Masquerade Ball [Cadet Dungeon/A Team]

"By any means, go for it, Cadet Susan. We could use some positive possibilities on our side with the scales weighted against us," Joseph concurred with her. Or at least, he displayed himself as so. Dumb thirsty old bag. Was she actually trying this hard to be chic and hip with the young folks through those pink shoes? What absolute cringe.

With the last of the Cadets arriving, it appeared to Joseph it was about time to go. But it was weird that one stuck-up chick wasn't present. Maybe she pissed off somewhere? He resisted the urge to show the whites of his eyes from rolling up from this whole cliched spiel. Yeah, he knew he was new and all, but this farce and dance would be less grating if they actually had a goddamn plan. Talk about an impeding clusterfuck, right?

And speaking of clusterfucks, it was so convenient it came right up on time on cue. It was a good way to start this night with this mob of flailing bodies and some masked weirdo in a mirror. Was he trying to Facetime him in real time? While his more battle-ready peers were busy talking smack, Joseph blankly thought to himself.

Julius stepped ahead of Shiina. He gestured the Cadets to simmer down with his hand, but his tone suggested that they should remain calm and ready. Alex, of course, took this sign seriously as well. It was a complicated situation and what Shiina suggested of the victims could very well be true. After all, the victims in Dragon's Maw met that exact fate on that night. It could easily be the same here, if not worse. The Prince's visage was one of calm as usual. But he was determined to start the night. Just like everyone else, Julius did want to know what this depraved jester had in mind. But allowing disharmony and discord within his ranks was the last thing he wanted, it was what the enemy was good at.


"Ah, such greetings! What contempt! I can hear all of you laying that self-righteous scorn on me! It truly amuses me how such indignant responses to display arrogance and moral higher grounds can be erected in record time! It's almost as if you're all racing to compensate for something!" The man was amused as he chuckled darkly and mocking derision. He didn't take any real offense to their words. In fact, he was delighted by the audience the Prince brought with them. And such a bigger crowd than last time at that! This promised to be an interesting evening. From the horde of rabid brain-dead Cadets, the jester addressed Susan. "Please call me, 'T'. My demands? Please, keep it as an earnest and honest request! I only wish to play a very interesting game! After all, don't we all adore a temporary escape from the meaningless dullness in our lives? You see here, I wish to make up our pitiful blunder from the previous night and I contemplated, considered, and cogitated over what was the best place for tonight. I heard of this studio from an esteemed friend and the rest is history!"

"Get on with it!" Alex barked harshly at the Psyche-Terrorist. He was getting antsy himself. The boy was noticing the gas was beginning to rise gradually. Everyone here didn't face any worse effects from the growth of the miasma. The less they wasted time, the more likely they can stop this from spreading even further. The masked Jest began to smirk under his mask, he could feel their agitation. "My sincerest apologies, I've deviated for too long! To sum it up, I invite you to come and find me! Disappointed? Do not worry! Of course, I wouldn't come offer you a grand time without a caveat!"


The mirror image of the man turned into an image of Lisa worn and frayed by the difficult battle she was having. The very moment Julius laid his eyes on it, the sheathe of his blade began to crack under his vice grip as he only narrowed his eyes. Alex gave a worried look to his supervisor. He knew the Prince liked to keep a cool demeanor, but he knew enough that even Julius may be hard-pressed to remain calm when it came to the safety of his family. But only an icy cold demeanor came from him as an aura began to emanate from his body. The Jest T's image returned looking rather smug. "You intend to make it a race against time. My sister's safety and the miasma's spread versus your capture."



The aura expanded suddenly. A flash of blue began to envelop the entire perimeter, boxing in the miasma. As if on cue, the dancing mob began to throw themselves towards Julius' direction, but the sudden flash also summoned Tsukiyomi from his mind. Abruptly disrupting their movements, the horde found themselves hitting the ground, hard. The mirror that the trio held was shattered to pieces, leaving behind shards of a laughing T before disappearing into obscurity. They could feel the very weight of the world pushing down on them, almost as if to crush them as the ground fractured where they landed. But the weight relented before they would die from the attack to spare them. However, they were beginning to move again and laugh. Oh how they continued to laugh...

Julius began to draw his blade before giving his orders.



"Get going! We'll catch up!"

With Alex and Julius keeping the horde busy, they had a clear path towards the entrance. And when they did come inside, there were two open doors. Each of them leading to somewhere. The team would assuredly took their higher-ups' orders to heart to enter the building. At least if they needed any more prodding, Maria was willing to bark out more.


She sauntered off to the one to the left while Sera would be taken with the team to the right...

Dungeon Key:

Maria's Tension:

Albrecht would remain unresponsive to anything this "T" had to say. Even the princess' situation barely got any reaction from him. He simply methodically and coldly checked his equipment, checking every strap of his armor and if the chains binding his blade to his right arm were tight enough, putting on his helmet. It seems all the senseless babble of the clown was done just as he was fixing the purity seal on his armor.

"Is he done? Very well." He'd stare at the other cadets he'd be accompanying. Cecilia and Maria would be extremely good and helpful company to this mission. The other 3 were total strangers to him. Hopefully they would prove to be competent and powerful, otherwise he'd barely care for them."You may call me Albrecht Frost, i do not have a persona but my holy sword is just as reliable to slay demons or heretics. Cecilia and you there with the ponytail. The Android handed me these, i think it would be good to spread them out among us."

Upon entering the building a pair of golden wings would immediately sprout from his back. While he wouldn't use them to fly in the enclosed space, he was quicker on his feet to move through the corridors.

"Stay alert and be careful, the brainwashed hostages might cause complications but if it's a demon show them no mercy." Maria, Cecilia and him were the highest ranking members in this squad, he felt some liberty to give instructions or at least encouraged the lower ranking members to engage in the slaughter of demons.

Albrecht, Lvl 8:

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While the group of Cadets was going about business organizing the teams, Sumi couldn't help but smirk and rub her hands together in a short, childish display of excitement. Finally, this was the real deal. This was the team, the many allies fighting for the protection of the city against the threats go bump in the night. To those unfamiliar, Sumi would locate the mass of Cadets and introduce herself, noting the prominence and aura of authority emanating from the Wild Card.

"Hey there, fellow cadets! Name's Sumi. I just got through the initiation test myself, and I have to say the thrill of bashing those demons is incredible. Count on me to sit wherever and I'll make sure those monsters are singed nice and... wait, what's going on?"

Sumi looked over as the procession of the insane clown parade from behind the Prince's viewpoint, reaching for her chakram to smash the mirror holding the presence of their supposed leader. Then came the Prince's order to not start combat which resulted in Sumi sighing with both relief and frustration. On one hand, it was good a man of logic like Julius could make the right call and wait to see how things played out. But then came the image of Lisa wearing the tattering scars of intense battle, digging into the prince's calm composure and feeding into Sumi's desire to start tossing some bladed circles.

"Oooh, you are SO going to regret doing something like that! I'mma cut your stupid hat into ribbons!"

"Yeah, you tell that nutcase who's boss!" Flamma agreed from within her mind.

Then came the division of teams as Albrecht beckoned them into his group, referring to her by her hairstyle as it took Sumi a second to realize she had actually put her hair back into one. She collected the items offered by the helmed knight and followed in close pursuit, eyes sparkling with wonder as the knight just grew wings and ran off to the right.

"Thanks, Albrecht, but my name's actually Su- omigosh, how did you do that?! Wings? That looks so cool even though you're... not using them to fly? Ah whatever, I'm right behind you! If you need a little cover to switch people out... wait, I don't think there's enough people to switch out. Uh, if you need that, I can provide it. Flamma, get ready!"

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"H-he's insane..." Susan knew a thing or two about radical groups, and all had some form of ideal or agenda which to adhere to. For some it was money or power, political conquest, oftentimes it was religion or some sort of violent social belief such as racial superiority. She had studied it in college. But he had no agenda, "T" had no other desire than to fulfill his own narcissism by winning a "game" against the government with lives on the line. It was... disturbing to be certain, though Susan shrunk back as he spoke and the others ruffled to analyze this situation, to take it all in and understand it, his methodology and the threat it posed. She would assume that his pathology would center around this game, "T" was clearly willing to sacrifice lives for his own amusement and she reasoned that if they broke the rules of the game, if they were dishonest he would retaliate by killing hostages. At the same time he was enforcing a time limit upon them, to ensure they played his game. It reeked of typical narcissistic power fantasy, in his eyes he could not lose since he had already won. Susan surmised that their best chance to conquer this situation was to play along with this game until they could violently break his illusion. Therefore, they could not cheat and had to play by the rules.

Susan cowered as Julius understandably was enraged by the scenario and repeated the power she had seen him use the night she became a Cadet. At his command the team would split into groups to cover both paths, though this left her concerned that "T" may be able to pull a fast one and saunter through the unguarded exit should this be a ruse. This entire situation had been a ploy, it would be dangerous to expect the expected in this twisted game of hide and seek.


Susan would dutifully hurry off after Maria as instructed, feeling quicker in her sneakers but still having trouble keeping up. She would have to pay a visit to the gym, loathsome as that was.As she jogged along Susan would need to sprint in order to bring herself to the leader of the group with his angelic wings, she surmised brought forth from abilities such as hers.
"*huff... huff...* Mr. Frost...! *huff...* I apologize... *huff...* in advance for this...!" As she rushed next to him Susan would need to leap up as high as she could and tap the side of his helmet, the protective headpiece manifesting an insignia of ornate gold leaves along the visor.
"It is... *huff...* a monitoring sigil... *huff...* It will allow me to... *huff...* see through your eyes and communicate... *huff...*" As she explained the effects of her ability Susan would also like to introduce herself to Ms. Sumi as well. Introductions were important for team bonding, it would do well to learn everyone's names. Though... she was having problems keeping up with her younger and more energetic teammates. With the enemy coming up she should conserve her energy and save the chit chat for a later time when it wasn't imperative to fight for her life.

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Susan could feel the swirling fog eating away at her as they went and prepared to engage their foe. If nothing of the effects of it the miasma certainly made her nervous, impacting her mental state and causing Seshat to vibrate within her mind, to become more unpredictable as is.
She approached cautiously, taking a centermost position to better direct her team as Seshat clawed her way from the back of her mind to appear twitching and jerking in a black smoke within the green fog.


Acting out of Susan's own fear of the situation to protect her, Seshat would generate several spears of light in its hand, contorting its body unnaturally to throw them at the offending party.

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Edit: AoA damage apparently didn't get included.
72 + 15 + 15 = 102 x 3 = 306 damage