Urban jungle ambush (awakening with akira)

[John Nicholson]

The fog was unusually thick today. It felt like something was about to happen. Something that would heavily and irrevocably change someone. Toda, the subject of this event would be a man already scarred in both body and mind. As great as the ordeals of his past might have been though, the world was not yet finished in tormenting him.

John walked through the abandoned streets of west mosaic, weapon in hand and mind readied for trouble. He noted that the fog in the outer circle was more oppressive than usual today. It gave him the same vibe he could only remember feeling on occasions of great danger like the full moon events. It was strange to feel like that out in the open though. He couldn't recall any particularly dangerous shadows to have been sighted in this part of the city, and even then it was quite uncommon for anything stronger than a couple of insignificant mayas to be wandering about.

As John turned the corner however, he found out that this feeling of unease was indeed justified. He saw a particularly dense bank of the ever present fog with a humanoid sized figure standing in it. John somehow felt a connection to this figure. He couldn't quite make heads or tails of it but he knew for certain that this new foe was not just your everyday shadow. He readied his weapon as the concealed figure slowly advanced upon him and out of the fog.

[Setsuna Hanamori]

Meanwhile, Setsuna had done the one thing that no one should ever do in this godforsaken world. She got lost. Things were going just fine until she was attacked by a small swarm of Mayas. They were all too easy for the girl, who dispatched them with almost zero effort, and came out of the battle completely unscathed. However, in the midst of it all, she had lost track of where she was going and had completely lost her bearings. As such, she had no choice but to wander until she found either something that looked familiar, even if only vaguely, or someone who would be able to lead her out of here. Either way, she didn't even want to think about being lost here forever.

"Ugh...what the hell is up with this fog?..." It seemed like, the more she wandered, the thicker it got, which was probably a safe indication that she was not going in the right direction, but no matter which way she tried to go, the more lost she seemed to get. At this point, she was beginning to get a little worried, but panicking wasn't going to get her anywhere. She just had to clear her thoughts, and try to recall which dire-wait was that an old man? Sure enough, there was what appeared to be an old man in the area, though she hadn't noticed the shadowy figure that was apparently drawing near him. Relieved to finally find someone, she approached him, ignorant of what was about to go down. "Excuse me, sir?"

[John Nicholson]

As the figure emerged from the shadows? John heard someone calling out to him. He turned to see the call originating from a young lady. "What are you doing here? How did you get out of the inner circle? No time for answers. Get behind me and prepare for trouble. We'll talk later." John assumed that she was probably capable of taking care of herself. She seemed to be armed at the very least.

A man clearing his throat to het everyone's attention snapped John out of his train of thought and into a different surprise. the now fully revealed figure was none other than John himself. Before John could quip about the situation seeming like something out of a cheap horror flick, the doppleganger started talking. "Private Nicholson. It is time you stand down from your vigil." John was now even more worried. This thing knew him on a last name basis. Jhn didn't know what it was on about however. "What are you talking about?" The impostor looked at John like he just said the stupidest thing he ever heard. "You know what i'm talking about. It's time you replace your old squad." John was sure of it now. This thing was trying to play mind games on him. "I dont know how you know about my past, but you are nott getting under my skin!"


John aimed his shotgun at his mirror image and glared at it, ready to fire if it tried taunting him like that even one more time."Still lying to yourself I see. No matter, you will see the truth or it will consume you. I will persist either way." John was growing agitated at this thing's attitude. "If you know about what happened back then. You should know that it was all my fault." The shadow smirked at John's statement again. "And what hard truth can back that statement up?" The argument hit a brick will. John was neither willing nor able to answer this question. "I don't need proof. I just know!" and with that said, John fired his shotgun at himself, weird as that might sound. The bullets harmlessly plinked off the creature's body however. "So the truth will consume you then? So be it!" As it said so, the enemy gathered a massive amount of power in his hand almost efforlessly. It then directed it as a blast of heavy light energy aimed solely at John, Ignoring the girl that had happened upon the scene some moments prior.

[Setsuna Hanamori]

As the man yelled at Setsuna, she reluctantly did what he told her, though she had no idea what was happening at first. Then, an exact copy of the man appeared, which baffled the young girl to no end. Seriously, what was going on here? As she watched the exchange, she only grew more confused as to what was going on. One thing was clear, though; the first old man wasn't having any of what the second was saying. She couldn't even guess as to what was going on, but it ended violently when the first old man busted out with a shotgun and opened fire on the second...only for the bullets to have no effect. Okay yeah. That kind of shit was just not normal.

However, what surprised her even more than the random shotgun was when the other old man simply fired a blast of light from his hand. He didn't summon a Persona or anything. Just a blast of energy from his hand, like some shounen anime. At that moment, Setsuna saw this man for what he really was; a Shadow taking the form of a human. Like hell she was just going to just sit back and watch this. Brandishing both of her bokken, she immediately leaped into action, performing a quick one-two strike with the wooden swords. Why was she suddenly rushing to the defense of a man she barely knew? Hell, even she wasn't entirely sure. But there was no backing down now.

Probably worth noting was that, despite it being something that she more or less cobbled together after watching one-too-many samurai flicks, her fighting style (for lack of a better term) actually had some potential. The girl obviously lacked any form of real combat training, but if she could at least learn the basics, she'd probably make for a pretty decent fighter. Either way, when it came to fighting Shadows, it was something that had served her well so far. She could probably stand to get a hold of some actual swords (or, at the very least, ones carved from a better quality wood), but they were serving their purpose for the time being. As for this battle...well all she could do at the moment was hope she wasn't in over her head.

[John Nicholson]

The attack had thrown the real John quite a way backwards. It had been quite a heav hit though it would take quite a bit more to take him out. As the dust thrown up by the impostor's attack settled, John could see the unkown girl attacking his dopleganger with what basically amounted to wooden sticks. It was quite clear the false John wasn't particularly bothered by this physical assault, Although it didn't appear to have any particular resistance to strike attacks.

John was still getting back into combat range as Fake John Turned its attenton to the unknown girl. "Do not interfere, this does not concern you! If you continue to support this old wreck you will be dragged down along with him." As if to put emphasis on this threat disguised as a warning, he threw a haymaker at the girl which would inflict minor strike damage if it connected. Although it was quite clear he wasn't exerting his true strenght in the slightest.

John saw his impostor threathening the girl simply because she had the selflesness to defend him without even knowing him. This reaffirmed his belief that this creature held no relation to him apart from appearances. "Hey, It's me you're after you bastard." John blasted his clone with the power of darkness. The being flinched for a moment. It seemed to be weak to the power of darkness. "I will be after her too if she doesn't back down. And there's nothing you can do about it." John glared at the appirition, which appeared to be taunting him now.

[Setsuna Hanamori]

The Shadow didn't seem to be all that phased by her attack, yet she didn't feel the dulled impact that she usually got when she hit an opponent that resisted Strike damage. So, in other words, this one was just really tough. Either way, the haymaker caught her off guard a bit. She wasn't able to avoid or counter it, but the somewhat impractical nature of the move still allowed her to brace herself for the hit. It didn't hurt any less, but she at least prevented herself from being knocked off of her feet. She shook herself off, then let out a sigh. She could already tell that this was going to be a pain in the ass, but there was no backing down now.

She listened as the Shadow made thinly-veiled threats against her, to which she scoffed. "Oh please. I might not have any idea who this man is or what's going on between the two of you, but one thing is perfectly clear. All you are is a goddamn Shadow. I don't know how or why you can talk, or why you can take his shape, but the way you attacked him earlier makes it obvious. Either way, I ain't backing down now. This place has really been pissing me off, and I need to blow off some steam." With that, she pulled out her evoker, bringing it to her head and pulling the trigger "Undine!"

A nude woman with blue skin and blond hair appeared above Setsuna, her body surrounded by water. "Hit that Shadow with all you've got!" The water spirit, fully understanding what Setsuna intended to do, raised her arms, and a medium-sized pillar of ice rose from the ground, attempting to hit the Shadow. Should the Bufula hit, it would inflict medium Ice-based damage. She also watched as the real John attacked with a Mamudoon, and noticed that the Shadow seemed to be especially weak against Dark attacks. Shame she didn't know any.

[John Nicholson]

It seemed the girl was not about to back down with mere verbal threats. John admired her figthing spirit though he was quite spooked when she appeared to pull out a gun and put a bullet in her head. it took a few seconds to register the distinct lack of bits of brains flying around that he imagined would have resulted from such an action. A few moments later he realized she had summoned frth a ersona. He had heard about this different method of caling upon the power although this was the first time he had really seen someone utilize this particular method.

more to the point though, The shadow seemed to take standard damage from the ice attack. The being briefly shivered from the frigid assault, but quickly regained its calm composure."You don't understand, do you. The more you fight the truth, the fiercer it will fight back." He gestured towards the unknown girl. "And it will not just destroy you, but your friends as well." This bantering was beginning to annoy John. It felt like this shadow was saying something important, but its heavy use of metaphors obsfucated whatever message the shadow was trying to convey. "If you got something important to say, stop it with the talking in riddles and just straight up tell me!" A chuckle escape the shadow's throat. "Why should I tell you what you already know?"


The taunt prompted John To Power up himself and his mysterious ally with Tarukaja. "Fine, I'll beat it out of you." The shadow smirked at John. "You shouldn't be so careless. You might just cause me to get serious." John was taken quite aback by the boast. This enemy wasn't even seriously fighting? As if to display that it wasn't a bluff, The shadow made a gesture as if commanding some invisible force. Moments afterwards, the whine of unseen yet engines briefly resounded as Both John and his ally were bombarded by a sudden barrage of firebombs. The shadow looked upon the scene with a playful grin. "I said it before John, figthing the truth only strengthens it. And you have been fighting the truth for a long time."

[Setsuna Hanamori]

Setsuna was hit rather hard by the flame-based attack, especially since she was weak to fire, and dropped to her knees. The look on her face was more than enough to tell that the attack hurt like hell. But she still refused to back down. She staggered back to her feet, more determined than ever. Then, she once again summoned her Persona and had her attack a second time, this time with a blast of lightning that, should it hit, would inflict medium Electric damage. However, it didn't seem like this was getting them anywhere. As much as she didn't like it, it seemed like there was more than meets the eye with this Shadow. She turned to John and started speaking.

"...hey, old man...I know this sounds crazy...but...what if this Shadow is right? I mean...not that I have any clue what's going on, but if I didn't know any better, I'd swear this Shadow was trying to imply that it's you...or at least a part of you." Admittedly, even she thought it sounded insane. This thing seemed to know way too much about John for it to just be anything like the random creatures she had encountered. Of course, she had no clue where she was going with any of this, but, nevertheless, the thought wouldn't leave her head. 

[John Nicholson]

The bombardment had blasted John to the ground. He stood up to see his enemy stricken by lightning. The attack appeared to deal standard damage. It all seemed useless though. All of the repeated attacks had done little more than cause some minor superficial damage. And then the shadow looked up from something the unknown girl said. "Ah, finally some words of wisdom. It appears this young lady is wiser than you are John. She has arrived at the conclusion that you should have instantly realized to begin with." John recoiled at the words. He was left speechless. The shadow momentarily assumed a less threathenin stance.

"Let me make one last appeal to reason before we pass the treshold past which return will be impossible. Have you ever considered that I am but a representation of the shadow you cast? Feel free to answer this for yourself. Just know that the person you knew as vice made this choice too, and he chose badly." John looked up at the shadow's mention of his fallen friend. Was it tellin the truth? Had Vice encounter a creature like the one John was facing now? He could imaine Vice to defiantly keep figthing until the end. Considering what had become of him, John started to genuinely wonder if repeatedly and futilely beating himself against this adversary was truly a way to defeat it.

John lowered his weapon "Fine then, let me hear what you have to say" He stood before the dark creature, passive, but still wary. "Let me just tell you rhis tidbit. What happens to other people has never been in your control, is currently also not in your control and will never be in your control." John, now more receptive to his shadowy counterpart's cryptic lecturing, pondered the statement at lenght. What was truly meant with it if this shadows was truly borne of his own personality and memory? Was it referring to the happenings of the past, or the recent incident at the shrine? Mabe both? Maybe neither? Was it trying to tell him that although he can try again and again to prevent harm from coming to people, they would inevitably get hurt despite his efforts? It would fall in line with the revious ranting about him needing to let go of his past.

'Fine then, you made your point. I shouldn't try to prevent harm from coming to my allies as it will find them anyway. But such things take time to realize." The shadow looked up at the last part of that statement. "And how much time is that exactly? You can't complain about it being a fresh wound upon your soul and mind! Or has your nech blocked up from looking behind you so much?" It was yet another of those infuriating question that lacked an answer. John took the time to think more of it this time though, and realized that the shadow was indeed lecturing him on the things that he was to scared to adress himself. How long had he been dwelling on the past exactly? It seemed so obvious now that the past was irrelevant to the present day situation. John suddendly had a moment of acute mental clarity. Though his past may hang over him like a grim reminder, he still walked the earth. Capable of redeeming his mistakes, both factual and perceived.

It was this realization that sent a wave of power coursing through his persona. With a shudder, the metal shackles concealing his mental ally's form crumbled away. what now stood besides him was not a shackled figure with a concealed face, It was a humanoid being looking of immeasurable age, clothed in tattered rags. it's body decayed by the passage of time. Briefly flickering around it was another enitity, looking like an ever more warped version of the physical body. John had no idea what kind of physical symbolism this new persona represented and frankly, he was mentally too tired to think about it right now. "Alright, ou've made your point, now return to the dark reach of my mind from whence you came." The shadow gestured defiantly at this suggestion. "You may have stopped looking back at the past today, but you have yet to learn to look forward to the future. I leave you now though. It wouldn't be productive to force matters, even with you." And with that said, the shadow was enveloped in the same mist that seemed to ave brought it. As the clouds billowed, it became clear that the doppleganger had retreated. john looked at his mysterious ally."Hey, thanks for helping me out. Don't ask me what happened because I don't really know myself. I any case, we shoudl hasten back to the city to rest up, maybe get the more serious wounds patched up." John extended an arm to the girl, ready to support her should her ounds overrtake her.