Raiding Esagila [Boss]

[Takeda]

Foggy streets, ruined buildings, and not a human being in sight. An average day in Silent Hill West Mosaic under the cover of that trippy, purple sky that loomed over this part of the city, ominously telling people in it's own way that they needed to turn right the fuck back around. Felt like ages had passed since Takeda had seen this place, even more so, it felt like there was something definitely wrong the the whole horrid situation from the moment he peeked his head out from beneath the manhole cover. Climbing up from the rank darkness of the underground labyrinth that Seiji had so conveniently managed to map out after a few times out during the day, it felt like as good a time as any to see if he could follow up on exploring the abandoned executive building that was so prominently displayed  against the skyline of West Mosaic. Now for some other explorers of this whole area, it'd just be another walk through the metaphorical park, sight seeing for the folks that had just up and decided to go hunt some shadows. Not only was Takeda out to  explore the tower of Babel again, he was there to test a little something for himself. Tiny little battles with shadows, along with the encounter he had with the huge fucker during the full moon had given him a bit of an ego boost that was beyond compare. Pulling his pistol from his waistband, lugging his backpack on his newly acquired leather jacket that the Junk Lady handed out to them for killing the pair of drills that were tunneling towards got knows what, Takeda found himself staring occasionally at the old buildings as if expecting the hustle and bustle of the city to revive itself at any moment. Now if anyone knew anything about Takeda, they'd know that he wasn't exactly the kind for sentiments, but there was always something so sad about seeing West Mosaic in this state, especially since he had went here all too often before the the shadow nation attacked. Oh god, that was awful. Please. Stab me in the c-box for that. shadows had decieded to roll in. Lacking the fine details about how shadows were produced, other than the horrid thought of a daddy maya and a mommy cupid...well, that was a sight he'd have to wipe from his internal memory. Anywho, he made his way down the foggy streets of West Mosaic on a journey to test his mettle  Holding onto the pistol as if it were some sort of safety blanket, the red haired asian made his way towards the looming tower with grim determination and the relatively certain fact that the peashooter wasn't going to be doing any sort of good in this situation.

Instead of rounding the entirety of the building as he had done before, this time Takeda was determined  to find an easier way in...but, that didn't turn out so well as the only way to climb right the hell in was through one of those windows that had been busted in by salvage hungry persona users. Climbing over the sill, he once more found himself in some corner office that probably belonged to some guy that was two weeks from retirement...Jesus, the thought of the cliche managed to make him shake his head whilst pointing his gun down the hall. It was more to just bestow upon himself a false sense of confidence whilst trying to ward off any of the shadows on the lower floor from attacking him. Surprisingly enough, the little bastards seemed all but absent from the first floor, to such a point that he didn't even see a quiver of the little black gelatin monsters as they undoubtedly got their freak on with a cup-no. Trying to still erase the mental image from his head undoubtedly, Takeda scoured the lobby, various corner offices, and found almost nothing of interest, the whole place had been ransacked so many times that it was practically picked clean of all the valuables...well, that meant one thing. Turning around and going home empty handed was just something that he wasn't prepared to do, no sir, he'd never hear the end of it from Seiji if he did that.

Moving towards what was once marked as a stairwell on the assumption that the electronics in the elevator were fried to high hell, he made his way up to the second floor, and found himself smack dab in a cubicle farm. Dust lined the various bland colored cubicles, as the windows allowed the purple light to eerily stream through the darkness, illuminating the goods. Phones laid on most of the desks, along with outdated computer models that would most likely end up going to feed the blonde haired woman's voracious appetite for garbage...and hopefully get him some points. Damn she was fine. With the old Browning pistol shaking within his hands, feeling hefty from the fresh mag that had been popped into it in the confines of the sewers,  he scanned the entirety of the place, and decided it was time to get to looting procuring assets for the junk lady. Nobody seemed to touch these old cubicles, and Takeda's primary concern was to earn a few bucks whilst aiding his half brother in the process. With his job eating up more and more of his ability to operate outside the city, a lot of the weight had been pushed onto Seiji. Not only could he not quit, because he had thought of that time and time again, but the salvage never seemed to be enough to get them by on anything other than dollar menu fast food. Takeda needed a big find this time, something to get them settled for a while so that he could afford to take a few more days off without causing harm to both of them. Phones were never big sellers, especially the corded models that were kept here in the office building...but the old electronics? Those could be sold off for some good cash, shame he couldn't fit most of the outdated buggers in his backpack. There was however one thing that could definitely work, which sat before him at a few of the old tables. Rather than risk using the outdated computers that they had been given, some workers preferred the use of laptops, which had apparently been left behind here for ages, without anyone thinking of picking them up. Now there was his meal ticket for the day. Garnering up a pretty good score of old laptops that wouldn't turn on, most likely due to the same shit that caused the city to go dark during the arrival of mister Eldrich Suicide Bomber the third,  he stuffed them into the backpack. Now there was no telling how much these things would be worth, but they wouldn't go hungry for the day. Something then crossed his mind...Takeda hadn't informed his half-brother that he was heading out today...the feeling was there, something terrifying loomed in the darkness. Or silly, as was often the case with shadows. Part of him was tempted to book it with the laptops in tow, but...there were usually people that showed up to fuck these things up on the same feeling. So it wouldn't feel right to leave 'em hanging.

"I swear to god, if there's a shadow printer in here, I'm just gonna jump out the window."

[Vice Ysal]

It was severely more difficult to get up the bed nowadays. Ever since he'd started fighting those shadows in an effort to line his pockets, get stronger, and search out the truth of his situation, mornings had began to haunt him more and more. Being out in the open was making him jumpier than before but the small saving grace he had with him was that the feeling of lethargy always left him whenever the idea of going out of this miserable city entered his mind. He doubted it was actually anything physical though, and Vice mused that it probably grew from the continuous exposure to the newest sensations his life could offer him. Living it up for 19 years in the same place was not exactly all that uncommon so it shouldn't be surprising to see the teenager give birth to wanderlust. It was a good feeling, being able to see different things, experience things he'd never thought possible (though he'd prefer not get his ass fried every time he fought a shadow) and just generally be in a world that wasn't filled with the things that he had something against.

Like sunlight for example. That was a major boon for him.

Day dreaming and memories aside, Vice was raring to go again for another round in the building. It carried the most haunting of memories for him too, specially since that rider that appeared in front of him the first time he went around the place was enough to paralyse him in fear for who knew how long. He'd also very much prefer to forget about him pissing himself at the sight of a demonic flying table that breathed fire. That was something he could live without remembering after all. The internal monologue of his, the whole psyching up to get focused, it became less and less necessary as the cold comfort of battle came to him easier now. The kind of adrenaline he'd get from having to fend off different men and women who wanted to beat him up was simple child's play compared to the rush he was getting from actually fighting these monsters.

Still, he knew he had a limit and this physical body of his could only do so much. The envy he had for the persona users was almost palpable, with how they could seemingly go on and on while casting spells of destruction without batting a sweat. Hell, the thing he really wanted was the damn natural resistance against these beasts. It always felt like they could stand up better to them as compared to his 'weak' defences. Shaking his head from the thought, banishing it away for another time, the young man had at least come prepared for the battle with his armour and fire arms. Readied, loaded, and more or less certified to kick some ass, the young man continued his unusually uneventful trek inside the building.

The sound of foot steps were his own only, but there seemed to be something else in the air. Rummaging, rustling, something really he wasn't quite sure. It was, however, enough to have him point his revolver up front in order to catch anything that might remotely seem be a hostile shadow. He had a lot more bullets nowadays, sure, but he'd still rather not waste any if he could. Maybe he'd be able to find a clearing again, at least that way he'd be able to rummage around for a few things he could come home with.

[David Moore]

It had finally shown up. Dave had been relentlessly exploring the second floor of the building in search of another powerful shadow like that computer. Of course, it was only a theory that it would even have another shadow. Dave had felt several strong shadow presences since his encounter with the computer. He had theorized that a lot of places he and the other persona users were exploring probably had their own strong shadows lurking around.

His theory seemed to be true so far, even to the point that different floors of a building had their own strong shadows. He would have to comb all of the floors and eradicate them. He rounded a corner and came face-to-face with a gun.

"What?" He uttered automatically before shoving himself to the side. It was Vice, the terrifying super waiter he had met again at Manga Max. That made the gun thing a bit less of a shock. He would expect that from Vice. "Hi?" he asked. He felt relieved that he hadn't instictually punched or kicked out like he would have towards a shadow. Electric taser gloves and blade boots hurt a lot. "You felt it too?" He asked again, in reference to the shadow. He wondered if anyone else had shown up and rounded the corner into a larger space.

There was a familiar head of red hair a few yards off and his heart quickened."H-Hey!" he called. He was nervous, but that might be attributed to the nature of the situation... or just the fact that he was a complete social disaster.

[Boss-sama Desu]

The final ink cartridge had run out. The world was at a standstill. Everything could finally enter a deep slumber. Or such was the plan. Instead of being able to rest, something stirred the device awake. Intruders. No, intruders that had ransacked the facility. The presence of brothers and sisters had been extinguished. What had it been doing while all of this happened? Perhaps it had, indeed, entered a slumber? It was lonely. Sleeping was fine, but having no allies to comfort it when it woke was bothersome. . .


USB and D-cables acted as tentacles, drawing the possessed printer to the presence of the humans. Then, slamming itself atop a nearby desk, the machine's gears began to spin. The printer had just entered kill-mode.



Beware, THE WINDOW IS ON THE LEFT has appeared!

Skills
Paper Cut
Cut Out
Punch In
Punch Out

Absorbs: ? ? ?
Repels: ? ? ?
Resists: ? ? ?
Weakness: ? ? ?

[Takeda]

"...Son of a fucking bitch. SON OF A GOD DAMNED BITCH!"

That was it, that tore it. Something broke in Takeda's head as the card floated down towards him, only for him to pistol whip it to make it shatter, rather than blast through it with his pistol, or crush it. "When this whole fucking thing started, I assumed that after the blobs there'd be some H.P Lovecraft shit, vaguely Silent Hill-esque monsters, hell, I'd accept fucking people with fucking red eyes, some stupid horns growing out of their heads! God damn, I mean really?! You couldn't even spring to take on the form of a motherfucking clown, or some weird dog monster?! This whole fucking thing is stupid as shit! We're being threatened by god damned ghost printers, computers, hulk fuckmothering Hogan, tanks, drills, little cupid monsters and god knows what else! Fuck this. I'm done. I'm fucking done." From the murky darkness of the shadows behind him, Faust seemed to rip itself from the blank fabric of time itself, pointing it's outstretched hand towards the shadow printer...pain wracked icy breaths came out of it's chest whilst the monochromatic phantom loomed over Takeda's head...but. Well, that didn't seem to help the snapping fit he just had over the fact that this whole damn shadow infestation incident seemed to always involve some inanimate object or creepy wrestler who used to have a shitty reality television show. "Fuck this place, fuck West Mosaic, and fuck you!" 

With his eyes focused dead center on the ghost printer whilst it hoisted it's merry little ass up onto the desk, Takeda moved so that he would be able to get a better angle on the son of a bitch, his persona trailing behind him throughout the cubicle farm until he ended up seeing a familiar sight. Whitey. Whitey, and Vice. It was only typical that other people be thrown out here when one of the big fuckers decided to rear their ugly heads, but the chances of it being whitey and revolver Ocelot showing up? Jesus. There wasn't much in the way of time for words, as Takeda planted his feet firmly on the ground between the two, looked at the demon printer with a look of utter disdain that practically screamed out that he was going to chuck the thing into the sewers the moment they were done. Faust stood tall at the ready behind him, before sensing the intent of it's master, creating a vortex of intense flames that formed into a single cohesive ball, which it then threw right at where they would typically feed paper into the son of a bitch. "I'd say it was nice meeting both of you again, if it wasn't for the giant demon printer thing. Let's just kill this thing quick before they learn how to start taking over fax machines."

(Action: Agibroseph Agilao)

[Vice Ysal]

Just a bit more and Vice would've been splattered with the actual guts of a person rather than a shadow. The pasty looking face that had suddenly appeared in his peripheral had caused him to turn around for a moment to face the opponent yet it was with that same turn that had caused his trigger finger to refrain from pulling and shooting the clearly human identity that now stood in front of him.

"Careful next time, Dave."

Vice grunted as he slowly lowered the revolver he had in his hands and walked next to the Persona User. He was about to say something when the person he was just about to ask called out to someone else. Raising an eyebrow at the action, the red eyed youth turned around to see someone else in the area that they had been in. Another rather recent yet familiar face came to view. The shop keeper from the manga bookstore, Takeda if Vice remembered correctly had already been there apparently. There would have been probably some special moment to be shared, finding these people after the events at the store--well, there was time for sentiments and there was time for making sure you weren't dead. It was quickly going to the latter when some freaky ass piece of equipment rose up.

Was…

Was that a fucking shadow printer?

He understood that there were tables, chairs, hands, blobs, human shaped, but freaking--

Hell, apparently Takeda felt the same about the situation and had been a thousand times more vocal about it then he was. Vice wasn't even mad when he saw Takeda unleash his persona to throw out a fireball that seemed to be very reminiscent of the one he had used back in the cemetery. As it was, without an imaginary friend to call upon for his aid, Vice was once more stuck on giving support fire and trying his best not to be a liability for his teammates.

A whip up, his stance focused yet loose, Vice then open fired at the printer abomination.

He swore, if that thing had a paper-themed move set.

[David Moore]

Dave couldn't believe his eyes. It had appeared in all of its horror, bringing with it the nightmares of his generation and the screams of his ancestors. The world grew darker and colder the longer he gazed at this fearsome monstrosity that had appeared before them. Truly, there was no god in the world, as such things would not be allowed to exist. Dave felt the very life energy leave, only an empty husk remaining. The abomination was too much.

A shadow printer.

Dave could understand Takeda's frustration perfectly well. They both had fought the shadow computer in floor below and that had been pretty annoying. Still, a shadow printer. Why? Why would a shadow possess a printer, or whatever it was they did. It made absolutely no sense. It could possess a car, a turret, a trash compactor, anything it wanted to... probably. Why a fucking printer?

Dave revised his initial thoughts. There was a God-desu and he was clearly having a great time fucking around with everyone, seriously what the fuck this isn't funny. Why does this exist?

Dave produced his Evoker and pointed it at his temple. This thing would die. No. He put his Evoker back into his pocket and flicked his taser gloves on. Screaming, he charged the printer and began to punch it, trying to rip it to pieces with his bare hands. He hoped whatever God out there was happy. He was a broken man, now.

[Boss-sama Desu]

The printer knew what it was capable of. Three attacks came in. Fires singed at its outer shell, dealing normal damage. Bullets rammed into it immediately afterward, again dealing normal damage. It was when the boy's lightning knuckles smashed into the outer shell that something different happened. Watch out, kids, it's shock-resistant! So, taking two good blows and one not-so-bad blow, the printer was ready to unleash its own attack. So, how to proceed? It had never been a tactical genius. It was just one to test out things until they worked, really. So, instead of trying to logically think of an attack pattern, it just went down its list.

Turning and aiming at Takeda, since he dealt the most damage, the printer fired something from its paper tray. It wasn't paper, though. Nope. No sir. It fired a paper-shaped guillotine blade at the man for massive slash-based damage!

[Takeda]

Takeda's eyes widened as the printer launched the paper shaped shard at him with such speed that he could only move to the side in the hopes that nothing vital would get hit in his abdomen. With a sickening slitting noise, the metal sheared through the side of his mid torso, barely missing out on his kidneys, vital organs, and a good few arteries...but fuck, it hurt. So much. Blood poured forth from his open wound like someone had just broke open a dam, and it showed. Soaking his white undershirt in blood, the thing definitely wanted him dead. Having yelled out in pain the moment the thing struck his body, he fell  to his knees, panting as if he had run a marathon as the sharp piece of paper had torn through him. Whilst it hurt like a son of a bitch, Takeda pulled himself up, clutching the wound with his left hand so that he could take careful aim with his pistol, but it wasn't any use, the pain from that hit wouldn't let him steady his aim. Elemental attacks? That he could brace himself against, poison? No problem. This was one of the first few times other than a few broken bones wherein he had been sliced right the hell through like that.

Keeping on his feet, he looked back at Vice, who was peppering the thing with magnum rounds that seemed to at least put a dent in it. Dave's punches though? Jack shit other than smacking it around a little, so the natural laws of appliances getting fucked over by electricity went right out the window. With a deep breath, he gave something that Desmond had told them some thought..."Test it's weaknesses...right..." Looking up at the piece of office machinery, he noticed that blood had started trickling down from Faust's robes as well. Thing was focused on him for the moment, so it was all the more reason to experiment for a bit, see what could make this thing tick. With the limited moves in his arsenal, this amounted up to one little thing. Dark energy formed in the palm of Faust's outstretched hand, starting off like wisps of smoke, emerging fully as a cloud of darkness. Forcing it's palm outwards, the persona's user had definitely given it the order to use mudo to try and tear through it's hide. Forming into a beam of concentrated black energy that was plastered with screaming faces on it's sides, the blast headed right for the printer's loader once more.

Vice could reliably put rounds down range, that was a definite, so there was a guaranteed source of damage, and if push came to shove, he knew that Dave could hold his own. "This is gonna be a long fucking fight..." he uttered audibly, as warm blood oozed down his body. One attack was memorized...that was the only plus out of this.

(Action: Mudo. Nasty paper cut.)

[Vice Ysal]

Alright. So far their luck had been holding out. They got the first attack on the Stratum Shadow and with that, they managed to figure a couple of things. Vice clicked his tongue at the findings though. Sure the fact that fire and pierce did normal damage was all fine and dandy, he had no qualms with that, but it concerned him that the thing had been strong against electricity. It was a good gamble and the chances of anything mechanical being weak to electricity should have been high. It could be weak to Ice too since it was an off shoot of water but as it were, he doubted they had the option now. Still, Dave was pretty close to the enemy now and with how dangerous that guillotine paper cut thing it had launched at Takeda looked like, Vice wasn't liking his chances of surviving any up close battle.

He brought a good pair of swords with him this time, but gambling that much to try and find a weakness with the slash type moves to try and score a critical hit was out of the question. Not when a single one of those Guillotine Papers could effectively shove him out of the fight.

"Fall back, Dave! That thing's strong against electricity!"

Vice shouted over the noise of his own gunfire. This freak, even though Vice lacked the sharpened sixth sense that most persona users held above normals like him, had something else that the sewer croc didn't and that was making Vice jumpier than usual.

[David Moore]

Well. Great. Some shadows have weaknesses, but they don't make any sense, so you should just guess until you get it right. Dave wished he had some sort of help interface. Press L1 or something. But for the meantime he'd just have to be beary prebeared for this unbearable bear of a battle

[/s]. He stopped punching, seeing that the creature had attacked. The bastard had hit Takeda and Dave saw Takeda clutch at a bloody wound.

Well shit.

Electricity didn't work apparently, so he would have to try slash. His bladed boots were now a feature for this run. He swung an upwards kick to deal slashing damage against the shadow. If all else failed, he always had light. It was kind of a shame that Vice could only shoot it. Granted, a magnum should rip right through a printer with ease, but shadows apparently defied common sense when it suited a climactic situation. Maybe they only broke the laws of common sense because they couldn't think of anything better? He continued kicking, catching the blades against the printer's surface. It was here that he realized that repeatedly kicking was harder than repeatedly punching.

[/div]

[Boss-sama Desu]

Ink blotted across the printer. Or no it didn't. That was a Mudo. It was normally effective. Bullets continued to pelt it, still dealing normal damage. Then the asshole that ran up and got personal with the Shadow continued trying to do things. Apparently, this human had horrible taste in shoes. The slashing was so bad that the damage was repelled at Dave! Paper cuts were a bitch, huh?

So the team seemed to lack a healer. In other words, he'd be sending that man to meet his friends very soon. Prepping its tray again, it aimed at Takeda before launching another guillotine sheet, a blow that would deal massive slash damage!

[Takeda]

As if Takeda wasn't having enough difficulty keeping most of his blood on the inside, another blade flew straight out of the thing's tray and delivered another fearsome cut to his abdomen with alarming speed. There was no moving out of the way of this strike, nope, not this time. A huge gash was slashed across his chest, with his blood splattering the sides of one of the cubicles with crimson fluid. Clutching at his body in absolute pain, Takeda let out an agonizing cry of anguish before dropping down to his knees from the ferocious nature of the hit...someone had to do something, hell, anything would be better than just sitting here, bleeding out like a bitch. As he rose from the floor, breathing heavily as more and more warm blood spattered the floor, he lifted his head up to look at the printer, his own monstrous persona quivering from wounds of it's own. Now there had been times wherein he wanted to smash an appliance for not working, wanted to take a bat to his alarm clock, wanted to smash his phone for waking him up...but seriously, he wanted to fuck this thing up. His eyes glared at the shadow printer with such hatred that you'd be forgiven for thinking him to have accidentally clicked "Friday" instead of something good on youtube. Lifting his own gun up, shaking from anger, bloodloss, and a general willingness to just flat out stomp the shit out of this thing the moment they killed it, he put his finger to the trigger, whilst Faust readied a fireball within it's own blood-soaked hand. Instead of pulling the trigger however, Takeda simply helped guide his persona's fireball with the sights, seeing as he was growing weaker by the second from the fierce blows he had taken. Takeda wasn't a tank, far from it...but there was a civilian, and then there was Dave, who just punched the thing only to take a hit of his own. Fire gathered in the persona's hand, and flew out with great speed towards the printer, as Takeda grunted out in anger.

"I have not...come this far...to die now. Not to you. FUCK YOU!"

(Agilao)

[Vice Ysal]

Fuck.

Another one of those guillotine-esque paper strips had been fired, the trajectory the same and Vice's body had already half way turned from his current position and his legs had been coiled just enough that he could probably reach Takeda with one leap and take the hit instead. Takeda was their strongest hitter and him getting put out of the fight's gonna end up with them all dying because of a goddamn printer.

Vice was too slow however, no matter how ready his body was, he simply didn't have the capacity to go toe to toe against the speed of a monster. It was with a frustrated, annoyed, irritated, furious, and angered mask that he watched the attack connect against the red haired persona user. Vice whipped the gun in his hand as fast as he could and continued blasting the thing with the bullets he had on. The thing was huge enough that it'd be damn fucking hard to miss it, no Vice's attention was at the other member who's been acting as a goddamn liability for whatever damn reason! Vice saw Dave fight the Monster from the Cemetery, he wasn't suicidal like this.

"Dave!"

Vice half roared half bellowed the name out like it was a curse, and his voice echoed out in the room.

"Get your fucking ass back here! We lose if he falls and he's pretty damn close to making out with the goddamn dirt!"

[David Moore]

"Damn it all!" Dave muttered as his attack was reflected back at him. He wasn't entirely sure how the process worked out, but he was suddenly covered in several bleeding cuts. He stumbled back, the sudden pain finally knocking some sense into him as Vice yelled out. He looked back at Takeda, seeing now how deeply wounded the man was.

Dave hadn't realized paper could do such severe damage. It was almost as if Eri God was laughing his ass off at the paper cut reference. He fired his Evoker again and summoned forth Shimon, having him cast Media on the group and sending green orbs of light to his allies. He himself felt the pain from his cuts heal and soothe, not giving any more pain as they all but completely vanished. He only hoped that, with his special healing charm, Takeda would be able to recover enough to keep fighting. He was ready to take a hit for the guy if he had to. It was only right after Dave had neglected his duty.