[Mission] Poisonous Love

[Aleister]

Aleister didn't frequent the gap often. He would often pass by that area without so much as a thought. However, something did catch his eye and he figured he might as well participate for the fun of it. Plus if he completes these missions then maybe he'll get to know that strange blonde woman...whoever she was. The mission was simplicity itself. It was to locate a "love medicine" that some poor sap created because he couldn't gather the courage to confess.

"How delightfully sad." Aleister never cared for love or the desire for a significant other. He found it an experience that he wasn't in any hurry to learn about anyhow and besides the observations he made on his coworkers back home provided him with enough data why it would be a hassle to engage in such things. Aleister took out his phone to check on the time. He was to be joined by someone named Phoebe Minola for this mission. He hoped she'd be interesting. He stopped pacing when he heard foot steps.

"Why hello, glad to see you've made it." Aleister then took out his gun and turned forward. "Well lets get moving. We don't want that doctor suddenly getting the courage to confess to that nurse while we're wasting our time here."

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe had really... really thought about taking up this job. What had happened over the last weekend...

Well, suffice to say it hadn't been good. Not good at all. She really thought she would've utterly lost her mind in the middle of that chaos but if it hadn't been for CJ and the others and certain other things, she probably would not have come out of it. But she had, and she felt she was stronger for it. And she planned to make the most of it and take no more shit from anyone.

She put those thoughts aside and kept walking to the deserted hospital. She had a job to do, and a partner to get stuck with. It wasn't anyone familiar and since the latest events, she was cautious. She made it to the entrance of the deserted and wrecked hospital and eyeballed her partner.

I do not like his smile... Hypatia said gently bur firmly. It's like a snake's.

I know. Phoebe thought back resolutely.

Hypatia's voice was a pitch sweeter than Antiope's; less of a military commander, more of a teacher.

She nodded curtly. "Well then, after you," she said neutrally and pulled out her hammer from the holster on her back. "I'm Phoebe, what are you called?"

She only asked just to know what to call him in case of emergency. Something in the pit of her stomach felt... wrong about him but she reserved judgement for now. She'd gotten a little more attentive to these funny feelings ever since that had happened.

[Aleister]

"Well then, after you," Cooperative, an admirable trait in a temporary accomplice. "I'm Phoebe, what are you called?" Aleister looked over at the brown haired woman. His eyes wandered to her purple and hot pink high lights. He also now wanted to walk at the same level as her. Never turn your back to someone with a hammer. He might as well get some small talk down.

"I'm Aleister." A simple introduction. Granted, one can instantly tell it was an alias given what area of the world he is in. "Just a simple Samaritan." He continued to keep the barrel of the gun lowered. After all, basic gun safety dictates that one shouldn't point a gun recklessly after all.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

As you reach the hospital and climb the floor in which the blonde woman specified, you look around the room to get a good idea of the floor's layout. In the back there seems to be a large room containing all sorts of vials. Your best bet is to try and search there for something. Only, Before you can enter the floor exactly, a few shadows ambush you from the stairs!

Nurse Maya x2

• Marin Karin
• Twin Shot
• Bufula

Absorb: Repel: Null: Rs: Wk: Slash, Fire
Doctor Hand x2

• Dormina
• Agilao
• Viper Smash

Absorb: Repel: Null: Rs: Wk: Ice, Strike

[Phoebe Minola]

"Just a simple Samaritan."

I'll bet Phoebe thought flatly.

She'd stopped being trusting of other people, ever since that happened. But now she focused on the job at hand. The full moon was right around the corner and she had determined to try and work out and train as much as she could, hence why she'd taken up this mission. She took note of his gun. She recognized the make and model but made no comment on it. No need to let him know she knew her way around guns -- any girl raised in Ohio does.

Following the map they had to their destination wasn't hard. Phoebe was bothered by the apparent lack of Shadows but kept it to herself.

A love potion! How absurd, she thought.

Phoebe stepped first onto the floor they were looking for. It was deserted, quiet and rendered quite ramshackle already. Upturned gurneys and medical material lay all over the place. Windows were broken. It looked sad. She could see an abandoned lab in the back. That was probably their target.

"This looks like it's it," she said quietly. "Be on the lookout--"

A creak alerted her. She turned around calmly, drawing her sledge-hammer. "Well wooptie-frickin'-doo..." she growled.

Shadows were swarming up the stairs. She willed the floating card to appear and tapped it with her hammer calmly. This would be her first official fight using Hypatia, who had only come to her over the past weekend. But they felt like old comrades already. The Persona appeared in a flash of azure light, aglow like truth shining in the mires of ignorance, the dark plume of her helmet swaying like a snake and her shield reflecting the low light with a harsh, unforgiving gleam.

"Hypatia, Maragion."

Hypatia struck her shield with her spear ominously and thrust her spear skywards. Multiple fiery explosions rocked the floor as the blasts erupted on each Shadow -- Phoebe was quick to note that the slimy nurses did not like them at all. They swayed backwards drunkenly and Phoebe narrowed her eyes. The Shadows had picked their attacks: Aleister and she seemed to get one of each ugly thing. That was fine by her.

The Hand type nearest to her floated up and snapped its fingers. Phoebe felt a wave of irresistible sleepiness wash over her. Her vision dimmed, she was about to just doze off...

'WARE, THEY ARE COMING!

Phoebe snapped her eyes open and straightened up. She shook her head and without even thinking she swung her hammer and sent the Hand, which had crept up to her for another hit, flying. She wasn't gonna be put to sleep! She whirled around just in time to catch the Maya type stretching up to attack her. Phoebe cursed at the feel of a sheet of ice forming over her and then exploding outwards. She stumbled backwards, wincing and cringing in pain. She was still sensitive to ice attacks, it seemed. But she wasn't going to let that beat her.

She shook herself down and Hypatia rallied with her spear poised for attack.

"Twin Shot," Phoebe said calmly.

Hypatia surged forward and attacked with almost profound ferocity. Her arm moved almost too fast to see and the spear thrust forward twice with the motion of a piston. Two powerful strikes sent the Maya reeling backwards and the impact went off like a gunshots in the empty halls.

"Maragion, again!"

Another series of fiery explosions. The Shadows were all staggered but the Maya even more so. The one she was confronting exploded into bits and Phoebe turned to find the Hand gunning for her. It snapped its fingers again and she was engulfed in a huge plume of fire.

Then Hypatia swung her shield and the mighty flames shriveled to pitiful embers. Phoebe hadn't even felt getting hotter. Fire was no longer a source of pain, it seemed. She stepped forward and raised her hammer again. The Hand never really got up after she brought her hammer down on it. A couple hefty blows sent it back to whatever hell it had crawled out of. She turned around to see if Aleister needed any assistance.

[Aleister]

Their journey was for the most part uneventful. They climbed up to the floor where that blonde woman specified. He walked over to the room at the same time as his partner and gazed around inside. He smiled as he looked at it. It reminded of him of the labs back home...only much better furnished and they were no broken windows and everything is so damaged that it doesn't resemble his labs at all actually but the memory was still there. 

"This looks like it's it," Aleister nodded. "Be on the lookout--" There was a creak. Aleister figured since they encountered no shadows on the way here. "Well wooptie-frickin'-doo..." The man chuckled as he checked his gun.

"Someone has a chip on her shoulder~" Aleister looked over at the shadows that swarmed up the stairs. They were four shadows. Two of the maya variety and two of the hand variety and as usual they're themed to their environment.

"Hypatia, Maragion." Aleister whistled in amusement as he watched Phoebe's persona be summoned. It summoned blasts of fires, the Mayas in particular being in pure agony over the flames. Aleister would continue to watch in amusement...but he has his own problems to worry about. While Phoebe is dealing with the nurses and one of the hands, it seems like one hand took an interest in Aleister. The hand started to twitch before finally snapping its fingers. An explosion of fire hit Aleister...only for Aleister to laugh in amusement as he walked through the flames completely unharmed.

"Nice try." Suddenly a pair of crocodile jaws smashed down on the shadow as a dark seal appeared on it. "Ta ta now." A haze of darkness poured from the crocodile's jaws vaporizing the shadow. The last nurse shadow tried firing a shot over at Aleister but he responded with a quick bullet to its head. "This has been a hilariously easy experience." The oldman on the back of the crocodile, in a rather mocky manner similar to the doctor hand shadow, snapped his fingers and the maya was set ablaze.

"Well...that was a lovely distraction." Aleister turned back to go deeper into the room to scour it for the love potion. He didn't bother checking if his supposed ally was okay.

[Phoebe Minola]

With the last of the Shadows dead, Phoebe shouldered her sledgehammer and eyed Aleister a little more closely. She did not like his attitude even though he was an effective fighter. He appeared to have no consideration for her. She suddenly got the feeling of being in the same space as a potentially dangerous animal and could not relax. She had faith in her ability to get out this should something go wrong, but she didn't quite trust him.

She followed him as they ventured further in, in the room full of vials and containers. There were glass vials of all shapes and sizes, filled with all manner of indescribable fluids; some had dried out, leaving ugly residue stains on the glass, others had turned to sludge and a few still seemed to be properly liquid. The lab was in a state that made her feel as if a lot of strange experiments and chemistry had gone on here, not always very sane. In other words, she didn't like it.

"Right," she muttered calmly. "What does a love potion look like?" she asked hypothetically.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

Following the defeat of the previous enemies, you make your way further into the room. Off to the sides you can see a lot of experimental equipment. Was this really just a hospital? Either way, the room that you needed to enter seems to be just ahead of you. Only, seems that there's a few shadows in your way. You should probably deal with them first.

Love Snake x2

• Twin Shot
• Marin Karin

Absorb: Repel: Null: Pierce Rs: Wk: Fire, Slash

Amorous Book

• Agilao
• Bufula
• Marin Karin

Absorb: Repel: Null: Fire, Ice Rs: Wk: Wind, Elec

[Aleister]

"What does a love potion look like?" Aleister chuckled. He knew the question was most likely hypothetical.

"I'm more concerned how to safety test it. It is terrible lab safety to test drink chemicals." Aleister looked at some of the vials, not even dare touching some of them since he didn't have any gloves on him. Maybe our client will be more than willing to test drink some of these Aleister let out a little chuckle as an indicator of his thoughts...sadly humor was no longer present. He walked further to see a group of three shadows blocking the way to another locked off room. Two snake class shadows and a book one.

"Be a dear and take on the snakes for me will you?" Aleister started to get behind one of the shelves and took his gun. He pulled the trigger to nick the book shadow with a bullet to get its attention. It started to float over to him and shoot a shard of large ice at him which destroyed the shelf he was hiding behind. Agares appeared not too far from Aleister as he watched the shadow continue to shoot shards of ice at him. Soon the Crocodile soared through the air and bit the shadow. As it did, blue energy flowed out of the shadow into Aleister.

"That should make up for all the effort I had to put in... Aleister shot the shadow in the face to stun it momentarily before his eyes glowed, Agares appearing. The crocodile mouth opened once more to unleash a black haze that started to vaporize the book shadow. He started to laugh as he looked over at Phoebe to see if she took care of things.

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe cringed a bit when Aleister mentioned testing it. "Well I'm not volunteering..." she muttered.

Of course. More Shadows. They blocked their path to another part of the facility - which Phoebe wasn't sure about anymore. Was this really just a hospital testing lab or were they conducting some kind of freaky experiments here!? She took a ready stance with her hammer.

"Right. Snakes," she muttered.

She didn't mind being asked to handle the snakes. It was Aleister's tone that had bothered her, but really, what could she do about it? She'd gotten cozy with the idea that some Persona users were simply not right in the head. But now was not the time to philosophize the matter.

The Snake Shadows rushed for her and Phoebe summoned Hypatia. The Persona raised her shield just as one of the snakes bolted for her with a body slam of sorts landing two separate hits on her. Phoebe cringed; that had hurt. It felt a lot like Hypatia's own Twin Shot. She ignored the stabbing pain and rushed the pink snake before it could back off, bashing it in the head with her hammer and sending it reeling backwards.

The other tried a similar tactic but this one, Phoebe managed to dodge with a careful backstep.

"Makajam."

Hypatia swung her spear and the blue ribbon tied near the point glowed azure as green ethereal chains wrapped around the Snake and hung around its body. That took care of that. Phoebe caught the other Snake trying to attack her again and Hypatia rushed to take the hit on her shield. The force of the blow bounced clean off the shield and back at the Snake, but it didn't seem very bothered.

"Maragion."

The flame bursts caught the Snakes and they both flailed with the kind of vicious and silent agony that Phoebe identified as 'weakness'. They really didn't like fire. One of the Snakes disappeared as its form burned away to cinders and the other flailed, as if trying to attack... but nothing happened. Silence is golden, as they say but it still needed to die.

"Maragion."

She didn't really have to speak the attacks, but secretly, she quite liked doing so. She had a light headache by now but she went through with using a little more fire magic. In one brilliant explosion of fire the Snake writhed and Phoebe was glad they had no voice; the pained screaming would be horrible. The Snake flopped to the floor and Phoebe strode over to it and delivered a downwards hammer strike that made a strange, hollow noise when it connected. The creature shuddered and the mask on the back of its head cracked. A second hammer strike destroyed it completely and the Shadow dissolved.

"I swear, if there are any more..." Phoebe huffed and shouldered her hammer as Hypatia vanished.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

With those enemies taken care of, you were able to head straight into the room with the potion that seemed to be clearly labeled "love potion." After grabbing it, you were able to get out with little to no difficulty.

Mission accomplished!

You received your reward: Level 3 Weapon, 500 FP