The Heist [Mission]

[Holly Mason]

There was another interesting looking mission on the mission board in the gap again.  Holly wasn't even looking for missions, she just happened to notice it as she was passing by.  The way it was advertised was a little disturbing, but she was curious to see exactly what was in there, and well if she could get paid by satisfying her curiosity that was even better.  However, this would definitely be the last time she took a mission from the strange blonde woman in the gap.  Definitely.

Holly knew she was supposed to be working with someone else, so she made sure to arrive a few minutes late so that she hopefully wouldn't have to wait.  She didn't know who she was supposed to be meeting because the way these missions worked was ridiculously disorganized, but she at least knew where to go.  She knew of most of the other stronger users, and they were probably the only ones capable of taking such a mission so she was sure she would recognize them.

[Jaelyn Callahan]

Another dumb mission had showed up on the board. This one directing any takers to rob a bank in the shadowlands and bring back the contents of a particular vault. It was pretty messed up in how it was advertised, but it paid well enough that Jaelyn decided to go for it anyway. Not like anyone was going to miss the contents of an abandoned bank anyway. She just hoped that she didn't get stuck with some whining idiot. Or a huge bitch like last time. Or worse even that, an obnoxious guy with no initiative and a bad habit of sticking his nose in dangerous places.

The temptation to slice it off was just too great.

But no, Jaelyn found a familiar and not unpleasant face when she got to the meeting place. It was none other than Holly, the girl who had...well, been marginally successful in breaking Jaelyn out of her freakout and subsequent breakdown following the battle at the shrine. This...this would probably work. Especially since Jaelyn wasn't in much danger of a repeat of that incident at the moment. "Oh, hey," she said, giving Holly a casual wave. "I guess we're robbing a bank today. Score one for the crazy lady's messed up requests."

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

The two of you make your way over to the bank that you were sent to rob with the equipment that you were totally required to bring. Just like the woman said, the bank seems to be completely abandoned. Well, with no human life at least. You make your way inside the main building and head towards the elevator leading down. The vault seems to be located in the basement.

However, as you reach the elevator, you notice something "guarding" it.

Officer Gigas x2

• Gigantic Fist
• Revolution
• Power Charge

Absorb: Repel: Null: Rs: Wk: Fire

Teller Magus x2

• Ziodyne
• Mind Charge
• Auto-suku

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

[Holly Mason]

Soon, her partner appeared.  It was that one girl from the shrine whose name escaped her right now.  She was sure she'd remember it eventually.  Hopefully.  All she knew was that that the girl was a competent enough fighter, so everything should go smoothly barring something like...that happening again.  Their abilities complemented each other well enough, with Holly being able to play a strong supportive roll and the other girl just being able to nuke the shit out of everything in sight.  With a smile and a wave, she shrugged at the girl's words.

"Can't say I ever expected to be doing something like this, but it'd just be a shame to leave everything in there you know?"

Before they could chat for too much longer the first group of guards showed up.  Holly wasn't sure if they were actually guarding the place, but they were in the way so it didn't really matter in the end.  They were going down.  Hard.  All of her buffs activated at the start of battle, making both her and her partner stronger, faster, tougher and letting them regenerate some of their power and health as the battle went on.

"I trust I can leave the beating them up part to you?" she smirked.

Regardless of her answer, Holly began weakening the enemies and could continue to do so until they were either dead or she couldn't do so anymore.  After that, she'd begin enhancing their strength, while healing when necessary.  Honestly, if it took the other girl that long to kill them all she'd be very disappointed, but she was prepared to help her finish off any stragglers if it became necessary.

[Jaelyn Callahan]

Well, Holly didn't seem too openly concerned about Jaelyn having a freakout, at least. That was a good start. And she seemed to be thinking along the same lines of 'not like anyone else was using it' too. This seemed like it would go relatively well. Jaelyn nodded to the girl, then led the way inside. Abandoned, of course. Except for shadows, but really, who was surprised at this point? Certainly not Jaelyn, who merely sighed at the presence of four guards around the elevators. Two wrestler and two wizard shadows, at that.

Oh well.

She felt her strength, agility, and resilience boost as a result of Holly's abilities, and a little bit of her own, as well. She asked if Jaelyn could handle the beating up part. That was right, Holly had had faith in Jaelyn's offensive ability last time they fought together. And that was before Jaelyn learned her newest trick. "Yeah, I've got this," Jaelyn said, flashing a wicked grin as she summoned Caligula. "Just sit back and do your thing, I'll melt them until there's nothing left." At her command, Caligula raised his gladius high above his head. A small, but brilliant light appeared above them, growing in size as it descended. Heat radiated out from the ball of light, intense heat that caused the wrestler shadows to recoil away from it. But, with their backs against the wall, they were unable to escape as it came crashing down on all four of them and exploded outward like a star falling to earth.

By some miracle, they survived, but were clearly worse for wear and still on fire when the falling star vanished. The wizards were better off, but still showed signs of taking serious damage. All at once, they converged on Jaelyn, attacking with heavy punches and lightning bolts. Jaelyn dodged around most of them with ease, but her last dodge landed her right in the way of a punch. She recoiled from it and staggered back, but recovered quickly. It didn't hurt nearly as much as it should have, after all. The shadows' near simultaneous attacks left them open to being incinerated by another falling sun. True to what Jaelyn had said, the wrestler shadows were melted down by the sheer heat of the Trisagion spell, and dissolved once they had lost almost all shape. The wizards, still, hung on, but it was clear that they wouldn't survive another blow. Again, they tried to retaliate, but their lightning bolts went wide and missed both Jaelyn and Holly, leaving them wide open to be finished off by another falling star. Rather than melting, though, the shadows' robes burst into flames and they burned up into ash and blew away.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

Defeating the enemy shadows that blocked your way from reaching the bottom floor, you take the elevator down where you reach a hallway leading to the safe. Your target is within eyesight now. Unfortunately, so are a few more enemies for you to fight.

Vault Jotun

• Gigantic Fist
• Silent Howl
• Makarakarn

Absorb: Repel: Null: Phys Rs: Wk: Fire, Ice

Vault Idol x2

• Ziodyne
• Mind Charge
• Dream Haze

Absorb: Repel: Null: Elec Rs: Wk: Pierce

[Holly Mason]

After a few large explosions the battle was done.  Holly was pretty sure those things were bigger than the ones she was throwing at the fight at the full moon too. Nice.  As the smoke cleared, she continued towards her destination.  Holly herself wasn't afraid of fire, it couldn't hurt her, and if the other girl was flinging giant fireballs she figured it didn't hurt her either.  There was no need to wait around for the smoke to clear.

"Good work, let's go."

The elevator ride for a decent enough break since they were definitely going to encounter more shadows.  It was practically a given at this point.  Sure enough, once they got off there were shadows waiting.  Holly didn't even feel the need to tell the other girl what to do at this point, she probably already knew from the last fight.  Her auto-buffs activated again, and she started weakening the enemies and would continue doing so until they were either dead or she was forced to do something else, like heal.  Or in this case cure those nasty statuses they had.  Unfortunately for the shadows, such attacks wouldn't work on her anymore, and if they did work on the other girl she had the means to cure them too.  In  other words, those attacks wouldn't be doing much this fight.

[Jaelyn Callahan]

Of all the things Jaelyn expected to find in this abandoned bank, working elevators weren't one of them. Between her long shadow-burning trips in the shadowlands and staying a couple of times at Sakuya's villa, she had become accustomed to the idea that electrical equipment didn't work out here. If it did, Sakuya would probably have a refrigerator hooked up. But here was a working elevator, and they were freely able to take it down to the vault. Once they were there, though, more shadows stood in their way. And rather than the boring wrestlers and wizards, they were of weird varieties this time around.

Jaelyn didn't need telling what to do, though. The moment she felt the empowering effects of hers and Holly's buffs, she set to work, summoning Caligula and creating a massive explosion of fire, light, and heat that washed over the entire hallway, but only managed to do actual damage to the shadows. The rocking horse riding, four-armed fat things took considerably more damage than the sacred statue things, but Jaelyn only had a few seconds to incorporate that into what little of a battle plan she had before a weird haze covered her vision, and the next thing she knew everything was black.

Seconds later, however, she was awake again, thanks to Holly's healing. While she was out, however, the two fat things had shielded themselves with barriers of some sort and one of the idols was charging up. That left the other one to have knocked her out. Turning towards it, Jaelyn drew one of her knives and drove it into the statue's face. Not missing a beat, she called forth another massive flare soon after, burning both idols. But, predictably, the fire bounced off the fat things' barriers back at Jaelyn. Too bad it didn't actually do anything to her.

Soon after, the fat things erected new barriers, but Jaelyn responded by charging up for her next attack. If they were going to play defensive, she'd just have to wait them out. The idols tried to attack, but Jaelyn effortlessly dodged the lightning bolts thrown at her. Once she was clear of them, she waited for the other two shadows' barriers to fall, then dropped a second sun into the vault hallway to finish all four of them off at once.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

You defeat the enemies with ease, and now all that remains is the safe from which your goal lies. As you can see, it is protected by a three layer code. What this means is that you will need to input 3 separate locker combos in order to open it up. But there is no time! As you look back, a number of small shadows begin rushing over towards you! They seem to be too small to do serious damage, but they can definitely smother you with their numbers!

From what you can tell, the safe is at least a foot thick with metal. If you want to break into it normally, that is one thing. Breaking into it by force will take a a few seconds of concentrated fire to even make a hole. So you better get to work.

[ ] Open that safe while you hold off the enemies!