Prime Executive (Mission)

[Setsuna Hanamori]

Jaelyn Callahan and Sayu Nakano

---

Setsuna let out a sigh as she continued to climb stairs. When she saw the post for this mission on the Mission Board, she figured it'd be a good one to start out with. Granted, she wasn't so naive to assume that it was going to be as simple as "grab the thing and get out." but she figured that, with two other people, it shouldn't be too difficult if/when they did run into some Shadows. Additionally, she was in for a pleasant surprise when one of the two other people who signed up for the mission turned out to be Jaelyn. After their last outing, Setsuna had officially developed a huge crush on her, so she was pleased when she saw her.

The other person, she didn't know very well. Apparently she was mute, so Setsuna felt a little stupid at first when she tried to strike up a conversation with her when they initially met. As such, she didn't really know a lot about her. She seemed like a decent enough person, though. Either way, there was one thing that Setsuna hadn't taken into account; that she'd actually have to climb all of those stairs to get to the 60th floor. That was a crap-ton of stairs. At first, Setsuna figured they could just take the elevator, but then she remembered that anything that ran on electricity probably didn't work anymore out there...or, if it did, it was either too dangerous to use or an obvious trap.

Of course, it wasn't that Setsuna couldn't handle the stairs. She was in pretty good shape, even before she started fighting monsters. But sixty flights of stairs was a bit much, and it had started to take its toll on the teenager. "Ugh...if I never see stairs again...it'll never be too soon..." Despite her bitching, she'd be fine once she rested for a minute. She wasn't so fragile that this was going to wipe her out and leave her unable to battle any Shadows who might show up. She just really hated stairs right now.

[Jaelyn Callahan]

Well, Jaelyn hadn't really expected to be doing one of these again. Especially not something as ridiculous as retrieving something innocuous from the highest accessible level of a freaking tower. She didn't trust the crazy lady who put these things up as far as she could throw her. But, for awhile, it had just been sitting there. And it had a straight monetary reward, too. Not one of those ridiculous "slap something on a weapon to make it piss off an enemy" or whatever things.

So, there she was.

The company, at least, was split between pleasant and unpleasant. On the one hand, there was Setsuna, Jaelyn's little experiment. Admittedly, Jaelyn did care for the girl in a weird way that would probably be considered completely fucked up by anyone else. But it was there, at least. And besides, Setsuna had done no wrong by her so far. On the other, there was bitchy phone girl from the last battle. Jaelyn really did not want to deal with that at the moment, so she'd just nodded to her and not said a damn word when she showed up. Once they were all there, they started making their way up the tower.

And what a long-ass climb it was, rivaled only by the trip out of the giant hole in the outskirts. By the time they made it to the top, she did not blame Setsuna at all for needing to rest for a minute. Hell, as long as they needed to stop anyway, Jaelyn was going to do the same. Being used to the long climb didn't make it any less long. "Want me to carry you next time?" she asked Setsuna, not at all being serious.

Well, whatever. They were there now.

[Sayu Nakano]

Sayu was not the most fit of people. If anyone else said she was, they were either full of shit to the brim, or they witnessed one of the rare occasions in which adrenaline gave her body the middle finger and allowed her to move at rates well beyond anything she would have normally been capable of. Probably around the time that they had reached the twentieth floor, the girl's legs were just about ready to begin the “intense clawing sensation” phase of the acidic breakdown in the muscles. Naturally, this was both an unpleasant and undesirable sensation, as, despite her perversions that had been brought on by the media she partook in, she was no masochist. That said, she took certain motions to avoid dealing with such bullshit.

Having dropped to the back of the group around that point, she summoned Tamamo-no-mae, being cradled in a bundle of fluffy tails, and wrapped her arms around the kitsune's neck. Her legs, though sore, would recover. Plus, like that, she could shoot her gun from her perch against the fox-woman's back. And it was even a spot safe from her Persona's attacks! Not that it really mattered, considering that she nullified both offensive skills she had. And so, in due time, they reached the sixtieth floor. And then one of the girls complained. The other seemed to be interested in flirting. How annoying.

”I'm going ahead. You can flirt here, if you want, but remember you'll be going back down shortly.” The mute padded into her phone and mouthed the words, sustaining her illusory “voice”. And, just like that, the team-player headed on to search for the goal. No need to rest. She'd been resting for two-thirds of the trip, after all! She was ready to kill whatever got in her way, blast any safes that prevented them from getting the goods, and getting the hell out.

After all, she was just there for the money. Not for making friends.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

All three of you enter the executive building and make your way of the many flights of stairs without any trouble at all. Just, a completely breeze going up those stairs. As you reached the sixtieth floor, however, you notice that there are shadows right outside the stairwell. And yes, they see you. Have fun.

Red-Blue Snake

• Bufula
• Agilao
• Mind Charge

Absorb: Repel: Null: Fire, Ice Rs: Wk: Slash
Yellow-Black Snake

• Ziodyne
• Death's Chill
• Mind Charge

Absorb: Repel: Null: Elec, Dark Rs: Wk: Wind, Light
Red-Black Snake

• Agidyne
• Death's Chill
• Mind Charge

Absorb: Repel: Null: Fire, Dark Rs: Wk: Ice, Light

[Setsuna Hanamori]

When Jaelyn offered to carry her next time, Setsuna couldn't help but blush brightly. It didn't even occur to her that Jaelyn was (probably) joking, as she actually considered it for a moment. In the end, she simply tried to play it off...and did a generally bad job of doing so "I-I'll be fine...th-this is nothing I can't handle..." Yeah real smooth, Setsuna. However, what got her even more was when she heard a surprisingly realistic voice come from Sayu's phone, accusing them of flirting. Almost immediately, she tensed up, and called out "N-no! We're not flirting! W-we just...er..." Much to her chagrin, she couldn't think of anything to say, and it wasn't until after Sayu was already gone that she realized she had gone ahead.

What's interesting was the tone in her voice and the look on her face though. This was obviously much more than simply being embarrassed. She almost looked panicked; even a little terrified. After all, despite how terrible she was at hiding her crush oh Jaelyn, the last thing she wanted was for anyone to know about it. After what she went through then she was outed as a lesbian in middle school, it was hard to blame her. It was bad enough that she had gone and developed a crush on Jaelyn in the first place, despite all of her effort to avoid such a thing. But she didn't want anyone else knowing about it, in fear that she'd be in for a repeat of the first time others found out she was a lesbian. She then looked to Jaelyn, and spoke in what was an obvious attempt to change the subject "A-anyway...we should go after her..."

Without even bothering to wait for a response from Jaelyn, she went to chase after Sayu, trying to clear her head of the thoughts going through them. When she was finally caught up with her, she was surprised by what she saw; three snake-like Shadows. "I knew this was starting to seem too easy..." Without a moment of hesitation, she brandished one of her bokken, and reached for her Evoker. Setting her sights on the nearest one (Red-Blue), pulled the trigger and summoned her Persona. A nude woman with blue skin and blonde hair appeared, water swirling around her body. "Bufu!" On cue with Setsuna's command, the woman launched formed a small mass of ice and launched it at the snake...only for it to be blocked by an invisible barrier of some sort "Shit, it's immune?..."

Her immediate thought was to go after one of the other snakes, but her opponent wasn't about to let that happen. It opened it's mouth wide and unleashed a fiery blast (Agilao), which caused Setsuna's eyes to widen. In her last outing with Jaelyn, she was virtually decimated by a powerful Shadow with a fire attack, and she wasn't about to let that happen again. With a quick, last-second side-step, Setsuna was barely able to side-step the attack. Letting out a sigh of relief, she brandished her other bokken, and moved in. Like before, her fighting style, while rough and unrefined, showed that the girl had potential. She delivered quick 1-2-3 combo to the snakes head, then quickly retreated in case it tried to retaliate right away.

As predicted, the snake did try to retaliate, this time by launching an ice attack (Bufula). It was stronger than the one that Undine knew, but, thanks to Setsuna's resistance to Ice, the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been. At the very least, she still had plenty of fight left. Once again, Setsuna struck the snake with her bokken, delivering a slightly different but mostly-the-same combo, then retreated once again. This time, however, the snake didn't attack. Instead, it seemed to be focusing its energy...or something (Mind Charge). Either way, Setsuna didn't like the way this looked. As such, she rushed in once again, striking the snake like before. Much to the girl's relief, this seemed to do the job, as, after the final hit, the snake crumpled to the ground and its body shattered in a cloud of blackness. Relieved that the battle was over, Setsuna looked over to the other two to see how they were doing.

[Sayu Nakano]

The mute continued to enjoy her fluffy ride. It was great. What was not great was the presence of Shadows blocking her way. Weak or not, they chose to get in her way. Well, their way, technically, but that was beside the point. No, the mute was highly annoyed, either way. She was especially annoyed with one actually tried to open the hostilities and attack her. It was yellow and black. Wasn't there a rhyme for snakes like that? Either way, the darkness gently caressed both her and Tamamo. The kitsune let her down as the attack failed miserably, leaving only an exceedingly pissed mute and her Persona- that is, exactly what was there prior to the attack. Tamamo utilized Mind Charge, reacting to the girl's will. The girl herself, though, holstered her gun. Instead, she gripped one of her flashbangs. It liked to use Dark-aligned skills? That was fine.

She'd just use the light.

And, with a focused blast of light and sound, the 'bang forced the snake back. It wriggled and squirmed, as though it were in serious pain. Weakness to light noted, then. The Shadow seemed to be charging itself. Well, wasn't that cute? But it was wrong. After all, there was no getting out of this situation in one piece. Not for it. Sayu raised her empty hand. Her expression was harsh the whole time. Then, she dropped her hand. It was a precursor to her words, and the sign by which her Persona would respond to her will.

”Burn it away in the flames of judgment. Purify it.” Grandiose words came from the mute's phone. Her lips mouthed them, synchronizing the illusion. Did they really live up to the challenge? Well, the kitsune summoned what was essentially a star. A bubbling mass of fire- a sign of death and destruction. The mass was enhanced by Mind Charge. When it finally exploded, the surge of heat was intense. Naturally, it was controlled, focused only on her target. Despite that, there was plenty of charred, or outright vaporized, surfaces near where the Shadow had been.

She believed her words were legitimate.

[Jaelyn Callahan]

While Jaelyn did allow herself a small smirk at Setsuna's reaction, it faded as soon as the other girl 'talked'. Flirting? No. Jaelyn's designs on Setsuna were something entirely different. Besides, she was taken. Happily so, even. But this bitch didn't need to know anything about that. She'd probably just have some other dumbass, pointless thing to say about it that accomplished nothing except for making her seem even more unpleasant. She didn't give a flying shit about her opinions anyway. Right now, she was just going to burn the shadows that had appeared.

She glanced over at the other two fighting, in part to see how Setsuna was doing and in part to try and guess what she was in for. She saw red-blue use fire and ice, and yellow-black use...well, darkness, at least. So red-black would probably use fire and darkness. And since red-blue had been immune to ice, there was at least a decent chance that this one would do the same to those two elements. Not wanting to waste time trying, Jaelyn summoned Caligula and used Fire Break on the shadow. It retaliated with a blast of fire, which did exactly as much to Jaelyn as could have been expected. Namely, nothing. Jaelyn retaliated with a much more effective blast of fire of her own, surprising the snake with the fact that it had actually done something. The shadow coiled up, then attacked with darkness instead. But, while it did actually manage to hurt Jaelyn, she resisted that as well, and the damage it dealt was underwhelming. Jaelyn started charging up, prompting the shadow to do the same. That was probably the only way it was going to manage to hurt her, after all.

But, it never got that chance. Jaelyn's next fireball engulfed the snake, consuming it before it got the chance to finish its own attack.

"Hmph. How sad," Jaelyn said as the flames died. If things kept up like this, she would be bored to tears by the time she was done. But at least it would be easy money.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

Your group walks around the 60th floor of the building searching for the room that the briefcase is likely hidden in. Many messy cubicles litter the room, but thankfully no shadows seem to be present. With a simple search of the floor, you locate the executive's office. Upon opening the door, you find a fairly neat room with a desk off to the far end of it. The chair that lies behind it spins around revealing a large muscular shadow in business attire! He points to the group and two more shadows dressed in buisness casual attire jump out as well!

Executive Gigas

• Gigantic Fist
• Ziodyne
• Death's Chill

Absorb: Repel: Null: Elec Rs: Wk: Wind

Business-Casual Gigas

• Gigantic Fist
• Power Charge
• Rainy Death

Absorb: Repel: Strike Null: Rs: Wk: Fire

Casual Friday Gigas

• Viper Smash
• Zionga
• Garula

Absorb: Repel: Null: Elec, Wind Rs: Wk: Slash

[Setsuna Hanamori]

Setsuna could only watch in awe as the other girls rather effortlessly dispatched the remaining two Shadows. She had a ways to go before she'd be anywhere near as powerful as they were, but at least it gave her an idea of what to work for as she tried to improve herself. Admittedly, it took her a while to get to the point where she was okay with coming to this place without Jaelyn holding her hand (the fact that Jaelyn was here right now was little more than a coincidence). She was also regretting how long it took her to reach this point, feeling she could have been stronger than she is now if only she had used her time a little more wisely.

But this wasn't the time for her to feel sorry for herself. Especially once three large muscular Shadows appeared right before the three of them. Ugh. This day just gets better and better. Either way, she set her sights on the Casual Friday Gigas, and suddenly feels herself becoming lighter. She immediately looked to Jaelyn and gave her a thanking smile, realizing immediately that she had used Sukukaja on her. With a nod, she reached for her Evoker and used it to summon Undine "Bufu!" Like she did before, she launched ice at the opponent, and they were actually affected by it this time. It wasn't weak to ice, but it was still better than nothing.

The Gigas charged toward Setsuna and tried to slam its fist into her from above (Viper Smash), but thanks to the boost provided by Jaelyn, she had little trouble avoiding this attack with a quick jump to the side. Then, with the Gigas right in front of her, she proceeded to ready her bokken and strike with them as hard as she could. The Gigas staggered back a little, and Setsuna let out a sigh. Good, he didn't resist her physical attacks either. Now she felt a little confident that she might actually be able to handle this opponent. Her thoughts immediately went to the Musha that ambushed her in the Museum. That was not something she wanted to experience again.

Setsuna looked to the Gigas and deciding to play it safe and not get too close. Unfortunately, she was wrong about one minor detail. Setsuna had assumed, based on its appearance, that the Shadow was a purely physical one. So when the Shadow suddenly launched a blast of wind, it caught her off guard and she barely had enough time to avoid it. Indeed, it turned out the large, muscular Shadow also knew magic, though, thankfully, it wasn't a Fire spell. Still, this was an issue, so Setsuna decided to try something new. Another name came to her from the back of her mind, and, somehow, she knew that it would help her in this battle.

"Makajam!" As she summoned Undine, the woman spread her arms out toward the Shadow, who was suddenly enveloped in a flash of light. At first, it wasn't apparent that anything had happened. However, when the Gigas tried to use another spell, nothing happened. Setsuna smiled...the Gigas had been Silenced. It was ironic. Silence was what had rendered her so helpless against that Musha, and now it had tipped the odds against this opponent in her favor. Had she had the chance to use it before, she might have stood at least half of a chance against that Musha. But now wasn't the time for that. With the opponent's magic sealed, Setsuna didn't have to worry about any more long range attacks.

Thus, she summoned Undine once again, and had her attack with Bufu. The Gigas was hit by the attack, and with no way to use its magic, charged after Setsuna with another Viper Smash. Unfortunately, in all of her excitement from silencing the opponent, she had failed to notice that the buff she received from Jaelyn had worn off, so she ended up taking a direct hit from the Gigas' fist. She staggered backward a bit, before regaining her balance. Okay yeah...that really hit. She definitely wasn't going to last long against an attack that powerful, meaning she had to end this quickly. Thus, she took a few steps away from the Gigas and summoned Undine to use Bufu again.

From there, they repeated the process. The Gigas used Viper Smash, hitting Setsuna once again, then Setsuna retaliated with Bufu. This was beginning to take a toll on her, both physically and mentally. However, she knew of a quick way to deal with the physical toll. "Dia!" Summoning Undine once again, Setsuna was enveloped in a soothing light, which healed her injuries. It wasn't enough to bring her back to full strength, given how powerful her opponent's attacks were, but it would do. With a swift action, Setsuna lunched forward and struck at the Gigas with both of her bokken. The Gigas retaliated with another Viper Smash, then she struck again once she recovered.

Both Setsuna and the Gigas were weakening...trading blows back and forth like this was probably not the most efficient way to fight a Shadow, but she knew she'd need to conserve her energy in case there were more Shadows. She if need be, she could heal herself afterward. Either way, The Gigas came in with one last Viper Smash, which Setsuna was just barely able to dodge. Then, with a nod, she struck one last time with her bokken, striking the muscular Shadow square in the chest. The Shadow staggered backwards, then fell to his knees. After a failed attempt to get back onto its feet, the Shadow's body scattered, prompting a sigh of relief from the girl. She then looked to the other two...no doubt, they probably didn't have nearly as much trouble against their opponents as she did.

[Sayu Nakano]

First wave of idiots dead, they had proceeded. Upon running into the trio of muscleheads, the mute stared, rather dully, while willing for another Mind Charge. Tamamo gave off a slight blue glow. The one girl that didn't look like an accident waiting to happen engaged one of the giants. Well, that meant she only had to worry about--- the giant fist trying to impale her face. With a sigh, she dropped back against Tamamo, who whisked her away from the immediate threat of the fist. Eyebrow twitching, the mute just glared at the attempted attacker before willing for a tried-and-true Trisagion. The star was born and exploded. The heat and flames engulfed the giant. Now, just how powerful would it end up being? That was the curious question.

The blow connected at full power, but nothing more. Staring at it then, Sayu realized it was the leader of the group- the Executive Asshole. Well, its status among the Shadows was irrelevant when everything boiled down to the basics. After all, a Shadow was a Shadow, and Shadows were bad. Simple enough. It used darkness next. These guys really did enjoy their darkness. The mute just stared in dull annoyance before willing for a second Trisagion. It was vanilla, but still strong enough to burn it nicely. It refused to die, but a few quick shots from her gun cooled his head off.

The Shadow fell forward. The frozen head shattered on the floor. Her part in that round was good and done.

[Jaelyn Callahan]

The snakes were dead and done with. Good riddance. Not like they had been of any threat to Jaelyn. To Setsuna maybe, but that would just give her more of a reason to rely on Jaelyn if it came to that. And then they came to the executive office, and found a freaking giant wrestler shadow of all things seated at the desk. Oh, and two more. Jaelyn just boosted everyone's speed first off, then waited for one of the musclebound businessshadows to attack her. The unlucky one was one of the two casually dressed ones, which managed by some amount of ironic fortune to connect with a punch. Jaelyn recoiled from the attack, but quickly recovered. She charged up, waiting for the Gigas to attack her again in hopes of getting a sense of what she might need to do to it. But instead, it charged up as well.

Well, whatever. Burning things usually worked one way or another. So Jaelyn unleashed her built up charge, bringing the fireball crashing down on the Gigas. It hit for a lot more power than Jaelyn had put into the attack, meaning it had been weak to it. But somehow, the damned thing managed to survive the first blow. It lunged at Jaelyn, delivering what it probably thought was a deathblow of its own in the form of a straight punch at Jaelyn's chest. But the recovery and subsequent wind-up had been too slow, and thus with her boosted agility Jaelyn was easily able to avoid it. She cut behind the wrestler shadow in the process, pulling a knife from its hiding place and driving it into the base of the shadow's neck to finish it off. Like the others, the shadow fell, collapsed, and dissolved.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

With the shadows taken care of, you begin to look over the room to find the briefcase. The painting that the briefcase should be behind is in plain sight thankfully. With a quick removal of the painting, you find a safe inside of the wall, locked by a number pad. A small note is attached to the keypad. The note reads, "S7$gf@c0" though there is no indication as to what it could mean. There doesn't seem to be any other hints laying around the executive room either with most objects being mostly destroyed and any other readable pieces seem to be completely unreadable. You decide to take a closer look at the keypad.

"_ _ _ _ _ _"

It seems that the keypad accepts both numbers and capital letters only. You should be able to figure this out.

[ ] Open the safe.

[Setsuna Hanamori]

Okay, good. As far as Setsuna could tell there weren't any more Shadows. Which was good, because she kinda took a bit of a beating in that last fight. Instead, they continued on and eventually found the painting that they were searching for. All too eagerly, she ran up to remove the painting from the wall, only to find a safe. Of course. Just finding the documents was too convenient. Letting out a sigh, she took a look at the note attacked to the keypad of the safe. Whatever the password was, it only had six digits, and the keypad only had letters and numbers. This note...didn't. As such, Setsuna could on;y assume that the note was some sort of hint.

Of course, she was terrible at these sorts of puzzles, so it took all of one minute for her to throw in the towel. "Ugh...I got nothing..." She was kind of hating this. Both Jaelyn and Sayu could have easily handled the Shadows that she herself struggled against, and now she was completely stumped on what this puzzle could mean. In all honestly, it was hard for her to not question why she even bothered coming in the first place. But, no point bitching about that now. At this point, all she needed to do was pretend she was even the slightest bit useful in this whole thing once it was over so she could collect her reward.

[Jaelyn Callahan]

Huh. Nothing else popped out to attack them. That was good. Jaelyn would have still been fine with another fight, but Setsuna was looking rather beat up and the thought of allowing the other girl another chance to show off caused Jaelyn a certain amount of irritation. Besides, no more fighting meant they could sooner get done, get the hell out, and get paid. So it was better this way. There was just one small problem. Once Setsuna moved the painting and found where the briefcase was supposed to be...it was locked away in a freaking safe. A safe with only one confusing hint, no less.

Jaelyn watched as Setsuna took a minute to try and figure it out, then proclaimed she didn't know and moved away. "Let me try," Jaelyn said, approaching the safe. She looked over the keypad, seeing only numbers and capital letters, and enough space for six characters. The most obvious possible solution was to just try the capital letters and numbers on the note: "S70". Failing that, adding the lowercase letters as capitals as well: "S7GFC0". She tried the first one and, if that didn't work, would try the second one. If neither one worked then, well, she didn't know either.

[Sayu Nakano]

No enemies appeared. That was nice. Fewer annoyances, after all. The located the painting. Upon the removal of the painting, a safe was revealed. The target was there, then. The first girl tried something. She gave up. The second one approached and did her thing. These two couldn't think outside the box, could they? Attempting to go through the possible passwords was nothing but annoying. Even if one were to assume that the note was a hint, it was still a bit unreasonable. After all, they were not playing a stealth game. This wasn't some tactical espionage event. Moreover, there was no need to worry about getting in trouble with the law. The ruins were lawless, after all. In other words, the mute was ready to implement something that was a bit more “tried and true” than brute-forcing a password.

That is, real brute force.

”Move.” The mute padded into her phone, mouthing the words as they clearly, and confidently, exited the phone. Tamamo had wrapped her tails around some of the rubble, propping it down in front of the wall where the safe was. It was there to act as a boost. While approaching the mass, the girl leveled her paintball gun and released the full clip on the safe, pelting it with balls that froze the front panel over. Then, having mounted the rubble, she found herself at the perfect height to repeatedly kick the safe door. The fact that she willingly began slamming her foot into it was one thing. The pleasant expression on her face and the ease with which she continued kicking, despite her apparent lack of fitness, suggested that something, or someone, had been unfortunate enough to receive that sort of treatment from her. Regularly.

”Toss it at it.” She calmly added, for good measure, as she hopped from the mound. The kitsune proceeded to lob bits of the rubble at the door. She figured the door would give way eventually. The key thing to consider was that the blonde wanted the briefcase.

The mission request never stated that it needed to arrive in one piece.