The Sound of Dragons Fighting [Night | Case File #40]

This was not how the night was supposed to go. This was not how her life was meant to go. But of course that is how it went. She really should have seen this coming, not this but something like it. Some tragedy that would befall her that would take yet another thing away. Susan could not have nice things just fall into her lap. The world did not work that way. And as she watched the man she had entrusted her heart to hold it before him, putting it on display before taking a lighter underneath it that became evident enough. Susan had not wanted to hurt Gabriel. She had said as much. He should have surrendered and came with them so he could be fixed. He was sick. He was not well. She had wanted to have believed, so desperately wanted to believe that his mind had been poisoned by the Jest. Just like Sarah, just like all those people on that fateful night. Her mind had flailed for some explanation and dug into the most unlikely scenarios that he was not himself, that they could have back everything they were. It would hurt but she could rebuild it. She could fix. This. But he had always had it in for her from the start. What she believed to be true was another lie, that reality did not exist and the man she had chosen to love had never existed. So what else was news?

Her teeth grit and tears rolled down her cheeks when he had bragged about tricking her. It was reminiscent of the television studio and of someone she most despised more than anything. They were of the same stock. And in this he acted as she had always known, holding up the weight of the world with his shoulders. It was all him, none of it was her fault for being fooled. She begged to differ. Her eyes flitted down to his collar, where an Eye manifested, just a momentary flick of the pupils is all it took. He wouldn't notice it. How could he? Unless he was looking down to inspect his collar for no particular reason and the moment he chose to drop his guard they would be on him anyway. And he was not paying attention. She could now see through his eyes, he was looking around with all the subtlety he could muster. For an escape or an ambush she did not know. Her hands shook. She tucked her thumb to prepare to pop her briefcase open.

He had known the entire time, all this time he had been working against her. But he was the one that was wrong. He was the one that did not understand. She knew the MO of the Platinum Playhouse, she was building their dossier. Susan was aware that they were self-proclaimed freedom fighters in battle against the evils of the government. They were rebels. They were also wrong and did not understand the consequences of their actions. There was a greater threat that existed, one that loomed over Endymion and would drag it into the abyss. All they were managing to do was to stop them from preventing the city from being destroyed, a bear trap on the train tracks for the oncoming train that was Infinite Jest. But he might understand. He was one of them. As much as she would want to believe he was misguided, that this was not his fault, that he was out of his mind or ignorant she could do none of those things. He had thrown that away. It was worthless to him. Everything they had he had discarded. Gabriel was no more, he had said so himself. She was facing Shotaro now.


Almost just as quickly as the ice wall manifested it would disappear, completely evaporated beneath a beam of burning light. Susan had manifested Seshat to cast a ray of light as wide as the wall but able to continue past it some distance, 5 meters. Though he had smartly used quick movement nearly immediately and would not be scorched by the incandescence. Seshat faded as soon as the burst of light disappeared, leaving only a small shower of unhindering rain where the wall once was. He was trying to escape but he could only run. Never hide. The moment he put up his terrorist mask he had hidden her mark under the costume he wore... but it was still there. She would be able to monitor him no matter where he ran, unbeknownst to him or not. Susan herself had not hesitated to begin moving, discarding her briefcase as she pulled her P90 from it and began to give chase. Everything else was in the pockets of the vest over her shirt, under her coat unbuttoned for ease of access. She took off after him in a sprint. Sooner or later she would catch up, it did not matter how quickly he moved.

As Susan dashed after him and flicked the safety off her weapon she would resolve to do only what she could. To solve the problem. To sort this out later. The one mote of fortune she had had this night was his monologue had left him open. She needn't mince any words. There was nothing to be spoken of here, now, only something to be done. But Susan did not need luck. In all of her days she had never had one single shred of fortune, nothing had come easy, no gamble had ever paid off. She worked for everything she had. He could use every ounce of luck available to him, it would make no difference. She had always worked with luck against her. This was not any different.

Cadet Susan Groves, Level 13 Rogue:

Actions:

Strengths/Weakness:

Man, were all these Psyche-Terrorists have to have all this preaching crap ready to go when something was going down? It sounded so trope-y and so lame. What a waste of an entire night that could've been spent making some cool drawings back in the studio. The insinuation that they needed to run after this loser was not even at all appealing for Shin. Though his compatriots made quick work in reaction to this guy's bullshittery. So maybe he didn't need to do anything, as he simply dashed over to the party as his hand was busy drawing whatever the hell he was making. But hell, maybe it won't be so easy. Hence, he was ready whatever the hell was happening. Shin would stand by and behind Alex at the ready for anything.

Action:

Shin's Human Strengths:

Shin, Level 10, Mainline:

The blast itself was powerful, destroying the ice wall. Even Susan boasted a powerful capacity to erase Gabe's attacks at a moments notice. Gabe could probably be defeated by a fly if it had a persona for some reason.

"I really am not cut out for fighting other people."

The blast missed Gabe due to him shadow accelling, but that was a close one. He expected nothing less from Susan, she was capable and was a cadet as well.  But he still had the skills that he had and was going to use them to the fullest extent for the sake of escape.

Right now, Gabe had momentum and wasn't going to stop running. If he slowed down, and allowed them to catch up, it could be the end. No, it would be the end of it all, so he couldn't allow them to do that.  But as Gabe started to run through the alleyway, he noticed the lights acting quite irregularly and the lasers showing up.

"What is that?! The lights?"

They were connecting and forming a barrier of some sort, not good. He had to do something right now, and regardless if the theory was to work, it was worth the gamble to try. Gabe continued his high momentum of running, acting as if the laser didn't concern him at all.  His persona used the baton it had in order to shoot a blast of a giant bullet  behind them that was  11 meters in size towards Alex. The width was adjusted in order to carve through the sides of the alleyway in order to hit the lights as well as it thrust towards it's target,  moving at a swift pace to cover 15 meters of its trajectory. It didn't matter if it was the wiring from within the walls or the light themselves being destroyed as the bullet rammed it's way towards it's target. He just needed to try something.


There was also the case that the line of sight was also blocked from seeing gabe until they dealt with the bullet as well.  At the same time that his persona shot the bullet, Gabe shadow accelled with blind faith that he dealt with the lasers to turn out of the alleyway in order to continue his attempted escape, he didn't really know what was on the other side, but he was going to make it work.

If he was successful, gabe would try to find another path to cut through in order to make it out in one piece.

stats

Spoiler:

skills

Spoiler:

If it even hits

crit rate

Spoiler:

Debuff rate

Spoiler:

The blood was pounding in her ears. Which was odd considering how her heart was cut from her chest. But that was quite alright. She would deal with all of that later, or perhaps not at all. The word distraught failed to broach exactly how she was feeling, some odd amalgamation of fury and despair and pain. Susan sought to put this away. It did her no good. It did not help. Doing something about that would help and so she set herself to her task to numb the immense ache: apprehend Shotaro. For once, she was not thinking beyond this. Not of the repercussions or the fallout or her own emotions or outcomes or anything else. It was just this. This one singular task. And then she could think and plan and hurt when she had the most convenient opportunity to do so. Her teammates charged past her at a quick pace and she had almost reached them before the alleyway began to rumble. Susan halted and was nearly run over with a bullet larger than a freight train, shielding her eyes from the debris as it ripped past her. She had seen the wall as well that Alex had conjured. This did not bode well.

She had to think quickly, she was so far behind. But that too was alright since she could compensate. She would not make a mad dash, she would not engage in irrational thoughts that were emotionally driven. She would set herself to her task and think evenly of how best to accomplish it. It was the only thing she was any fucking good for, apparently. Thinking quickly Susan drew a stick of incense from a pouch on her vest to crush it, giving herself and her other Cadet teammates a sharp boost in power. Once done she peered around the corner just to get a line of sight. What she needed to do was precise enough.

Susan looked to the sky as she willed Seshat behind her only for the aspect to fly up and away as far as it possibly could which was 6 meters diagonally upward and down the alleyway.


She had to call out to her teammates to avoid running into what she was about to do. From her vantage point Seshat conjured a ball of pure light and flung it downward and in front of Shotaro and into the middle of the street he was coming into, a range she could easily cover given a max of 15 meters on her attack. The light grenade smacked down as rapidly as could be shot given her Persona's magical ability and exploded in a bright flash, Seshat disappearing as it did, radiating light in a circle with a radius of 7.5 meters. This was enough to overlap with the alleyway and to coat the sides of the buildings on the other side for at least a meter, and the entire street up to the same and to the other side. He would not be able to move forward without entering the burning rays, back into the alleyway was the only safe place he could easily access and there he would need to deal with Cadet Tenth. If indeed he was within the street at the time he could not escape the burn quick enough.

But not only that. The attack was radiating intense light along with the flashing explosion that would blind anyone too close to it. If Shotaro was indeed close to the alleyway's exit or even entering the street the he would most certainly have been blinded as if hit by a flashbang, disabled for a number of seconds. Inside the area of light it was also difficult to see as if staring at the sun. It appeared as a large oncoming spotlight for those who dared stare at it... highlighting him to anyone inside the alleyway behind him. She'd pulled her own head back behind the wall to avoid being blinded herself. With the initial flash gone and only the harsh light to contend with Susan swept the corner with her weapon at the ready after a deep breath, moving up as far as she could but none farther than Alex. The sooner she could end this the sooner this situation could start being repressed.

Cadet Susan Groves, Level 13 Rogue:

Actions:

Strengths/Weakness:

Welp. This guy was actually smarter than he looked or smarter than suggested from his earlier fuck up walking around like some Clark Kent mofo. Shin quickly slapped the brush-side of his paintbrush to the ground and immediately a spider-like creature sprout under foot and lunged over 20 meters into the sky. It would roost with each leg digging deep into the walls before scuttling forward to follow after the Psyche-Terrorist as the artist rode on it. But not before noticing Seshat below him and the warning Susan hollered out. Shin covered his eyes as the painting-creature closed theirs. The tell-tale sound of a bang signaled him to advance further, but he stayed a little longer to allow the tidal wave of computerized data to pass without getting in the way, putting him behind it. Oh man, was this going to be the end?

There was some hope that there wasn't, or else this animal he's riding on is just going to be disappointed. Even if this looked like to be the end, Shin would cautiously eye the area Gabe was occupying and advanced slowly forward.

Action:

Shin's Human Strengths:

Shin, Level 10, Mainline:

Perhaps Gabe was a little too quick, the pain was excruciating as Gabe made it past those lasers. It shook him to the very core of his soul, but he still continued to run. It worked in theory perhaps, but he needed to be more patient when it came to destroying the lights. It was information, something to remember. He was still alive for now, so he could still run. So run he did, but hearing Susans voice and a shot of energy being fired from the distance did put him on guard. The last thing that she attacked him with was an energy of light, and even though he did run ahead to power through the lasers, he wasn't sure how much his body could take from all of these attacks.

"Persona!"

It was an instinct that Gabe acted defensively, Pryoformer Shotaro was positioned behind Gabe and gave off a bit of a Dracula T-pose by holding it's cape spread out in order to provide somewhat of a blockage to protect Gabe. It soaked the light technique, with a little bit of cracks formulating on the persona, but it still maintained its tangibility. Due to the way that it protected Gabe, the shade provided from his persona and the way that it covered his also protected the daring terrorist from the gleam, as he continued his mad dash for survival. It was a bit of a sacrifice by risking the sustainability of his persona, but the most important thing was that he could see.

It wasn't broken just yet, and Gabe was banking on his own tenaciousness in order to get away. But if that wasn't enough , Alex made another attempt in order to swarm the terrorist with his own power, making the laser like fence something akin to childs play.

"Just how strong is this guy?!"

He didn't know what they were capable of, but Gabe could assume that everything he was going against was the tip of the iceberg with how advantaged they were. That much was certain, an attack of that magnitude that Alex was summoning was not only power, but fear-inducing. Anyone would just take a look at that and go into the other direction. But this was the Gambler, and at the look of things, he only took it as another wild bet.

With his sleight of hand, Gabe snatched out a bead on his person and crushed it with impeccable speed,  it was at this point that he would also grab on to his persona with his other hand.   After crushing the bead came into effect and gabe got most of his health back, his persona turned into a cartoonish giant bullet of 14 meters  that held him tight as it decided to ram  through the data stream head on.

It seemed crazy, and it was, dealing considerable damage to the point that he felt he would kheel over if he didn't heal beforehand,  but Gabe was trying to think of the benefits. He wanted distance from them , and they wasn't expecting him to grow through such an attack fearlessly. In addition to that, with the size of the bullet covering the 13-meter street, he wanted to destroy as many lantern lights as possible in order to cut alex off of his techniques and be propelled as far as 15 meters as well. With the persona casting the skill that the way it did,  it wouldnt be able to interact with the data stream in such a way and avoid a further persona break.

Gabe had to fight through the pain, and he acted the only he knew how. He just hoped it would pay off. He was taking a beating, but his will to live made him tenacious enough to carry on.

notes

Spoiler:

Stats

Spoiler:

Used

Spoiler:

strength

Spoiler:

He was that desperate to get away. Like a crazed animal. She had known he had healed himself, she could feel the relief and all of the jolting pain when he charged through the data wall but it would not set her off her course. She could not relate right now. Empathy was a nonessential emotion for this and he was getting away. They could not stop his jet propulsion, only make it hurt for him to do so but he continued to struggle and attempt escape. He was getting away. It was upsetting on a deeper level than she could force control over and she felt her heart seize and the pit in her throat grow. He was getting away. He wasn't allowed to get away. She could catch him and she could fix him, she could eradicate the disease from his mind just as they'd done with the others. It was painful to harm him but this was for his own good. He was sick. She could cure him. All he had to do was just give in...! And let himself be fixed...!

Set your petty feelings aside, you're embarrassing yourself. If you cannot handle this then I will do it for you.

As Gabriel shot himself through the street Seshat appeared in her full, life-given form that radiated a burst of swirling letters. Alex could feel resolve set as a mental tolerance to pain and shock was instilled in his mind. Shin, just barely, could feel the same. And so could Susan. As Seshat whisked away all of her agony and despair leaving only nothing she granted her physical and mental quickness as her eyes dimmed. She now had the speed to counter Shotaro, the man and the Persona and she used it to keep moving. But what she would need to do was dangerous and may end up killing him. Susan did not want to harm him, she even despised attacking him at all. But Seshat did not care one way or the other. He would be brought low, breathing or not. The bandages wrapping around her limbs braced her into a tight firing position as she halted at the end of the alleyway.

Shotaro's attack was just ending, so foolish he would leave his back exposed. If he wasn't as quick she would have shot him in flight and this would be over. But he was still within the resurgance of the data tsunami. He had been bold enough to enter the attack and be harmed but he was still within its length, his canon shot did not cover the entire diameter of the attack. It did not hinder Shotaro's vision, it would not hinder hers. It did not halt him from passing through it nor would it stop her bullets. He couldn't create an ice wall within the data wave to block her shots if he could not contend with its power, he would need to escape the full attack first and even then she was just as quick as his Persona was with two major advantages: she was behind him and he was moving forward, and she could see where he was looking. Her finger was already on the trigger, she was equally quick as his Persona. He was reacting, she was not, and even so hers were far quicker. But he would be hard to hit if he acceled or used techniques, Susan knew this. So she prepared for it.


The businesswoman squeezed the trigger 4 times, firing a 3-round burst each time aiming for center mass on Shotaro and with her enhanced agility assisting her aim all shots would hit their mark if they could and especially at this short range. She took a quarter of a second in between each trigger pull, waiting and extending that time if he did something for her to react to or make her change target. If Shotaro used Shadow Accel to escape any shots she would readjust and continue to fire, she could do so with her enhanced agility. With her knowing where he was looking and heightened reaction speed she could directly counter his ability to react to her and he could not dodge her bullets without doing something supernatural. She was predicting his own moves much faster. She knew the cards in his hand as soon as he drew them. Even if he would generate an ice wall behind him after escaping the attack Susan would already be firing and he would be hit by at least one 3-round burst before he could get the wall up and even then if Alex chose to extend the attack and keep it moving he could not defend himself at all. He was faster than Alex, this was true, thought not by much and at some point the attack would breach his wall and she could hit him with more shots. It mattered little how quickly he moved with his Persona's assistance, they were on even ground in terms of speed. If he went down here she would stop firing, though she could not control each 3-round burst. If one shot of those hit, all would. With all shots fired, keeping her weapon slightly raised Susan rushed forward to be neck and neck with Alex, ready and able to deal with any counterattack he would send back at her without being in danger of entering Alex's own attack.

Cadet Susan Groves, Level 13 Rogue:

Actions:

Strengths/Weakness:

Welp, okay. So his Purse-Owner was going to take that flash and that cluster of data smashed against him, great. Shin was going to descend down, if it weren't for the torrent of bullets hailing and the lazer beam blasting towards the Psyche-Terrorist. Damn, that kind of firepower was scary. But it was really weird how this guy was hurtling back towards Alex and Susan with that weird bullet. Not his problem, Shin supposed. With another series of brushes on his creation, the spider would retain its shape and ability for movement.

After Alex's and Susan's attacks passed by, the spider landed down to the streets behind Gabriel before beginning to scuttle towards him. The Psyche-Terrorist would be boxed in between Alex and Susan on one side and Shin on the other.

Action:

Shin's Human Strengths:

Shin, Level 10, Mainline:

He turned around, he didn't really understand it himself. If there was a method to the madness, then why would it be called madness nevertheless? However, what's important here was that they were so occupied with him that they forgot about everyone else. This was ok, the people he had were too important to lose. Trinity was still considered a veteran despite her age, and nightengale seemed to have the trust of revenant. There were others, all out getting stronger as he thought about them. There will always be another, it was ok.

Everyone will always see the foolishness of what he did, but not for what he wanted it to stand for. No one will ever really understand it, but he hoped that in his struggle that saying he would risk it all for his comrades at a moments notice, they would believe him. It didn't matter who he was, class, status, prior obligations, they all knew that stopping the government and instilling faith within the people without mass genocide was the way of the platinum playhouse.

If this was the final act, if he couldn't get away, he wanted to show them something very important. it included revealing his face, it included revealing that he was willing to stand against someone he cared for. He truly believed in what they were doing, and his desire to protect those who shared his beliefs. If someone was to rise up and surpass him, they will be greater, stronger, and smarter he could ever be.



But for now.... he smiled. There were some blood and cuts of the reckless attempts and gambles he made to evade the pursuers, but he smiled anyway.

"Cadets, are you entertained?! This is `the kind of showman terrorism you won't get anywhere else!"




Their secrets were safe with him, he had the courage to withstand all torture. He felt a weight lifted off his shoulder as he reevaluated his true purpose, the started to think less selfishly and more along the lines of a person who passed on his will to his comrades for a brighter future.

Even if he wouldn't be there to see it.

"How about a game of chicken?"

As he continued to feel this way, Gabe became even bolder. He pushed it even further, sustaining the hell's thrust as he continued to feel it eating away at his health. He grabbed on tight to the arm of his persona, putting on a face that was the borderline between daring confidence and insanity. He was going to break past Alex and continue to make a break for it.

You would think it was just Alex and Gabe playing this dangerous game, but Susan was involved as well in this ridiculous gamble that was gabe's struggles. She was intending to shoot as soon as the technique ended, but it wasn't going to be so easy to go her way. Susan could probably feel it slipping, the blazing fire of his heart burning into cinders. If she pulled that trigger, it would definitely be the end for Gabe...

If she had it in her to kill him.

However, if she didn't and Alex had to act instead with the firing of his data stream, Gabe would anticipate the intent of his overpowered adversary and with his sleight of hand, crush a bead and put himself at full health before the impact of the blast, and crash past Alex to give him a good box on the ass as he continued on. It didn't even matter how much damage the boy would take, just the fact that Gabe got past him.

If somehow, by a pure miracle that Gabe's death gamble paid off, the hell's thrust cartoonish rocket will still attempt to destroy as many lampposts as it could as he shot out of the alleyway before he took off running with his persona behind him at the end of the technique.

He was fighting like a terrorist, his hostage...was himself.

Stats

Spoiler:

Used

Spoiler:

crit rate

Spoiler:

Debuff rate

Spoiler:

Strengths

Spoiler:

He wasn't stopping. He wasn't going to stop. Even if she had shot her bullets would have ricocheted off of his canonfire, they could not stop him. He was moving too quickly for Alex. He was right. She knew that if she had waited to shoot, if she somehow took his attack and waited for an opportunity it would kill him. Susan was tired of all the death, of all the violence, and even greater violence was one way to quell that of another but she had not wanted to hurt him from the beginning. Had not wanted too. Though she was still capable of this. But with enough thought, with enough planning... she wouldn't have to. As much as her dour demeanor belied it she was an optimist. Always searching for a way to succeed even when odds seemed impossible, diligintely working to increase those odds, to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. And as Alex reacted to dodge the attack and take him with her she could begin to see the reality of the situation and what she must do.

Susan wouldn't play chicken. Susan did not play games.


As Alex ran into her the businesswoman's own reactions were much faster than his and he was much smaller. She immediately turned with a hand on his collar and whipped around to face behind her, tossing him into the very corner of the alley with his already enhanced dash and her supernaturally superior strength, guiding him to slide on his back if she could. Bullets happened to be rounded, and even if this one was wider than their alleyway and even dug into the ground a tad it would taper off at the ends and he would escape the attack. She called out a warning, of course, but it was to watch what she did next. With her quick turn Susan immediately began to sprint. Her speed was already on-par with Shotaro's own Persona, but she had something it did not: her pink bunny sneakers. She got them because they were cute, but good for tactical retreats. They increased her speed when running away from someone. She was using them to outrun the bullet. Gabriel was behind his own bullet. He wouldn't know if he ran her down or not, there was no way he could know. It was a gamble. He threw everything he had into blind faith but that's exactly what it was. Blind. The shorter woman was able to quickly maneuver past Shin's spider as she made her mad dash faster than his attack, easily escaping the end of the alleyway before he could manage to do so on his Persona.

At the end of the alleyway she immediately rounded the corner extending beyond his attack and took a few steps to get up the wall using the speed Seshat gave her, for height. She dropped her gun from her hands. It would hang in the air as she used her momentum to stay a few steps up the wall. The grinding coming from the traveling bullet crawled down her spine, but she could use both it and then Gabriel's own vision to tell about where he was on his trajectory. She just needed her moment. The nose of the bullet emerged. She would need to be quick, but she only needed an instant and with her enhanced reaction speed she would be able to act as quickly as she saw the chance to. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she hung there, anticipating his emerge. Until she saw him. He wouldn't know which direction she was coming from, and even so who could anticipate this? He couldn't act faster than she could. And she only needed the instant.

As soon as Gabe's bullet emerged from the alleyway with him clinging to the back of it she was on top of him. Susan kicked off the wall in a Shadow Accel straight for him. Even with the new mouth of the alleyway ground to 13 meters wide her momentum would carry, along with her own height, and she could clear that distance to him. Susan would go to tackle him off the back of his own rocket with her Shadow Accel, wrapping her arms around his and pinning him in a bear hug so that he couldn't use his hands as they twisted and spun in the air to fall dead center at the opening of the alleyway. It would likely knock the wind out of him and it would her as well as she landed hard and first onto the ground, but she snaked her legs around the insides of his so that he could not escape nor Shadow Accel himself. The enhanced strength of the Fierce Sutra made her much stronger than he was, he could not escape her hold with any amount of brute force. Her grip was almost crushing, her hands locked together, and with the extra fortification Seshat gave her she wouldn't budge or yield to pain either. The spinning would be disorienting for both of them but fortunately for Susan she did not need to have her bearings for her plan to work. Worst of all, Shotaro's Persona was the bullet and would continue to travel, it didn't just fire the bullet. It was farther away from him now. Poor Alex would not get the glory from this engagement, but he still had a job to do.

Cadet Susan Groves, Level 13 Rogue:

Actions:

Strengths/Weakness:

Man this guy just keeps on going, doesn't he? He wasn't sure if there was an end to this guy, but he really is putting up quite an effort. It's all a fucking pain in the ass, were all Psyche-Terrorists like this? After all of this back and forth, they were back into the streets were it all started. Talk about a waste of time. He saw what was happening and swiped his paintbrush behind him, taking form of an octopus that would stuff the alleyway where they came as the spider continued to scuttle closer to the scene of the battle with its master still riding on it.

He'd stop by Alex, ready to respond with another painting should the situation call for it.

Action:

Shin's Human Strengths:

Shin, Level 10, Mainline: