towerofanimus | Adventure One.

Characters: Homura Akemi, open.
Setting: Floor Thirty.
Format: Starting as action, will match.
Summary: Homura has been careful to avoid the monsters so far, but her luck has run out and she's been dumped into a den full of them. Despite her best efforts to defend herself, the monsters are winning.
Warnings: Blood.

[ Homura lets out a terrified squeal as the staircase disappears and her vision goes black. At first, she thinks she's passed out from the shock, only for the realization to hit her moments later that she's a) no longer falling ~~to her death~~ and b) kneeling in a squidgy, slimy mass of stuff.

This is the point at which her pupils adjust to the darkness, revealing that she's actually landed on top of a nest of snakes. She screams again, louder this time, as one of them coils itself round her wrist, adrenaline enabling her to wrench her arm away and make a clumsy leap onto what she sincerely hopes is the ground.

It is. Pain shoots up her left leg as it takes the impact of her unbalanced landing, but she has bigger things to worry about right now. Like those hulking outlines of the creatures that are approaching her, fast. She doubts that they want to make friends.

Pant... pant... pant...

Despite all her planning and preparation for this kind of scenario, Homura's pretty close to losing it. It's not like she hasn't had to fight before; but back then, the others were always there with her. This time, she's alone. It's different. Unnoticed by her, the cloudy violet gem on her ring darkens a little more, a blackish tinge now occupying around half of the jewel.

A few of the monsters are now dangerously close, close enough for Homura to see that the snake nest is actually some kind of giant brain. It doesn't look happy. Homura knows that if she doesn't get her act together soon, she'll either freeze up or start running in random directions. And if that happens, then...

Her wish would truly have been wasted.

And that's why, even if it's pointless, even if nobody will know or care if she dies here, she still has to fight. Screwing her eyes shut, she transforms--

-- just as a humongous mutant crab drives its pincer into her stomach.

The blood comes instantly, both from the wound and from the raucous coughing fit that follows, the puella magi's ripped costume now sporting a tricolor appearance. Right hand weakly gripping the shield on her left arm, Homura stumbles backward feebly, dimly aware that if she had stopped time even a second later, she would likely have a giant pincer protruding from her back.

It's in this dazed state that she feels herself pulling a pair of explosives out from her shield, tossing one forward and one backward before letting her knees buckle, pigtails hanging limply in front of her face.

She'll just... rest here... for a bit.

It's not like anyone will see...

BANG!

BANG!

Aah, so time restarted... ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was a good thing that Garmura already patrolled the tower habitually. It was a dangerous place and easy for someone to become lost or wander into danger. Some floors seemed aimed at making danger come to you. It had crossed her mind in the weeks since finding her moe self here that she no longer only had to look out for Madoka. It was kind of silly, actually, that she had to look out for herself in this strange way.

It was also kind of silly and strange to hear herself scream. It had been faint at best, but it was hard not to recognize your own voice. Time stopped and restarted, bringing Homura closer to floor thirty. She heard two loud bangs as she arrived, peering over the stairs into the darkness below. It had to be her. If not, then at least there was someone down there. Someone who Homura stopped time for. Who she jumped over the railing for, transforming as she fell. Who she was standing in front of when time resumed its pace, who she had drawn a gun for, and who she was spending bullets to save.

Looking over her shoulder, she was able to confirm that the other person was herself. Her stupid, naive, careless self. Now bleeding and probably horrified. Likely panicking. Maybe about to taint her soul gem dumbly. Garmura did not say anything. Garmura saw one of the monsters she had shot twitch, so calmly turned her body to face it and delivered a kill shot. Then she slipped her weapon back into her hammerspace and properly approached Moemura.

"Can you stand?"

Seeing as Moemura had never actually been injured in a witch fight before, she was still clueless about the whole zombie-body-feeling-less-pain thing. It wasn't until she had knelt there for long enough to witness a girl in a similar - no, identical - costume to her shooting the monsters with the air of someone who had done this a hundred times previously that her blank mind came to the conclusion that she was actually... well, fine. Sticky, but for all the blinding agony that a critical blow like that should have brought, she felt little more than a dull throb. So this was what it meant to be a magical girl.

'In that case... it was kind of silly to use both my bombs in one shot...'

Distantly, she registered a voice coming from above her, asking if she could stand. Now, where had she heard that voice befo--

What.

The moment she had been stabbed by that crab, Moemura had entered a phased out state in which her mind had detached itself from its immediate surroundings. So while she had vaguely registered the presence of the other, even taking into account the design of the costume, the implications of the situation had never really hit her.

But as the stranger's voice reached her ears, Moemura had instinctively raised her head to reply, and--

"Y-You're-- !!"

Maybe she had passed out, after all. Or died. Either way, the person standing before her couldn't possibly be real.

[ Funnily enough, Homura isn't the first one to be so rudely deposited onto this floor today. Someone else got tossed there a little while back. Unlike her, though, he's more than up to the fight. Let the monsters come; it'll be some stress relief.

When Archer hears the scream from closer to where the stairs were on this dark floor, there's already blood spattered on his coat. There has been for quite some time. At least he's not tired yet.

He might as well check out this new sound. It's not like he has to rescue whoever it is. He can just investigate, if he decides they're not worth rescuing, right?

He sees the flash of the bombs, catches sight of the terrified girl in the instant of light they provide. He runs swiftly in that direction, swords out.

But he doesn't attack yet. First, he wants to see if this girl is trying her hardest to fight on her own. ]

[ He's fast. When Homura first catches sight of the red mass darting in front of her, she thinks she's dead meat for sure. Having stupidly used both her bombs in one attack, she has now exhausted whatever small advantage she had. Alone and defenseless, she no longer resists her reflexes and shuts her eyes, waiting for the final blow.

It doesn't come.

Wha--

He's... in focus? How is that-- shouldn't she be dead? Even without the stranger's attack, the injury from the crab's pincer should have been critical...

Now that she thinks about it, why doesn't the wound hurt more? She saw the blood gush out, felt the shock of the--

... Could that be it? She's certain now; where there should be agony, she feels nothing but a dull throb. It shouldn't be possible. But then again, magical girls shouldn't be possible. So, what if all this time... she was just stunned by shock?

Shakily, she rises to her feet, and... she's fine. It's no doubt an effect of being a Puella Magi: somehow, her body can withstand critical blows and still be able to function.

Aah, she's an idiot.

But she can worry about that later. Right now, she can't be cowardly anymore. She's been given a second chance, and this time, she'll take it for sure.

Reaching over her body with her right arm, fingers brushing against the dried blood on her stained costume, she twists her shield with renewed determination.

As time stops, she's already stumbling toward the figure closest to her: the red clad figure who, on second glance, looks startlingly human.

But no, she can't be fooled. Monsters are monsters, and this one is armed. Those are pretty small weapons, but they'll have to do. Taking a deep breath, she places her right hand on top of his left, attempting to pry his frozen fingers away from the hilt of his sword.

Come on, come on, nearly there... just one last nudge--!

Too late. Homura squeals in despair as the world kicks back into action. ]

[ He blinks.

Archer blinks, and when he opens his eyes again in the darkness, the girl he was considering helping to save has her hand on one of his swords.

Casually, like shaking off some dust, he shrugs her hands off of him and jumps back. ]

Hah, not very grateful, are you?

[ Another monster comes at them as he speaks--something all spindly, chitinous legs and huge eyes on towering stalks. But those bulging eyes catch what little light there is, and he slices them off with barely a glance. Ichor splashes around the both of them. ]

Jeez. Take an ally where you find him, kid.

[There is the sound of something else landing on the floor. Landing right on top of a monster and sending it crashing to the floor, in fact. Immediately after, there is the sound of a blade whirling through the air and the sickening sounds of something being stabbed into flesh and pulled out. Such a sound repeats many times, and if her eyesight is good enough, she would catch the faintest of reflected light from Lancer's weapon.]

Hey, kid, you still alive down there?

[Lancer had jumped down after hearing the shriek. He was bored, so he might as well as kill some monsters and rescue a child.]

E-Eh?!

[ She's experiencing some serious déjà vu here. You know, the being saved just as she's about to die thing. One would have thought that she'd have gotten used to it by now, but this evidently isn't the case. Right now, she's just kneeling here, dumbstruck. ]

I... think so, mister...

[ Her body's still totally sore, but miraculously she's not bleeding anymore. If she wasn't so distracted by the newcomer, she'd probably be wondering why she wasn't in complete agony from what should have been a critical wound. ]

[He runs toward the direction of her voice.]

Great. Can you stand? Anything bleeding or broken?

It was, perhaps, a good thing that Ocelot had a small box of ammunition amongst her possessions. It wasn't a lot, even with the fully loaded revolver that had been on her person. Twenty-six bullets were all she had, and that meant that she had to pick her battles carefully. Fortunately, helping a young girl in danger was one of those battles worth fighting.

There was always the chance of coming across more. She'd find more, so jumping down was a risk she could take.

Bang!

With skilled precision, Ocelot fired a kill shot at the nearest monster. The fighting techniques that she had learned from Big Boss would only go so far, but she would do whatever she could to avoid running herself out of bullets and make sure that the girl got out of here alive.

Adventure One.

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this is late and TL;DR I'm sorry

sorry for being late in turn!

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