Fateful Darkness Down Under [Hard, DE]

[Raphael Laurent]

Raphael didn't quite know what he was doing with this meditation. Not that he hadn't meditated before, but he was still trying to figure out how Kimiko had done what she did. It was...a completely different kind of meditation that he was having to do and it was almost entirely trial and error. He closed his eyes and did his best to focus inwards, it was similar to how his mom had taught him to meditate to go into his own head. It wasn't like what had happened when Kimiko had done so and, in some ways, he began to ponder if he shouldn't look for her again... He'd still have a unbelievable amount of shit to explain to Kazura.

When you focus on an opponent's reiatsu, and you truly focus, you can learn things about them that they're most likely hiding, in many ways from themselves, as well. Raphael, eyes closed, and brow furrowed, was concentrating harder and harder. What are you doing, Raphael? You won't figure out how to get inside, that way. Though I'm glad that you're here, Sonzai and I were just discussing the finer points of learning and knowing about, an adversary. He believes its when the weapons clash, but I believe that it's when you feel the cuurrent of their energy, as it flows and bends around you. What do you think?

Raphael was about to answer Hikisau, when suuddenly he felt a burst of spiritual energy hit him and his eyes shot open. Immediately he began looking around, watching as people, those that were not aware to the expanded world around them, began to have different reactions. The majority seemed to be immese headaches, though it was possible that others were having less intense symptoms. Raphael, however, was already attempting to pinpoint the exact place that it was happening. Even the attendants didn't seem safe, as they immediately started moving quickly down the plane, trying to help people and keep them calm.

Raphael, however, didn't need any assistance remaining calm, though it was much harder to focus with all the people running around. Trying to triangulate, and figure out, what exactly this was, but he could tell that it was fairly strong, and that worried him. What kind of wall would be erected...but it wasn't a barrier, it didn't stop anything... Something was wrong here, but what. They were out here to stop, what sounded like, some kind of hell incursion... Though, what kind of hell incursion, exactly, was the question. Even worse... He frowned as he stared off into the distance of the plane.

"Mm... Well, it's not what we're heading out this way for but... I can't quite tell--"

That was whe "Molly" appeared, and Raphael listened intently, grabbing an emergency parachute and strapped it onto himself. Then he slowly began to think, pondering at what Molly had said, and then, from there, what Irina said. It was curious, after all. He couldn't tell, either, whether they were running from somethig or o their way too something. The energy that he sensed wasn't hell energy, but... He had no idea what it was. He watched Molly trying to ponder through what exactly she was, all whlie remembering his usage of air ground.

"I've got a bad feeling that she's not all that concerned, Irina."

[Scarlet]

One moment everything was fine, sitting in her seat it had taken her a fair bit of time to briefly overlook everything that Kazura had sent the three of them. She wasn’t the best when it came to paperwork or really following instructions online, but this was a new job that was important. Although this was her first assignment that just meant she could stand out even more if successful. It’d only been a little while since she’d drifted off to sleep and then just like that she was stirred awake by the motion of the plane. Over the next several minutes Scarlet had to question if the plane itself was already under attack.

She didn’t waste any time getting up from her seat. To her sitting down in a situation like this knowing what they were heading into, was almost like trying to fight a gunman while laying on the ground. She’s fought those of Hell before and knew she needed to throw everything at them from the start, she had to be ready for absolutely everything otherwise not just her, but everyone was potentially dead. The high pitch was perhaps the most annoying sound she ever heard and after a few loops she started to question whether or not stuffing the internal fabric of the seats into her ears would help.

Scarlet didn’t waste any time beyond the first couple seconds. She didn’t recognize Molly and due to her nerves had the thought of cutting her down right away. Perhaps she was an enemy causing everything and now was trying to get them off the plane. Rushing over and grabbing what she’d need though and putting it on her back, Scarlet came to the conclusion it was better to be prepared. If Molly was an enemy then she’d get what was coming to her if nothing else. She was confident that the three of them together would be able to survive this problem even if the safety measures they were being told to get and rely on right now were all a lie. Although she hadn’t done it yet she had been told that it was possible for people like them to stand on the air, so why were they ever in danger of a plane going down?

“Irina, can’t we just command the wall or whatever to open up?”

Scarlet wasn’t sure if her thought was correct or not, but one thing she’d come to accept after learning about the Fullbringer’s ability to command the souls of other things was that usual methods weren’t concrete anymore. Why would they need to force themselves out if they could just make the plane do what they wanted. Either way though Scarlet would waste no time once the exit was open and jump out along with Irina and Raplael. From everything she’d gathered in the short amount of time this mission was going to be incredibly difficult and she was going to need to work together with both of them as much as she could in order to save as many people as possible. She’d faced off against Hell a little bit, but now it was like she was heading straight for a pool of bad blood and would need to brace for impact.

[Kazura Uzaki]

Irina went to check on the passenger who had shrieked from Economy and found her quite easily. She was sitting in the aisle seat of her row with just one other passenger in the three seats who had an arm around her trying to comfort her as she clutched at her temple, sipping a bottle of the water that had been brought back to her. Irina would be just in time to hear her decline the pills the attendant had brought her. She really needed a different kind of medicine she said, and she was highly allergic to that one. The attendant apologized and headed back towards his spot at the front of the plane. When Irina asked if she wanted to take a walk because that helped the Russian woman's migraines the woman gave her a confused, rude look. "Excuse me, but no, I don't know you and that sounds creepy. I'll be fine, it'll pass."

Irina would return to Business Class alone and Molly would appear shortly after, sending the three Fullbringers into action. They all quickly put on the parachutes and prepared for the worst. Irina was the only to address Molly directly, asking two questions that were valid as well as listed a variety of facts including a specific engineering calculation impressive for mental math. Molly just smiled in a creepily innocent way at the questions and comments and responded to them in reverse order. "Soul Commanding the door open would probably work but would definitely cause harm to at minimum the flight attendants nearly right next to it. Though, the male one is correct and I don't really care! And 70,000 Newtons of Force? We'll need more like 70 gajillion Newtons of Badassery to survive this! Though we're running to something, not away. What's going on is we're blowing this popsicle stand!"

Molly held out an open palm and a small spherical crystal formed over it. "This is Pingy the Pinguin! He'll be our targeting beacon today." The crystal shifted in appearance until it formed the shape of a thin penguin. It's beak opened up and the sound of a gentle wind chime could be heard clearly throughout the cabin. A single clear note. "Your fourty three and a half seconds are almost up and... what's this?"

Suddenly from behind them from Economy came the woman Irina had gone to check on and her partner. He was saying something along the lines of "I know she came across as creepy but maybe she has the pills you need if she also has chronic migraines." The woman froze solid at the sight of Molly, petrified with fear, but it was clear that he didn't see anything as he looked very worried. "Oh no, hallucinations also again? You haven't had a migraine that bad in a long time..." The Pinguin let out another chime, much much louder this time and the bystander passenger clutched her head from pain. Used to the spiritual energies around the situation Raph, Scarlet, and Irina wouldn't feel any pain just a resonation in their energy sensory that even Scarlet would process. "Oops, time's up!"

A red fog started to fill the room from the front. It moved slowly enough to be able to be processed but quickly enough that there wasn't going to be anything they could do to avoid it. They didn't really have a different place to go either, though. As soon as it touched Molly she was no longer in their presence and when it touched the three Fullbringers and the female bystander they'd feel a tugging, their vision would be dark for a moment, then would be replaced by blinding light and the feeling of weightlessness as they were displaced just outside the plane underneath it. They'd see it flying off hundreds of miles an hour as the practical portion of their impromptu "skydiving lesson" began. Unfortunately, one of the five that had been displaced was without a parachute and was tumbling through the air screaming in panic as she plummeted towards the ground.

Molly simply shrugged remorsefully, knowing that spoken words wouldn't carry to the ears of the Fullbringers anyways even if she had an opinion to share.

[Irina Davayte]

”Well sure, I think *we* can certainly get the door open,” she clarified, because “regular” people surely wouldn’t be able to, ”but the kickback from doing that is going to fling us right back into the wall, and I’d be concerned about injuries…” Irina mused, considering Scarlet’s proposal, and feeling quite uncertain about the amount of force their human bodies could withstand without fractures and concussions, which, again, was outside of her area of expertise. Fortunately, Molly seemed to agree about the risk, and noted the cabin crew in particular. What was the plan, then, exactly?

Pleased that her questions were actually being answered, Irina awkwardly nodded a greeting to “Pingy”, feeling that acknowledging it was her best bet at being polite, just in case it was sentient. Before much more discussion could happen, the penguin-shaped targeting beacon let out a couple of yelps, and Irina decided to follow Molly’s lead and not panic about it. ”Ready?” she asked the other two, completely ignoring the woman, who Irina had decided to ignore due to Molly’s claim that they were running towards something not away. Then she stuck a foot into the mist, hoping that would cause her to arrive wherever they were going a split-second faster, to have time to make a plan.

Naturally, she was not afforded quite as much time as she’d like. Irina found herself in the air, plummeting towards the ground, and determined to save her panic for later. She was fairly certain she’d watched a video about skydiving once, and she knew it was important to pull one’s parachute at the right time, but she had no idea what altitude was correct. She considered attempting to read the label on the chute pack, which was a terrible option due to the time constraint, before settling on just following whenever Molly released hers. Irina had no reason to trust Molly, other than that she had no better alternatives. She’d ask more questions later, obviously.

Irina would watch Molly carefully, only pausing a moment to make sure Raphael and Scarlet had arrived somewhat safely behind her, but not long enough to see the parachuteless woman appear next. After deploying her parachute just after Molly and feeling confident that she’d done the right thing, Irina would turn back to the others and make sure they did the same. Hopefully before that, one of them or the other would notice her plight. Throughout all of this, Irina couldn’t quite let go of one question, which she’d spit out the moment she had her first opportunity: ”If you have a location-targeting beacon, why didn’t you just put us all on the ground?!”

[Raphael Laurent]

Raphael frowned, as the woman denied Irina. Bloody people were so suspicious nowadays and it didn't make any sense, but he didn't need to worry about that. He was more concerned about the woman named Molly who just smiled, no matter what they asked. There was so much going on... He stretched, as she produced a small penguin and held it up, readying it too show that it was nearly time.

I... am not entirely certain that I want to really know why she's doing something like this, but...

He glanced at the man that had come from economy and tilted his head as he began to mention hallucinations. Immediately he inhaled. The woman was an unawakened spiritual aware... He could barely, barely, contain an exasperated sigh. After all...

That was when it happened: a red smoke suddenly filled the cabin and, where before the world had been dark, it was suddenly extremely bright and... Ah, fuck... he was falling... No. They were all falling!! Even... Oh, the world decided to be extra cruel today, as the woman with the bloody migraines had been dragged with them. As "Molly" simply decided to shrug, he shot her a glare, before holding out a hand, and pulling the woman to him, via Soul Command on her clothes, slowing her first and then bringing her towards him, as he pulls the parachute cord.

"Seriously! You could've just put us on the ground..."

[Scarlet]

Jumping out of an airplane wasn’t something that Scarlet ever believed she would do, by the same notion though until a couple of months ago she didn’t really know if spirits were real. She definitely didn’t think she was going to get superpowers, nor start fighting against evil corrupt spirits. So jumping out of a moving plane wasn’t really all that insane for her anymore. Not to mention the danger of jumping out of an airplane was lost on her now more than anything when she learned how to stand on the air, was this something actually dangerous for her still?

The situation though seemed determined to make itself more complicated, as red smoke started to almost aggressively fill the interior of the plane. Scarlet thought for a moment about utilizing Brilliant Breeze to push the smoke away, but realized the depth and amount of smoke would result in her just wasting time and energy. Whatever this smoke was meant to do was going to happen. All she could hope for was getting out of the plane before it touched her. Sadly, though the door was too much of a problem after the smoke touched Scarlet.

The next moment she was in the air after seeing nothing but a bright flash of light, plummeting to the ground was something that Scarlet really didn’t want to do. She had to fight the urge to pull the parachute cord right away. Thankfully though she noticed the woman who had come complaining about her head. She’d been close enough to them all that the smoke had teleported her as well. Scarlet brought her legs and arms in close hoping that the movies weren’t lying to her about how to manage moving through the air.

She didn’t really need to find out though as Raphael used Soul Command to pull the woman into his arms by using the air. A smart maneuver that only took a moment, something commendable. “Why do I get the feeling this is turning into a go there and attack that type situation?” Scarlet tried screaming loud enough for Irina to hear, but she doubted her voice would carry. All she knew right now was that she had to follow this Molly woman even if she were leading all of them into a trap.

[Kazura Uzaki]

The three intrepid fullbringers, their impromptu (by force) skydiving abductor instructor, and the helpless bystander were plummeting towards the ground but hopefully they took the opportunity to enjoy the view. The time was approximately 0720 and the sun had been up for an hour at this point so visibility was exquisite. They'd already flown far enough inland that the ocean was no longer visible but the sight of the Australian landscape was worth taking a moment to absorb. Molly was whooping with exhilaration, paying little attention to her “students” who were focusing on staying alive throughout this dive. Irina focused intently on deploying her chute when Molly did, Raph took charge of caring for the woman caught up in this situation, and Scarlet tried yelling to Irina to no avail but wisely controlled the urge to immediately yank the parachute cord. Once the five were safely on the ground, Raph and Irina immediately turned on Molly seeking answers and an explanation.

”Un momento, per favore. I'm not the ‘splainy one, it's all too sophisticamated for me.”

Within moments, the red smoke that had been in the plane drifted to the ground and formed the figure of a medium sized elephant. Out of the haze stepped a tall, thin man in thin rectangular glasses dressed extremely sharply in a fancy suit. “Beanpole” wouldn't do justice to the severity of this man’s lanky build. He would have had no issues playing hide and seek behind a birch tree. Easily at six foot ten, it was as if he had once been typically shaped but had been put through a Taffy stretcher Willy Wonka style. His black suit was accessorized with pristine white gloves and a golden cross necklace and just beneath his dress shirt’s collar peeked an assortment of black flame tattoos. Silver earlobe gauges about two inches in diameter completed his look.

”Good morning. I will be the ’splainy one as Molly calls me. First, let me reconstitute the rest of my team.”

With two quick successive snaps of his fingers the red Smoke Elephant slowly compressed and dissipated leaving behind three people one after the other.. The first was a woman who looked identical to Molly yet was as a ragdoll devoid of life. Seated on the ground in a heap with her arms drooped to the side and head slumped forwards to her chest, “alive” would not be a word that would seem to describe her. ”Agent M, as we call her. She will be whole momentarily.” With no more introduction as of yet, the second person formed was… very much alive, unfortunately.

The second “reconstituted” team member was a man nearly polar opposite from the gloved man in the suit. He wore the stereotypical “Australian” garb many Westerners think of based on the famous Crocodile Hunter, namely the beige short shorts, beige collared shirt with the top two buttons open revealing his chest, and thick soled brown boots. It was unlikely that without the boots he’d measure up to a full four feet tall and was full bellied in contrast to the stick man in a suit. His dirty blonde hair was slicked back into a mullet and with how wet it looked there was a non-zero chance that it was his natural grease and oil leaving it in place. Before he could be introduced he very excitedly and loudly announced ”G’day, mates! Names Crike. At your service!” in an absolutely abhorrent fake Australian accent that tried way too hard. When he caught sight of Scarlet and Irina his eyes opened wider than one could have thought humanly possible and he exclaimed ”Woah, hotties! H-O-T… E’s!”

The formation of the third person, hand materializing just quick enough to arrest the second’s movement by the shoulder, stopped him from running up to the pair. As is, though, the woman from the plane who had been caught up in all this had let out a squeal from the overstimulation reaching critical mass and fell towards an epileptic convulsion on the ground. The third team member finished forming, pushed Crike to the ground with a great deal of frustration and in a blur was by the woman’s side catching her and guiding her to the ground safely. The stare of the African woman’s deep brown eyes was murderous towards him as she conjured a fluffy red pillow from thin air to place under the convulsing woman’s head. She kept the head safe, chin slightly raised to keep her airway open, and made sure the woman’s clothing would not constrict or obstruct her breathing. When the seizure abated the woman was gently rolled to her side mouth pointed towards the ground but the murderous glare still hadn’t left the man responsible.

”Without our silent medical extraordinaire Samia we would all have died a hundred times over. Crike, though, a thousand times over. 91% of no fault but his own.”

Crike flexed both arms as he proudly, and loudly, said ”91% is a solid High Distinction, boo ya!” to which Samia shook her head and facepalmed out of exasperation. ”Yes, because a high grade on nearly causing your own death is admirable… Anyways, you all may call me Julbert.” In all of the excitement, it may have gone unnoticed that Molly had been uncharacteristically silent throughout the introductions and a quick glance around would find that she was no longer with them and where she had been standing was just a flat parachute on the ground. Agent M stirred, a deep and audible breath filling her lungs and she stood up with a great deal of dignity and gracefullness. ”Agent M, pleased to make your acquaintance, though I assume Julbert already provided that introduction. Welcome to our sector of the resistance. Now would be the appropriate time to ask any questions before we move to the nearest outpost.”

Crike had recovered from being forced prone and made a beeline for Scarlet, taking two steps up onto air ground to be tall enough to gently clasp her shoulder. ”First question being, are you single?”

[Irina Davayte]

On finding herself on the ground with a few more people than she'd expected, Irina backed away from the group, making sure she could see everyone from where she was standing. The unusually tall man was calm enough to keep Irina from going into full defensive mode, but the next guy immediately put her on-edge. Irina was no expert on dialects, but she was fairly certain he was not speaking with a real Australian accent, and if he was trying to be deceptive about where he was from, what other things was he hiding? His "compliment" to the two women was almost enough to put Irina into attack mode, and she rubbed the back of her neck uneasily as the hairs on it stood straight up.

Irina felt guilty for not noticing the apparently spiritually-aware woman who'd made the journey with them out of the plane any sooner, but the next member of their team seemed to have her taken care of...at least, as well as one could hope, given the circumstances. Additionally, the medic seemed to have at least some control over or maybe just the respect of the fake Australian man, Crike. Irina highly doubted that was his real name. Out of the strange group, Irina supposed she probably trusted the medic the most, but she probably wouldn't be answering many questions since she'd been described as "silent". Julbert had already neglected to answer the questions she and Raphael had directed to Molly. Resultantly, Irina turned to Agent M with her questions:

"Where did Molly go? And does anyone know this woman?" she asked as she gestured to the no-longer-seizing lady, whom she could only assume had nothing to do with all of this whatsoever. It was probably best to get her back wherever she was going as soon as possible, so she could get started with the intensive psychological therapy she was sure to need after all of this. "Do you have a hospital anywhere nearby? I'd be happy to drop her off." It seemed to be the least Irina could do, but it was something. She did not mention her guilty feeling that perhaps it was all her fault that the woman had been dragged along on this crazy mission. Irina was the one who'd brought her to the crazy part of the plane, after all.

Staying on the perimeter of the group, Irina took a deep breath and knelt near the lady. "Hey, I'm Irina." She was confident that sharing her name wouldn't put the mission in any kind of jeopardy since nobody would believe all the crazy things she'd seen, anyway. "What's your name? I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but we will help you get somewhere safe. Can we call anybody for you?" She spoke gently, the way she'd talk to injured creatures she'd find and take home as a child.

She was hesitant to turn her attention from the woman who was clearly still in extreme distress, but Irina nonetheless focused back on the task they'd come for. "Can you tell us how much of what we've heard on the news is true? As far as containing the outbreak, what has your team tried so far?"

Normally, Irina would have sprung up and placed herself closer to Hikari and Crike, whom she did not trust one iota, when he tried to grab her, but Irina figured that Hikari would be able to handle herself. So the woman on the floor would remain Irina's first priority, and she'd keep her proximity to her. While listening, Irina would shoot Kazura a quick text: Landed. If you want to call it that. Everyone's safe. Will keep you updated. Cat behaving?

[Raphael Laurent]

Raphael sighed, a bit, as they finally landed and he exhaled a bit. He'd not been expecting something like getting sucked out of a plane with by a damn mist to happen. Nor did he expect to go skydiving, that day. He was certain that there was a better way to make that happen, and or to arrange a meeting for this group that they were here to meet. Raph wasn't a skydiving person and this impromptu "lesson" wasn't very much appreciated. He set the woman that he'd saved back down onto the ground and made sure that she was ok, before, glancing up at the new "people" that were more or less materializing.

The smoke had dissipated and, in its place, was a man with three other people appearing behind him. A second "Molly" but...more of a doll and without any will of its own appeared. Then, came, perhaps, the most stereotypical example of an "aussie" that Raphael had ever seen, shorts and all. He cringed a bit, when the man called Irina and Scarlet "hotties", admittedly. That was... Ugh... It made even his skin crawl. Right as the woman he'd put on the ground started dropping into epilepsy the final formed, a woman that managed to put a pillow, under the rescued woman's head and Raphael sighed, in relief.

He listened intently as Irina asked her questions, giving "Crike" an annoyed glare, though he didn't speak for Scarlet. It seemed that aggravated Irina as much as it did him, though she seemed to be much the same, not speaking for their friend. Scarlet would teach the man a lesson and his "chances of death" were about to go up, Raphael, theorized. He hoped that their medic would be able to fix whatever Scarlet did to him.

"Also, how bad is the threat, itself? Haven't heard much about what's actually going on and I'm a little curious." Raphael took a second to look dow at the woman, who was still having an episode on the ground. "Still, though, we might wanna get her to a hospital. I'm just wondering if anyone will believe her about being ripped out of an airport by some smoke."

[Scarlet]

The smoke wasn’t enough to just teleport them, now landing on the ground now after utilizing the parachute, Scarlet struggled to comprehend how the smoke shifted into not just an elephant but then started to reveal others. Was the smoke an ability that one of them possessed that worked like a vehicle or was this something else obvious that others knew and she simply lacked the spiritual experience. It seemed like despite being a Fullbringer for a year now she still didn’t know some of the most basic things that others acknowledged.

The incredibly tall telephone pole of a man was dressed nicely, but Scarlet couldn’t help feeling like he was the stereotypical villain which didn’t get any less certain when the next figure manifested from the smoke. Something Scarlet could only describe as a life size puppet clone of Molly. Most of Scarlet’s body was screaming at her to simply attack right now! Unleash her Fullbring right now and burn everyone of them until everything is gone. The third individual, the crocodile dumbass, distracted Scarlet although it brought up a bit of anger. She was ready to shove her fist down his throat just off the one comment.

One thing right after another to the point that Scarlet really did have to start breathing intentionally slower, taking deeper breaths in order to calm her nerves. She was the newest recruit on this team and it was up to Irina what to do. These people were claiming to be resistance which meant they likely had to help them with something, but burning what she saw right now made the most sense. These people looked like villains not like heros. To make matters even worse after the fourth made herself known and things started to get on the way, it was time for flirting.

“You are right now, but if you give me the chance I’m sure I can cleave you into a set.”

The woman was being overseen by others so there was nothing Scarlet could offer to help them or her right now. All she could do was hope this mission ended quickly otherwise her emotions were likely to get beyond her control. Everyone was suggesting getting her to a hospital and suddenly Scarlet had a question. “Is it safe to bring her? We’re here to help with some outbreak, where is the problem?” Scarlet hoped she was just making some dumb connection, but wouldn’t be surprised if some Hollow with the power of illnesses took up shop at a literal hospital.

[Kazura Uzaki]

If it had seemed like Crike had gotten into Scarlet’s personal space quickly, the threat of bifurcation spurred him to move so fast away that the approach was snail-like in speed. ”Okokok, geez. Buzzkill…” Pouting like a spoiled child, all three of his team members rolled their eyes and Agent M groaned before responding to Irina's question. ”We know this woman just as much or less than you do. Julbert’s Fullbring, the Crimson Carriage, can only hold so many of us long distances. He can still manage to physically shift small groups while at capacity but we don't have the luxury of selectivity when working with airliners. As for Molly…” She rolled up one of her long sleeves to reveal a tattoo of a compass with four unique indicators to the cardinal directions. ”I'm cursed in that I cannot ‘turn off' my power. The four points of this compass are four “mes” for lack of a better explanation. Molly is my Chaos manifest and wields… Pingy the Pinguin.” She shuddered in disgust over saying that, for some reason, and Julbert continued her explanation.

”Pingy is critical in our operation given our Sensors like myself can home in on that beacon from up to many kilometers away if needed. Maria and Magnolia, Agent M’s Righteousness and Order personified have their own talents and-” ”We don't discuss Millicent.” Abruptly cutting off Julbert, Agent M’s gaze could have burned a hole in the tall man. As they both stared each other down, Irina moved to talk to the woman that had unintentionally been thrown into this mess. She appreciated the gesture and in short bursts of shallow breaths identified herself as Alana, a resident of Sydney who was on her way back from vacation abroad with her fiance. He probably wouldn't have cell signal until the plane landed in four hours or so unless he threw a big enough riot to get the plane to emergency land somewhere. Knowing him, he'd kick and scream until they sedated him, duct taped him to his seat, or landed. That could put him anywhere though and she didn't have any of her belongings.

At this point, Crike piped up. ”Can't take her to a public hospital though, she'd only attract the beasties.” It was at this point Irina's phone vibrated with Kazura's response to her text. Landed? Four hours early? Glad you three are safe, just keep me posted. Cat and I have reached a ceasefire so far. Some furniture and dishes were sacrificed to achieve the tentative peace. I will of course pay for replacement after this is over. Julbert and Agent M had now broken their glaring contest to face the UE fullbringers again. Raph in particular was addressed in response to his request for a threat evaluation. Straightening his suit jacket, Julbert continued. ”We have been resisting a blight of beasts from literal Hell for what feels like a lifetime now. For a long time it was a manageable singular incursion two to three times per month but in the last few weeks it has increased one hundred fold. Simply put, we're overrun by demonic monsters again. The last Event of this magnitude was the catalyst to all four of us, and many others, becoming fullbringers.”

Having been attending to her patient, basically fading into the background, Samia bolted to her feet startling every member of S.H.E.L.L. into defensive alert. Julbert hurried to her side and placed a hand on her shoulder. His mouth opened slightly and a report emerged though his lips and tongue remained stationary. ”Message from outpost 147, tracking four incoming hostiles, three Zeta Class and one Kai class. Arrival estimate in seven minutes.” The connection to the report ended abruptly and the S.H.E.L.L. fullbringers hurried to fortify and prepare for battle. Uncharacteristically serious, Crike pleaded for help. ”I know trusting in blokes that just ripped you out of an aeroplane sounds right crazy, but we've never faced a Kai class beastie while also handicapped with an injured civvy. Help us? Please.” The worry could be seen on all four of their faces though only Crike spoke of it out loud. Silently they all prepared for what could be their last stand. Julbert pulled a pistol and machete out of two of his tattoos, Agent M settled to the ground with her legs crossed and beside her formed two similar but distinct versions of herself, and Samia conjured a long spear and twirled it nervously and restlessly to loosen up. Agent M's empty shell of a body was taken up into Julbert's Crimson Carriage (as well as Alana) leaving behind the version of herself wearing heavy metal armor wielding a broadsword and the version wearing a linen robe with a large canvas bag over her shoulder.

Stand at the ready, S.H.E.L.L. for this is what we were born for.

[Irina Davayte]

Irina, who normally would make more of an attempt to use a warmer tone with strangers, said ”What do you mean, she’d attract…problems?” brusquely, glancing at Alana as she said this. ”I’m fairly certain this is a completely normal person and we can just leave her somewhere with some normal people where anything… strange… won’t bother her.” Irina felt awkward talking about the woman like she wasn’t even there, but the circumstances seemed to merit putting her social skills on the back burner in favor of getting things taken care of in this case.

Apparently Samia could only speak by using Julbert as a sort of weird megaphone. Irina wondered if she could do this with anyone, or just Julbert, and decided it wasn’t the moment to ask, because the message she passed on was a bunch of jargon that Irina didn’t exactly understand, but it sounded serious, based on the reaction of the local crew. ”Obviously we’re here to help, but can we at least put this lady in a basement or something? You have teleportation power and presumably at least one of you has a vehicle to get her at least three minutes away and be back before anything interesting happens,” Irina calculated exasperatedly. She would have happily handed over the keys to the rental car that was booked for them at the airport…if they were anywhere near the airport, that is.

Once that was sorted one way or another, Irina would attempt to organize this mess. ”Is there a particular location we’re expecting to meet these hostiles, or do they generally come in this path? Are we mobilizing, or staying tight? It looks like you are all preparing to fight here, but are we certain they are coming here?” It appeared that they were all ready to fight here and now, since the four already had their weapons out. ”And it sounds like we have at least a few minutes to plan before we have to fight anything. I have no idea what a Zeta Class nor a Kai Class means; can you fill me in on that?”

She decided not to prioritize taking the time to text Kazura back, but she temporarily put her sword hilt under her armpit while she read the message and then gave it a thumbs-up emoji. Hopefully the apparent war with the cat didn’t get too out-of-control. But oh well, she figured, Beastie would give Kazura something to do.