head much like a lion. Claws appearing like they could shred victims to bits adorned its hands.

While not approaching, the Shinigami drew her Zanpakutou, but the scratching of metal against the sheath seemed to alert it as in the span of what appeared to be a second, the beast was growling and already leaping towards Celes. Despite the good bit of distance between the two, it was rather fast as its claws ripped through Celes' clothing and left quite the deep wound on her flesh. Now a couple feet away from her, Celes did her best to try and control her own breathing.

As she moved her foot ever so slightly, she noted the movement of the beast as it leapt at her once more. Trying the same trick twice was not the wisest idea as the Shinigami moved quickly, ducking under the attack and just as swiftly moving her blade upward so she could cut into it. As the blade made contact, there was this feeling of friction. It felt less like cutting and more like rubbing. The contact having happened for only an instant did not allow Celes to really gauge what happened.

As she looked over, the beast held its claw over the at most superficial wound and growled. It seemed that despite her effots, the Shinigami just could not cut it. Atleast yet. Having atleast a modicum of experience, the Shinigami slowly began to focus her reiatsu. The reiatsu she was focusing almost seemed to become one with her Zanpakutou. Her blade essentially felt like it was sharper, as if a second layer of serrated reiatsu coated it. After she did this, her eyes as sharp as daggers stared the beast down.

Having now focused on it, she spoke regardless of whether the create could understand her or not. "I urge you to rethink this. I will cut you down if I need to. Display proper wisdom and withdraw to where you came." It just seemed to go into one ear and come out the other as it ran towards her, the claws ready to shred her to pieces. With a sigh, she held out her finger as a Byakurai discharged with impressive speed at the beasts leg. Wincing and whimpering as it fell.

As it lay there, pouting and whimpering like an animal, Celes sighed and walked up to it. After one quick slash without much of a thought, the whimpers died down and went silent. It now lay there limp and dead as Celes just sighed and sheated her blade. As she did, her damn shoulder twitched from the wound as blood seeped from it. She began to stumble out towards the doorframe as she quickly took the ripped off piece of her uniform and made a tie to try and stop the blood loss.

Finally walking over, the Shinigami saw Nadezhda who seemed to be calling out towards her. The Shinigami admittedly looked at her, a little woozy as despite not losing a lot of blood, it was still enough to make her a little nauseous. Trying to compose herself she sighed and nodded. "Well..these beasts that attack us are certainly ferocious. He told me to lead you and another woman out of here, but we seem to have lost a hold of her.." This day was just becoming better and better it seemed.

With that, Celes offered Nadezhda her hand to hold. "Well..let's try and find them. There may be better strength in numbers considering the numerous infected people." Whether she took it or not, Celes would still make her way to the stairs and began to head down. As she used the stairs to race downward hopefully with Nadezhda in tow, her head was beginning to kill her. The splitting headache that arose plus her muscle beginning to twitch more and more from lesser bloodflow. Seems that running was not that good of an idea with an untreated wound.

[Akira Hinosai]

"Do you have anything to say as to why this barricade is in place? Why has the police force decided to quarantine the threat rather than going in? What exactly's going on in there?" Luca heard reporters converging on some pig like a bunch of ravenous birds. The officer in question responded to each one with more or less the same answer. "We have nothing to say at this time." Luca stood in the crowd that formed around the hospital. He was taller than most of them, so he didn't have to duck and weave through them to get a better view, but that was the most optimistic view of the situation. Stupid assholes...making my job harder... The instructions were quite clear. DO NOT GET ON POLICE RADAR. Yet as Luca surveyed the situation, he was having trouble thinking of a stealthy approach.

His first plan was stealthily knocking out a police officer who wandered too far from the heard, taking his uniform, gun, and sneaking in undetected. Though as cool as it was, it didn't exactly hold up under scrutiny. Luca was taller than most officers and noticeably not Japanese. Plus an officer who was knocked out and stripped to his underwear would surely tell someone. There were too many ways for it to blow up in Luca's face. There were too many eyes on the building. Too many eyes in general. No plan came to him. Luca was cornered at the starting line while others were doing cool shit. 

Luca snuck into the alleyway. To his surprise, it was free of cops, cameras, and people. He looked for a door but found only a wall. That was fine though. He was a fullbringer, and physical matter was his bitch. "Alright, it's just like the jumping thing." Luca said to himself. His plan should have been possible in theory. Command the wall to be fragile so that a good push would make a Luca sized hole. Of course, Luca could also fail miserably and run into a brick wall. Well, fortune favors the bold... Luca wasn't able to gather much speed, but he threw himself at the wall and crashed through. He was greeted by a dark hallway and too much silence for his liking. He could smell the spiritual pressure. He wasn't alone, not by a long shot. Luca dusted himself off and took a flashlight from his backpack, and with his main hand, activated his fullbring. He wasn't sure how well he could use it in tight corridors, but it was a better weapon than the shovel. Though that didn't stop him from bringing his favorite "gardening tool". This was some serious shit. He could tell as much from the orders he'd received, and he wasn't about to be caught with his proverbial pants down. 

He heard something knock over, and footsteps, a lot of them. What could it be? Was it a hollow? Fear shot into Luca's mind like bolts of fire. Instantaneously, a being appeared in the field of the flashlight. It was terrible, like a demon hound, but that didn't matter. Rational thought was gone from Luca in that moment. Instead, he held his spear out with his right hand, dropped his flashlight and put his left to the haft as well. The next thing he knew, the beast was on the ground, howling in pain. The flashlight illuminated it well enough even without direct exposure. Luca had seen all kinds of horrible mutants in video games, but it was still terrifying. On all fours, Luca could tell it was half as tall as him. Its skin was a slimy pinkish-orange, as though its outer skin layers had sloughed from its bones. He'd seen hollows enough to know this was something else entirely. It was a pit bull from hell. As it rose again, Luca could see black blood from under it.  Luca jabbed it once more between its right foreleg and neck. It tried to move again, only to be held at bay by the spear's wings. Luca had it for now, but how could he kill it? If he let it go now, it would just get in close and fuck his shit up. Suddenly, it came to him. He took his off-hand off the spear and began fiddling with the zipper on his backpack. Come on, come on... His arm trembled at holding the demon-mutant back. Sure, his strength surpassed humans, but he still felt like he was deadlifting a horse with only one hand. Right as he felt his arm couldn't take it anymore, he grabbed his shovel, flicked it open, whirled around towards the beast, and slammed it as hard as he could into its head, one, two, three times each with a WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! With each strike, Luca could feel it exert less and less force against the spear. WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!  "DIE, DIE, DIE!!!" He hit it until he could feel its skull crack and a few more times after that. Luca breathed heavily as the thing finally collapsed. Yet he had little time to rest. This beast wasn't alone, and Luca wasn't about to be swarmed. Surely they heard the fight, and more would be upon him unless he got the hell away from this location. He wasn't fleeing, not at all. He had to do his part cleaning this shit up before these things escaped, or worse: the humans found out about spirits. 

A spear in one hand, shovel in the right, and a flashlight he had levitated above him with soul command, he went further and further down the hallway, periodically turning off the light, but always moving very quietly. He turned a few corners, closed a fire door or two before he was confident he escaped the monsters that might have flocked to the noise from earlier. Luca found a stairway and sat down on one of the stairs to a higher floor. He had to come up with a plan here. Before he came in, he sensed presences here. However poor at it he was, he had sensed people, not...whatever he had fought. If there were others in here, Luca had to rescue them or fight alongside them. With a few good people he could set up some phalanx shit and clear rooms swat team style. Efficient, methodical, safe, useful. Luca did like the sound of those words. Surely it was worth checking out. If he was wrong about the energy signatures, he could at least pick off a few beasts along the way. It would be known he helped clean this mess up. 

He ascended some stairs to the higher floors. If he got cornered there, he could always jump down a window. If he got cornered in the basement... Luca got some unpleasant flashbacks to a zombie movie where they got into an underground compound... Yeah, no thanks. I'm not dying like that. Luca wasn't going to die at all. By shovel and spear, he was going to kick total ass. He wasn't helpless, he was a hero.

[Eve Timor]

Affen sortof tilted her head a little as Nade went about doing her things, furrowing her brows a bit when the little girl called her stinky. "Some stuffs gotta burn, Lady Nade" She noted with a shrug, seemingly not all that concerned with what she was called, she DID however keep a wary eye on the shinigami as all this shit went down. And well......as a result, when Nade started fucking around and all that nonsense, she actually lost track of her. The Doll blinking, realizing that she couldn't tell where the little runt went. "......FUCK!"[/colot] She gritted her teeth and shook her head, promptly sighing as she tapped her chin and mentally informed Timor of the situation. Ugh.....I fucking figur- what the... The doll blinked, her head tilting. color=dodgerblue]Don't worry about...ugh.Nothing. Luke decided he needed to grab onto my hand. Just get back here. Timor's voice informed her.

Affen smirked just a little to herself and nodded, making her way down the hall a few steps before flames suddenly wrapped around her. The Armor around Nade vanishing as well as Affen promptly resealed herself. The Monkey vnishing from the air before down below, where Timor was, that jacket blazed back into existence around her shoulders, glowing for just a moment before returning to just looking like some normal jacket. Just in for the doll to take stock of the situation that was unfolding around Timor at that very moment, and of course, Luke being right up there. And Promptly Affen filled the inside of Timor's head with Laughter. Much to Timor's Chagrin.

---

Timor had.......an interesting set of her own issues, when Luke just straight up beelined right for her. Which honestly she didn't mind. Honestly she had mostly been trying to avoid running into the massive group that had collected from just the general nonsense going on. Too many people. But as Luke reeled right in, she resisted the urge to roll her eyes when she saw the look on his face. Ugh, she knew that look. That was 'conversation I don't wanna have look', she thought to herself. And before she knew it, Luke suddenly went and GRABBED onto her hand. Startling her. Which was.....not the smartest thing to do. She suddenly TENSED! Surprise visible on her ace as he promptly got about half an inch of that black volcanic glass that was her claws suddenly gripping for just half a second, sinking into his palmin reflex as those sharp hands promptly slid through the man's skin, since well, Luke hardly had anything defensive active.

"The FUCK are you- DO YOU NOT HAVE ANY SENSE?! WHY WOULD YOU GO FOR MY HAND?! I HAVE A PERFECTLY GOOD WRI-" Timor STARTED to berrate Luke, before suddenly her attention was caught, she looked around and heard Affen going 'FUCK' in her head. Was something going on? But she didn't really have much time to think about that as, quite suddenly, a miniature horde of those creatures suddenly BURST from the nearby doors. Screeching, hissing, slobbering as they began to pile into the hallways. Which was just going to be a pain in the ass. God DAMMIT why were there so many?!

No sooner had Luke said the word 'show yourself' than there was a rush of cold air. With Timor's Sasei Oni active, she fired a chunk of reiatsu from her left eye, ripping through the hallway, missing the first couple of the beasts before exploding, ice absolutely FILLING the hallway as it then burst forth, cold water filling the hallway almost COMPLETELY from the point of impact with one of the creatures onward, promptly turning to black ice before she turned her head, and fired again down the other hallway. In that rapid volley, the number of beasts that WEREN'T frozen in mid-air and encased in black ice suddenly went from a fuckton, to about a handfull. So when Luke went all Jotaro on the crowd, he managed to Jaeger-blend significantly less than he had perhaps anticipated. but all the same, it would be at that very moment that Timor's jacket burned it's way back onto her body, leaving her unscathed as the doll returned to her. And then started laughing in her head as it lay witness to the.....strange move. And Noise Jaeger was making.

Timor furrowed her brows as she watched the other shadow doll start finishing off the Bat monsters, and Luke turned his attention back to her. Promptly asking her what she and Nade were doing. To which Timor raised an incredulous eyebrow. "What the fuck do you mean what am I doing here? This whoe thing was on the fuckin news. I ....admittedly wasn't very fond of bringing Nade here." Which actually was very true. She had SERIOUSLY consideredhaving Nade stay home when all of this had gone down. but well...she had ultimately decided to make the girl fix her mess. ....all the good that was foing as all this shit was going down. Timor sighed. "But well, apparently she's harder to get away from than I thought...." She murmured a bit sourly. Implying that Nade had just outright followed her here. Which wasn't true, but then again ,she avoided actually saying that.

She honestly couldn't give Luke the whole story without endangering and exposing Nade. Which she had no intention of doing. Fuck, with all this shit going on? Luke would probably find out on his own anyway. As discrete as NAde could be, she also was....unsubtle when she actuallly started doing things. And she had a bad feeling that Nade was eventually going to let loose in this hospital. And Luke was probably going to fin out about it. All the same, before she could say anything else, a noise suddenly caught her attention. Groans. Looking around, she for half a second thought those fucking bodies were gonna pock back up. But instead... "Ughhh....uh....AHHH...Where am I?! Oh my god what IS that thing....Who are....hello?!" Was jsut one of the voices.

The hallway promptly FILLED with the pluses of the dead, mainly from Luke, as the ones encased in ice ...well they wouldn't properly die for a while when the ice preservation caugth up with the tissue damage to their bodies. A couple minutes probably. But those ghosts would probably just pop up nearby, not just above their bodies, as she doubted they could manifest INSIDE her ice. All the same, her and Luke's conversation was...promptly drowned out as the dozens of pluses around them started to whimper and wail in confusion. Causing her to glance at Luke and ift a brow slightly. She didn't judge him or anything. Well, not for the murdering. More she looked kinda...intrigued. Their souls were still intact? what a strange power Nade had gotten herself into.....

[Nadezhda Esterházy]

Nadezhda glanced over her shoulder at Celes, sensing the blood seeping from her wound into the make-shift bandage. She was feeling rather parched, but she mustn't be gluttonous. She could control her impulses for a short while longer. She simply had to remind herself of the snack she had moments ago. Those fingers were delicious, and the blood wasn't all that bad. A shame she couldn't dine on her longer, but she hadn't the time to waste. Nadezhda caught herself staring at Celes with a rather peculiar stare. It was the stare of a child upon spotting the ice cream truck on a hot summer's day. 

Blinking a few times Nadezhda was able to shake the trance she entered upon spotting the sight of blood. Her expression quickly shifted as she blurted out most scrutinizing observations. "You're shinigooey and you're already bleeding?" It wasn't quite what most would expect from someone of Nadezhda's apparent age and appearance. "I was told you were tough hombres..." She trailed off as she contemplated what she knew of Shinigami and compared it to what she was seeing of Celes. She smacked the monster away with ease, but here she was wounded. Maybe she wasn't as strong as she originally thought. Did she have to reassess what she knew of Shinigami?

Hm. This one is weaker than the ones I met. It would make sense for them to vary in strength, but I was expecting the same ferocity as I witnessed back then. She doesn't seem fierce at all. ...I suppose that's a good thing. She thought. She pranced over to Celes and jumped in the air to get a better look at her arm. She reached out and tapped it with her finger while in mid-air. "Did that hurt?" Nadehzda's face lit up as she reached into her bag and presented a rectangular tin filled with band aids. "Ta-da!" She exclaimed. "Take a purple one. Go on. Do it. I have some...wait a second." She rummaged through her bag once more and pulled out a tube of cream. "No, wait, this isn't for owies or boo-boos. This is for bumps on your rump." She tossed it back in her bookbag and pulled out a can of first-aid spray. "Here we go. Now hold still!" She proceeded to spray Celes with an antiseptic spray. "This will kill all those germies, you know?"

Suddenly a bunch of screeching could be heard echoing throughout the hallways. Nadezhda turned and took a defensive stance, brandishing the can of spray as if it were a weapon. "I hear some beasties." The screeches became louder and more numerous as the seconds went by. Nadezhda suddenly leaped forward and sprayed Luca directly in the face with the antiseptic spray. "Take that you beasty!" Nadezhda noticed it was a human and stared curious while continuing to spray him in the face. It appeared that he had made it to their floor while ascending the stairs. Nadezhda then realized she was still spraying him and withdrew the can. "Whoopsie." She said with a high-pitched giggle. 

"Celery do you know this very tall boy?" Nadezhda looked at Luca curiously before resuming her alarmed state from before. "Oy!" She said slapping her palm against her forehead in frustration. She then would attempt to grab Luca by the shoulder and shove him behind her as she punched one of the creatures in the face. It had somehow camouflaged itself and was sneaking-up behind an unsuspecting Luca. Nadezhda held back with her punch, giving it just enough power to send the monster tumbling down the stairs.

"That was fun!" She looked back and patted Luca on the leg, comforting him considering she sprayed his face with antiseptic spray. "Sorry 'bout that." Nadezhda's lips puckered and her face squished together as she revealed a goofy smile. Suddenly a violent screech came barreling from the dark hallway. Nadezhda turned and was hit full-force with the high-pitched sound wave. It was no ordinary scream. It carried with it force, enough so to cause her ears to ring and send her flying past the other two. 

Creature's relative appearance

She crashed through a nearby door, splintering the sturdy wood. This particular beast looked different than the others. Was whatever Nadezhda had infected them with evolving? Was it taking on varied mutations depending on the host? There was little time to contemplate as its maw opened wide and a deafening shriek filled the air. The force was very much tangible as the concussive wave was aimed directly at both Celes and Luca. Even so, it appeared the beast was still weak somehow. The shriek seemed to drain it for a moment as its body vibrated. 

Nadezhda lifted herself from the shattered debris, pulling a splinter from her arm. Glaring intensely at the beast she watched it recuperate before attempting to unleash another scream. Nadezhda couldn't quite react yet. Her head was spinning and her ears ringing. She just didn't have the balance. Koschei immediately began charging at the beast in retaliation for Nadezhda. "Ne!!" She shouted. Her eyes widened as Koschei froze in mid-swing. Nadezhda needed to regain her composure. She didn't want to reveal too much about herself, especially not with a Shingiami around. 

"Uvidí jestli se ho dotknete.." She said to Koschei. She cradled her forehead with her hand as if to soothe the spinning sensation. I understand. I won't let them see me. Koschei darted into the darkness of the hallway, out of view, and as the creature prepared another scream a long, metal bar came hurtling from the shadows and pierced the creatures side. The harmful cry seemed to die while still in the creature's throat as it slammed into the wall from the force of the projectile. However the scream from one only managed to attract others. We're not going to be able to keep this up, Koschei. She recognized gruffly in thought.

She stumbled forward. If they had managed to dodge the scream she would ultimately be relieved, but inquire their status anyhow. "You alright there Celery and...stranger?" She shook her head as if to dismiss the ringing. A calm express spread across her face as the symptoms dissipated. They're stronger than I thought. I can't scream like that...why can they? She thought angrily. "Celery let's go with your plan. Let's find the others before more of these beasties come screamin'."

As she said that a cacophony of screams filled the air, drowning out her voice. It would carry throughout the building. Not only did it disrupt their ability to hear one another well, but it somehow dulled their senses, including energy sensory. It was like the lights went out and Nadezhda could no longer sense the others even as they stood in front of her. She could see them, though her vision was blurry, but was unable to sense their energy. "That's no good...now how are we gonna find TimTim...?"

[Luke Clyburn]

<sub>Timor had made a good point about her hand. There was a dripping sound coming from Luke’s direction and if you looked down you would see a small puddle created from a few red droplets. Luke quietly looked on at everything around him before his amber eyes finally lowered to look at the damage done to his hand. Damage caused by grabbing onto Timor’s own malformed talons. ”Hmm.” he grunted to himself, before his hand began to glow ever so slightly. The sliced skin stitched itself back together as if nothing had ever been done to it. The blood being the only proof there had ever been a wound at all. Sure, maybe grabbing her hand wasn’t the smart move in the playbook. But at the same time, why wouldn’t he?

He looked at the damage Timor had done to the hallway with the use of her strange release. He hadn’t wanted to do so much damage to the structure of the building, but, there wasn’t anything that could be done about it now. Besides, it wasn’t like he had already put a hole through a wall. He also could have sworn he was hearing the sound of a fire alarm as well. But with his attention returned to Timor, he raised his own eyebrow in response to what she said. ”What do you mean what do I mean? I mean what are you doing here? Just because it’s on the news doesn’t mean you’d have a reason to come here. This isn’t the sort of thing you’d normally get involved in. And why did you bring Nadezhda here? She’s just a kid, Timor.” Luke responded back, Timors responses only causing his suspicions to grow even further. But how would he get the truth out of her?

But before Luke could press any further he, just as Timor was, was distracted by the chorus of groans and grunts that filled the hallways. He sighed as he closed his eyes, already knowing what was making those sounds. He’d already seen it happen, after all. Turning his attention to the variety of Pluses who had just popped up out of their bodies, Luke felt a small tinge of guilt well up inside him for a moment. But he quickly suppressed it. Nothing could have been done. Their bodies had become mutated and transformed. They were nothing but monsters. Did it suck that they had to die? Yeah. These people had done nothing wrong. But at least their souls retained their human appearances. At least they could move on to Soul Society and, eventually, get another chance at life.

Now how was he going to deal with this? Looking back at Timor, Luke could only frown, before he shook his head. ”Don’t go anywhere.” he said to her almost as an order as he got closer to the crowd of spirits. ”Alright everyone, look, there’s no easy way to really explain this but… you’re dead.” Luke explained with a rather deadpan expression and was forced to spend the next few minutes trying to explain to all the Pluses just what death was going to be like. How Shinigami would come and send them off to the afterlife where they would get to live new, different, lives. But as Luke explained what was going on, he decided to press the question. ”I know you’re all in a panic, shocked, and scared but I need you all to focus for a minute. Do any of you know how any of this happened?” Luke asked, motioning down to the bodies around him.

”We were in the cafeteria when it happened. On our breaks.”

“We were having the katsu. Oh that was so good.”

“I was checking in on patients when one of those things came in and attacked me.”

“I was the patient. It jumped on me afterwards. I couldn’t go anywhere cus of my leg.”

“I was taking a shit when it broke through the stall wall.”

“Me and Dr. Fubuki were having...uh...nevermind. But we were together when we were attacked.”

This wasn’t getting anyone anywhere. Luke groaned. ”Okay yes but does anyone know how it all started? I’m sorry you were attacked but I’m trying to figure out how this all started.” Luke explained, trying to narrow down the facts. Could it really be that all these people had just been happenstance victims? ”I think I know how it started.” Luke suddenly heard someone say. Turning his attention to a young man, Luke nodded for him to continue. ”I’m the postmas---was, the mail man. I was delivering some packages when I heard talk about something that happened last evening. Someones body got tossed through one of the ground floor windows. Like just thrown through like they’d been hit by a car, apparently. But they were still alive it turns out. Got taken to ICU on the seventh floor. I can take you there. I know this place like the back of my hand and...welll...not like I can do anything about my mail anymore.” the guy said with a sigh, tugging on the chain extending from his body.

”Yeah sure. I’d appreciate that, thanks. Come on Timor, you’re comin with me.” Luke shot back to the Nakabakki, not really giving her any choice in the matter. ”Lead the way.” Luke said to the spirit, who gave a shrug and started leading Luke and Timor to the staircase. ”What about us?” one of the spirits asked. Looking back Luke blinked. He hadn’t thought about them. ”Make your ways outside. There’s a Shinigami here who will work on sending you all to Soul Society once we’ve dealt with what’s going on here.” Luke replied back, getting back some “oh, uh, okays” as a result. It didn’t seem these mutants attacked the dead. ”Wait for me!” Jäger shouted.

”Can’t believe all this happened, y’know. I just got myself a girlfriend too. Ah man. Can’t believe I’m dead. Eaten by a monster too. Wasn’t how I thought I’d go out.” the spirit complained. Though Luke sympathized he didn’t really listen. He was busy thinking about events. But he paused when he noticed something, a few steps up the stairs, when he turned back to see his Doll. Jäger, who had emerged from the shadows, was leaning forward with his head turned to his left. He was unmoving. Still. Watching. ”Jäger?” Luke called down to him, getting silence back as a response. ”What is that thing anyways?” but the spirit was ignored as Luke’s brow furrowed.

”We’ve got company.” the Doll suddenly declared as he watched, from the area Luke had come from originally, the stairway door was suddenly smashed off its hinges. With a grunt, Luke hopped back down to the floor. ”More canon fodder, huh?” Luke asked, a little annoyed. But he quickly blinked when he watched what came crawling down the hall. Another creature, yes, but this one seemed… different. It had a different aura than the rest. It was hairless. Far thicker, muscle-wise, than the others with two massive tusks emerging from its mouth. Spotting Luke and Timor it let out a roar before grabbing onto the body of one of the dead mutants.

Gouging its body on its tusks there was an audible slurping sound as it sucked the blood from the body. As a result it grew even bigger, its skin redder, after it drained the body of all its fluids. ”What a joke.” Luke commented, raising his hand and readying some reiatsu, only to suddenly see the behemoth vanish from sight. Wh-” Luke started to say, only to suddenly get hit by the fucking things shoulder. Like he was hit by a truck. He suddenly went flying down the hall, crashing into a door and ripping it off the wall. The bat roared, before turning its attention to Timor.</sub>

[Celes Castellanos]

Standing next to Nadezhda, Celes was beginning to feel the effects of that damn wound. In truth, she was certainly not the most physically durable. She could naturally take more punishment than an average human, but for Shinigami standards, she was rather physically inept. Her wound would show this as it would be slightly gushing. It was damn painful too and made Celes wince a little. As the lightheadedness kicked in a little, Celes was vaguely able to make out Nadezhda. All she heard was, "I was told you were tough hombres..."

Celes was admittedly caught off guard when Nadezhda leapt into the air and before Celes knew it, the little bount had in fact poked her wound. Thankfully it did not hurt that much, but she certainly did wince. Yet after her prodding, the little bount seemed to rummage through her bag. Suddenly she produced a can which revealed an assortment of band-aids. "Take a purple one. Go on. Do it. I have some...wait a second." The Shinigami smiled, albeit a little oddly. This day was becoming weirder and weirder.

It seemed that after Celes grabbed a band-aid and before she could put it on, Nadezhda would continue rummaging through her backpack. In truth it was kinda amusing to see her pull out all manner of equipment. What was most curious was when she pulled out a spray-like device. She simply began to spray it on the wound and it did make the Shinigami grit her teeth just a little. It was then that the bount assured her that it would "kill all the germies". This kid just carried around antiseptic spray? Admittedly Celes did not know what to say.

It was then that the two of them would hear some manner of screeching. While both of them prepared themselves, assuming a fighting stance, Nadezhda brandished her spray as a weapon. In truth, it was kind of adorable. Yet just as the entity would draw closer and was about to cut the corner, Celes watched the bount spring into action as she used the antiseptic spray as a form of pepper spray. Upon the adrenaline withdrawing, her hand still on her blade, almost unsheathing it, Celes did note that this was not a beast. It was a random human.

Before Celes even had time to question him, Nadezhda was already bombarding her with her own questions, "Celery do you know this very tall boy?" She was about to shake her head until Nadezhda suddenly seemed to try and use Luca as some kind of human shield. At least to the naked eye it appeared so. The girl didn't have much time to blink before Nadezhda was already sinking her teeth into her prey metaphorically. A camouflaged creature that let out a shriek as it was suddenly sent backwards down the stairs by this seemingly weak little girl. At least outwardly she appeared so.

Celes smiled a little. Nadezhda was truly proving to be an invaluable ally. This was one of Celes first true field assignments and she was downright impressed with that she saw around here. In truth, it was..exhilarating. The joy had to wait, however. Celes was friendly, but she was on the side of caution as she unsheathed her Zanpakutou and held it in Luca's direction. A tiny bluff, but she was intending to walk out of this alive and you could never be too sure.

As Celes peered at Luca she would speak calmly, but with authority. "You may not appear to be one of those twisted creatures, but you can never be too sure. Now I'm gonna say this once and you better listen. Who are you? What business have you here? Do I need to gut you like a fish or are you on our side? Move a muscle and I swear the latter option will be the default." Celes was not sure why, but something was going on. Was it the adrenaline? The paranoia? She was not sure, but she was attempting to keep up a good bluff with words alone. Yet her stance did not waver.

It was then that the most peculiar thing happened. Regardless of how Luca answered, Celes would feel something akin to a shockwave. A devastating force that barreled against her. It was indescribable, but it launched the Bount back into a wall. In the moment that the shockwave hit Celes, she was already beginning to be forced back by it, but she acted quickly and jammed her blade into the tough flooring of the building. She held on tightly as it gave her enough leverage to stick on her feet, but it damn sure hit her like a train as once it stopped, she knelt, panting a little. 

As Celes received a moment to collect her composure, she saw the most interesting creature. Almost rodent-like in nature with appendages like a bat and 6 limbs. It was surely an interesting creature and as Celes tried her best to stand, it seemed that Nadezhda was already preparing her counter-attack. Shrugging off the blast, it seemed she was saying something? Celes could not quite make it out. Though suddenly, a metal pipe was thrust into the victim's throat as the poor creature who was originally about to launch a second attack seemed to lose its wind.

Next thing Celes knew, the bount was already standing next to her inquiring both her and this mystery kid about their status. Celes just sighed and spoke calmly. "I..I think I'm alright. That was quite the blast. Lucky that I have my Zanpakutou. Else I may have flown back, ever worse than you Nadezhda." Celes was beginning to smile. It seemed this bount had a shred of concern. She seemed to focus their objective as Celes heard her. "Celery let's go with your plan. Let's find the others before more of these beasties come screamin'." 

Celes just smiled again. Celery was not the worst rendition of her name, but it would have to do. It seemed though that before they could take another step, they were being assaulted again. This time, a cruel chorus of the most wretched sounds emanated throughout the building. It seemed to attack her senses as she felt her vision fade somewhat, it became difficult to even think. As Nadezhda was talking, it didn't even sound like anything to Celes. She could not sense where this sensory attack was coming from.

This was unlike anything Celes had every experienced. As she clutched her head, it seemed that the ringing would continue through her head. It was like a migraine that would never stop. Utter sensory hell. Through utter pain, the Shinigami raised her finger towards the stairs. Taking her chances, she discharged a mildly stronger electrical bolt from her finger. As it rocketed through the air, she could not tell if she hit anything. One thing was for sure, if this continued they could very well be pinned down here.

[Eve Timor]

Timor narrowed her eyes just a little as she watched Luke just heal like nobody's business. Fucking purebloods. Why couldn't SHE do any of that shit? She growled a little to herself, curling her lip before she took a moment to peer incredulously at Luke as he seemed to continue harassing her about Nade. "I JUST said that I didn't WANT her coming along, you think I had any part in her being here?!" She asked with a slight snarl. No lie, she honestly was beginning to wonder if bringing Nade along had even been a good idea. Especially if Nade might inadvertently just cause more problems with her ....whatever this was.

"I'm beginning to think I should just fucking nuke this place...." She murmured before Luke's attention meandered as he went about trying to calm the dead after their little issue. An endeavor that....oddly seemed to work. Timor folded her arms as she watched Luke talking with the various stooges. Though she narrowed her eyes a little. A body was....thrown into a building? She gritted her teeth just a little, wondering. Had that been Nade? No, surely she wasn't that strong. Maybe her dolls? Timor didn't even know Nade could USE her doll yet. She was going to have to have a conversation with the young woman when this shit was fixed. But of course, it seemed that fate wasn't just going to LET that happen.

She lifted a brow as Luke promptly seemed inclined to order her around. She was about to respond that she sure as fuck WASN'T going to be just following him around. "Yeeeeano. Luke, this is not working. Have you not considered we may just need to....you know....take out the whole hospital? This thing is CLEARLY contagious. What if it gets out into the city?" She tried to reason with him. But well, further conversation was going to be hard when suddenly some sort of ....massive Boar thing appeared out of nowhere. She was alarmed to see it suddenly stab a body and drain it like a caprisun. Fuck, now these things were getting Bount powers?! "No, fuck this, Zeig Diche." She growled out, promptly bursting Affenkonig into existence just in time to see the Boar speed by them to buck Luke down the hallway and into a door like a ragdoll.

Timor's eyes went just a tiny bit wide. Not that luke was any sort of brick shithouse when it came to strength. Actually Timor was pretty sure she could break his arm like a twig if she had a mind to. But all the same, she did NOT want to find out if she would win an arm wrestling contest with this boar. "Affen, OUT!" She barked, her Doll promptly lunging and wrapping their arms around Timor before the pair of them zipped away from the boar in a blur, rapidly moving to where Luke had been slammed into the door. Nothing left in their wake, but a molten effigy of Affenkonig, which upon Timor and Affen's arrival next to Luke, promptly exploded.

There was a WHOOSH of hot air just as a pillar of flames burst from the little burning doppleganger's position, melting the air and area around it in a five meter radius before plowing up clean through the ceiling, blowing a 20 meter long hole through the entirety of the hospital above them. THANKFULLY Affen had given her enough information that she knew that Nade and the shinigami weren't above them. .....Not that she cared if she iced some random soul reaper, but all the same, she promptly busted a solid chunk out of the hospital in her effort to get RID of what EVER that damn Boar was before it got the chance to go sucking down any more of the souls that were hanging around in the area.

Peeling herself away from Affen, Timor would glance in the direction luke had gone, prying some of the broken hallway out of her way before she spotted where he'd landed. "Luke cmon this is getting fucking ridiculous. We need to blow this place NOW. I know your little....uzawhatever has problems with killing humans but we NEED this shit not to go spreading everywhere!" She hissed, peeking her head up to the top of there the hole was. Huh, she'd never actually USED that in a place that wasn't like.... just one story tall, maybe two stories. She didn't know the explosion actually went up that far. She made a mental note to actually see if she could measure it at some future date. Definitely important info to have. That or she really just needed to use her powers more. Timor was.... a bit anxious to admit that she rarely actually used her abilities when she fought.

And well, now that laziness of just prying people open like soup cans was coming to bite her in her moneymaker. Definitely something she'd have to deal with. Especially if Nade was going to keep causing problems like this. What they needed was some sort of bount specialist. But that was an endeavor to leave for later. Fir the time being, she was set on peeling Luke up from whatever crater he'd been thrown into by the boar. Not....really worried about him dying or anything. Not with that healing nonsense he had going on. And no doubt she KNEW he was going to have something to say about her little lightshow. Ugh. She should have just stayed with the damn others. She hoped Nade was doing alright. "Affen, can you bring us to where you last were with Nade?" She asked her doll, a little anxious now that these things were starting to take different forms.

[Akira Hinosai]

There were a million ways the meeting could have gone. Some of them, he might have even been able to look cool. "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHGGGG, YOU BITCH!" Suddenly, a touch sent him whirling behind her. Uncool. Uncool, Jesus Christ can this day get any worse? "Ooooh, fuck, it's in my eyes. My eyes, like I can't see anything!" It was a little girl's voice. He called a little girl a bitch, but it was her own damn fault for spraying him. There was someone else here too, that Luca knew, but he was too busy frantically rubbing his red and watering eyes to regain sight so he could kick ass again. The second voice threatened him, which he was in no mood for. "Oh fuck off, princess! Uzaki sent me, or are you gonna gut me for that? I'm supposed to check on Luke..." He tried his best to glare at her as his sight returned, though it was still blurry. Luca could feel the shockwaves. This wasn't good. Not at all. 

"Celery"'s plan seemed reasonable, though Luca had a feeling he wouldn't be consulted on the matter. "Yeah, well, I'm going with you. I'm not half bad in a fight, you know...Just like, if we see one of those eye-cleaning stations, I might have to make a stop." His eyes still hurt thanks to the little brat who was here for some reason. Now that the initial shock of it all had worn off, the absurdity of it was finally setting in. "Woah, woah, woah, wait. Who's kid even is this? Why is she here?" He was reminded of Dia, only in her case, she was just a really short lady in her 20's.  "Or...How bout you guys tell me what the HELL is going on here? You know, like as we look for the others?"  Where they went, he would follow regardless of if they wanted it. He was going to prove himself today and no stupid pair of girls were going to stop him. He'd spear these monsters so fast their heads would spin. Totally.

[Nadezhda Esterházy]

Nadezhda stared blankly at Luca as he screamed profanity and responded harshly to Celes' modest efforts. She seemed unfazed by his insults and language, choosing instead to begin digging in her backpack. "Here we go." She announced before handing Luca a bottle of eye drops. "Wash out those peepers." She'd wait for him to use it and if he did she'd add, during use, "at least I think that bottle is the eye drops. It might be the bottle with soy sauce." Nadezhda smiled before presenting another bottle. "Nope. I was wrong. Here's the bottle of soy sauce. False alarm."

"Ughhhh." She exclaimed while cupping her ears. "I'm Nadezhda!" She said to Luca. "I'm a Beant, like Mr. Clockburn. I'm kind of his side-kick when I'm not helping Timtim. So, I guess, I'm a side-kick to both!" Suddenly all the windows began cracking and smashing and the building rumbled and shook as the creatures became a chorus and sang their corrupt melody. Nadezhda stumbled into an office and peered out the window. The sight shocked her, prompting her eyes to widen in disbelief. There were so many of the creatures and they had slaughtered everyone outside. "Ugh oh." Nadezhda then began running down the stairs "Alert, Alert!" She screamed. "They're outside! They're running around outside! All the coppers are dead!"

Nadezhda yelled loudly as she descended into the hospital and as she grew closer to Luke and Timor they'd be able to sense her and faintly hear her shouting. The creatures suddenly went silent before screams could be heard echoing from outside the hospital. "Shit." She muttered in a near whisper. Timor is going to be angry. It appears the monsters have emerged from the hospital and are now terrorizing nearby people. She thought. A sense of dread came across her face as she considered further consequences. Luke is going to have a much stronger reaction should he find out that I am somehow responsible for this. He might not kill me, but he'll lock me away which would be worse.

Do you know him well enough to know whether or not he'd harm you? I don't trust him. Koschei added as Nadezhda scowled. You don't trust anyone. Koschei sighed before responding. With good reason, Naze. I need to keep you safe. Koschei was right. Nadezhda needed to be careful until she could better defend herself, but she wondered if she was actually much stronger than she thought previously. She was indeed responsible for this meaning she has the power to create monsters, but the exact parameters and methods were unclear.

Suddenly a colossal creature burst through the wall like a wrecking ball and clipped Nadezhda. The force was strong enough to send her crashing through a couple of walls. She landed in the lobby of the hospital, her body aching and clothes tattered. Nadezhda attempted to stand but the juggernaut charged for a second attack, striking her in the stomach with its iron-thick fist. It seemed the creatures were somehow drawn to her, but why? Their aggression seemed to be escalating and it was focused on Nadezhda.

The creature roared as saliva dripped off its long, thick teeth. Nadezhda rolled over and winced, staring at the beast with her right eye partially closed. "Aren't children supposed to respect their mother?" She asked while looking around. Despite Nadezhda's strength, the creature seemed to be faster than even she was. Unfortunately, she hadn't yet mastered high-speed movement. She was still getting used to it. She continued to be surprised by her limits and what seemed to be random growth spurts in her abilities. This was an apparent example.

The beast turned to charge one more but seemed to unexpectedly zoom past her through several walls. The crashing and shattering of walls and obstacles echoed throughout the hospital. Everyone would be able to feel the shaking, giving them an indication of the location. Despite being bestowed a portion of Nadezhda's abilities, much like her, the beasts were unable to properly control them. Suddenly the ceiling above Nadezhda came crashing down as another juggernaut crashed into the lobby. If Celes and Luca were present it would then proceed to charge them as Nadezhda emerged from the rubble.

The juggernaut would attempt to grab Luca with its considerable strength (300). The juggernaut was considerably larger than any of the previous beasts. It sported a bulky body with a thick, iron hide. It was large enough to grab Luca around his waist with a single hand. If it was able to get its hands on him it would squeeze him tightly before flinging him through a nearby window as if he were a mere pebble. The original juggernaut would appear directly behind Celes, having used high-speed movement (600).

As it towered over her, standing at about 7ft tall, it'd punch her square in the back. If it landed, its fist would grind into her flesh and send her soaring past Nadezhda and through the electric glass doors of the hospital. The monster launched at Nadezhda and grabbed her, squeezing her tightly. Nadezhda's eyes took on a violent appearance as she grabbed its fingers with her hands and broke them by bending them backward. The beast roared as she slipped from his grasp and landed on the ground. Nadezhda angrily jumped in the air and punch it in the face, breaking its jaw and causing it to fall backward and crash into the ground.

Meanwhile, a horde of the creatures came bursting from vents and the ceiling in and around where Luke and Timor were. But before they could attack another juggernaut came crashing through a wall, dragging other beasts with him. It crashed through multiple walls and made its way through the exterior wall of the hospital. It stumbled as it attempted to control its high-speed movement, which Timor and Luke would recognize as eerily similar to the bount step-tech. He would proceed to knock down multiple pillars, causing a pavilion to come crashing down. It did not seem to faze the creature as it emerged, angry as ever. It lifted one of the huge, stone pillars and with great force threw it at Timor and Luke. The giant stone pillar would obliterate any obstacle in its path, severely damaging the hospital.

The monster picked up a piece of rebar with a large chunk of concrete on the end. The juggernaut swiftly charged Luke assuming he had moved to avoid the pillar. It would swing the concrete mallet with great force (300), bashing through walls and obstacles with ease. Meanwhile the monster Nadezhda had injured lifted itself from the ground and was able to fix its jaw and fingers, snapping them back in place with loud cracking and crunching accompanying the repair. It then swung to hit Nadezhda, but she leaped onto its hand and climbed its arm and kicked it in the face before jumped on its head and kicking it from behind. She used the momentum to move across the room. However, a separate creature launched from the shadows dug its claws into her skin before screaming directly at her and sending her flying.

[Col Arana]

Total number of paragraphs: 265.

That works out to a total of 1325 TP to all participants