To Take Down A Star [Hard]

[Kyomei Kuchiki]

OOC: skip me, no new hollow movement yet.

[Hotaru Kuchiki-Masurao]

Hotaru listened to the human speak. It seemed that he really didn't want to destroy the pillar since it was actively killing hollows. She could understand that. It was a good defense, to be sure. She just couldn't get close to the pillar or else she would be destroyed. But, she didn't fault the man for not wanting to do it. If she was honestly in his position, she would probably be telling shinigami the same thing he was telling them. She nodded towards him.

He then said that they could just go over the pillars and that he would scout ahead for any more pillars. He ran off quickly before she could say anything. She then actually thought about what the human said. They could go over the pillars. Honestly, she had no idea why she didn't think about it before now. She felt like a complete idiot that she didn't think about it. So, she jumped in the air and created an air ground.

From there, she started to walk outwards at an angle to get a good height. Then, when she was about equal to the pillar in height, she started to walk towards it. She walked till she was about ten feet away and noticed a change in the pillar. She immediately ran out of the range before the pillar went back to hitting hollow. So, she now knew the range of the pillar. She then got over ten feet above the pillar and just walked over it.

She gave herself a lot more room as she made her way back down to the ground. She kept her eye out, just to see if there were any more pillars around this one. She really didn't want to get zapped by one. As she was looking, she didn't see any around her, so she felt more comfortable landing on the ground. Now, she could see the huge crater that was left by the meteorite. It was way bigger than she thought it would be. Since she never sheathed her zanpaktou, she kept it out to the side, ready to strike down any hollows that might come for her while she walked towards the meteorite.

[Marcus Cole]

(( OOC: I didn't really have much to do or say, so short post. ))

Marcus scanned the crater and found no nearby pillars, so when the Shinigami landed, he met up with them. He didn’t want to trust the Soul Repears, but with such a huge outbreak of Hollows, the Fullbringer didn’t have much of a choice. He would have to watch his own back in case the Shinigami ever turned on him. Marcus had no allies, and that was the way he liked it. Working alone was so much easier and less stressful, but there were some things that no matter how strong he was, it would be impossible to do on his own.

[Deleted]

"Fuckin' ... over it. Why the fuck didn' I think of that?" Going over was the obvious solution; saves energy, time, and it has the added benefit of stifling any worries about a flanking attack. "From Hollows anyway. Whoever the fuck put up this damn pillar is gonna answer to me." For a second he scowled, bringing his knuckles together to pop them with a loud crack. He seemed genuinely anger, his body language and reishi absolutely murderous. He didn't take kindly to people interfering in his missions. And he took an even more negative view on people who put his allies in danger.

That reminded him. "Yo, human. Come 'ere a sec." Marcus would find be didn't have much of a choice, as Kubi's massive hand clamped onto his shoulder like a vice. It was easy for Kubi; even moving at comfortable speeds, the Fullbringer was still only slightly faster than him. And given their proximity and Kubi having the advantage of surprise ... no easy way for this human to avoid his talk. The hand steered him slightly to the side, barely out of shot of Hotaru, who was currently climbing to an appropriate height. His eyes followed her for a second before flicking back down to his erstwhile companion.

"How old are ya?" His voice was serious, for once, and the smirk on his face had slipped to a thoughtful one. Without waiting for an answer, he continued. "It don't matter." He gave a heavy sigh and let go of his shoulder, running the hand through his hair. "I'm over a millennia old. One thousand fucking years. And th' one fuckin' thing I learned durin' all tha' time is that ya leave yourself a back door." His eyes flicked to the pillar. He did not like leaving it up. Sure, it killed all spiritual entities pretty damn effectively. But if a quick escape is needed - which is damn near a certainty, if his luck is anything to go by - that pillar will make our a damn sight more difficult to leave.

"So what I'm saying is this." He bent forward then, his brown eyes - ancient and violent despite the rather youthful face - staring directly into the eyes of the human. "If she does 'cause you didn' fuckin' feel like breakin' down tha' fuckin' pillar, I'll kill you." Hotaru want anyone special to him; he barely knew her. But Kubi could not bear to see a woman harmed. It's the first on a surprising list of weaknesses.

"I-" Whatever he was about to say, however, was choked out of him as his eyes drifted upwards and he saw Hotaru straying dangerously close to the border. He stared for a second, his expression stating plainly what he thought about Hotaru before he disappeared in a flash. And just in time. Kubi slid to a stop just in time for Hotaru to slam into his chest. It wouldn't faze either of them, not really, but Hotaru would be prevented from being burned to a crisp. Kubi's eye rose in an unmistakably condescending manner. "Are you fucking stupid?" He shoved her backwards, sliding her backwards on the air ground. It wasn't hard, just enough to move her away from such dangerous proximity. He pointed at her. "Thirty fuckin' feet, woman." He spun around then, using air ground to walk thirty feet over the pillar. He threw a smirk over his shoulder. "See? That's how it's done."

Remaining Reaitsu: 1450 [-50]

[Kyomei Kuchiki]

Whether they went over or through the range of the pillars, what would be visible in the large crater was a squirming mass of something unidentifiable. As far as they could see was moving and shifting as if the crater was filled with black tar. Kubi and Hotaru would just pass over the pillars and into the center of the crater when they would suddenly trip. Just simply fall. With no warning and little time to even begin to understand, without there being something in their way, the air ground that they were standing on just fizzled out. Their feet could continue to try to gather particles to stand on, but there just weren't any there.

As they fell, Marcus would get an explanation for it as he dropped into the lip of the crater. An old man sat up against the wall, four swords resting beside him. "This will be numbers five and six, I reckon. They walk right over, they don't notice that all the Hollows are sucking out all the particles in their feeding frenzy, and they fall right down. Four of 'em have happened by and four of 'em have died. I got these souvenirs for His Majesty's castle too." The old man wasn't exerting any pressure, in fact he was probably taking great care to suppress it, but it was fairly obvious that he was no one to trifle with. From this closer vantage point, it could be seen that the "sea of black" was completely made up of Hollows, all attempting to devour each other.

A frenzy of this size was rarely seen in the Land of the Living, way more frequently being found in Las Noches. As it was, it was incredibly dangerous for the people of Moscow. With a group of Hollows this size, many Menos could be formed, to the point where even an Adjuchas or two might rise up out of the mess. An adjuchas directly in a densely populated city could be catastrophic for the civilians there, and there was no time to summon back up. Four shinigami had already died to this frenzy. Kubi, Hotaru, and Marcus were going to have to do as much as they could to curb back the amount of hollows, or at least take down the higher classed ones that emerge.

Kubi and Hotaru would hit the mess of hollows feet first, most likely, but would probably surprise the old man. They were much more powerful than the four shinigami before them, both being high seated officers. They had just fallen into a large mess of incredibly low leveled Hollows. For them, these creatures would be like gnats. A very large, uncountable number of gnats, but gnats none the less. Even the Shinigami's presence would be enough to kill some of them if they released their full strength. Now was the time to show this Old Man what they could do.

OOC: You have permission this post to "Go Wild". You may take any creative liberties you wish with Hollow descriptions and movements. The goal of your next post is to clear an area of land. That's all you have to do by the end of your post is clear enough hollows so that we can actually have some fun enemies rather than small fry. Other than that, have fun. At the end of this post, your character really doesn't need to have taken any damage unless you want to. These are class 8 enemies. If you don't want to have fun, just use gravitational pressure.

[Hotaru Kuchiki-Masurao]

Hotaru was walking on air over the pillars when she got stopped by Kubi. Well, she ran into Kubi's chest. It startled her and made her take a few steps back. When he added the shove to it, she got pushed back about a foot. She stopped herself and just glared at the Vice Captain. She stood up and wondered why in the hell he had to push her in the first place. Running into him was enough to stop her. She didn't need to be manhandled like that. She could take care of herself.

He then told her that it was thirty feet clearance and walked over the exact height. When he said see how it's done with a smirk on his face, she wanted to throw shit at him. But, she didn't have anything she wanted to lose on her that she wanted to throw at him. She was not an idiot or an imbecile. She was angry, but would try to hide some of this from him. After all, right now he wasn't facing her, so she could act as angry as she wanted. Before she started again, she calmed.

She ran up and went up to thirty feet, walking over the pillar and caught up with the Vice Captain. "I have a name, Kubi-fukataichou. It's Hotaru. I would prefer you call me that instead of woman." While they were walking over the pillars, she felt something funny under her feet. They had made it to the crater when she actually tripped. Tripped. On air ground. She had never heard of that happening. She tried to form another air ground under her. It didn't work.

She looked down and saw all of the huge hollows under her. She figured that they must be doing this. So, without her air ground, she started to fall. Well, since she was going to land on hollows, she was going to make it worth it. Right when she first started to fall, she unsheathed her zanpaktou. She pointed it downwards, trying to aim at one of the hollows. Thankfully for her, one of the bigger hollows looked up at her while she was descending. She smiled at her luck. It roared at her and she was able to hit it.

Her zanpaktou landed straight in the middle of the hollow's mask. She quickly switched how she was holding the zanpaktou to slash the hollow all the way down its body, so she could land easily. Once she was done with that, the hollow started to disappear and the other hollows around her looked at her, some even drooling, ready to eat her. She wasn't as easy to kill as they would think she was. The one closest to her tried to attack her, she just jumped, slashed the mask in half and landed.

She looked at the three hollows ahead of her. It was more of those bug ones, all at least ten feet tall. She ran at the one on the left, racing up its body to slash at it from behind. She hit and before it completely disappeared, its friends wanted to try to get her. She jumped on the next one, slashed its mask completely through before jumping onto the next one. She almost missed, but was able to crawl back to her feet before it got her. She slashed at the mask of that one and landed on the ground.

Well, half landed. She wasn't that good on her feet, so she had to take a few steps when she landed to not injure herself. She looked around and saw that there were still so many hollows around that this might not work too well. She saw another flying insect hollow coming towards her. She did the same as she did before, raised her zanpaktou up and let the hollow cut itself in half to get to her. She took a breath and looked around, trying to see what was going on.

It seemed like there was no limit to these hollows. She knew that they needed to clear this area before something bad would happen. The only big thing that she could picture happening was Gillian and maybe even an Adjuchas appearing. It wouldn't be as bad as an Arrancar, but it was still pretty bad. There was enough hollows here devouring that it could happen. She could continue fighting, but she didn't want to wear herself out, so she decided to release her gravitational pressure.

She had never used it before, but seeing as these hollows were fairly weak, she should be able to use her strength to put them down that way. With her zanpaktou still unsheathed, she took a breath and just let her power flow out of her. She saw that it was actually giving off a color. The color, she was happy to see, was purple. With the force, she watched all of the hollow around her just dissolve from her sheer power. She let it out until there were none left in her area. It felt nice that she didn't need to actually fight the weaker opponents if she didn't want to. She looked towards the Vice Captain to see how he was doing.

[Marcus Cole]

(( OOC: I had previously written out a nice, pretty post but shit went down and now it’s gone. The quality of this post reflects my frustration with rewriting it, sorry ))

Marcus was watching his back constantly, for he was alone. These were the types of missions that he was used to, ones where he didn’t have any liability allies or people to worry about. He only liked Hotaru a little bit, but that wasn’t quite enough to put himself in danger to save her life. Kubi, on the other hand… let’s not get into that. Marcus was scared of him on a social and personal level, but when it came to battle, Marcus was able to hold his own. Only when it was on the terms of the mission would he find the strength to not feel intimidated by the giant Soul Reaper. In fact, he was so intimidated that when Kubi approached him, he was practically expecting an attack.

And that is why Marcus was prepared when Kubi’s hand swung for his shoulder. Instead of landing and grabbing Marcus, Kubi’s hand would swipe at thin air, for Marcus was not there anymore. He pivoted with his foot opposite of the side Kubi was reaching for as the anchor, letting the other foot slide silently a centimeter above the ground. In the meantime, his knees would suddenly bend to a crouch as he ducked and shifted away, letting him rise back to his feet in one fluid motion that would take less than a half second to complete. Less, even. It all in a time-frame of a small fraction of a second, and Kubi’s eyes would barely be able to follow the dark blur with ice-blue trails left barely behind him from his eyes.

Marcus didn’t react much to the threats, for he knew Kubi didn’t mean any harm. He just wanted to watch out for his friend. Speaking of watching out for his friend, Marcus watched calmly as he narrowly saved her from walking right into the turret’s range. Of course he could have reacted, but Kubi tensed up just before Marcus sprung to action so the human would let Shinigami deal to his own business, for Hotaru was not an asset. She was a makeshift ally, and barely at that. Therefore, the Fullbringer didn’t care much when they were separated by the collapse of the crater. He was safe, and that was all that was required for the mission to succeed.

The real issue was the new opponent that appeared, an older man who spoke about the swords he collected, obviously zanpakuto. After all, if Hotaru and Kubi would make the fifth and six, then there was no other explanation. As long as they didn’t add to the man’s collection, Marcus wouldn’t care. In fact, the man wouldn’t live much longer if he had anything to say about it. Marcus marked the foe as a target related to the hollow appearances, so it was essential to take that target out. And after that, he’d have to move up to ‘His Majesty,’ the mastermind behind the series of events in the Russian city.

Marcus recognized the swords as the man’s potential weapons of choice, but he wasn’t so sure yet. He’d only be certain if the man drew the blades. Until then, Marcus was going to respond with caution and unclip the two black, spiritual steel escrima sticks at his waist, holding each in one hand. He would suddenly jump into action from his casual stance without notifying his opponent with anything other than the drawing of his weapons. After all, the man would have to have sharp instincts and speed to match if he were going to be able to hold his own in a one-on-one fight against Marcus.

It would all happen in a moment, and the old man would have to be ready if he were to stand any chance of the simple attack Marcus used to initiate the fight. He pushed off his right foot and rushed in a burst of his full speed directly at the old man. He would close the gap almost immediately, but just when he got within ten feet, Marcus’s whole momentum would suddenly shift and he’d push off with his right foot into the air to his left, allowing him to spin in a perfectly fluid and dangerously high-speed cartwheel to the side. He would hit the ground hard and fast, but with Marcus’s flawless acrobatic skills, then landing would be completely perfect and he would be able to focus his center of balance on his right foot. His right foot was all he needed, for he wasn’t going to resume running but rather push off the ground in a single step towards the man’s unguarded left side, assuming that he had picked up the swords.

All it took was one step, and that would be enough for Marcus. With the Old Man’s side unguarded and such little distance between them, he was going to land a hit with the force of his pure speed. Moving at double his speed, Marcus would suddenly appear immediately beside the old man with his left fist, still holding the escrima stick, colliding with the man’s ribs. However, just as that occurred, a second burst of speed wouldn’t appear like anything occurred but Marcus’s limb would create a wall of force that would likely blow the man hundreds of meters away from the sheer power behind it. That was the beauty of Bringer Impact, a technique based solely on the speed Marcus had honed and developed for so long. Marcus’s right hand would grip his other escrima stick a foot away from his chest to defend from any potential counterattacks if his move failed. His left foot would be closer to the man than his right foot due to the nature of the step, allowing Marcus a more defensive position after his assault was over. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any need for it.

Reiatsu Remaining: 1950/2100 (-150 for Bringer Impact)

Combat Posts: 1/6

Bringer Impact: 1 Point

[Deleted]

Her voice was angry. He could sense the frustration in her. He's been there, wanting to hit someone or something and being stuck in social expectations. It didn't feel very good. That was good. Maybe she would learn. "I'm gonna make something very fuckin' clear t' you, woman." The smirk on his face grew even more infuriating. He has mastered the ability to be condescending without saying a weird. "I don't fuckin' give respect because it hurts your fuckin' feelin's. I know you have a damn name, y' fuckin' introduced y'self. I ain't that stupid." He winked at her them, his eyes like pools of chocolate. "If y' want to get called by your fuckin' name, ya need t' earn my respect."

He stretched then, his muscles bulging under his thin shirt. "Course, there are other ways t' get m' good books." The suggestive smirk and twinkle in his eyes was more than enough to determine exactly how she could do that. "But," He spun on his heel, somehow making the gesture seem even ruder than normal. "I don' think ya got th' balls to do that." He walked away from her them, intending to head straight towards the giant mountain of a meteor. But of course, it wasn't meant to be.

A lurching, jolting sensation signaled what was about to happen, but far too late to stop. Almost as if he was on a cartoon, he barely had time to look up before the few remaining strands of spiritual particles burst under his weight and he was sent directly into the orgy of hollows below. It wasn't hard to miss them; the terrifying growls and sounds emanating from the mating ball below was enough to strike fear into even the most hardened warrior. To Kubi, it only brought a smirk. He roared, his voice carrying far over the Hollow and miscellaneous others.

He crashed, his aim impeachable; a particularly large, fat hollow broke his fall. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) Kubi also happened to break every inch of the creature, scattering blue-black blood over the assembled hollows. "Now, ya fuckers. Le's see if any of ya'll are hard nuff t' even put a fuckin' scratch on m' skin!" He slammed his fists together, feeling the three pin pricks of pain that usually accompanied with punching his fists while he was wearing Metis. Anyone watching would see, for the briefest second, metal cover his hand.

The fight was violent and bloody, one man versus hundreds of mindless creatures only out for his blood. It was a flurry of fists, claws, fangs, and sweat as each tried, and failed, to take down the mountain of a man before them. As each fell, he climbed their body, a mound of slain foes granting increased purchase and ever-raising handicap for both sides. And still Kubi wore a manic smirk, each slain foe giving him a thrill, nearly sexual in nature. None got away. Hollows were used against other Hollows as ammunition, flung through the air as high speed projectiles.

But soon, Kubi grew tired. Not physically, they were not a challenge, but that was the point. He was tired of being bored. And through a gap in the swarm, he saw him; an old man, at whom his erstwhile ally swung an attack. "Well, that seems interesting." He was no human; the hollows weren't touching him and, if he were, he wouldn't be watching with such attention. No, this man was special, and that was more than enough reason to end this facade prematurely.

His aura swept out, destroying everything in his path, but washing over his allies like sweet reason. He slid down the mound, stopping at the bottom to signal Hotaru. The shadow cast by the mound of Hollow, twenty feet by now, landed conveniently on the human duo. His wrists were stained by blood. The illusion that hid Metis from sight has long since faded, the chainmail gauntlets fully visible. "Now, what th' fuck is a Quincy doing in a fuckin' place like this?" It was a guess, a wild shot in the dark, but it wasn't entirely without merit. The Quincy seem to be at the center of all plots involving the Human World. "Not tha' it fuckin' matters." He adjusted his cuff; in the chaos of the fight, his shirt had been ripped from his body, but Metis has a cloth band to better keep it strapped. "You'll die the fuckin' same."

[Kyomei Kuchiki]

Marcus was fast, for sure, and his movement incredibly effective. However, Bringer Impact would not be enough to harm the Quincy. There was an overwhelming surge of reiatsu as the man let loose for a brief moment. Hotaru and Kubi would notice the unfortunately familiar feeling of a Vandenreich Quincy's signature defense, Blut, activating on top of the Willpower form of Gate. The two stacked together made the Old Man a walking Tank. Well, stronger than a Tank. No human tank would have been able to put a dent in this man's skin, and neither would Marcus be able to. His escrima stick would collide with the flesh that was channeling the Emperor and simply stop, unable to affect the man.

"Since you haven't said a word to me, I don't know your reasoning for attacking a man belonging to His Majesty, but I'll forgive your offense. After all, you're stuck down here and I'm not." A dark black hole ripped open behind the man, almost like an Arrancar's Garganta. It swallowed him up and he was gone, taking the fallen Shinigami's swords with him. Marcus' actions had caused the only person who knew what was going on to leave, taking all of his information with him, however, the Quincy had left the Fullbringer with one key piece of information. It would be unwise to try to leave, for some reason yet unknown to Marcus.

Meanwhile, Hotaru and Kubi had carved out a defensive position in the feeding frenzy of Hollows in a spot close to the outer edge of the crater. Hotaru chose to shatter a group of them with her gravitational pressure, releasing their essence into the air, and Kubi killed exactly none of them with his sealed Zanpakutou, leaving a pile of bodies behind. In the midst of the frenzy, a few Hollows with more intelligence than normal stopped trying to fight the living ones and instead turned to the dead hollows around him. This is how the first Menos came to arise out of the Frenzy.

With more power than they knew what to do with, the three Menos that arose out of Hotaru and Kubi's killing charged at the group. They had more reiatsu than any of the small fry Hollows did, so the Gillian were attracted to them. Red Cero charged and shot out at each of the fighters that were here to stop the crater. While low in power, taking damage from an explosive attack would only hinder their fight in the long run. Hotaru, Marcus, and Kubi would all have a single Cero to deal with, as well as a Gillian charging at them trying to swallow them whole.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Quincy's stats, if you want them}

I just needed a narrator, and you're not supposed to attack the narrator :/

Class 1 Rank 3 Freak Type



Strength - [400] (900) Points

Speed - [200] Points

Spiritual Pressure - [300] (200} {400} Points

Reiatsu Strength - [400] (800) {1600} Points

Light Aura - [0] Points

Dark Aura - [100] Points

Instinct - [300] (200) Points

Senses - [100] Points

Energy sensory - [0] Points

Healing Expertise - [0] Points


Total SP: [1700] Points

That's all for the template. There are a LOT of stats, but don't get choosy and just give some to all. The result could be quite negative.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Menos' Stats}

3 Menos, Class 6, Nontyped



Strength - [50] Points

Speed - [50] Points

Spiritual Pressure - [50] Points

Reiatsu Strength - [100] Points

Light Aura - [0] Points

Dark Aura - [100] Points

Instinct - [50] Points

Senses - [50] Points

Energy sensory - [0] Points

Healing Expertise - [0] Points


Total SP: [350] Points

That's all for the template. There are a LOT of stats, but don't get choosy and just give some to all. The result could be quite negative.

[Hotaru Kuchiki-Masurao]

Hotaru listened to this infuriating man talk to her more. He kept saying woman and she was starting to actually get to the point of rage. She had never met a man so infuriating before. Was it such a huge thing for him to actually use her name? WAS IT?! She didn't think so. She used everyone's name and for him to just ignore it angered her to no end. Very well! If he wasn't going to use her name, she wouldn't use his. Stupid man. Once he winked at her, she really wanted to throttle the man's neck and choke him to death. He told her that for him to call her by her name, she would need to earn his respect. WHAT?! It's just freakin' common courtesy to call someone by their actual name.

She glowered at him while he stretched and said that there was more than one way to get in his good graces and that she didn't have the balls to do it. Oh, she knew exactly what the man was talking about and that comment did it. While he walked away, she started to scream at him. "LISTEN HERE MAN! I AM A FUCKING SAMURAI WARRIOR! I HAVE ENOUGH HONOR FOR MYSELF TO NOT STOOP SO LOW AS TO SLEEP WITH YOU TO EARN YOUR RESPECT! I'M NOT A FUCKING WHORE YOU IDIOT! MAYBE IF YOU HAD SOME HONOR OF YOUR OWN, YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO SUGGEST WOMEN TO SLEEP WITH YOU AND YOU WOULD ACTUALLY HAVE WOMEN WANTING TO DO SO. FROM WHAT YOU SAID, IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU NEED TO BUY YOUR COMPANY AT NIGHT!"

She took a few deep breaths and then stood straight up with shock on her face. What had she just done? She had just yelled, well screamed, at a superior officer. And she even cursed! She never did that! Even when she would disagree with someone of superior rank, she was never as disrespectful as she was just now. She didn't even use the proper honorifics. She was half horrified that she actually did that, but it was also satisfying. It felt good to get all of that off of her chest. So, she followed after the man, and then that's when she started to fight off the hollows that she was surrounded by. It didn't take her too long.

Once she had taken care of the hollow around her, she looked over and saw that the human was fighting with an older man. She looked closer and noticed that the man had swords with him and they looked like... She looked down at her zanpaktou and Rivu~aiasan verified it for her, those were other zanpaktou. She assumed that the owners were dead now, but does that mean the old man defeated them or the hollows in that pit did? She walked over to the old man, following after the Vice Captain, when she saw the human hit the man and some kind of weird black marks covered his body. She remembered back to the prison, and knew that it was a Quincy technique.

So, this man was a Quincy, more likely a Vandenreich Quincy. But, the man created what looked like a Garganta and fled. There went any information that they had on what was going on. She sideways glanced at the human. Did he know he was a Quincy and that's why he attacked him? Or could it be for a very different reason that she didn't know about. She didn't really have time to think on it because now there were three Menos that appeared out of the feeding frenzy of hollows. She was afraid something like this would happen. They killed so many hollows and she noticed when she was done that the living hollows started to focus on the dead ones more than attacking them.

But, she wanted to see what was happening. So, instead of continuing to kill hollows, she let herself get lax and this happened. She cursed herself inwardly as she saw the three Menos start to walk towards them. She didn't have the time to wonder about how the others would defend themselves. She needed to worry about how she was going to defeat the monster in front of her. Even though she was stronger, the thing was still massive. She saw it starting to charge a Cero, so she ran towards the beast. Since her zanpaktou was still drawn, she didn't have to do much. When it shot the Cero towards her, she used her superior speed to sidestep the Cero to the left. She then ran at the hollow, slashing at its legs. She used the corpses of other dead hollows near it to run and jump onto its back. She was able to climb up its back and when she got to the top, she jumped up and used her sword to completely slash down the body of the Menos, cleaving it in two. When she landed, the body was already disappearing. She looked to the others to see how they were doing.

[Marcus Cole]

(( OOC: I'm sorry, I didn't realize that he was just the narrator xD I assumed that Marcus would have to fight him. Whoops. ))

Marcus’s attack was calculated and cautious. While he had hoped to do some damage, he was merely trying to overwhelm his opponent with his speed. If pure speed and the force behind that speed would be enough to deal with his foe, Marcus wouldn’t even have to release his Fullbring for the mission ahead. However, this man was stronger than Marcus anticipated. He had a skin defense powerful enough to halt Marcus’s fist. The only human race capable of such a technique are the Vandenreich, and the only reason that Marcus knew about the Emperor’s ‘chosen’ Quincy is because the very man who taught him about the spiritual world was an ex-Vandenreich officer.

It was now clear that Marcus wasn’t dealing with the average Joe, so he backed off quickly and cautiously, not giving the other man a chance to react. “ Since you haven't said a word to me, I don't know your reasoning for attacking a man belonging to His Majesty, but I'll forgive your offense. After all, you're stuck down here and I'm not." The old man confirmed Marcus’s suspicions. ‘His Majesty’ may refer to the Vandenreich Emperor, in which case the trio who had good intentions in their goal of purging the city of hollows was in much deeper trouble than they anticipated.

When the stranger disappeared into the black hole, Marcus decided not to pursue him. After all, he wasn’t about to jump through that portal and separate himself from the only potential allies he had in a scenario that may be far worse than he anticipated. Marcus needed to regroup with Hotaru and Kubi, and by the sounds of Hotaru’s angry screams, they were both safe and were easily dealing with the hollows. The only real problem emerged when Marcus noticed three large Menos hollows forming out of smaller clumps of the white-faced beasts.

The Menos were more powerful than their predecessors, but only slightly. They’d pose as insignificant obstacles. The Fullbringer wasn’t worried at all by the Cero aimed at him and merely sidestepped it at a quick pace, appearing to teleport before the hollow’s eyes. Immediately afterward, Marcus travelled at a comfortable speed, which would be far too fast for the Menos to keep up with, toward the creatures Right as he got within ten meters of it, he’d suddenly double his speed and take a path to the hollow’s back, where a straight right punch from the back of its head would shatter its white mask and cause the hollow to dissipate into the air. He had no doubt that Hotaru and Kubi would be able to handle the threat with equal ease.

[Deleted]

Well. That was fucking unexpected. Kubi couldn't help but be just a little impressed by the balls the old man must have. 'Must be like lugging around a couple of boulders.' To face down not only two officers of the Soul Society but whom he assumed was somebody moderately important in the Human World (no low-ranker could move as fast as he's seen Marcus move) and laugh about it ... well, he was either brave or stupid. Most likely both.

But he didn't have time to dwell on the strange old man, nor his insults. Three Menos had suddenly, randomly, formed, three damn near identical towers of black cloaks and white masks. And more worryingly, they were charging Cero's. Oh, did he say worry? He meant laughably. The red beam was weak; of course it was. These Hollow may as well be infants throwing their bottle at their father for interrupting a nap. "Oh, wa wa wa." He mocked them as the red beam barreled towards him.

Then it was deflected, a swift backhand knocking it away and towards the sky. Metis was a godsend here; made of spiritual steel and reinforced with his own soul, it easily deflected it, no burns even marring the surface. But Kubi was angry. "You fuckin' children are gonna learn what happens when you throw a tantrum." And then his reaitsu poured from him again, crashing against the Menos like waves, like the inexorable force of the sun. Like they had been demolished, the Menos would have no choice but to fall.

And when they did, they would leave a mess, and Kubi flinched beforehand. 'Aw, fuck.' He'd hear about this later, lectured about collateral damage, and have his paycheck sanctioned for a couple of months. But fuck it. He cut the flow of pressure then, letting the Menos breathe (or, well, suck air. Do they even have lungs?) and leaving the Menos to the his companions. He approached Hotaru then.

"Alright. You want me to respect you? Fine. You fucking got it. Any chick who has half the balls you do is alright in my book." His eyes flashed then, like a snake in the grass. "But if you ever fuckin' yell at your superior officer like that again, Third Seat Kuchiki, I will made fucking sure you end up in Central. Are we fuckin' clear?" Without waiting for an answer, he spun, his gaze looking towards the meteor in the city. 'What secrets are you hiding, beautiful?'