Endgame: Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams

[animusnpcs]

Characters: open
Setting: floor 101/hidden floor; June 2
Format: action brackets, please
Summary: Something arrives.
Warnings: psychological horror, physical horror, violence

[The thing arrives on the twenty-third floor where no one is around to see it. But even if there was anyone except the retrieval units there, they would hardly have a chance to spot a single shadow, as the Tower pushes around and caresses the thing, hiding it away. The Tower ripples, then, and delivers the thing up and up, skipping floor after floor.

Floor one-hundred and one goes dark, and the glamour fails entirely. There's a thing lurking about in the darkness, approaching the way to the hidden floor. It can't be seen in this gloom, but it can be heard taking heavy, laden footsteps.]

Comments

[colorfulbrilliance]

[Once that hole is open, Meiling moves back and falls back onto her hands, standing there in defiance. She would run to help Shion but he's too far away, letting out a wordless yell in concern. Although her eyes never leave Riki for more then a second. ]

[attheclocktower]

[Xion had exited the hidden floor under the pretense of checking the conditions, seeing what's going on outside their little formerly safe haven.

What she actually sees distracts her almost entirely.

Shion and Reno, another resident, and... something. She spots the eyes first, then the outline- So he was still alive. She runs forward a few steps, summoning her Keyblade in a flash of light and hurling it directly at Riki - forgoing dealing with the floor and what he was doing to it to focus directly on the source]

Leave my family alone!

[animusnpcs]

[As soon as Xion exits, the floor shifts around the entrance to the hidden room to hold it open. Riki raises an arm to block Xion's keyblade, his eyes glowing lightning bright in an attempt to blind her.

Reno, meanwhile, it allowed to escape, though the electricity and jagged edges of the floor make for some cuts and mild electrical burns.]

[savedbyasong]

[He dodges the first set of spikes but the next set catch him in the shoulder and he lets out a cry of pain. He falls to the floor and struggles to his knees, hand coming up to press against the injury. He looks up to see Xion stood in the entrance of the hidden floor, keyblade in hand.

Despite the pain he grinned, her bravery giving him the strength to stand once more] You heard her. Leave them alone!

[animusnpcs]

[Spikes shoot up where Shion is climbing to his feet, this time aiming to skewer him straight through.]

[savedbyasong]

[And they succeed, there's no way he could dodge them fast enough. He cries out again, this time louder but bites his lip to silence himself. He won't give Riki the satisfaction of hearing him in pain.

He tries to fight his darkening vision. His body wants to give in to the pain but he needs to make sure they escape, he needs to know... He wants to say something but all his body can register is pain and he thinks if he opens his mouth all he will be able to do is scream.]

[attheclocktower]

[Xion flings her hand in front of her eyes. When she manages to save them partially from being blinded, there's still spots dancing in her vision. She recalls her Keyblade to her hand in a second, then is moving away from where she'd stood - staying still is dangerous now - when she hears her brother's cry.]

Shion!

[She's still got spots in her eyes, Even if they don't totally obscure her vision, they do enough, and seeing what Riki could do with the floor, this was literally terrifying. She turns back towards the door to the hidden floor - she'd been able to see it grabbed at least - as she moves, trying to keep her motions erratic.]

Guys we need help! It's Riki!

[colorfulbrilliance]

[The feral covers her eyes with one arm, just in case but once the flash is over, she charges Riki, trying to at least slow his progress and give the others time to come down and help or to get away safely.]

[animusnpcs]

[Riki swipes a hand through the air and the air lights up in an arc of electricity aimed at Meiling.]

[midgarhorizon]

[Reno had been about to-- he doesn't even remember what, all he thinks about when he sees Shion go is revenge.]

Shion!

[Screw the floor, in the same instant as Meiling's charge the Turk changes gears and starts running at the Riki beast, not caring for the floor or the fact he had no weapons, he is going to take the bastard apart with his bare hands.]

[septette]

[ It was quicker to fly up the stairs themselves rather than trust the elevator, she thought, but shock of the glamour shutting off suddenly slowed her down a good bit. So she was...a bit too late for her liking. Though her hearing didn't fail her--it was good enough to hear 'it's Riki!' shouted desperately, causing her to bolt through the door as quickly as could physically muster. She automatically knows it's some sort of trouble, Gungir appearing in her hands. ]

What's going on--?!

*jumps in here as well!*

[megazero_to_superhero]

[He didn't hear Xion's call for help, but David emerges from the teleporter leading to the Hidden Floor by this point—for him, it was the glamour failure that tipped him off that things were getting heavy.]

[He skids to a halt just moments after entering Floor 101, seeing what's happening not too far away.]

Oh, boy.

[No powers to speak of—even if this fight were happening on a floor without Power Suppression—against what ... whatever that thing is.]

[Steeling himself, he tightens his grip on the Orcish sword and charges forward to enter the fray, but he's not going to get within striking distance of Riki immediately.]

Welcome aboard!

[colorfulbrilliance]

[The electricity hits hard and a mixture between a scream and a roar escapes Meiling, putting her to the ground. It defiantly stunned her and she makes not attempt to get up for a moment..although hearing voices, she does call out.]

Attack!

[animusnpcs]

[Riki lifts and slams a foot down, and the shockwave turns into a tsunami of electricity flying across the floor toward Reno.]

[cullscuttlefish]

Meiling --!

[Feferi's off the teleporter as fast as she possibly can be. Her trident might only be film, but she's got it in both hands as she starts running. It probably won't do much, but it'll be something in her hands.]

[septette]

Meiling...!

[ is there an echo in here Oh, that voice is not good. She hasn't heard it in the longest time, and she just wants to run to her, to shake her out of this, this--feral stupor, but there's no time for that. Meiling is the only one she recognizes in this room, even with the glamour down, but there's no reason to damn these other people who were clearly trying to fight Riki as well.

She doesn't know if it will do any good, but she throws up a danmaku shield in front of Reno, to try and at least nullify a portion of the electricity. ]

[animusnpcs]

[The danmaku, when it strikes the electricity, forces the arc of the electricity to change and shift around the danmaku.

Riki next turns his attention to Xion, arcing electricity through the air at her with a swipe of his hand.]

[megazero_to_superhero]

[By this point David's gotten close enough that he can make a move. But since he's not a Tanker, and he's a Blaster trying to pretend he's a Scrapper, he's going to try and get a hit in on Riki from behind while he's focused on the others.]

[So he continues running, past the others until he's generally behind the monstrosity they're fighting. Once he's sure that it's focused on someone else—he can't tell who is who, only that it's shooting electricity at one of the others—he makes a run for ... well, it looks like legs to him.]

[For a moment, David feels like he's back on the gym, that one day he was training with Diarmuid in basic swordsmanship. The sword's presently much heavier in his hands than it is when the glamour's functional—but he tries not to think about that. Focus on what he can do, here and now.]

[Once he figures he's close enough, David swings the Orcish sword for ... well, he can't quite be sure what he's aiming at given the poor visibility here and the general inhuman appearance of this thing, but he's going to try and slice into the back of one of Riki's legs as hard as he can.]

[attheclocktower]

[The spots in her vision are starting to fade a little, and she turns just in time to see the electricity arcing towards her. A dodge roll is an easy enough maneuver to perform, and it's what she does. Unfortunately she's not quite fast enough - part of the electricity hits her trailing leg, sending a half-numbing half-painful jolt crawling up that leg.

Still, she completes the motion, a little clumsily, before turning her Keyblade back towards Riki. She fires off her own elemental spell - Firaga. The advantage of Firaga - at least as she knows how to use it - is how it tends to home in on targets, and when it comes into contact with Riki or the floor it should explode. Not a massive explosion - but enough to do some damage, she hopes.]

[animusnpcs]

[Water bursts forth from the ground--maybe from a pipe--and softens the blow of the fire that blasts toward Riki. Busy with that, though, he doesn't notice David until the sword strikes his leg. He stumbles a little, but only a little, and kicks with his other foot--if it connects, the metal leg is easily heavy enough to send a man flying.]

[colorfulbrilliance]

[Hearing her name twice, her head comes off the ground and looks around quickly. She recognizes the voices but... She gets up and shakes herself off, still hurting from the shock and backs off for now. This was going to take more then just attacking at random. She'll stay back, looking for another opening to attack, but also trying to find who called for her. She'll defend them if what she could do in this state was unneeded.]

[warriorscribe]

*Once the entrance is held open, and Enoch sees not necessarily who it is but that there's a fight going on, when he sees that people are using powers, he abandons his defensive position and hurries to join in. He may have been encouraged to work in a team during his time here, but his reflexes for battle have been built on a necessity to act where he can - and now he can.

He's a distinct target, the Arch's glow giving off his position without being of any help in illuminating anything, a bladed arc of light in the dark that he'll use to his advantage.

All this manipulation of structure around the thing...there's no doubt that what he sees now is Riki.*

Riki!

*Blatant as a distraction tactic? Maybe. But he's certainly not going to be able to attack effectively when his weapon literally glows. He'd be swatted away before he even got there, or worse.*

[megazero_to_superhero]

[Speaking of people who have experience with getting swatted away, David utterly fails to put up a meaningful defense to Riki's counterblow. He doesn't have the agility to dodge that kind of strike, nor the sturdiness to absorb the blow and stand his ground.]

[With a pained shout of surprise, David is flung backwards quite a ways. Try as he might to hold onto the sword, the first impact with the ground launches it out of his hand, causing it to skid a few yards away with a loud clatter.]

[The inertia from that strike causes David to tumble further away, until he finally comes to a halt, lying on his back—momentarily taken out of the fight.]

[witchoftheweek]

[It's taken Patchouli longer than she'd like to get onto the battlefield. On the one hand? She has her magic and it looks like she can use it. On the other? There's only so much she can actually do in a fight.

She takes a look around and surveys the situation, before nodding her head. There's one danmaku shield on the field, but a larger one can't hurt things. She's careful that the rain of small projectiles that comes from her fingers isn't aimed at anyone actually on the floor - making the situation harder to dodge isn't going to help - instead attempting to curve it around them.]

[attheclocktower]

[Well this has already turned into a fine mess. She scans across the field, though in the chaos and darkness it's hard to see everything. She misses seeing Shion - probably all the better, though she doesn't know it.

Her leg - still numb - will make her more than a liability at this rate, and the others inside still need to know more about who they're up against, since none of them has ever actually fought Riki before.

She's loath to leave the fight, but she'd gone out in the first place to asses the situation, and assessed it she has. Pulling her hood up over her head to hopefully make herself a little less visible, Xion pushes herself to her feet and stumbles her way back towards the hidden door, dodging rolling as she can for both speed and to make it easier to move despite her leg. If things start to get or look dangerous, she'll back off, but if she sees an opportunity, she'll take it.]