Mosaic City, located along China's coast, is quite large city sometimes called the Crossroads Between Nations due to its diverse population. While it was once a large tourist spot, the city was placed under a blockade as the military appeared claiming there was a radiation leak. The true hazard, however, is much more sinister.
Post by Boss-sama Desu on Jan 12, 2014 11:45:41 GMT -5
With shock therapy occurring within its innards, you would have expected the tower's motherboard, or something, to be fried. The inner squiggles seemed limp, but not quite dead. In fact, it seemed to the computer that its terminal had sustained enough damage that it was no longer worth prolonging the fight in that shape. It was time for its trump card!
It would update its software. Then network.
The screen up top displayed a message, more ominous than it should have been.
“Preparing for network convergence. XX%” The percentage was flying up at a good rate. Within twenty seconds, the group of heroes would discover what this message meant.
If they didn't finish their opponent off, at least.
Post by Seiji Dalton on Jan 12, 2014 13:59:47 GMT -5
The way Seiji saw things, the way the next few seconds would go boiled down to three words: all or nothing. Either they'd stop the shadow computer before its upload completed and the battle would be theres, or they'd all end up dead at the hands of this shadow and their efforts to discover the truth behind the events happening in the outer circle would end before they ever truly began.
There was no time to think. Instincts kicked in as Seiji felt the pain welling up in him once again subside. One of them had deviated from what he wanted and used Dia on him. With matters becoming urgent, he didn't even have time to get angry at the two ranged fighters behind him. There'd be time to throw blame and kick someone's rear later (by which time he probably wouldn't care since the fight would be over and all's well that ends well).
Gripping the bastard sword, he pushed the wires conducting electricity to the blade as far into the impromptu socket as he could, praying that the battery supplying the weapon its power didn't give out here at the key moment. "Unleash everything you've got on this thing! This is it!" Not looking back, he wouldn't be able to see that they both were probably on the edge of consciousness, his only reason for not being like that a combination of both adrenaline and the invigorating powers of Dia. Fueled by desperation and a gross sense of fun that only reared its head when someone's life was on the line, Seiji began savagely attacking the tower one last time, slashing at the shadows as electricity crackled across them, running through the whole of the processor.
Time after time he hacked at the tower, his muscles groaning under the strain. Everything he'd ever learned about swordplay was being put to use here as he desperately sought to end this shadow's brief existence before the life of either one of the people behind him was snuffed out.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here.”
Gathering what little strength he had left, Takeda pushed out his hand to keep the would-be medic from taking him down...he was damn determined to do this, both to ensure the safety of the group, and to avenge his jacket of course. More than ever, Seiji seemed to be their ace in the hole against this thing thanks to the makeshift shocksword the two had rigged up in the shop, so him being healed should've bought them enough time and damage to hopefully whack away at the disgusting innards of the CPU's tower. Dropping weakly onto one knee, Takeda grasped his Browning up from the floor and hastily took aim at the core of the beast...it didn't seem logical to blast at the thing's core with his pistol, especially with his vision being blurred to the point that he could barely make out which blob was Seiji, and which was the corrupted computer. With a deep breath that wracked his chest with pain, he gazed up at his Persona for a split second, before aiming down the sights once more...hopefully, he could get one last hit in before whatever the hell the thing had put in him had time to kill him. Dark energy flowed toward's Faust's hand once more, and though the ghastly visage of the caster was hunched over in pain, it's outstretched hand dripping monochromatic fluid, it did not waver, before following through on the focus of it's host.
A stream of dark energy, the same mudo blast from before emerged from his hand, and propelled itself straight towards the inner components of the machine, whatever they were supposed to be. Hoping desperately to hit whatever putrid tar that was pouring forth from the computer's innards like so much phlegm from a tobacco chewing redneck's mouth, the young clerk closed his eyes, hearing his own heart beat rapidly in his ears. If nothing else, Seiji and the odd fellow who hopped in to aid them would most likely deal the damage needed, if not, Seiji could cuss him out on the other side. As soon as he felt as if the blast would hit, he opened his eyes, and screamed out in anger. "Just fucking DIE ALREADY!"
Post by David Moore on Jan 12, 2014 16:24:45 GMT -5
Dave felt red-guy shove himself up. He's going to kill himself. He hadn't noticed the timer appearing on the Shadow, but he saw that Red-Guy was clearly intent on attacking. Dave himself felt mentally exhausted. He had used a lot of spells in succession and he still wasn't acclimated to fighting. He felt enough mental energy to cast one more time, but he could either heal or attack. If he tried to do both, he would risk severely hurting himself. Red-guy attacked and seemed intently focused on it. Dave looked back over at the shadow and saw the quickly rising percent. It took only an instant for him to put two and two together.
"Damn it all." He screamed and had Shimon cast his own Mudo attack, sending the same types of energy as Red-guy towards the Shadow. Maybe getting a double dose of the same attack would be better than risking cancelling out light and dark energies. He felt his limbs shudder under stress as his vision grew foggy. Too much energy had gone into the spell, more than he had anticipated. He felt gravity pull him backwards and he landed on his arms with a thud. He was breathing hard. It needs to die or we're done.
Profile|Home 18 years, the boy no longer
waits for love to fall from somewhere
remembering hazy figures always
fading in a heartbeat
Post by Boss-sama Desu on Jan 12, 2014 16:41:10 GMT -5
The monitor's percentage display read as 100% as the numerous attacks smashed into the mass within the tower. Darkness. Lightning. More darkness. You would think darkness would do squat on a Shadow. So much for making sense! Regardless, the computer shot a singular tendril through a nearby desk transferring data to another terminal. And with the attacks, the mass inside the tower became fragmented and dissipated. What remained was transferred, and the new toward launched itself through the desk, knocking the old, decrepit shell it had been using aside. A tendril connected with the monitor, and words began to display.
This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
The computer was taunting them. Or perhaps it was just noting that it had survived. Whatever the case, the tower shuddered. The screen flickered for just a moment. Sounds of sparks could be heard from inside the tower. Words had continued to pop onto the screen. But then it seemed as though the message was corrupt.
I feel FANTASTIC and I'm still alive. While you're dying, I'll be still aliv3. And when you're dead I will be still a|iv3. STILL 4L|V3 Still 41|v3
The tower fell apart. The monitor flashed a message along the lines of “Data Corrupt”. The transfer had not occurred in time. The damage was done. No different from the first tower having been destroyed, the tower fell apart, and the darkness inside gurgled before finally starting to dissipate. . .
. . . except it suddenly compressed and exploded, shooting some sparkly object at each of the men's heads.
Congratulations! You defeated the boss, you MONSTERS. Take your rewards, if they didn't kill you, and get out!
Post by David Moore on Jan 12, 2014 18:51:34 GMT -5
Dave felt metal crack against his head and he suddenly found himself staring at the ceiling. He blinked lazily. His body didn't seem to want to move and his head was aching tremendously. It was all he could do to keep a train of that. Even breathing seemed to drain what little energy he had remaining. Deserve it for focusing on casting... That was one of the last coherent thoughts he could remember. As he lied there, his mind flashed with images of the red-haired man, who had to be in worse condition. It wasn't over yet. Dave couldn't let him die. He had to survive, even if Dave suffered damages from overextending himself.
Shimon, sensing his jumbled intentions, cast Dia on the weak red-haired man in order to stave off whatever was affecting him. The effect on Dave was immediate. He felt a cold blackness consume him as his consciousness drifted away. If he hadn't been so exhausted, he might have been scared. In seconds he was unconscious, breathing raggedly on the floor.
Profile|Home 18 years, the boy no longer
waits for love to fall from somewhere
remembering hazy figures always
fading in a heartbeat
There was absolutely no way to describe the look of utter frustration that crossed Takeda's face as he glimpsed the monitor through blurred eyes, seeing that the machine was attempting to transfer itself over to another vessel infuriated him. Shortly after seeing it fail however, a wave of relief washed over him, and the grimace that was on his face shifted to a grin...well, before it exploded and smacked him in the face with a shiny trinket that was stuffed deep inside of it. With an agonized breath, Takeda placed his hand on his head...after all the pain and misery of being shot full of poison, stabbed, and nearly being set on fire...now the damn thing just had to have the last laugh by launching something into his face. Slowly rising off of his knee, he was suddenly struck by the same green light that he had used to heal the stranger during the fight. Feeling his body gain a bit of strength, he turned to face the well dressed man that had come to aid them, only to see that he had passed out on the floor not too far from him. The pain had subsided somewhat, though the humiliation of three people nearly having their asses kicked by a computer was something that Dia couldn't heal off. Faust had apparently recovered via the spell as well, and with the combat over, seemingly dissipated from his spot over Takeda...upon the persona's retreat, Takeda holstered his pistol, and spoke out whilst heading towards the passed out man, "Seiji...you okay?"
The whole damn battle had utterly exhausted him, both from the strain of using his persona's abilities so much, and from the pain that the possessed computer tower had inflicted upon him...he could only hope that he'd make it back into town with his brother, and get someone to patch them up. "Whoever the hell this guy is, he just made something really clear." In his weakened state, Takeda could only manage to hoist the man up to his feet, barely managing to stand him up..."We're not the only ones..." Holding up the stranger, he waited for Seiji's help in lifting him up...the poison still coursed through his veins, and this burst of strength wouldn't last too long...Jesus Christ he hoped that they didn't pass out in the sewer. Now that he had time to actually look at the fellow, he saw that he was actually white...somewhat kind of a rarity in Mosaic with the huge influx of Japanese immigrants.
"Seiji...I'm surprised that sword didn't just flat out electrocute you.But...you did good." Clutched in his hand, as he held up the stranger, was the trinket. Stuffing the object into one of his pants pockets, he lifted his head up to look over at Seiji, and the charred remains of his coat...now, he had to go to the thrift shop and pick up another. Perfect.
Post by Seiji Dalton on Jan 13, 2014 8:51:19 GMT -5
In the final moments of the fight, the computer managed to strike a nerve of Seiji's before the final blow was struck. It started quoting lyrics from a video game he despised, which seemed to only heighten his assault as he reduced the computer creature to nothing but a pile of broken parts as its monotone voice continued to sing. When his rage had subsided, he heard the final notes of the song and calmly responded with the only response that he felt was proper: a big fat ole middle finger aimed right at the remains of the computer, given mere moments before its goods were shot out at all three of the combatants. Considering Seiji was the closest, one would think that he'd be hit square in the face. Fortunately, the poison hadn't kicked in (for the upteenth time thanks to the stranger's healing medicine). Grabbing the object out of the air as it was only half an inch from his face, Seiji turned towards Takeda and looked first at his brother and then at his electric sword. "I think it's safe to say..."
He pulled down invisible sunglasses onto his face, "We fried the motherboard."
All jokes aside, he felt reassured that something approaching teamwork had saved the day. Helping his brother carry the stranger, he examined his features now that they were close and realized that his brother was right. It was a bona fide Caucasian. "Huh, a European in a city described as the crossroads of the world. How about that?" There was a blankness to his voice now that the action had calmed down that would disquiet most people who didn't know him. "I have an idea about where to take him. Remember those guys you told me about?" Mimoza Corner had been cleaned up years ago and was no longer a seedy red light district, but remnants of the criminal underground still remained, you just had to know where to look.
As they made their way out through the sewers to avoid direct engagement with the blockade, Seiji felt the strain of the poison tearing away at his body. It wouldn't be far now, but both of the brothers had to hurry. "You did good out there, Takeda. I couldn't have done this without you." Truth be told, Seiji was a little disappointed by how the fight had gone. He didn't even need to use his Persona. Perhaps that was why he was still able to stand. Usually, the strain his moves put on him would have him down for the count by now. Climbing up to street level with Takeda right behind him and their passed out ally on his back, Seiji weaved through back alleys until he found his way to a seedy lot with a door down a flight of stairs. Knocking on the door, a slot slide open and a voice asked "Password?"
"I have some injured pigeons." It was a stupid password off the wall enough that no one normal would be able to guess it. It sounded like something Seiji would make up when he was bored, truth be told. Leaving the stranger to the care of the back alley doctors (who were honest enough, even if their usual clients were smugglers running guns to the Chinese mainland, street thugs, and now shadow fighters), Seiji and Takeda were treated for their poison and the three were eventually let out the next day to go home and get back to their normal lives. Luckily, it was a Sunday, so none of them would be missing work or school...hopefully.
All's well that ends well...even when attacked by crazy computers inhabited by shadows.
Last Edit: Jan 13, 2014 10:24:17 GMT -5 by Seiji Dalton
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here.”