End of the Line [Night: Bad Girl Cadet Mission]

A chill crept down Cecilia's spine as the situation became simultaneously more and less clear. Maria's presence had been a welcoming and relieving sight, but as the air grew thick and heavy she felt that momentary glee being torn apart, rended and bloodied until all that remained was an unrecognizable writhing pile of fear and distress. She was well aware that her friend could handle herself -- after all, Maria was the epitome of what the pink-haired Cadet strived to be and they had fought together plenty of times prior to this -- but at her raw instinctual core none of that mattered. They were diving into the depths of hell itself: that was the signal her brain was sending her... and true enough to that animal dread they arrived to find the abyss staring back.


The memories of Dragon's Maw were still fresh in her mind. It had been an overwhelming success (one she gloated about before and after the mission's end) and a raw display of her potential at the time, but regardless of how swift and predictable the triumph had been, she hadn't forgotten the finer details of it (and the implications they held) by any means. Something had been... inside Sera. Something incomprehensible, something reprehensible that had twisted him into that green-haired monster, that had warped him into an abomination no different from the demonic vermin that infested Endymion. After sifting through the suffocating fog and fixating her gaze on the girl before her, Cecilia already knew from that disgusting glasglow grin alone that this situation was no different. Her eyes narrowed and an intense yellow glow overtook them as she stared in contempt at the inhuman creature before her.

The businesswoman could only nod hesitantly at the idol's inquiry, then his declaration.
"I-I know..." she would mumble. Susan was aware that her inability to keep a handle on her fear could possibly get someone killed, that knowledge did nothing to ease that fear. She was no longer in absolute control, her trembling hands would do what they wanted, her flighty nerves would twitch and pulse, and the sinking feeling of dread wouldn't go away. If she had been on her own it may have been more tolerable because she would have no one to critique and disappoint but as it stood she was in the hot seat. Squeezing her eyes closed she would do as Faces told her and take slow, shaking breaths. She slapped the magazine into her weapon and charged it, giving some nervous quick nods and a small flash of a frightened smile to her comrades that even if she didn't look like it she could she would undertake this endeavor.

Susan swept in behind when everyone else started moving. Unlike the others that flew past the shadows of passing columns with the quiet clamor of stomping boots, a purposeful fighting force wielding immense amounts of firepower she struggled to keep up with her tiny PDW. Every raking silhouette leaped out toward her, every skittering rat a potential gunman as she stayed close behind at a full run, putting in her maximum amount of effort to avoid being left behind the combat elites. Her frazzled mind kept flitting between shutting down and doing as was implied by action in order to deal with the stress of pressure and flipping back on to process the large amounts of possible scenarios that they may encounter. She didn't think that Serah Wilson would have the equipment nor the forethought and methodology to make tripwire incendiary bombs but it she couldn't rule it out...

The feeling of dread roared powerfully in the back of her mind, Seshat scratching at the scent of blood in the water when they reached the green mist. Potentially a chemical weapon. T-this was not surmised in her report but she should have assumed. Mustard gas is easily made with some bleach and a little ingenuity. Susan's heart skipped a beat when the Cadets threw caution to the wind and entered anyway, immensely relieved that they didn't start choking to death. When the other lawmen breached and cleared into the train yard to find a faceless, possessed sin against God in the form of a troubled teenager the businesswoman... remained where she was at.

Susan took position by the entrance on the other side of the door, her shoulder thrown to it as cover and only a little of her head peering around the side. For a multitude of reasons she would not enter just yet. On what she had studied about urban combat maneuvers exits and entrances were important, they needed their backs watched while they were engaged and in such a way that she could intervene. Besides, they were greater in number and adding another cog into the complicated war machine would complicate a smoothly-running operation. If Serah Wilson moved to escape the way they came she would be the last line of defense, adding another layer of certainty. Not to mention the fact that she was frightened. It had been clear so far that Susan was not adept at combat, she was no soldier like the others, her strong suits lay in information handling and planning. Maria had claimed that this perpetrator, whatever became of Serah Wilson, would be incredibly dangerous. This was no place for a greenhorn like she was. Those who did not know learned, and Susan would learn the intricacies of combat by observing first. Even if she couldn't be the righteous defender that Julius had expected from a Cadet she certainly wasn't about to be a liability.

Action:

"Hello you two." he said in response with a calm smile.
He began to move out with the rest of the squad and Maria, nodding at her words.
"Understood." he said seriously. He had every intention of proving himself tonight. He knew full well that he couldn't fail again.

Either he would be the worst of the best, or the best of the worst.
Either one meant he was still one of the best of something, at least, so he made that his bare minimum goal.

Then they came across her.

This eerie green miasma that gave him a distinct chill. This wasn't like what he had seen at the art gallery.
This was something unnatural, the kind of things that were in scarier stories.
He would remember this clearly in his mind.

Honestly, he was scared as he could be at that moment, but his desire to prove himself won over the fear.
Said desire to prove himself also meant not charging in half-cocked and potentially getting them all killed.
So he prepared himself for a fight.
"What do we do? I know we're going to take her down, the question is, how do you wanna do it?" he quietly asked the others.
This woman was clearly insane. There was no telling what she might do.
If she got in one of the trains...
Well, he didn't want to think about it.

It was really weird how everything got so tense quickly when they began to move out. But the situation called for it. Someone disappeared and probably lost her mind or something. It's something Joseph can't quite make much sense out of it, but that recent announcement by some masked attention whore had to be linked to what was happening now. At first he hesitated about storming in, but since his superiors didn't have any qualms, he quickly followed in with both blade and firearm in both hands.

A small goosebump spread down his neck as it contrasted with his otherwise composed expression. There was something absolutely wrong here, something is off with that girl and it was pissing him off. What didn't even tick him off anyway? He noticed that the overly-positive cottonhead was taking this seriously and wasn't in the mood for any kind of conversation. But Joseph clearly disagreed, "respectfully".

The idol watched Ms. Groves actually take his advice and tried her best to calm down and put on a brave face. His expression would soften slightly as he saw that smile the woman gave. “You’ll do just fine,” he would tell her, letting that gentle statement and behavior stay for a second before he was becoming quiet and unreadable once more as he focused on the task at hand.

The white haired young man was quiet as he listened to the words that went around and what actions were happening and towards whom. While he didn’t react much to the nod of approval from Maria, he was indeed quite pleased with it though why was anyone’s guess. In any case, once everyone was ready go the idol would follow easily enough still remaining unarmed as he looked around the place to get a good feel of the layout...and to also keep an eye on Ms. Groves who was struggling to keep up. He kept his pace more or less balanced so that she could keep up, but also where he wouldn't fall too far behind either. He made a note to himself to perhaps speak with Ms. Groves about this issue of keeping up and such later.

However, his attention would soon be directed towards a door as a rather unpleasant sensation begin to sink into him. It was a sensation that was familiar and not familiar all at once. It was familiar thanks to the unease that was settling upon him. An unease he had experienced twice since becoming a Cadet.

The first round with the feeling was back when they pursued Alice and had gotten gassed in her strange Wonderland and the other was when he tried to save versus destroy Ms. Claire. It was that same uneasiness, but there was something more to it this round that turned that calm expression upon his face into one of stone and ice. The strange feeling was only amplified by the behavior others. Maria was colder than ever, Jackie was quiet, Cecilia was like a changed woman as she told them that the child before them could not be reasoned with, Susan wisely hung back, Takeru was asking questions, and Joseph was prepared for a fight. It was a lot of tension within this already intoxicating room and it was something that could easily make one lose their head if not careful; however, the idol would box up his fear and unease shoving it into a corner so that he could focus on the situation clearly.

“Takeru, hang back with Ms. Groves for now. If things get bad we’ll need all the backup we can get," he would respond back calmly and quietly to the other before taking a step forward placing himself between the guy and their target. Appeared his words were an order versus a suggestion. Holding his ground before the smiling girl, his strange eyes would watch her as his mind locked in what he knew they had to do. However, he would not act just yet as he kept his stance calm and relaxed as he kept quiet and let Joseph talk. He would wait to see just how unreasonable their target was. Would she even answer?

Action:

The leer grew deeper as the words passed between the Cadets. She expected to be alone tonight. But my, oh my, there were guests intruding in her lonely serenade in the premises. She giggled at Joseph's words. It was hard to tell if she were even listening to him or not. Maria didn't answer anyone's questions right now. The Cadet was doing her best to gauge the situation at the moment. Serah seemed to be the only one here other than them. But there was no way she was alone. "Well if it isn't the Queen's bottom bitches? Did you come to play? I could use some playmates tonight. Ha ha ha...!"

"Get over yourself," Lisa abruptly and brusquely shot back at her with a glare. There was something detestable about this girl even though this was the first time she met something of its ilk. There was something different about it. Yet at the same time, there was something familiar about it and it made her feel nauseous. But she kept up her confident demeanor successfully as she pointed her blade at the truant. "We're here to bring you back. Don't make this hard on yourself."

The infested girl was about to answer Lisa, but she paused. There was something odd, even more so compared to last time for Maria and Cecilia. The light-hearted and manic leer turned into a vicious snarl with a curse. An obvious show of disgust and abhorrence. It caused Maria to notice it while Lisa seemed confused for one moment. It may usually be hard to tell while lacking a face, the flailing body language made it unmistakenable. But not for very long as Serah growled back at the Princess, "You reek...! Stop talking or I'll kill you! I feel like vomiting with each word you spit out, bitch!"

"Go ahead and try, Psyche-Terrorist. By the time we're done with you, I'll make you eat the dirt. Maybe that'll help settle you down," her eyes flashed crimson with power beginning to ebb from her in preparation. Maria quickly grabbed a firm shoulder on Lisa and gave a stern look at her, causing the Princess to cut some slack despite still being eager to give Serah a smackdown. Though, despite being faceless, Serah smugly smirked.

Takeru silently watched the exchange of words.
The words of being called the 'bottom bitch' of the queen stung.
It suited him perfectly, really.
But honestly, that was fine with him.
He was no leader. That much was true.

"I wonder... isn't there something I can do here...?" he muttered quietly to himself. It looked like that he wouldn't be of any use here, more than likely. Chalk it up to how he was probably amongst the weakest of the cadets here (bar Susan, possibly), and fielding him for combat was a bad idea.

He grit his teeth at this. He wanted to prove himself so badly, and yet, tonight might not be his chance.

But he stopped quickly. There would be other nights. Other chances.
But still...
Part of him wanted to do something. Something useful.
He quietly began to think as he looked around at his surroundings.
What could he do?

Action::

Jackie's fingers finally found the trigger. He didn't pull, as much as he would have liked to open fire on Serah. No, The Blue Haired Cadet stopped the other Girl from trying something. Instead, Jackie finally found words. "Please, come quietly and do not resist. If you do, this can all just end right now, and we can help you with whatever's making you do these things! If you resist... Then she'd be just a Psyche Terrorist, and then it'd be time to gun her down until they could drag her away to be rehabbed. Maybe the inherent threat of staring down eight cadets would convince her to just give up, and go quietly. Something told him this wouldn't be something they could just negotiate their way out of, though. Even behind his sunglasses, yellow orbs could be seen, as he prepared himself. "If you resist, we will have to detain you by any means possible. Please do not let it come to that.

The miasma felt as if it was getting thicker after she uttered those words. Serah's body began to curl down, as if something was trying to erupt out of her. Laughter continued to chatter out of her lips, both condescending and manic. Something erupted from her back and it flailed. An arm peeked out of her, then a leg. Soon the rest of its body followed. Even as it leaked out of Serah, there was a connection between them. Maria knew it was a demon just like last time and Cecilia could tell too. "Show me a good time, government bitches!

Sera Wilson, Level 8:

Taraka, Level 10:

Maria Tension:

Lisa's Tension:

PvS Train Zone Battle:

The Cadet would remain quiet listening as the conversation between Ms. Wilson and the others played out. The Princess seemed ready to take action, but Maria held her back for the time being. It was true the woman was taunting them, but to raise too quickly to the taunt would be a bad idea. Besides...maybe there was some form of hope in this situation. The girl could still react and change expressions despite being faceless, so maybe she could be reasoned with? Maybe.

The Cadet had to wonder, but would find himself distracted by Takru’s muttering. He’d glance over his shoulder slightly at the other with a unreadable expression as he spoke. “Good things come to those who are patient and wait. You are being useful enough by waiting with Ms. Groves,” was the calm words he said to the other before refocusing on the situation that was becoming less than pleasant. Well the girl most certainly wasn’t coming quietly...and now she was giving birth so to speak to a creature that reminded him of the demons they faced normally, but something much worse. On top of that, that sick feeling he had from the air around them only intensified as whatever this stuff was got thicker. To be honest, he just wanted to be away from this, but he held his ground well enough as the inevitable battle began.

...Right on the train tracks. Wonderful. Not like anything else could possibly make this any more strange than it already was. Shaking his head mentally, he would focus as he stepped on the track with the rest of his team falling in line behind Jackie and Joseph who had decided to take the front line positions. His mismatched eyes would become golden as he summoned his soul bound and his persona all at once.

Without a word, he would give a gesture to the winged persona that made it chuckle with its usual madness as it raised its weapon and moved forward. It would take aim at the girl as its weapon became coated in ice...

Hatsuharu - Level 5 - Main Line - Track 1:

Information Box:

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The words fell empty and yet still stung; they were weightless and yet crushing, an accusation whose lack of foundation made it all the stronger and twisted it into an equally powerful yet distinctly different weapon. For a moment Cecilia might have seemed phased by the monster's words, her eyes flickering back to their normal color for a split second, but it didn't last long as the shield flashed into her hand and she quickly dashed across the tracks without a word. Whatever happened next, this demon had it coming: they'd expel it from Serah's skin no matter what just as she had done for Rika back at Dragon's Maw.

Cecilia Hunt:

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